Memory 🧠 Flashcards

Question

What is procedural memory?

Answer 1

How we do things eg driving , writing etc - no conscious effort - becomes automatic through practice / second nature - contains all skills developed over time

Answer 2

P- One strength is that there is clinical evidence from the famous case studies of HM and Clive Wearing. E- Episodic memory in both men was severely impaired due to brain damage caused by operation and infections.However their semantic memory were relatively unaffected and they still understood the meanings of words eg HM could not recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier but didn’t need to have the concept of ‘dog’ explained to him. Their procedural memories were also intact as Clive still knew how to play piano , sing and read music. L- This supports Tulvings views that there are different memory stores in LTM as only Clive’s episodic memory was damaged and other stores unaffected.

Answer 3

P- Clinical case studies are a limitation as they lack control of variable and is a very small sample. E- The brain injuries experienced by participants were usually unexpected and there was not a firm link between cause and effect. The researcher has no way of controlling what happened to the participant before or during the injury and had no knowledge of individuals memory before damage. Without this control it’s difficult to judge exactly how much worse it is afterwards. L- This lack of control limits what clinical studies can tell us about different types of LTM.

Answer 4

P- There are conflicting research findings such as neuroimaging linking types of LTM to areas of the brain. E- Eg Buckner and Petersen 1996 reviewed evidence regarding the location of semantic and episodic memory. They concluded that semantic memory is located on the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic memory on the right. However other research links the left prefrontal cortex with encoding of episodic memory and the right with episodic retrieval (Tulving et Al 1994). He used PETscans while participants conducted memory tasks to find this. L- This challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of memory as there’s poor agreement on where each might be located.

Answer 5

P- Another strength is that understanding types of LTM allows psychologists to help people with memory problems so real world application. E- As people age they experience memory loss but research has shown this seems to be specific to episodic memory as it becomes harder to recall memories of personal events and experiences that occurred relatively recently though past episodic memories remain intact. Belleville et al 2006 devised an intervention to improve episodic memory in older people. The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group. L- This shows that distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed.

Answer 6

- supervises the other 3 slave systems - monitors the information that goes into the STM and allocates resources to these other slave systems - limited capacity and doesn’t store info

Answer 7

- deals with auditory info and is coded acoustically and preserves the order of how it arrives - split into subdivisions - phonological store which processes words we hear and articulatory processing allows maintenance rehearsal - has a capacity loop of 2 seconds of what we can say

Answer 8

-temporary store of information integrating the visual , spatial and verbal info processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing - recording events and seen as the storage component of the central executive - limited capacity = 4 chunks - links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes eg perception

Answer 9

- stores visual and spatial info eg if you’re asked to work out how many windows are in your house you visualize it - limited capacity =3/4 objects - split into 2 subdivisions : 1. Visual cache which stores visual data 2. inner scribe which records arrangement of objects in your visual field

Answer 10

P- One strength is from Shallice and Warrington’s case study if patient KF. E- After his brain surgery, KF had poor STM ability for auditory info but could process visual info normally. For instance his immediate recall of letters and digits was better when he read them (visual) than when they were read to him (acoustic). KF’s phonological loop was damaged but his visuo-spatial sketch pad was intact and functioning. L- This finding strongly supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores.

Answer 11

P- However it’s unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments apart from damage to his phonological loop that may have affected his performance on memory tasks. E- For example, his injury was caused by a motorcycle accident and the trauma may have affected his cognitive performance quite apart from any brain injuries.(eg concentration on verbal things). L- This challenges evidence that comes from clinical studies of people with brain injuries that may have affected many different systems and is not a representative sample so we can not generalize on all memory.

Answer 12

P- Another strength is that studies of dual task performance support the separate existence of the visuo-spatial sketch pad. E- When Baddeley et Al’s (1975) participants carried out a visual and verbal task at the same time ( dual task), their performance on each was similar to when they carried out tasks separately. But when both tasks were visual or both verbal, performance declined substantially. This is because both visual tasks compete for the same system ( VSS) whereas there’s no competition when performing visual and verbal tasks together. L- This shows that there must be a separate subsystem that processes visual input and one for verbal processing(PL).

Answer 13

P- There is a lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive. E- Baddeley 2003 recognized this himself when he said “ The central executive is the most important but the least understood component of the working memory.” The CE needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply attention eg some psychologists believe the CE may consist of separate sub components. L- This means that the CE is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the working memory model.

Answer 14

When we forget because one memory is blocking another which means one or both memories become distorted or we forget them.

Answer 15

An older memory disrupting a new one and the new one is forgotten or distorted. Eg getting siblings names mixed up

Answer 16

A new memory disrupts an old one which is forgotten or distorted. eg forgetting old rules of a sport when learning a new one

Answer 17

- interference is worse when memories are similar McGeoch and McDonald (1931): ~ studied retroactive interference ~ changed how similar the material was that the participants had to remember and they were given a list of material (10 words) to remember followed by a second list ~ there were 6 groups who had to learn different types of new lists eg synonyms , antonyms, words unrelated to original , consonant syllables , 3 digit numbers and a control group

Answer 18

When participants were asked to recall original list the most similar list ( synonyms) produced the worst recall showing that interference is strongest when memories are similar.

Answer 19

P- There is evidence of interference effects in more everyday situations. E - Baddeley and Hitch (1977) asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they had played against during a rugby seasons and the players had all played for the same time interval ( 1 season) but the number of intervening games varied as some player misssed matches due to injury. Players who played the most games( most interference for memory) had the poorest recall. L- This study shows that interference can operate in at least some real world situations, increasing the validity of the theory.

Answer 20

P- Interference may cause forgetting in everyday situations but it’s unusual. E- This is because lab studies use artificial material such as word lists which doesn’t reflect everyday situations we normally come across. The conditions needed for interference to occur are relatively rare unlike lab studies which use a high degree of control to create ideal conditions for interference. For instance, material has to be similar to cause interference study. This may happen occasionally in everyday life but not often. L- This suggests forgetting may be better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure due to a lack of cues.

Answer 21

P- Interference theory is temporary and can be overcome by using cues or hints. E- Tulving and Pstoka (1971) gave participants lists of words organized into categories one list at a time but participants were not told the categories. Recall averages about 70% for the first list but became progressively worse as participants learned more lists (proactive interference). At the end of the procedure participants were given a cued recall test and were told the names of the categories and recall rose again to about 70%. L- This shows that interference causes a temporary loss of accessibility to material that is still in LTM a finding not predicted by interference theory.

Answer 22

P- another strength comes from evidence of retrograde facilitation. E- Coenen and Luijetalaar 1997 gave participants a list of words and later asked them to recall the list assuming the intervening experiences would act as interference. They found when list was learned under influence of the drug diazepam ,recall one week later was poor compared to a placebo control group. But when the list was learned before drug, later recall was better than placebo. So the drug improved (facilitated) recall of material learned beforehand. It was suggested that the drug prevents new info reaching parts of the brain involved in processing memories so it can’t interfere retroactively with info already stored. L- This finding shows that forgetting can be due to interference and by reduce interference you reduce forgetting.

Answer 23

When we store a memory the cues that are associated with that memory are also stored but if these cues aren’t again or when trying to recall a memory, forgetting is due to retrieval failure ( not being able to access memories that are there).

Answer 24

- a cue that helps us recall a memory has to be present when we encode that info initially and when we’re trying to recall that memory - forgetting will happen if cues at encoding and retrieval are different or absent

Answer 25

- context-dependent forgetting = recall depends on external cue (weather,place etc) -state-dependent forgetting = recall depends on internal cue (upset/drunk etc)

Answer 26

Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied deep sea divers to see if training on land helped or hindered work under water. - Divers learned list of words either underwater or on land and were asked to recall either underwater or on land FOUR CONDITIONS 1. learn on land recall on land 2. learn on land recall underwater 3. learn underwater recall on land 4.learn underwater recall underwater

Answer 27

- accurate recall was 40% lower in the non matching conditions - concluded that the external cues available at learning were different from ones available at recall- led to retrieval failure

Answer 28

Carter and Cassaday (1998) gave antihistamine drugs for hay fever to participants which had a mild sedative effect making participants slightly drowsy. - This created an internal state different from normal state of being awake + alert -participants had to learn lists of words/passages and then recall 1. learning on drug recalling when also on it 2. learning not on drug and recalling when on it 3. learning on drug recalling when not on it 4. learning not on drug recalling when not on it

Answer 29

-If state in which participant was in when learning didn’t match state they were in upon recall then they performed significantly worse - the less internal cues there were the more words were forgotten

Answer 30

P- One strength is that retrieval cues can help to overcome some forgetting in everyday situations. E- Although cues may not have a very strong effect on forgetting, Baddeley suggests they’re still worth paying attention to eg going to get something from another room and forgetting until you go back to the room and remember. When we have trouble remembering it’s worth making the effort to recall the environment in which we learned it first. L-This shows how research can remind us for strategies we use in the real world to improve our recall.

Answer 31

P- Another strength is that there’s an extensive amount of research that supports the retrieval failure explanation. E- The studies by Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassaday show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context dependent and state dependent forgetting in everyday life. Memory res archers argue that retrieval failure could be the main reason for forgetting from LTM. L- Thus evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the lab.

Answer 32

P- Baddeley argues that context effects are not very strong especially in everyday life. E- Different contexts have to vary a lot for effects to be seen eg it would be hard to find an environment as different from land as underwater. In contrast, learning something in one room then recalling in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting as these environments are generally not different enough. L- This means that retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not fully explain much everyday forgetting.

Answer 33

P- One limitation is that context effects may depend substantially on the type of memory being tested. E-Godden and Baddeley replicated their study but used a recognition test instead of a recall test - participants had to say whether they recognised a word read to them from a list instead of retrieving it for themselves. When recognition was tested there was no context dependent effect and performance was the same in all 4 conditions. L- This suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies to when a person has to recall info rather than recognise it.

Answer 34

Misleading information research- wording of a question may lead/mislead you to give a certain answer and may direct an eyewitness to a certain desired answer.

Answer 35

Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer (1974)- - arranged for 45 students to watch film clips of a car accident and then asked them questions about it - A leading question asked was describe how fast were the cars travelling "about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?" -There were 5 groups and each was given a different verb in the critical question (hit,contact,smashed etc)

Answer 36

The leading question biased the eyewitness' recall of event - mean estimated speed was calcukated for each group -verb 'contacted' mean estimate speed=31.8mph -verb 'smashed' mean estimate speed=40.5mph

Answer 37

Response-bias explanation = suggests wording of the question has no real effect of memory but just influences how they decide to answer (encouraged them to choose higher speed estimates). Substitution explanation- proposes that the wording of a leading question changes memory of the film clips as participants who had the verb 'smashed' were more likely to report broken glass tan those who had 'hit' so crticial verb altered their memory.

Answer 38

Post-event discussion: eyewitnesses to a crime may sometimes discuss their memories and experiences with eachother.

Answer 39

Gabbert et al (2003) studied participants in pairs and each participant watched a video of the same crime but filmed from different points of views. This meant that each participant could see elements in the event that the other couldn't eg only one pp could see the title of the book being carried by a young woman -Both participants then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall.

Answer 40

71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they didn't see in video but had picked up in the discussion. The corresponding figure in a control group where no discussion happened was 0%.- evidence of memory conformity -concluded witnesses go along with each other to gain social approval or believe other person is right Memory conformity= actual memory unchanged Memory contamination=when discussed evens altered or distorted as they combine misinformation

Answer 41

P- One strength of research into misleading info is that it has important practical uses in the criminal justice system. E-The consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious. Loftus (1975) believes that leading questions can have a very distorting effect on memory that police officers need to be careful about how they word their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses. Psychologists are sometimes asked to be expert witnesses in court trials and explain limits of EWT to juries. L- This shows that psychologists can help to improve the way the legal system works especially by protecting innocent people from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT.

Answer 42

P- However, practical applications of EWT may be affected by issues with the research. E- For instance,Loftus and Palmer’s participants who watched film clips in a lab is very different from witnessing real event as it’s less stressful. Also Rachel Foster et al noted that what eyewitnesses remember has important consequences in the real world but participants responses in research don’t matter in the same way so less motivated to be accurate. L- This suggests that researchers such as Loftus are too pessimistic about the effects of misleading information and EWT may be more dependable than many studies suggest.

Answer 43

P- One limitation of the substitution explanation is that EWT is more accurate for some aspects of an event than for others. E- eg Rachel Sutherland and Hayne (2001) showed participants a video clip. When participants were later asked misleading questions, their recall was more accurate for central details of event than for peripheral ones as presumably attention was on central features of event that were resistant to misleading info. L- This suggests that the original memories for central details survived and weren’t distorted, an outcome not predicted by the substitution of explanation.

Answer 44

P- Another limitation of the memory conformity of explanation is evidence that post discussion actually alters EWT. E- Skagerberg and Wright (2008) showed their participants film clips. There were 2 versions eg muggers hair was dark then light brown. Participants then discussed clips in paired each having seen different versions and they often reported a blend of the two eg medium brown. L- This suggests that the memory itself is distorted through contamination by misleading post even discussion rather than the result of memory conformity.

Answer 45

demand characteristics- participants want to be helpful and not let researcher down so need to hide aim etc

Answer 46

-anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues so recall is worse. - One approach to studying this is to look at the effect of the presence of a weapon which creates anxiety and leads to a focus on the weapon, reducing witness’ recall of other details of event

Answer 47

Johnson and Scott (1976) -participants believed they were taking part in lab study - while seated in a waiting room participants in the low anxiety condition heard causal convo in next room and man walked past them with a pen and grease on his hands - high anxiety condition = heard heated argument with sounds of breaking glass + man walked out room holding knife covered in blood - They then had to pick out man from set of 50 photos and identify him

Answer 48

-49% who had seen man carrying pen were able to identify him - for man holding knife = 33% - tunnel theory of memory = argued that people have enhanced memory for central events and weapons focus as a result of anxiety can have this effect

Answer 49

- fight or flight respond is triggered increasing alertness and this may improve memory of event as we become more aware of cues in this situation

Answer 50

- conducted a study of an actual shooting in Canada in which the shop owner shot and killed the thief. - 21 witnesses and 13 took part in study -interviewed 4-5 months after incident and these interviews were compared with the original police interviews at the time of shooting - accuracy was determined by no. of details reported in each account - witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they were at the time on the incident on a 1-7 scale and whether they had any emotional problems since event eg sleeplessness

Answer 51

- witnesses were very accurate and there was little change in accuracy after 5 months and some were less accurate in regards to colours of items and age/weight/height of shooter - highest stress levels corresponded with 88% accuracy -lower stress levels = 75% accurate

Answer 52

Yerkes-Dodson Law = there’s an optimum level of anxiety which is the point of max accuracy - any more or any less, recall accuracy is reduced as higher/lower levels of physiological arousal

Answer 53

P- The weapon focus effect caused by anxiety found by Johnson and Scott may not be relevant because it may not have tested anxiety. E-The reason participants focused on the weapon may be because they were surprised at what they saw rather than scared. A researcher conducted an experiment using scissors , a handgun , a wallet and a raw chicken as the hand held items in a hair dressing salon video. Scissors was the high anxiety (low usualness). Eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions (chicken and handgun). L- This suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety therefore tells us nothing specifically about effects inf anxiety on EWT.

Answer 54

P- A strength is that there are studies to support the notion that anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of recall. E- Researchers used an objective measure (heart rate) to divide participants in a high and low anxiety groups. In the study, anxiety clearly disrupted the participants ability to recall details about the actor in the London Dungeons Labryinth. L- This suggests that a high level of anxiety does have a negative effect on the immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event.

Answer 55

P- However, there are also studies which support the idea that anxiety can have a positive effect on accuracy of recall. E- Researchers interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in Sweden. Some of the witnesses were directly involved eg bystanders. The researchers assumed that those directly involved would experience more anxiety. It was found recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses and the direct victims were even more accurate (most anxiety). L- These findings from actual crimes confirm that anxiety doesn’t reduce accuracy of recall for EWT and may even enhance it.

Answer 56

P- But on the other hand they interviewed their participants several months after the event (4-15). The researchers had no control over what happened to their participants in the intervening time eg post event discussions. E- The effects of anxiety may have been overwhelmed by these others factors and impossible to assess by the time the participants were interviewed. L- Therefore it’s possible that a lack of control over confounding variables may be responsible for these findings, invalidating their support.

Answer 57

- police techniques collectively the cognitive interview for interviewing witnesses to a crime > encourages increase in accessibility of stored information info -improves effectiveness of questioning -based on psychological findings + insights into how memory works

Answer 58

Fisher and Geiselaman (1992)- - found people remember things better if beyde provides with retrieval cues - developed an interviewing technique based on proven psychological principles

Answer 59

1. Report everything - may seem irrelevant or trivial but each detail may be important or trigger other important memories ( acts as cue/trigger) 2.Reinstate the context - return to original scene in mind and imagine environment (weather,feelings,visual etc) related to context dependent forgetting and acts as cue 3. Reverse the order - events should be recalled in different order from original sequence to prevent people reporting expectations of how event must have happened rather than reporting actual events - also prevents dishonesty as harder to produce untruthful account if reversed 4.Change Perspective - recall incident from other perspectives eg how it would e appeared to others or to the perpetrator to disrupt effect of expectations and effect of schema as… - the schema you have for a particular setting generates expectations of what would’ve happened so schema is recalled rather than actual events

Answer 60

Fisher et al developed additional elements of the CI to focus on social dynamics of the interaction eg - when to establish eye contact or not - reducing eyewitness anxiety -minimising distractions - getting witness to speak slowly - asking open ended questions ACTIVE LISTENING- no interrupting + make them comfortable

Answer 61

P- Some researchers have found evidence to suggest that some elements of the CI are more valuable than others. E- Milne and Bull 2002 found that if report everything and reinstate context were used together this procured better recall then any other conditions. This supports the view of many police officers who believe that some aspects of the CI are in fact more useful than others. L- This is a positive finding as it suggests that using just 2 elements of the CI can be used by police officers to improve recall of eyewitnesses.

Answer 62

P- The CI is time consuming in comparison to the standard police interview. E- It often takes a good amount of time to build a rapport with witness and make them feel relaxed. Furthermore, using the CI requires special training in order to conduct the interviews most effectively and many establishments can’t spend more than a few hours on this. L- As a result, it’s unlikely that the full version of the CI is actually used in real life scenarios. This explains why the police haven’t been impressed by this technique.

Answer 63

P- There has been some research to support the idea that the enhanced CI offers various benefits in real life. E- Köhnken et al (1999) conducted a meta-analysis in which they combined the data from 50 studies. The findings showed that using the ECI provided significantly more correct info than when a standard police interview was used. L- This suggests that there are real benefits to police if they use ECI which means greater chance of catching criminals and benefits the whole of society.

Answer 64

P- Although there seems to be an increase of accurate details when ECI is used some argue it also causes an increase in incorrect details being given. E- It was found in another study by Köhnken that when ECI was used, participants gave 81% more correct info but there was also a 61% increase in incorrect info. This was compared to a standard police interview technique like all their other research. L- But even though incorrect details were also recalled, the large increase in accurate details outweighs any potential risk of some false info being included so we shouldn’t abandon use of CI.

Memory 🧠 Flashcards

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