Memory Flashcards

Question

Interference theory of forgetting

Answer 1

Two pieces of information get muddled in our memory. The more similar the information, the greater the chance of interference

Answer 2

Old information hinders recall of new information

Answer 3

New information hinders recall of old information

Answer 4

Trained two groups of cockroaches to walk through a maze and then retested after 8 hours One group were wrapped in cotton wool and went to sleep The others were active The active group made 3 times as many errors due to interference

Answer 5

Aim: Find out if new learning interferes with old Method: Group A asked to learn a list of words and then a second list of words with similar words Group B only learnt one list Results: Group B performed better Conclusion: Provides support for retroactive interference

Answer 6

Forgetting increases as a result of the similarity of the material

Answer 7

Cues are signs which help us to retrieve memories which havent been lost permanently

Answer 8

Recall worsens if different cues are present during the recall and during the original learning

Answer 9

External - in the environment Internal - physiological/psychological

Answer 10

Aim: investigated the effect of environment on recall Method: Divers asked to learn lists of unrelated words in 4 different conditions (Learnt on beach and recalled on beach, learnt on beach recalled in water, learned in water and recalled on beach or learnt under water and recalled under water) Results: Higher retrieval if recalled in same location where originally learnt Conclusion: supports the idea of context dependent forgetting Also supports the encoding specificity principle

Answer 11

Repeated measures so order effects Also demand characteristics

Answer 12

In schools exams should be sat in classroom

Answer 13

Four conditions: Sober both days intoxicated both days sober first day and then intoxicated intoxicated first day and then sober More errors were made in the different state conditions supporting state dependant forgetting

Answer 14

Two groups of rats One group was given a drug, the other was not They were then placed in a maze and taught to escape an electrical shock When the rats in the group with the drug were placed back in the maze without the drug they could not remember how to escape the shock but when they were given the drug again they could recall how to do it

Answer 15

Refers to the recalled memory of a witness to a crime or incident Recorded in a police statement or given as verbal testimony to be used as evidence in a court of law

Answer 16

An underarching set of ideas/mental construct of the world

Answer 17

When you add things or change details of a particular event

Answer 18

Something we believed happened but did not

Answer 19

Had participants read a piece of writing then explain what they had read Supports schemas as people changed details based on their schemas ie “canoe” to “ship”

Answer 20

Questions which are asked in a way to suggest a specific answer

Answer 21

5 groups with 9 participants each They were asked “how fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?” The 5 different verbs were “Smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted” Results: On average the group who were given “smashed” gave a speed of 40.8 whereas the group who were given “contacted” gave a speed of 31.8 Conclusion: How you ask a question can influence/change peoples responses - EWT may be less accurate

Answer 22

Aim: to see whether false memories can be created through suggestion Method: Participants received a questionnaire in the mail about 4 scenarios, they had to state whether or not they remembered the memory and write about it in as much detail as possible Results: 25% of people recalled getting lost in the supermarket as a child when they did not, however they were less confident about this and wrote less about this “memory” Conclusion: This supports the idea that false memories can be created from suggestion

Answer 23

False memory and understanding into it can lead to negative implications as it can be used as an alibi for people like Harvey Weinstein

Answer 24

Aim: To see if post event information has the same effect on EWT In real life Method: 13 people who witnessed a real life armed robbery were interviewed 4 months after the crime and the interview included 2 misleading questions. Results: They were still able to give an accurate recall of the event compared to their initial reports. Conclusion: Post event information may not affect memory in real life EWT

Answer 25

People being influenced by another persons report. This may introduce mistakes therefore lead to inaccurate recall.

Answer 26

Aim: to see if PED affects EWT Method: 2 groups of participants watched the same crime scene from different angles, allowing them to see different details The participants thought they were shown the same video. They then were asked to recall the event either alone or in pairs Results: 71% of witnesses who discussed the event reported at least one incorrect detail

Answer 27

Method: Pairs of participants shown an identical crime but half saw an accomplice with the thief and half did not Results: After discussing the crime with the other person in the pair 75% of the pairs exhibited conformity

Answer 28

That what others around us are saying can influence our recall

Answer 29

NSI - They did not want to be the only one who missed a detail or gave an incorrect detail. Could also be interference - Hearing multiple different accounts so information may get muddled up in memory

Answer 30

When people are in a stressful situation their attention is focused towards the most fearful aspect of the situation and away from the other details

Answer 31

Aim: To investigate whether anxiety affects the accuracy of EWT Method: Participants were waiting in a waiting room and overheard a brawl with a receptionist. In one condition the man walked out with a pen in his hand. In the other he had a blooded knife. They were then asked to identify the man from a set of photographs. Results: Those who saw the man carrying a pen identified the correct person 49% of the time compared to 33% for those who saw the knife Conclusions: Provides support for the weapon focus effect and that this reduces the accuracy of EWT

Answer 32

If our anxiety levels are too low our performance at a particular task will be worse As our anxiety levels increase we reach “optimum anxiety”, this is when our performance is best However as you exceed the optimum performance begins to drop again

Answer 33

Lots of leading questions, Interruptions and often the details are being given by the officer as opposed to the person

Answer 34

The witness reports the crime im reverse chronological order This may eliminate schema or bias of what somebody may think has happened, can also help pick up on missed details they may have forgotten

Answer 35

Reports the crime from the perspective of somebody else who was also there at the time of the crime This eliminates somebodys schema of what they expected to see, also may help their recall and help pick up on missed details

Answer 36

Witness goes back to the crime scene mentally. Who was there, how they were feeling, What the weather was like. Same as context dependent forgetting, picking up cues will trigger memory

Answer 37

Encouraged to give every detail no matter how silly or irrelevant Small memories may trigger bigger memories

Answer 38

Witnesses were able to give more detail in their accounts of the crimes More structured than the standard interview allows more thorough interviews, and therefore more detail

Answer 39

Witnesses were actually more likely to give incorrect information compared to the standard More detailed recall increases the chance of making mistakes

Answer 40

Aim: To see if CI is still susceptible to misleading info Method: Participants shown a video of a bank robbery and then presented with some form of misleading information Results: Although the participants with the CI recalled 35% more information they were still just as susceptible to leading questions and PED

Answer 41

Seeks to build a trusting relationship between the interviewer and witness

Answer 42

1. Interviewer not distracting the witness with unnecessary interruptions/questions 2. The witness controlling the flow of the information 3. Asking open ended questions 4. Getting the witness to speak slowly 5. Participants being reminded not to guess and to say “I dont know” to reduce false memories 6. Reducing anxiety in witnesses

Answer 43

CI, but suitable for children. Removes the “change perspective” component as children are seen as being too young to effectively empathise with others They are also generally shortened versions May also get rid of “change narrative order”

Answer 44

Aim: to investigate the capacity and duration of the sensory register, particularly iconic memory Procedure: participants were briefly shown a grid of 12 letters(3 rows of 4) for 50 milliseconds In the whole report condition they had to recall all 12, in the partial report a particular row was flashed and they had to remember those 4 Findings: In the whole report participants tended to remember 4-5 but in the partial they remembered 3/4 Conclusion: The sensory register has a large capacity but very limited duration with information fading rapidly unless it is attended to

Answer 45

Aim: to investigate the capacity of STM using digit span Procedure: Participants were presented with increasingly long sequences of digits or letters They had to recall them in the correct order Findings: average span for digits was 9.3 and for letters it was 7.3 Conclusion: STM has a limited capacity, around 7+- 2 items

Answer 46

Aim: to examine the coding of STM and LTM Procedure: Participants were given four sets of word lists to recall, acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, semantically dissimilar For STM recall was immediate for LTM recall was after 20 minutes Findings: STM: recall worse when words acoustically similar due to confusioj LTM worse for semantically similar Conclusion: STM is coded acoustically and LTM is coded semantically