Memory Flashcards

Question

Research support (Baddeley 1966)

Answer 1

* Strength of MSM, support showing STM and LTM different * Baddeley (1966), STM coded acoustically LTM coded semantically * Further support from studies of capacity and duration * Studies show STM and LTM separate, independent memory stores as claimed by MSM

Answer 2

* Most studies that support MSM have unmeaningful stimuli * Digits and Letters (Jacobs), Words (Baddeley), Consonant syllables (Peterson and Peterson) * Suggests MSM may not be valid model for memory in everyday life where more meaningful info is remembered

Answer 3

* Limitation of MSM, evidence of more than one STM store * Shallice and Warrington (1970), studied client KF who had amnesia * KF’s STM for digits was poor when they were read out loud to him * Recall however was better when he read the digits to himself * Further studies also showed there could be another short-term store for non-verbal sounds * Suggests MSM is wrong, claims just one STM store processing different types of info (visual, auditory etc)

Answer 4

* Limitation of MSM, prolonged rehearsal not needed for transfer to LTM * Fergus and Michael (1973) found type of rehearsal more important than amount * Elaborative rehearsal needed for long-term storage (link info to existing knowledge, think about what it means) * Suggests MSM does not fully explain how long-term storage is achieved

Answer 5

* MSM stated STM and LTM were single memory stores * Evidence however suggests that they are not just single memory stores * LTM contains different kinds of info, very unlikely its just one store * Stores facts about the world, personal experience and how to perform actions, these may be different stores * Therefore, MSM may be oversimplified model of memory, but it was a useful starting point to stimulate research leading to other models that explained more of the evidence

Answer 6

* Tulving (1985), one of the first cognitive psychologists to realise MSM view of LTM too simplistic and inflexible * He proposed three LTM stores that store quite different types of info * Procedural memory, Episodic memory and Semantic memory

Answer 7

* Memory for actions or skills, how we do things * Recalled unconsciously, effortless to do so (eventually), not personal * Example, riding a bicycle, becomes automatic through practice * Difficult to explain to someone else, for example hard to explain how to ride a bicycle * Memories not time stamped, probably don’t remember when you learnt to ride a bicycle

Answer 8

* Ability to recall events (episodes) of our lives (personal), like a diary, record of personal experiences * Example, first day of college, these memories are complex, time-stamped (remember when they happened as well as what happened) * Episodic memories also store info about how events relate to each other in time * Memory of single episode contains several elements (places, people, weather etc), all these memories interwoven to produce single memory (College + Students + Sun = First day of college) * Conscious effort to recall episodic memories, easy to explain to someone else

Answer 9

* Store contains shared knowledge of the world, like a combo of a dictionary and encyclopaedia * Examples, what an orange tastes likes, meanings of words * Contains knowledge of a variety of concepts (animals, love, Frozen the movie) * Memories not time stamped, don’t remember when we acknowledge the concept of animals * Less personal, more about facts we all share, contains immense collection of material that is constantly being added to * Less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic memory according to Tulving

Answer 10

* Clinical evidence (HM and Clive Wearing) * Counterpoint (Case Studies) * Conflicting neuroimaging evidence (Buckner and Petersen 1996, Tulving et al 1994) * Real-world application (Belleville et al 2006) * Episodic and Semantic memory (Tulving 2002, Hodges and Patterson 2007)

Answer 11

* Strength, evidence from famous case studies HM and Clive Wearing * Episodic memory in both men severely impaired due to brain damage (Caused by operation and infection respectively) * Semantic memory relatively unaffected, still understood meaning of words, HM understood concept of dog * Procedural memories also intact, knew how to walk and speak * Clive Wearing was a professional musician, could read music, sing and play piano post brain injury * Supports Tulving’s view, three different memory stores of LTM, one store damaged others unaffected

Answer 12

* Limitation, case studies used as evidence * Difficult to generalise, small sample, unique cases * Researchers do not know how good memories were post brain injury, nothing to compare to * Lack of control limits what clinical studies can tells us about different types of LTM

Answer 13

* Limitation, conflicting research findings linking type of LTM to areas of the brain * Buckner and Petersen (1996), reviewed evidence of location of semantic and episodic memory * Concluded SM located left side of prefrontal cortex, EM located right side of prefrontal cortex * Tulving et al (1994) links encoding of EM to left prefrontal cortex and retrieval of EM to the right prefrontal cortex * Challenges any neurophysiological evidence supporting types of LTM, poor agreement where each type is located

Answer 14

* Strength, understanding of types of LTM allows psychologist to help people with memory problems * People age, experience memory loss, research shown specific to episodic memory (harder to recall memories of personal events/experiences that occurred recently, past EM remain intact) * Belleville et al (2006), devised intervention to improve EM in older people * Trained ppt did better on test of EM after training than control group * Shows distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatment to be developed

Answer 15

* Debate whether EM and SM different forms of LTM or the same store * Tulving (2002), view that EM specialised subcategory of SM (same store) * Research into amnesia, showed its possible to have fully functioning SM with damage EM * Some with amnesia know past event happened (semantic), cannot re-experience them (episodic) * Also concluded not possible to have fully functioning EM with damaged SM * However, Hodges and Patterson (2007), found some with Alzheimer’s disease could form new EM but not SM * Suggests EM does not require functioning SM, therefore they must be separate * Evidence shows EM and SM are closely related but ultimately are different forms of LTM

Answer 16

* Baddeley and Hitch (1974), created WMM, explanation of how STM is organised and how it functions * Concerned with “mental space” that’s active when storing and manipulating info temporarily, examples include doing maths problems, playing chess or understanding language * Consists of 4 main components, CE, PL, VSS and the EB

Answer 17

* Has a supervisory role, monitors incoming data * Focuses and divides limited attention, allocates subsystems (slaves) to tasks * Limited processing capacity, does not store info

Answer 18

* Deals with auditory info (codes acoustically), preserves order info arrives in * Subdivided into phonological store and articulatory process * Phonological store, stores words we hear * Articulatory process, allows maintenance rehearsal of words to keep them in working memory while they are needed * Capacity of the loop is believed to be 2 seconds worth of what we can say

Answer 19

* Stores visual or spatial info when required, for example when told to work out how many windows in your house, you visualise it, processed in mental space known as our “inner eye” * Limited capacity, Baddeley (2003) claimed its 3-4 objects * Logie (1995) subdivide VSS into visual cache and inner scribe * Visual cache stores visual data * Inner scribe records arrangement of objects in visual field

Answer 20

* Added by Baddeley in 2000, temporary store for info * Brings together (integrates) material from other subsystems (slaves) into single memory * Maintains sense of time sequencing * Basically records events (episodes) that are happening * Can be seem as storage component of CE, limited capacity 4 chunks according to Baddeley (2012) * EB links working memory to LTM and wider cog processes such as perception (provides a bridge)

Answer 21

* Clinical evidence (Shallice and Warrington (1970), KF) * Counterpoint (Other cognitive impairments) * Dual-task performance (Baddeley et al 1975) * Nature of CE (Baddeley 2003) * Artificial

Answer 22

* Strength, support from Shallice and Warrington’s (1970) case study of KF * KF poor STM ability for auditory info, could process visual info normally * Immediate recall of letters and digits better when he read them (visual) then read to him (acoustic) * KF’s PL damaged but VSS was intact * Strongly supports existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores

Answer 23

* Unclear if other cog impairments other than damage to PL affected performance on memory tasks * For example, trauma involved in his motorcycle accident could have affected his cog performance * Challenges evidence from clinical studies of people with brain injuries, may have affected many different systems

Answer 24

* Strength, studies of dual-task performance support existence of separate VSS * Baddeley et al (1975), ppts carried out visual and verbal task at same time (dual task) * Performance similar to when they carried out the tasks separately * When both tasks visual or both verbal, performance declined substantially * May be because both visual tasks compete for same subsystem (VSS) * No competition when performing visual and verbal task together * Shows there must be a separate subsystem that processes visual input (VSS) and another for verbal processing (PL)

Answer 25

* Limitation, lack of clarity of nature of CE * Baddeley (2003) said, “CE most important but least understood component of WM” * CE needs to be more clearly specified than just being “attention” * Some psychologists believe CE may have separate subcomponents * Suggests CE unsatisfactory component, challenges integrity of WMM

Answer 26

* A lot of the studies that support the WMM have artificial tasks and stimuli * Dual-task studies lab based, highly controlled but use artificial material that does not reflect everyday life * Therefore, unclear how WMM operates in everyday real-world situations * Studies that are used as support challenge validity of WMM

Answer 27

Two explanations for forgetting, interference and retrieval failure

Answer 28

* Two pieces info/memories disrupt each other resulting in forgetting or distortion of one or both memories * Explanation of forgetting for LTM, info in LTM can’t get access to the info * Interference between memories makes it harder to locate them, this experience is forgetting

Answer 29

* Proactive Interference (PI), older memory interferes with newer memory * Example, teacher learnt so many names in past, difficult to remember names from new class * Retroactive Interference (RI), newer memory interferes with older memory * Example, teacher learnt so many new names, difficult to remember names from old class

Answer 30

* PI and RI, interference worse when memories are similar as discovered by M and M * Studied RI by changing similarity of 2 lists * Ppts learn 10 words till they could remember with 100% accuracy, then learned new list * 6 groups ppts, learnt the following types of lists * Group 1, synonyms, words same meanings as originals * Group 2, antonyms, words different meaning to originals * Group 3, words unrelated to originals * Group 4, consonant syllables * Group 5, three-digit numbers * Group 6, no new list, they rested (Control group/condition) * Ppts recalled original list, group with most similar material produced worse recall * Shows interference strongest when memories are similar

Answer 31

* Could be due to PI, old info makes new info more difficult to store * Could be due to RI, new info overwrites old info because of the similarity

Answer 32

* Real-world interference (Baddeley and Hitch 1977) * Counterpoint (Other explanations better) * Interference and cues (Tulving and Psotka 1971) * Support from drug studies (Coenen and Luijtelaar 1997, Wixted 2004) * Artificial and Exaggeration

Answer 33

* Strength, evidence interference effects everyday situations * Baddeley and Hitch (1977), rugby players asked to recall names of teams they played against in a season * Players who played all games had poorer recall than players who played most games (missed due to injury) * Shows interference can operate in some real-world situations, increase in validity of interference

Answer 34

* Interference requires conditions that are relatively rare in everyday life * Very similar memories may still occur occasionally in everyday life, for example when revising similar subjects in close time but not often * Suggests most forgetting better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure

Answer 35

* Limitation, interference temporary, can be overcome using cues * Tulving and Psotka (1971), gave ppts list of words organised in categories (ppts not told categories) * Recall average 70% for first list, progressively worse when ppts learn additional list (PI) * At end of procedure ppts given cued recall test, told names of categories * Recall rose back to about 70%, shows interference causes temporary loss of accessibility to material (it’s still in LTM), this finding is not predicted by interference theory, suggests its incomplete

Answer 36

* Strength from evidence of retrograde facilitation (memory enhancement for events before taking drugs) * Coenen and Luijtelaar (1997), ppts given list, later asked to recall list, assumed intervening experiences act as interference * When list learnt under influence of diazepam, recall week later poor compared to placebo control group * When list learned before drug taken, later recall better than placebo * Drug therefore improved (facilitated) recall of material learnt beforehand * Wixted (2004) suggested drugs prevent new info (experienced after taking drug) from reaching parts of brain involved in processing memories * Drugs cannot interfere retroactively with info already stored * Findings show forgetting due to interference, reduced interference results in reduced forgetting

Answer 37

* Interference theory mostly based on lab experiments, does offer tight control over variables * Artificial materials, unrealistic procedures, different from everyday life * Therefore, because lab studies maximise possibility of interference occurring, it may exaggerate its importance as a cause of forgetting

Answer 38

* Ppl forget may be because of insufficient cues at recall * When info initially stored (learned), associated cues stored at same time * If cues not available at recall, may seem like you have forgotten info, this is due to retrieval failure * Not being able to access memories that are there (memory not available without necessary cues)

Answer 39

* Tulving (1983) reviewed research into retrieval failure discovered consistent pattern to the findings * He called this ESP, states that a useful cue must be both present at encoding (learning) and present at retrieval (recalling) * If cues at encoding and retrieval are different or entirely absent, there will be some forgetting * Some cues encoded at time of learning in meaningful way, for example mnemonics leads to recall of a variety of info, such cues used in mnemonic techniques * Other cues encoded at time of learning but not in a meaningful way, two examples of this below of non-meaningful cues * Context-dependent forgetting, recall depends on external cue (weather, place) * State-dependent forgetting, recall depends on internal cue (feeling upset, being drunk)

Answer 40

* Godden and Baddeley (1975), deep sea divers learnt list in one of the conditions below * Learn on land, recall on land * Learn on land, recall underwater * Learn underwater, recall underwater * Learn underwater, recall on land * Found 40% lower recall when conditions were not matched (L&W), concluded external cues were different at recall and learning, led to retrieval failure

Answer 41

* Carter and Cassaday (1998), gave antihistamine drugs to ppts, had mild sedative effect leading to slight drowsiness * Creates internal physiological state different from “normal” state of awake and alert * Ppts learnt list of words under conditions below * Learn on drug, recall on drug * Learn on drug, recall when not on drug * Learn when not on drug, recall on drug * Learn when not on drug, recall when not on drug * Found mismatch in conditions lead to significantly lower accuracy of recall, suggests when cues are absent (drowsy at recall, alert at learning) there is more forgetting

Answer 42

* Real World Application * Research support * Counterpoint (Extreme) * Recall versus recognition * Problems with ESP

Answer 43

* Strength, helps to overcome some forgetting in everyday situations * May not have a strong effect on forgetting, still worth paying attention to * When we have trouble remembering something, probably worth making the effort to recall the environment in which you learnt it first * For example, need to get phone from other room, go to other room, forget what you wanted to get, go back to previous room, remember you wanted to get your phone * Shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in real world to improve our recall

Answer 44

* Strength, impressive range of research that supports RF * Godden and Baddeley, Carter and Cassaday both demonstrate how the absence of the necessary cues at recall leads to CD and SD forgetting * Eysenck and Keane (2010), argue RF may be main reason for forgetting in LTM * Evidence shows that RF occurs in real-world situations as well as highly controlled conditions in a lab

Answer 45

* Baddeley (1997) argues contextual effects not very strong, especially in everyday life * Different contexts must be very different before an effect is seen * Hard to find environment as different from land and underwater * Learning something in one room, recalling in another unlikely to result in much forgetting because environments are not different enough generally * Suggest RF due to lack of contextual cues may not explain much everyday forgetting

Answer 46

* Limitation, context effects may depend on type of memory being used * G and B (1980) replicated experiment but used recognition test instead of recall * Found there was no context-dependent effect, performance same for all conditions * Suggests RF is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when person has to recall info rather than recognise it

Answer 47

* Validity of evidence from research depends on whether we can determine if a cue has really been encoded or not * If successful recall occurs, we assume this is due to the cue being encoded at learning * If recall unsuccessful, we assume this is due to the cue not being encoded at learning * Circular reasoning, this occurs because of that, that occurs because of this * This means ESP is not scientifically testable, cannot independently measure the presence or absence of cues, cannot conclude that forgetting is due to RF, this undermines the validity of the explanation

Answer 48

This is the ability of people to remember details of events (accidents, crimes) which they themselves have observed, accuracy of EWT affected by misleading information and anxiety

Answer 49

Misleading information and Anxiety are the two factors affecting the accuracy of EWT

Answer 50

This is info that is given to eyewitness usually after the event (post-event info), can take many forms such as leading questions and post-event discussion (PED) between co-witnesses and other people

Answer 51

* Leading questions are questions that may “direct” a witness into giving a particular answer * Loftus and Palmer (1974) demonstrate this with 45 ppts that watched a film of car accidents * In critical question (LQ or MI), ppts asked to describe how fast cars were going * “About how fast were the cars going when they [verb] each other” * Five groups of ppts, each given different verb in their question, hit, contacted, bumped, collided and smashed * Mean estimated time calculated for each ppt group, contacted resulted in mean of 31.8mph, smashed resulted in mean of 40.5mph

Answer 52

* Response-bias explanation suggests wording of question has no real effect on memory of witness, it just influences how they decide to answer * When given verb like smashed, ppt more encouraged to choose a higher speed estimate * L and P (1974) conducted second experiment to see if leading question wording altered ppt memory (this is the substitution explanation) * Found that ppts who originally had LQ with verb smashed were later more likely to report seeing broken glass (no broken glass in film) compared to those who has LQ with verb hit * Suggests that the critical verb altered their memory of the incident

Answer 53

* Eyewitnesses may sometimes discuss their experiences and memories with each other, this is called post-event discussion (PED) * Gabbert et al (2003), ppts in pairs watched video of same crime from different angles, ppt could see elements in event that the other could not * For example, only one ppt could see the title of the book that the woman was carrying * Both ppts discussed what they had seen before individually doing a test of recall * Researchers found that 71% mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see, this info was picked up from the discussion * In a control group where there was no discussion, there was 0% mistakes in comparison * This is evidence for memory conformity demonstrating the effects of PED

Answer 54

* One explanation is memory contamination, when discussion takes place memory becomes distorted or altered due to witnesses combing info from other witnesses with their own memories * Another explanation is memory conformity, Gabbert et al concluded that some witnesses go along with each other to either win social approval or because they think other witnesses are right, they are wrong * Unlike with memory contamination, the original memory is left unchanged

Answer 55

* Real-world application * Counterpoint (Issues with research) * Evidence against substitution * Evidence challenging memory conformity * Demand characteristics

Answer 56

* Strength, the research has important practical uses in the criminal justice system * Consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious * L believed that LQ can have such a distorting effect on mem that police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase questions in interviews with witnesses * Psychologists sometimes asked to act as expert witnesses in court trials and explain limits of EWT to juries * Shows that psychologist can help improve the way the legal system works, especially protecting innocent people from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT

Answer 57

* Practical application of EWT affected by issues with research * L and P ppts watched film clips in lab, very different experience from witnessing a real event (less stress) * Foster et al (1994), pointed at that what eyewitnesses remember has important consequences in real world, ppts responses in research do not matter in same way * Ppt may be less motivated to be accurate compared to in a real-world situation * Suggests that researchers are too pessimistic about the effects of misleading info, EWT may be more dependable than many studies suggest

Answer 58

* Limitation of substitution explanation, EWT more accurate for some aspects of event than for others * Sutherland and Hayne (2001), ppts showed video clip, ppts later asked misleading questions, their recall was more accurate for central details of event than peripheral details * Ppts attention focused on central features of event, central memories were relatively resistant to misleading information * Suggests that the original memories for central details survived and were not distorted, this outcome is not predicted by the substitution explanation

Answer 59

* Limitation of memory conformity, is evidence that PED actually alters EWT * Skagerberg and Wright (2008), showed ppts film clips, two versions, mugger’s hair was dark brown in one but light brown in other * Ppts discussed clips in pairs each seeing different versions, often did not report what they had seen or what they heard from co-witness, instead reported a blend of the two * Common answer for hair questions was “medium brown” * Suggests that memory itself is distorted through contamination through misleading PED, rather than result of memory conformity

Answer 60

* Controlling variables in lab studies allowed researchers to pinpoint LQ/PED as a cause of inaccurate recall * High control means high internal validity * However, ppts responses may have been affected by DC, ppts did not want to disappoint researcher, attempted to figure out what they were expecting of them * Used cues in procedure to do this, when asked questions about car accidents, even if they did not know the answer (can’t remember) they may have given an answer anyway * They may have done this because they believed it to be the most helpful to the researcher * This measures ppts ability to guess rather than the accuracy of their EWT * Therefore, to maximise internal validity, variables need to be controlled to reduce DC, also cues must be removed that may lead ppts to realise the hypothesis

Answer 61

Has strong emotional and physical effects, unclear if these effects make eyewitnesses recall better or worse, research supports both possibilities

Answer 62

* Anxiety creates physiological arousal in body, prevents paying attention to important cues, recall worse * One approach to studying anxiety and EWT is to look at effect of a weapon which creates anxiety * Leads to focus on weapon, reduces witnesses recall for other details of the event

Answer 63

* Ppts believed they were taking part in a lab study, while seated in waiting room they were either in the low-anxiety or high-anxiety condition * In the low-anxiety condition, casual conversation in next room was heard, man walked past with a pen and grease on his hands * In the high-anxiety condition, heated argument in next room, sound of breaking glass, man walked out of room holding knife covered in blood * Ppts later picked out man from set of 50 photos, 49% could identify man in LA condition, in comparison only 33% could identify the man in the HA condition * Tunnel theory of memory argues ppl have enhanced memory for central events * Weapon focus as a result of anxiety can have this effect

Answer 64

* Witnessing stressful event creates anxiety through physiological arousal within body * Fight or flight response triggered, increases alertness, may improve memory because we become more aware of cues in the situation * Yuille and Cutshall (1986), study of actual shooting in gun shop in Canada, owner shot thief dead * 21 witnesses, 13 took part in study, interviewed 4-5 months after incident, interviews compared with original police interviews at the time of shooting * Accuracy determined by number of details reported in each account, also asked to rate how stressed they felt on a scale of 0 to 7 during shooting * Asked if they had any emotional problems post event * Found that accounts were very accurate, little change in amount recalled, some details less accurate * More-stressed group, more accurate recall (88% compared to 75% for less-stressed group) * Suggests anxiety does not have detrimental effect on accuracy of eyewitness memory in real world context, it may even enhance it

Answer 65

* Yerkes and Dodson (1908), relationship between emotional arousal (anxiety) and performance is a bell curve according to them * Deffenbacher (1983) reviewed 21 studies of EWT, noted contradictory findings, used Yerkes-Dodson law to explain findings * When we witness crime/accident, become more emotionally and physiologically aroused * We experience anxiety (emotional) and physiological changes in body (F or F response) * Lower levels of anxiety/arousal, produces lower levels of recall accuracy * Higher levels of anxiety/arousal, produces more accurate recall accuracy till optimal level * Once reached, any more anxiety/arousal would cause recall to suffer a drastic decline

Answer 66

* Unusualness not anxiety (Pickel 1998) * Support for negative effects (Valentine and Mesout 2009) * Support for positive effects (Christianson and Hübinette 1993) * Counterpoint (Confounding variables) * Problems with Yerkes and Dodson’s explanation

Answer 67

* Limitation of Johnson and Scott, may not have tested anxiety * Ppts may have focused on weapon because they were surprised with what they saw rather than scared * Pickel (1998), used scissors, handgun, wallet or a raw chicken as hand-held items in a hairdressing salon video (scissors high anxiety, low unusualness) * Found accuracy significantly poorer in high unusualness conditions (chicken, handgun) * Suggests weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat, tells us nothing specifically about effects of anxiety on EWT

Answer 68

* Strength, evidence to support view that anxiety has negative effect on accuracy of recall * Valentine and Mesout (2009), real world setting of a Horror Labyrinth at the London Dungeon * Ppts offered reduced entrance fee if they complete questionnaire after to assess level of self-reported anxiety * They used objective measure (heart rate) to divide ppts into high low anxiety groups * Ppts tasked to describe person encountered in the Labyrinth (played by an actor) * Found HA ppts recalled fewest correct details, made more mistakes * Anxiety clearly disrupted ppts ability to recall details about actor in London Dungeon’s Labyrinth * Found 17% of HA group correctly identified actor in a line-up compared to 75% correct identification in LA group * Suggests a high level of anxiety does have a negative effect on immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event

Answer 69

* Strength, evidence that anxiety can have positive effects on accuracy of recall * Christianson and Hübinette (1993), 59 witnesses of actual bank robberies interviewed in Sweden * Some had direct involvement (bank workers), some indirect involvement (bystanders) * Researchers assumed DI would experience the most anxiety, found recall more than 75% accurate across all witnesses * Direct victims (most anxious) were even more accurate * Findings from actual crimes confirm anxiety does not reduce accuracy of recall for eyewitnesses and may even enhance it

Answer 70

* C and H interviewed ppts several months after event (4-15 months) * Researchers had no control over what happened to ppts during this time (may have had a PED) * Effects of anxiety may have been overwhelmed by other factors, impossible to assess by the time ppt interviewed * Therefore, possible that lack of control over CV may be responsible for findings, invalidating their support

Answer 71

* Bell curve explanation only focuses on physiological arousal involved in anxiety, phys change to body and brain during stressful incidents affect accuracy of EWT * However, anxiety more complex than this, has more components which theory ignores * For example, cognitive element, way we think about stressful incident can have major effect on what we remember about it * Anxious thoughts (“worries”) could mean that bell curve has more of a cliff edge instead * Suggests that theory is too simplistic, the way we think about stressful events could have different effect on EWT compared with that predicted by physical arousal

Answer 72

* Fisher and Geiselman (1992) argued EWT could be improved if police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses * Argued techniques should be based on psychological insight into how memory works * Techniques collectively is the cognitive interview (CI), four main techniques used * Report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order, change perspective

Answer 73

* Witnesses encourage to include every single detail of the event, even if it seems trivial/irrelevant * These details may be important, and they may trigger other important memories

Answer 74

* Witness should return to crime scene in their mind, imagine environment (weather, what they could see) * Should recall their emotions (happy, sad, bored), this Is related o context-dependent forgetting * Reinstating the context in their mind may lead to them remembering more details of the crime/event

Answer 75

* Event should be recalled in different order from original sequence (back to front, middle to end etc) * Prevents people reporting expectations rather than what actually happened * Also prevents dishonesty, harder to be untruthful in the account when asked to reverse the order

Answer 76

* Witness should recall incident from other people’s perspective * For example, how it appeared from another witness or the perpetrator * This disrupts the effect of expectations and the effect of schema on recall * Schema for particular setting may generate expectations of what would have happened * Schema therefore recalled rather than what really happened, this is avoided using a change of perspective

Answer 77

* Fisher et al (1987), developed additional elements of CI on social dynamics of interaction * Interviewer needs to know when to keep eye contact and when to relinquish it * ECI also includes ideas like reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions

Answer 78

* Support for effectiveness of the CI (Köhnken et al 1999) * Counterpoint (Inaccurate information) * Some elements may be more useful (Milne and Bull 2002) * The CI is time-consuming (Kebbell and Wagstaff 1997) * Variations of the CI

Answer 79

* Strength, evidence that CI works * Köhnken et al (1999), meta-analysis, combined 55 studies comparing CI, ECI and standard police interview * CI gave 41% increase in accurate info compared with standard interview * Only four studies had no difference between types of interview * Shows CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses recall info that is stored in memory (available) but not immediately accessible

Answer 80

* Strength, evidence that CI works * Köhnken et al (1999), meta-analysis, combined 55 studies comparing CI, ECI and standard police interview * CI gave 41% increase in accurate info compared with standard interview * Only four studies had no difference between types of interview * Shows CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses recall info that is stored in memory (available) but not immediately accessible

Answer 81

* K et al also found increase in inaccurate info recalled by ppts * Particular issue in ECI, produced more incorrect details than CI * CI may sacrifice quality of EWT (accuracy) in favour of quantity (amount of details) * This means police officers should treat eyewitnesses’ evidence from CIs and ECIs with caution

Answer 82

* Limitation of original CI, not all elements equally effective or useful * Milne and Bull (2002), found four techniques alone produced more info than standard police interview * Also found combo of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any other element or combo of elements * Confirms police officer suspicion that some aspects of CI more useful than others * Casts some doubt on credibility of overall CI

Answer 83

* Limitation, police officers reluctant to use it due to it taking more time and training than standard police interview * More time needed to establish rapport/relationship with witness and allow them to relax * CI requires special training; many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours (Kebbell and Wagstaff 1997) * Suggests complete CI is not realistic method for police officers to use, it may be better to focus on just a few key elements of CI

Answer 84

* We have seen that research shows some techniques more effective and useful than others * Leads to pick and mix approach to using CI in practice, hard to comparted effectiveness of CI in research studies if there is no common standard or CI protocol followed by everyone * Pick and mix approach does make CI flexible, its really a collection of techniques rather than an overall method * Allows forces to evolve their own approaches, stick to what they believe will work in their own circumstances * Permits them to adapt method to individual cases * Therefore, the variation in the use of CI is a strength because it can be adapted to different situations, increases credibility in eyes of police officers and witnesses themselves

Memory Flashcards

(108 cards)