Memory Flashcards

Question

Types of LTM: Tulving (1985) (also limitation of MSM)

Answer 1

Criticism of MSM is that each memory store is classified as a unitary store. Episodic, semantic & procedural memories.

Answer 2

-Refers to ability to recall events from our lives e.g. visit to dentist, breakfast. -These memories are **time-stamped** so you recall when and what happened. -Includes several elements: people, places objects etc. -Conscious effort required for recall.

Answer 3

-Contains shared knowledge of work like an encyclopaedia. -Knowledge of: how to apply to uni, concept of animals, meaning of words etc. -Not time-stamped. Don’t remember when you learnt about concepts. -Less personal and more factual. -Tulving says less likely than episodic to forget.

Answer 4

-Memory for actions, skills. -Recalled without conscious awareness or effort (automatic). E.g. change gears, riding bike. -If you try to describe action, task becomes harder.

Answer 5

Episodic memory damaged. He had amnesia that damaged hippocampus. Before this he was a world class musician & he could still play piano well but couldn’t remember musical education. Knows he has kids but doesn’t know names. He recognises wife but if she leaves room for few minutes he’ll act as tho he hasn’t seen her for years. Supports Tulving’s view as it shows diff types of stores & one can be damaged while others are unaffected. Counterpoint: lack of controls as no way of controlling what happened before memory loss. Difficult to judge how much worse memory is.

Answer 6

Conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain. Concluded: - episodic = right prefrontal cortex - semantic = left prefrontal cortex Other research links left with encoding of episodic and right with episodic retrieval (Tulving). Challenges neurophysiological evidence to support types of LTM as there is poor agreement on where each type is located. Brain scans are reliable and valid. Objective measure - no subjectivity.

Answer 7

Understanding LTM helps people with memory problems. E.g. people age and have memory loss but research shows this is specific to episodic memory. -Belleville devised intervention to improve episodic memories in older people. -Trained group had better episodic memory than control group. Distinguishing types of LTM enables treatments.

Answer 8

-He says episodic and semantic are in the same store - **declarative memories** (actively recalled). -Concluded its impossible to have functioning episodic memory with damaged semantic. However, Hodges & Patterson found that some people with Alzheimer’s can form new episodic memories but not semantic.

Answer 9

Part of STM you are using when you are working on something. The mental space that is active when temporarily storing info. 4 parts: -central executive -phonological loop -visuo-spatial sketch pad -episodic buffer

Answer 10

Supervisory role. Monitors incoming data and divides attention by allocating subsystems to tasks. Limited processing capacity & doesn’t store info.

Answer 11

Deals with auditory info & preserves order in which information arrives: -phonological store - stores words you hear. - articulating process - allows **maintenance rehearsal** (repeating sounds/words in loop). Capacity of loop is believed to be **2 seconds worth of what you can say.**

Answer 12

Stores visual and/or spatial info. E.g. picturing windows in your house. Limited capacity (3-4 objects). Logie (1995) divided VSS into: -visual cache (visual data store) -inner scribe (records arrangement of objects)

Answer 13

Temporary store for info, integrates visual, spatial & verbal and maintains sense of time sequencing. Limited capacity of 4 chunks. Links WM to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception.

Answer 14

KF case study where he had poor auditory info storage but good visual info processing. His phonological loop was damaged but his visuo-spatial sketchpad was in tact. Supports existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores. Counterpoint: unclear whether he had other cognitive impairments which may have affected performance since his injury was caused by motorcycle accident.

Answer 15

Studies of dual task performance support separate existence of VSS m. -ppts carried out verbal and visual task at same time and had decent similar performance as they used diff subsystems (PL & VSS) -then both tasks where visual or both verbal, performance substantially declined. Shows must be separate subsystem that process visual input & another for verbal processing.

Answer 16

Lack of clarity over nature of central executive. -Baddeley said “CE is most important but least understood component” -CE should be more specified & some psychologists believe CE consists of separate sub components. Means CE is unsatisfactory & challenges integrity of WMM.

Answer 17

Studies use tasks that are unlike tasks in our everyday lives & carried out in highly controlled lab conditions.

Answer 18

-Capacity of PL dependant on length of time it takes to say words. -If word is polysyllabic it’s harder to remember. -Harder to store list of long words as rehearsal takes longer.

Answer 19

Forgetting takes place due to **interference** (when 2 pieces of info disrupt each other, resulting in forgetting in one or both).

Answer 20

Proactive: older memory interferes with newer ones. E.g. remembering old names but not new. **Old affects new.** Retroactive: newer memory interferes with an older one. E.g. learning new things in politics makes you forget old info. **New affects old.**

Answer 21

Interference is worse with similar memories. Studied RI & changed amount of similarity in lists. Students had to learn lists with 100% accuracy: -synonyms -acronyms -unrelated words to original ones -consonant syllables -3 digit numbers -no new list (control group) The most similar material produced worse recall. -previously stored info makes new similar info hard to store. -new info overwrites previous similar memories.

Answer 22

Evidence of interference in everyday situations. -asked rugby played to recall opponent team names. -players who played the msot games had the poorest recall. :) increases validity. Counterpoint: conditions needed for interference to occur are rare. 2 memories have to be fairly similar in order to interfere. Suggests other theories may be better explanations for forgetting in everyday life.

Answer 23

Gave ppts list of words organised into categories one at a time. -average recall 70% & got progressively worse as ppts learnt additional lists. (Interference) -when given cued recall test & told names of categories, recall rose again to about 70%. Shows interference is a temporary loss of accessibility.

Answer 24

Given list of words. -found list of words learnt under drug, recall was poorer than placebo control group. -when list learned before drug, later recall was better than placebo. Drug prevents new info from processing so it can’t interfere retroactively with stored information. Shows forgetting can be due to interference & reduction of interference reduces forgetting.

Answer 25

People forget info because of insufficient cues. When info is initially placed in memory, so are associated cues.

Answer 26

Without a cue, you’re more likely to forget what was learnt. The cues available at learning should be present at recall or the worse the memory & higher likelihood of forgetting.

Answer 27

Meaningful - cues encoded at type of learning in a meaningful way. Like mnemonics can act as trigger for memories. Non-meaningful - relate to external environment **(context dependant cues)** or internal state **(state dependant cues)**.

Answer 28

Deep sea divers learnt a list of words either underwater or on land. Then asked to recall. 4 conditions: - learn on land/recall on land - learn underwater/recall underwater - learn on land/recall underwater - learn underwater/recall on land Recall was 40% lower in different state due to lack of external cues.

Answer 29

Gave anti-histamine drugs to their participants that made them drowsy. Ppts had to learn list of words. 4 conditions: - learn on drug/recall on drug - learn on drug/recall off drug - learn off drug/recall on drug - learn off drug/recall off drug Conditions with mismatch of internal state had significantly worse recall. Learned better in same state despite being drowsy.

Answer 30

Retrieval cues can help overcome forgetting. When you have trouble remembering something it’s worth the effort to recall the environment in which you learnt it in. E.g. in room then go get something from another room then forget and enter original room to remember. Shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in real world to improve recall.

Answer 31

Say retrieval failure is most common reason for forgetting by LTM. Evidence shows retrieval failure occurs in real world situations as well as lab conditions. Counterpoint: Baddeley (1997) suggests context effects aren’t very strong as “different contexts” have to be very different before effect is seen. Hard to find environment as different as land and underwater. Therefore, retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not expalin everyday forgetting.

Answer 32

Context effects may depend substantially on type of memory being tested. -they replicated underwater experiment with a replication test rather than recall. -ppts had to say if they recognised words rather than retrieve it. -performance was same in all 4 conditions. Suggests retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting as it only applies when person is recalling rather than recognising.

Answer 33

-Eyewitness testimony: ability to remember details of events such as accidents or crimes that they observed. -Levelling: getting rid of ‘irrelevant’ info. -Assimilation: added own interpretation of certain aspects in typical western story. -Sharpening: ppt changed terms and used more familiar words to own cultural background. Memories for events can be **altered** by our pre existing understanding of the world.

Answer 34

When info provided can affect how someone answers a question or remembers an event. E.g. if a car was described as “smashed” you may think it happened at faster speed than “bumped”.

Answer 35

A question, which because of the way it’s phrased suggests an answer.

Answer 36

1. Response-bias explanation: doesn’t affect memory but does influence how someone decides to answer. 2. Substitution explanation: the wording of a leading question actually changes memory of an event.

Answer 37

To investigate how info supplied after an event influences a person’s memory of the event. -45 ppts shown 7 clips of car accidents. -all asked “how far was cars going when they __________ each other” -each group given diff verb (smashed,collided,hit,bumped,contracted). -amongst other questions to reduce demand characteristics. The more drastic word used, higher the prediction of speed. (smashed at 40.8mph).

Answer 38

To investigate substitution explanation. -150 ppts shown film of accident. -1 group asked “how fast when cars hit each other?” Another asked “how far when cars smashed each other?” -3rd not asked about speed. -1 week later asked “did you see any broken glass?” Results show verb used in original question influenced whether they “saw” glass or not.

Answer 39

Argue that 2 kinds of info go into a persons memory of an event: 1. Perception of event (witnessing accident). 2. Info supplied after event (leading questions). Over time info of these 2 can be interpreted to produce the **one reconstructed memory**.

Answer 40

Post event discussion: when co witnesses discuss the event with each other contaminating their testimonies. They combine the (mis)info from another witness with their own memories.

Answer 41

1. Source monitoring theory: memories of event are genuinely distorted. Witness can recall info of event but cant remember where it came from (their own or someone else). **source confusion**. 2. Conformity theory: witness testimony isn’t distorted but recall appears to change because they go along with others accounts to win social approval or because they believe others are correct.

Answer 42

-2 groups of paired ppts. -each pair watched video of same crime from different POVS & discussed what they saw while the other group had no discussion. -both gave testimonies. 71% of ppts in discussion group mistakenly recalled aspects they didn’t see. Control group had 0%. **conformity theory memory**

Answer 43

-Misleading info has important practical uses in criminal justice system. Consequences of inaccurate EWT can be serious. Police officers have to be careful about their phrasing of questions when interviewing witnesses. -Psychologists can improve legal system by protecting innocents from faulty convictions. Counterpoint: witnessing a real life crime is different to research issues. Foster et all (1984) says ppts are less motivated to be accurate within experiment. Suggests researchers such as Loftus are too pessimistic about effects of misleading info & EWT may be more dependable than research suggests.

Answer 44

-Showed ppts a video. -Recall was more accurate for central details of event than peripheral ones. -Ppts focussed on central features and those memories were resistant or misleading info. Suggests original memories for central details were not distorted & survived.

Answer 45

-Showed ppts film clips with 2 versions. -1 with mugger’s dark brown hair and 1 with mugger’s light brown hair. -Ppts discussed clips and came to conclusion of “medium brown” hair. Suggests memory itself isn’t distorted through contamination by misleading post-event discussion, rather than the result of memory conformity.

Answer 46

-Argue that many answers given in oag studies are due to deman characteristics. -Ppts don’t want to let researcher down so they guess when asked question they don’t know answer to.

Answer 47

Anxiety: unpleasant, emotional state where we fear something bad will happen, typically when in stressful situations. (heart rate increases, shallow breathing etc). Stress may have an adverse effect on how well we encode memory.

Answer 48

-Presence of gun causes anxiety & is therefore the main focus. -The result of this is **tunnel vision** (focus on weapon so other details are peripheral). -Memory of event will be centralised.

Answer 49

Ppts exposed to one of two situations: 1. Overheard discussion about equipment failure & person came out lag holding a pen with grease on hands. 2. Overheard heated exchange with sounds of breaking glass & person comes out with bloodstained knife. Ppts given 50 photos to identify person: 1. Pen man identified **49%** of the time. 2. Knife man identified only **33%** of the time. Shows witness fixates on weapon rather than perpetrators appearance.

Answer 50

To investigate whether incapacity to recall details on incident is due to unusualness or the threat the object poses. -230 ppts shown video of man entering hairdressers. -man was holding either scissors, handgun, wallet, raw chicken, nothing. -ppts completed questionnaire about details of the man & receptionist. -varied unusualness & threat. Raw chicken: 7.21 Scissors: 8.14 Handgun: 7.83 Suggests weapon focus effect is due to unusualness.

Answer 51

-Carried out study in London dungeon. -Assessed anxiety with heart rate monitors & 2 groups. -1 with high anxiety & 1 with low anxiety. **17%** of high anxiety group identified actor correct. **75%** of low anxiety group identified actor correct. Shows high level anxiety does have negative effect on immediate eyewitness recall of stressful event.

Answer 52

Watching real crime increases accurate memory due to fight or flight being triggered increasing alertness. Wanted to see if misleading info would impact memory of real events. -13 witnesses partaken in study. -shopkeeper shot boy stealing gun 6 times & got shot too. -witnesses interviewed 5 months later with 2 misleading questions. Highest stress levels had best recall 88% compared to lower levels 75%.

Answer 53

-interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies (some directly involved) . -found that recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses & even more for the ones most stressed (directly involved). Anxiety doesn’t reduce accuracy of recall & might even enhance it. Counterpoint: lack of control over confounding variables & there may have been post event discussions.

Answer 54

Reviewed 21 studies of EWT. Yerkes-Dodson law suggests that when we witness a crime we become emotionally & physically aroused & experience physiological changes. When level of anxiety increases, so does recall accuracy until a certain point. If optimum anxiety is exceeded, then recall declines.

Answer 55

-Ignores that anxiety has many elements: cognitive, behavioural, emotional & physical. -Focused on physical & assumes that’s the only aspect linked to EWT. But cognitive thinking is also important.

Answer 56

Technique used by police to interview witnesses to a crime so they can recall original context of an event. **schema** - original idea without any influence.

Answer 57

Found that people remember things better if provided **retrieval cues**. 4 CI techniques; -report everything- every trivial detail to act as cues. -reinstatement of context- witness should return to original crime scene “in their mind” & imagine environment & emotions. **context dependant cues**. -change of order- perhaps reversing, to prevent people reporting expectations rather than actuality & prevents dishonesty. -change perspective- have to think harder.

Answer 58

1. Retrieval failure theory: free recall allows ppts to gain cues & picture event. 2. Influence of leading questions: CI helps obtain maximum recall of accurate info as they aren’t changing answers based on prompts.

Answer 59

Fisher (1987) developed additional elements of CI to focus on dynamics of the interactions. E.g. Interviewer needs to know when to establish & relinquish eye contact. Also includes reducing anxiety, minimal distractions, open ended questions etc.

Answer 60

-Meta analysis comvined data from 55 studies comparing CI & ECI. CI gave average **41%** increase in accurate info compared to standard interview. -Only 4/55 studies showed no diff in interviews. Shows that CI is effective in helping witness recall info. Counterpoint: Köhnken also found increase in inaccurate info recalled. More so in ECI. Shows that CI interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT (accuracy) for quantity (amount).

Answer 61

Found that each of 4 techniques used alone produce more info than standard interview, but also found a combination of report everything & reinstate the context produced better recall than any other elements or combo of elements. Casts doubt on credibility of overall CI as perhaps not all elements are equally useful/effective.

Answer 62

May be reluctant to use this as it can take hours. Including time needed to establish rapport & allow witness to relax. CI also requires special training and many forces may not have resources to provide more than a few hours. Suggests it’s unrealistic method to use the complete CI.

Answer 63

Students were shown staged situation where intruder wearing blue entered a class and stole projector. Asked: “Was the guy with the green ruc sack nervous?” “What colour was the guys ruck sack?” Those questioned with CI were less likely to fall for leading questions.