Key concepts Flashcards
(8 cards)
STM characteristics
- limited capacity (5 - 9 items)
- duration is small (30 secs)
- acoustically coded (what you hear)
LTM characteristics
- large capacity (potentially infinite)
- duration is also large (up to a lifetime)
- semantic coding (how you interpret things)
sensory register characteristics
- the memory stores for each of the five senses e.g. iconic store for visual information and an echoic store for sound information
- each one is coded differently
- it has a high capacity
- duration is less than half a second
- for it to pass to the STM you have to pay attention to it
tunnel theory
a witnesses attention narrows to focus on a weapon because it is the source of anxiety. this leads to the weapon-focus effect where the tunnel focus then negatively effects the recall of the event
anxiety - positive
the physiological arousal from anxiety triggers the fight or flight response which increases our alertness and improves our memory of an event
anxiety - negative
it creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues so recall is worse
cognitive interviews
- report everything - witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of the event, even if it is irrelevant (details may act as cues to trigger more memories)
- reinstate context - the witness should imagine the crime scene as if they were experiencing it again (context dependent-forgetting)
- reverse the order - recall events in a different order (stops people recalling their expectations of how the event happened rather than actual events, also prevents dishonesty)
- change perspective - witnesses should recall the incident from another persons perspective (disrupts the effect of expectations on recall)
enhanced cognitive interview
the interviewer needs to know when to establish/relinquish eye contact. includes ideas of recusing eye witness anxiety, minimising distractions, open ended questions and speaking slowly.
