memory

Question 1

what is memory

Answer 1

the process of retaining information overtime

Question 2

what is short term memory and what are the coding, capacity and duration of STM

Answer 2

the limited capacity memory store
coding- mainly acoustic
capacity- 5 and 9 items on average
duration- between 18 and 30 seconds

Question 3

what is long term memory and what is the coding, capacity and duration of LTM

Answer 3

permanent memory store
coding- mainly semantic
capacity- unlimited
duration- up to a lifetime

Question 4

what are the 3 main features of memory

Answer 4

1. coding
2. capacity
3. duration

Question 5

what is coding

Answer 5

the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores

Question 6

what is capacity

Answer 6

the amount of information that can be held in a memory store

Question 7

what is duration

Answer 7

the length of time information can be held in memory

Question 8

research on coding (baddeley)- procedure

Answer 8

gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember.
group 1- acoustically similar
group 2- acoustically dissimilar
group 3- semantically similar
group 4- semantically dissimilar
pp’s were shown original list and asked to recall them in the correct order

Question 9

findings from research on coding (baddeley)

Answer 9

when they had to do this recall task immediately after hearing it, they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words.
if they had to recall the words after a time interval of 20 minutes, they did worse with semantically similar words.
this suggests that information is coded semantically in LTM

Question 10

negative ao3 of research on coding (baddeley)

Answer 10

WEAKNESS: used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. the word lists had no personal meaning to participants. this means that we should be cautious about generalising the findings to different kinds of memory tasks. this suggests that the findings from this study have limited application.

Question 11

research on digit span capacity- procedure

Answer 11

Jacob’s developed a technique to measure digit span. the researcher gives, for example, 4 digits and then the participant is asked to recall these in the correct order out loud. if this is correct, the researcher reads out 5 digits and so on until the participant cannot recall the order correctly.

Question 12

what were the findings from research on capacity (digit span)

Answer 12

Jacob’s found that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items and the mean span for letters was 7.3

Question 13

what was the procedure on capacity for the span of memory and chunking

Answer 13

Miller made observations of everyday practice
- for example he noted that things come in sevens
- this suggests that the capacity of STM is about 7 items (plus or minus two)
- however, miller also noted that people can recall 5 words as well as 5 letters. they do this by chunking.

Question 14

negative ao3 of Jacob’s research on capacity

Answer 14

WEAKNESS: study was conducted a long time ago, early research in psychology often lacked adequate control. this means that the results might not be valid because there were confounding variables that were not controlled.

Question 15

negative ao3 of millers research on capacity

Answer 15

WEAKNESS: Miller may have overestimated the capacity of STM. for example, Cowan reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM was only about four chunks. this suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate (5 items) is more appropriate than 7 items

Question 16

research on the duration of STM and what are the findings

Answer 16

Peterson and Peterson tested 24 undergraduate students. each student took part in eight trials. on each tris, the student was given a consonant syllable to remember (e.g. YCG), they were also given a 3 digit number. the student was then asked to count backwards from that 3 digit number until told to stop.
- this counting backwards was to prevent any mental rehearsal of the consonant syllable.
on each trial they were told to stop after a different amount of time- 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds
- this is called the retention interval
FINDINGS: suggests that STM has a very short duration, unless we repeat something over and over again (e.g. verbal rehearsal)

Question 17

research on the duration of LTM

Answer 17

Bahrick studied 392 participants from america, who were aged between 17 and 74. high school yearbooks were obtained and recall was tested in various ways including:
-photo recognition test consisting of 50 photos
-free recall test where participants recalled all the names of their graduating class

Question 18

findings from the research on duration of LTM

Answer 18

-participants who were tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. after 48 years, recall declined to about 70% for photo recognition
-after 15 years free call recognition was about 60% accurate, dropping to 30% after 48 years
-this shows that LTM can last a very long time

Question 19

negative ao3 of peterson and peterson’s study on the duration of STM

Answer 19

WEAKNESS: stimulus material was artificial. trying to memorise consonant syllables does not reflect most real-life memory activities where what we are trying to remember is meaningful. so we might say that this study lacked external validity. however, we do sometimes try to remember fairly meaningful things, for example phone numbers, so this study is not totally irrelevant

Question 20

positive ao3 on the research of duration of LTM

Answer 20

STRENGTH: high external validity, as real life meaningful memories were studied. however the down side of using real life research is that confounding variables are not controlled, such as that the participants could’ve looked over their yearbook photos and rehearsed their memory over the years

Question 21

what is the multi store memory model and what does it represent

Answer 21

MSM is a representation of how memory works in terms of three stores, called sensory register, short term memory and long term memory. it also describes how information is transferred from one store to the other, how it is remembered and how it is forgotten.

Question 22

what is the sensory register

Answer 22

this is the memory store for each of our five senses, such as vision (iconic store), and hearing (echoic store). coding in the iconic sensory register is visual and coding in the echoic sensory register is acoustic. the capacity of sensory register is huge and information lasts a very short time

Question 23

what is maintenance rehearsal

Answer 23

occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again
- we can keep the information in our STM as long as we rehearse it
- if we rehearse it long enough, it passes into long term memory

Question 24

positive ao3 for the multi store memory model

Answer 24

STRENGTH: It is supported by research studies that show that STM and LTM are qualitatively different. E.G. baddeley found we mix up words that sound similar when we are using our STM’s, and we mix up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTM’s. It clearly shows that coding in STM is acoustic and in LTM it is semantic. So they are different and this supports the MSM’s view that these two memory stores are separate and independent.

Question 25

negative ao3 on multi store memory model

Answer 25

WEAKNESS: there is more than one type of stm. there is evidence of this from people suffering from a condition called amnesia. for example, shallice and warrington studied a patient with amnesia known as KF. they found that KFs short term memory for digits was poor when they read them out loud to him. but his recall was much better when he was able to read the digits to himself. this therefore proves that there are different types of short term memory

Question 26

what are the three types of long term memory

Answer 26

-episodic -semantic -procedural

Question 27

what is episodic memory

Answer 27

a long term memory store for personal events. it includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved. memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort

Question 28

what is semantic memory

Answer 28

a long term memory store for our knowledge of the world. this includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. these memories usually need to be recalled deliberately

Question 29

what is semantic memory

Answer 29

a long term memory store for knowledge of the world. this includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. these memories usually need to be recalled deliberately

Question 30

what is procedural memory

Answer 30

a long term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things. this includes our memories of learned skills. we usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort.

Question 31

positive ao3 of types of long term memory

Answer 31

STRENGTH: clinical evidence from the case studies of HM and clive wearing. episodic memory in both men was severely impaired as a consequence of amnesia. they had great difficulty recalling events that happened to them in their pasts but their semantic memories were relatively unaffected, for example they still understood the memories of words. their procedural memories were also intact, they both knew how to tie their shoelaces and how to walk and speak. this evidence supports Tulvings view that there are different memory stores in LTM. STRENGTH: there is also evidence from brain scan studies that different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain. for example, tulving et al got their pp’s to perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned using a PET scanner, they found that episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. the left prefrontal cortex was responsible for recalling semantic memories, whilst the right prefrontal cortex was responsible for recalling episodic memories.

Question 32

what is the working memory model

Answer 32

a representation of short term memory. it suggests that stm is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision making system

Question 33

what are the components of the working memory model

Answer 33

central executive phonological loop visuo-spatial sketchpad episodic buffer

Question 34

what is the central executive

Answer 34

an attentional process that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates processing resources to those activities. the CE has a very limited processing capacity

Question 35

what is the phonological loop

Answer 35

the component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound, and it preserves the order in which the information arrives. the pl is subdivided into: -phonological store, which stores the words you hear -articulatory process, allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating words and sounds in a loop to keep them in working memory while they are needed)

Question 36

what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 36

stores visual and/or spatial information when required, it has a limited capacity, according to baddeley, of 3/4 objects. the VSS is subdivided into: -visual cache, stores visual data -inner scribe, records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 37

what is the episodic buffer

Answer 37

component that brings together material from all of the other subsystems into a single memory store, rather than separate strands. it also provides a bridge between working memory and long term memory.

Question 38

positive ao3 of the working memory model

Answer 38

STRENGTH: support comes from shallice and warringtons case study of patient KF, who suffered from amnesia. KF had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information normally. for example, he has difficulty with sounds but could recall letters and digits. this suggests that his phonological loop had been damaged leaving other areas of memory intact. this supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic store.

Question 39

negative ao3 of the working memory model

Answer 39

WEAKNESS: constricted to only STM-There is no explanation of LTM so therefore it is not a complete accurate model of memory,so has limited application into the everyday processes of human memory .this is a limitation because it considers how the WMM is unable to convey the full process of memory.

Question 40

how does interference occur

Answer 40

when two pieces of information conflict with eachother, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten

Question 41

what are the two types of interference

Answer 41

1. proactive interference 2. retroactive interference

Question 42

what is proactive interference and what is an example

Answer 42

occurs when an older memory interferes with a newer one e.g. a teacher cannot remember the names of her current class, because she has had so many students in the past

Question 43

what is retroactive interference and what is an example

Answer 43

happens when a newer memory interferes with an older one e.g. a teacher has learnt so many new names this year, that she cannot remember the names of the students from last year

Question 44

what is the evidence for interference theory

Answer 44

McGeoch and Mcdonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials. pp’s had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy, they then learnt a new list. there were 6 groups of pp’s who had to learn different types of lists: group one- synonyms, words with same meanings group two- antonyms, words with opposite meanings group three- words unrelated to the original ones group four- consonant syllables group five- three digit numbers group six- no new list, these pp’s just rested

Question 45

what is the evidence for interference theory

Answer 45

McGeoch and Mcdonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials. pp’s had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy, they then learnt a new list. there were 6 groups of pp’s who had to learn different types of lists: group one- synonyms, words with same meanings group two- antonyms, words with opposite meanings group three- words unrelated to the original ones group four- consonant syllables group five- three digit numbers group six- no new list, these pp’s just rested findings- when the pp’s recalled the original list of words, their performance depended on the nature of the second list. the most similar materials produced the worst recall. this shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.

Question 46

positive ao3 of interference theory as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 46

STRENGTH: evidence from lab studies – interference is one of the most consistently demonstrated findings. most of these studies show that PI and RI are common ways information can be forgotten from the LTM. this is a strength because lab experiments have control over variables so suggest that the results are valid STRENGTH: real life studies-Baddeley and Hitch(1977) wanted to see if interference was a better explanation for forgetting than the passage of time.they asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played in that season so far every week.Some players had missed games so had less names to recall. findings showed that recall didn’t depend on how long ago the games took place but the number of games they had played. this showed that interference can be applied to everyday situations and there is high ecological validity.

Question 47

negative ao3 of interference as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 47

WEAKNESS: artificial materials- there is a greater chance that interference occurs in a lab than in real life situations due to the fact that the stimulus material used are normally a list of words. this is different to what people remember on a daily basis such as birthdays and recipes. this is a limitation because the use of artificial tasks makes interference more likely in the lab which means that interence isn’t applicable to forgetting in everyday life.

Question 48

what is retrieval failure

Answer 48

a form of forgetting and it occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided

Question 49

what is a cue

Answer 49

a trigger of information that allows us to access a memory for example, cues may be internal (mood or degree of drunkenness) or external (environmental context)

Question 50

what is the encoding specificity principle

Answer 50

this states that if a cue is to help us to recall information it must be present at encoding (when we learn the material) and retrieval (when we are recalling it)

Question 51

what is context dependant forgetting

Answer 51

Godden and baddeley carried out a study involving sea divers. the divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and were then asked to recall the words either underwater or on land, this therefore created four conditions: -learn on land and recall on land -learn on land and recall underwater -learn underwater and recall underwater -learn underwater and recall on land findings- accurate recall was 40% lower in unmatched conditions, the external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall and this led to retrieval failure

Question 52

what is state dependant forgetting

Answer 52

carter and cassaday, gave an antihistamine drug to their pp’s, the drug has a mild sedative effect, this creates an internal psychological state different from the ‘normal’ state of being awake and alert. the pp’s has to learn a list of words and passages of prose and then recall the information, again creating four conditions: -learn on drug, recall on drug -learn on drug, recall when not -learn not on drug, recall when on it -learn not on drug, recall not on it findings- in the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse. so when the cues are absent then there is more forgetting

Question 53

positive ao3 on retrieval failure as an explanation of forgetting

Answer 53

STRENGTH: supporting evidence-there are a lot of research studies providing evidence for retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting (godden & baddeley and carter & cassaday) this is a strength because more supporting evidence increases the validity of an explanation. evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs both in real life situations and in controlled conditions e.g a lab.

Question 54

negative ao3 on retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 54

WEAKNESS: questioning context effects- Baddeley(1997) argued that context effects aren’t very strong in real life. in order to see an actual effect in retrieval failure the contexts have to be very different and that it is very hard to do. this is a limitation as it means that real life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues don’t explain much forgetting WEAKNESS: recall vs recognition-Godden and Baddeley(1980) replicated their underwater study with a recognition test instead of a recall test. there was no context-dependent effect and performance was the same in all four conditions. the test didn’t require any recall. this is another limitation of context effects as it suggests that the presence/absence of cue only affects memory when you test it in a certain way.

Question 55

what is eyewitness testimony and what can effect the accuracy of this

Answer 55

the ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents or crimes which they themselves have observed. accuracy of EWT, can be affected by factors such as misleading information, leading questions and anxiety

Question 56

what is misleading information

Answer 56

incorrect information given to the eyewitness usually after the event. it can take many forms, such as leading questions and post event discussion

Question 57

what is a leading question

Answer 57

a question, which because of the way it is worded suggests a certain answer

Question 58

what is the evidence for leading questions affecting EWT

Answer 58

loftus and palmer arranged for pp’s to watch film clips of car accidents and then gave them questions about the accident. in the critical question pp’s were asked to describe how fast the cars were travelling, the leading question was ‘how fast were the cars going when they hit eachother?’ there were five groups of pp’s, each were given a different verb in the critical question: -hit, contacted, bumped, collided and smashed findings- the verb contracted resulted in a mean estimated speed of 31.8mph. for the verb smashed, the mean was 40.5mph, this therefore proves that the leading question biased the eyewitness recall of the event

Question 59

what is post event discussion

Answer 59

occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. witnesses may discuss what they have seen with other co-witnesses. this may influence the accuracy of each witness’s event of the situation

Question 60

what is the evidence in post event discussion as a factor affecting eyewitness testimony

Answer 60

Gabbert and her colleagues studied pp’s in pairs, each pp watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view. this meant that each pp could see elements in the event, that others could not. both pp’s then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall FINDINGS- researchers found that 71% of the pp’s mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video, but had picked up in discussion. in the control group with no discussion, the figure was 0%. this concludes that witnesses often go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the other person to be correct

Question 61

positive ao3 on misleading information as a factor affecting EWT

Answer 61

STRENGTH: useful real life application- research into misleading information has hugely important practical uses in the real world, where the consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious. for example, loftus believes that leading questions can have such a distorting effect on memory that police officers need to be careful in how they word their questions when interviewing witnesses.

Question 62

negative ao3 of misleading information as a factor affecting EWT

Answer 62

WEAKNESS: artificial tasks- a limitation of Loftus and Palmer’s study is that their participants watched film clips which is a different experience from witnessing a real accident as they lack the stress of a real accident. this is a limitation becauses it means the study tells very little about the effect of leading questions on EWT in real accidents/crimes.

Question 63

what is anxiety

Answer 63

a state of emotional and physical arousal. the emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension

Question 64

what is anxiety

Answer 64

a state of emotional and physical arousal. the emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension

Question 65

what is the evidence that anxiety has a negative affect on EWT

Answer 65

Johnson and Scott -led pp’s to believe they were going to take part in a lab study. while seated in a waiting room, pp’s heard a heated argument next door -in the low anxiety condition a man walked through the walking area carrying a pen with grease on his hands -in the high anxiety condition, pp’s heard the same argument but this time accompanied by the sound of breaking glass and a man walked out of the room, holding a paper knife covered in blood FINDINGS- pp’s later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos, 49% of the pp’s in the low anxiety condition were able to identify him. in high anxiety condition only 33% identified the man correctly. tunnel theory caused the pp’s to solely focus on the weapon rather than the man

Question 66

what is the evidence that anxiety has a positive effect on recall

Answer 66

Yuille and cutshall conducted a study of a real life shooting in a gun shop in vancouver. shop owner shot a thief dead -21 witnesses, 13 agreed to take part in the study -interviews held 4-5 months after the incident and these were compared with the original police interviews made at the time of the of the shooting -accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account -witnesses asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the event using a 7 point scale and asked if they had any emotional problems since the event FINDINGS- witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount of accuracy after 5 months. those pp’s who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (88% compared to 75% of less stressed group)

Question 67

negative ao3 of anxiety affecting EWT

Answer 67

WEAKNESS: weapon focus may not be relevant-Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors to raw chicken in a hair salon. eyewitness accuracy was poorer in the high unusualness conditions. this can suggest that weapon focus is down to unusualness rather than anxiety so isn’t relevant. WEAKNESS: ethical issues-some participants may have experienced psychological harm, due to the high stress situations, this can be very dangerous. real life studies are better because psychologists don’t need to create a study

Question 68

what is a cognitive interview

Answer 68

a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. it uses four main techniques, all based on well-established psychological knowledge of human memory- report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order, change perspective

Question 69

in a cognitive interview what is report everything

Answer 69

include every single detail of the event, even if it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. important as they may trigger other important details

Question 70

in a cognitive interview what is reinstating the context

Answer 70

witness should return to original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment (e.g. weather) and their emotions. this is related to context dependant forgetting

Question 71

in a cognitive interview what is reversing the order

Answer 71

events should be recalled in a different chronological order, this is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events, also to prevent dishonesty

Question 72

in a cognitive interview what does it mean to change perspective

Answer 72

witnesses should recall the incident from another’s pov (e.g. the perpetrator) this is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema on recall

Question 73

what is the enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 73

Fisher et al developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. also focuses on reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions and getting the witness to speak slowly

Question 74

negative ao3 of cognitive interview on improving accuracy of EWT

Answer 74

WEAKNESS: time consuming-takes more time than a standard police interview so police may be more reluctant and it also requires specialist training

Question 75

positive ao3 on cognitive interview as a way of improving accuracy of EWT

Answer 75

STRENGTH: support for the effectiveness of the ECI-Kohnken et al combined data from 50 studies(meta analysis). the ECI consistently provided more correct information than the standard police interview. this shows that there are real practical benefits to the police ,it gives police more accurate information to catch and charge criminals.