Memory Flashcards
1
Q
What is coding in terms of memory?
A
The process of converting information between different forms in memory.
2
Q
What is capacity in terms of memory?
A
The amount of information that can be held in a memory store.
3
Q
What is duration in terms of memory?
A
The length of time information can be held in memory
4
Q
Outline Baddeley’s research on coding.
A
4 groups given different lists of words (semantically similar, semantically dissimilar, acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar), they had to recall the list in the correct order, when recalling immediately after (STM) they did worse with acoustically similar words, when recalling after 20 mins (LTM) they did worse with semantically similar words.
5
Q
How did Jacobs measure the digit span of participants?
A
Read out 4 numbers and asked them to repeat them, if they got it right he added a number, etc until they got it wrong.
6
Q
What was the mean digit span across Jacobs’s participants?
A
9.3 items
7
Q
What is a strength of Jacobs’s capacity study?
A
It has been replicated. Jacobs’s study is very old, and old studies sometimes lack control over some variables. Despite this, Jacobs’s findings have been replicated by more recent studies. This suggests Jacobs’ study is a valid test of digit span in STM.
8
Q
Outline Peterson and Peterson’s study on STM duration.
A
24 students were tested 8 times. Each student was given a consonant syllable and a 3-digit number to remember. The students counted backwards from this number until they were told to stop (this was to prevent mental rehearsal). In each test, they were told to stop after a different amount of time (the retention interval).
9
Q
What do the findings of Peterson and Peterson’s study on STM duration suggest?
A
STM has a very short duration unless we repeat something over and over.
10
Q
What is the limitation of Peterson & Peterson’s study on STM duration? (artificial stimuli)
A
Recalling consonant syllables doesn’t reflect most everyday memory activities as these aren’t meaningful, whereas what we try to remember daily is meaningful information.
11
Q
Who created the working memory model (WMM)?
A
Baddeley& Hitch
12
Q
What are the 4 components of the Working Memory Model?
A
Central Executive
Phonological loop
Visuo-spatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer
13
Q
What does the Central executive do in the Working Memory Model?
A
Monitors data, divides our attention and allocates subsystems to tasks, has a very limited processing capacity and doesn’t store information
14
Q
What are the 2 sub-systems the central executive allocates tasks to?
A
The phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad
15
Q
What type of information does the phonological loop deal with?
A
auditory information
16
Q
What are the 2 parts of the phonological loop?
A
Phonological store (stores the words you hear), Articulatory process (allows maintenance rehearsal by repeating sounds in a loop)
17
Q
What type of information does the visuo-spatial sketchpad store?
A
visual and spatial information
18
Q
What are the two parts of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
A
The visual cache, the inner scribe
19
Q
What does the episodic buffer do?
A
Stores information temporarily, it combines all the visual, spatial and auditory information from the other stores and sequences the events.
20
Q
What is the capacity of the episodic buffer?
A
Approx 4 chunks.
21
Q
What are the 2 explanations for forgetting?
A
Interference and Retrieval failure.
22
Q
When does interference occur in memory?
A
When 2 pieces of information disrupt one another.
23
Q
What type of memory is interference responsible for forgetting?
A
Long-term memory.
24
Q
What are the two types of interference?
A
proactive interference and retroactive interference.
25
What is proactive interference?
Where an old memory interferes with a new one.
26
What is retroactive interference?
When a new memory interferes with an old one.
27
Outline the procedure and findings of McGeoch & McDonald's research on the effects of similarity on interference.
Had participants learn a list of words until they 100% knew it. Participants were given another list of words that were either similar or not to the original list of words. When the participants were asked to recall the original list, the group who had the most similar new list produced the worst recall. This suggests that interference is strongest when memories are similar.
28
What is a strength of interference? (real-world interference)
There is evidence for interference in daily life. Baddeley & Hitch asked rugby players to recall all the teams they had played against that season. All players had played the same amount of time, but some missed some games due to injury. Players that had played the most games had the worst recall. This shows that interference can operate in real-world situations. This also increases the validity of the interference theory.
29
What is a limitation of interference? (can be overcome with cues)
Tulving & Psotka- gave ppts a list of words that were organised into categories (ppts were not told what the categories were). Recall was approx 70% for the first list. It decreased as more lists were learnt. When ppts were told the names of the categories, recall rose again to 70%. This suggests interference causes a temporary loss of access to items in the LTM.
30
What is retrieval failure?
When we don't have the necessary cues to access memory
31
What is a cue?
a trigger of information that enables us to access a memory
32
What does the Encoding Specificity Principle say?
Cues have to be present at the time of encoding and present at retrieval.
33
What are 2 non-meaningful cues?
Context-dependent forgetting, state-dependent forgetting.
34
Outline the procedure and findings of Baddeley's research on context-dependent forgetting. (deep-sea divers)
Divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and then recalled them either on land or underwater. There were 4 conditions.
Findings- in 2 conditions, the environmental context of learning matched (in the other 2 it didn't). Active recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions. Because external cues were different at learning and retrieval.
35
Outline the procedure and findings of Carter & Cassaday's research on state-dependent forgetting.
Gave ppts antihistamines (makes you drowsy). This created an internal state different from the 'normal' state of being awake. Ppts had to learn a list of words and a section of prose and then recall the information. There were 4 conditions.
Findings- In conditions where there was a mismatch between learning and recall on and off the drug, recall was significantly worse. So when cues are absent there is more forgetting.
36
What are the 4 stages of the cognitive interview?
Report everything
Reinstate the context
Reverse the order
Change the perspective
37
How does 'Report everything' improve an eyewitness testimony?
Witnesses are encouraged to say everything that happened even if it seems insignificant. Tiny, seemingly insignificant details may be important or trigger more memories.
38
How does 'Reinstate the context' improve an eyewitness testimony?
Witness should return to the crime scene in their mind and imagine their environment and emotions. This is related to context-dependent forgetting.
39
How does 'Reverse the order' improve an eyewitness testimony?
Prevents witnesses from reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than reporting the actual events. It also prevents dishonesty.
40
How does 'Change the perspective' improve an eyewitness testimony?
This is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and the effect of the schema on recall.
41
What are features of the enhanced cognitive interview?
Eye contact, reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly, ask open-ended questions.
42
Who carried out research on coding?
Baddeley
43
Outline Baddeley’s research on coding.
4 groups. Each given a set of words (acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar and semantically dissimilar). Participants were shown the words and immediately asked to recall them in the correct order (short term memory). Asked to recall again after a 20 minute interval (long term memory)
44
What were the findings of Baddeley’s research on coding?
When recalling from STM, they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words. When recalling from LTM, they did worse with semantically similar words.
45
What do the findings of Baddeley’s research suggest on how information is coded the STM & LTM?
STM is coded acoustically and LTM is coded semantically
46
What is a strength of Baddeley’s research on coding? (Identifies a clear difference)
Baddeley’s research identified a clear difference between the two memory stores. Baddeley’s findings have stood the test of time. This helped our understanding of the memory system.
47
What is a limitation of Baddeley’s research on coding? (Artificial stimuli)
Used artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. The word lists had no personal meaning to participants. When processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for STM. Suggests the findings from this research have limited application.
48
Who carried out research on capacity?
Joseph Jacobs
49
Who researched the duration of LTM?
Bahrick
50
Outline Bahrick’s research on duration of LTM.
400 Americans. Aged between 17 & 74. Recall was tested in 2 ways: photo-recognition test (some photos were from participants high school year books, some were random photos), free recall text where participants recalled the names of their graduating class.
51
What were the findings of Bahrick’s research on LTM duration?
Participants tested within 15 years of graduating were 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years, photo recognition fell to 70%. Free recall was less accurate- 60% after 15 years and 30% after 48 years.
52
What do the findings of Bahrick’s research on LTM duration suggest?
LTM may last up to a lifetime for some materials.
53
What is a strength of Bahrick’s research on LTM duration? (High external validity)
Has high external validity because researches used meaningful materials. When LTM duration was studied again with meaningless pictures to be remembered, recall rates were lower. Suggests that Bahrick’s findings reflect a more real estimate of the duration of LTM
54
Who created the multi-store model of memory?
Atkinson and Shiffrin
55
What is the sensory register?
The memory store for each of our five senses
56
What is the duration for material in the sensory register?
Very brief- less than half a second
57
What is the capacity like in the sensory register?
It has a very high capacity (each eye has over 100 million cells, each storing data)
58
How does information pass from the sensory register to the short term memory?
Attention
59
How is short term memory coded and what is its duration?
Coded acoustically and lasts approx 18 seconds
60
What is the capacity of STM?
7 items (plus or minus 2)
61
What is maintenance rehearsal?
When you repeat material to yourself over and over.
62
How does information pass from short term memory to long term memory?
Prolonged rehearsal
63
How is LTM coded?
Semantically
64
What is the duration of LTM?
A lifetime
65
What is the capacity of the LTM?
Thought to be unlimited
66
How is information recalled from LTM to STM?
Retrieval
67
What is a strength of the multi-store model? (Research support)
Shows that STM & LTM are different, e.g. Baddeley’s research on coding: STM mixed up acoustically similar and LTM mixed up semantically similar. This study shows that the STM & LTM are separate memory stores
68
What is a limitation for the multi-store model? (More than one STM store (KF))
There is evidence of more than one STM store. KF had amnesia. His STM was poor when four digits were read to him but was better when he read them himself. Suggests that MSM is wrong in suggesting there is just one STM store processing different types of information.
69
What is episodic memory?
Our ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives.
70
How are episodic memories complex?
They are time stamped, they include several elements (people, places objects, etc.) and you have to make a conscious effort to recall them.
71
What is semantic memory?
Our memory of the world
72
What is procedural memory?
Our memory for actions or skills.
73
What is a strength for types of long term memory? (clinical evidence (HM & Clive Wearing))
Case studies of HM and Clive wearing provide evidence for types of long term memory. Episodic memory was impaired in both men due to brain damage. But their semantic memory and procedural memory was unaffected. Supports the view that there are different types of LTM.
74
What is a limitation for they types of long term memory? (Conflicting neuroimaging evidence)
There are conflicting researches that link types of LTM to areas of the brain. E.g. Buckner and Petersen said that episodic memory is on the right of the prefrontal cortex, however other research says the left side of the prefrontal cortex is linked with encoding episodic memory, and the right side is linked with retrieval.
75
What is a strength for the working memory model? (Clinical evidence)(KF)
After brain injury, KF had poor STM ability for auditory info, it had no problem processing visual information. His recall of numbers 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. This supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores.
76
What is a limitation for the working memory model? (Lack of clarity over nature of central executive)
Baddeley said the CE needs needs to be more clearly specified than just being ‘attention’. Some psychologists believe the CE may consist of separate sub components. This means the CE is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the working memory model.
77
What is a strength for retrieval failure? (Real world application)
Retrieval cues can help to overcome forgetting in everyday situations. Baddeley says that even though cues may not have a strong effect on forgetting, they should still be paid attention to (e.g. when you walk into another room to get something but you forget what so you go back into the original room and remember). When we have trouble remembering, it is best to go back to the original environment where we first learned it. This shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in real life to improve recall.
78
What is a limitation for retrieval failure? (Recall vs recognition)
Context effects may depend on the type of memory being tested. Baddeley repeated his underwater study but with a recognition test rather than a recall test (participants said whether they recognised a word from a list rather than recalling it themselves). When recognition was tested, there was no context-dependent effect and performance was the same in all 4 conditions. This suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall information rather than recognise it.
79
What is a leading question?
A question that suggests a certain answer (e.g. was the car going fast? Makes it seem like it was going fast)
80
Outline Loftus and Palmer’s research on leading questions.
45 students watched a clip of a car accident and then asked them questions about the accident. In the critical question, participants were asked how fast the cars were travelling. Split into 5 groups and each group was given a different verb (e.g. smashed, bumped, collided, contacted).
81
What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer’s research on leading questions?
The verb ‘contacted’ got a mean speed of 31mph, the verb ‘smashed’ got a mean speed of 40mph. The leading question biased the witnesses recall of an event.
82
What is post event discussion?
Where there is more than one witness to an event, and they may discuss what they have seen. This may effect the accuracy of each witnesses recall of the event.
83
Outline Gabbert’s research on post event discussion.
Paired participants watched the same video from different perspectives, so participants could see somethings their partner couldn’t and vice versa. Both participants discussed what they had seen before a recall test.
84
What were the findings of Gabbert’s research on post event discussion?
70% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event bay they didn’t see in the video but had picked up in the discussion. Compared to a control group where 0% of participants recalled something they couldn’t have seen.
85
What is memory contamination?
When co-witnesses discuss with each other, their eyewitness testimonies may be altered or distorted.
86
What is memory conformity?
Witnesses either go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe other witnesses are right and they are wrong.
87
What is a strength of research on misleading information? (Real-world application)
It has important practical use in the criminal justice system. Inaccurate EWT can have serious consequences. Loftus says that leading questions can have a very distorting effect in memory so police have to be careful with how they’re phrasing their questions. Psychologists are sometimes used as expert witnesses to explain the limits of EWT. This shows that psychologists can help to prevent faulty convictions due to unreliable EWT.
88
What is a limitation of memory conformity? (Evidence against)
Evidence that post event discussion actually alters EWT. Wright- paired participants and showed each one a different clip, in one the persons hair was dark brown, in the other it was light brown. Participants discussed what they had seen. They didn’t report what they’d seen in the clip or what their partner had seen in the clip but a ‘blend’ of the two (e.g. medium brown hair). This suggests that the memory itself was distorted through contamination by misleading post event discussion rather than memory conformity.
89
Outline the procedure of Johnson’s research into weapon focus.
Participants believed they were in a lab study. They were in a waiting room. In the low-anxiety condition, they heard a casual conversation and saw a man carrying a pen. In the high-anxiety condition, they heard a heated argument and saw a man with a knife covered in blood.
90
What were the findings of Johnson’s research on weapon focus?
In the low anxiety condition, 49% were able to identify the man with the pen out of 50 photos. In the high-anxiety condition, 33% were able to identify the man with the knife.
91
Outline Cutshall’s research on how anxiety has a positive effect in recall.
Conducted a study of an actual shooting in a gun shop. The owner shot the thief dead. 13 of the witnesses participated. They were interviewed 5 months after the incident. These interviews were compared to the original police interviews. Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account. They were also asked to rate their stress at the time of the incident (on a 7-point scale)
92
What were the findings of Cutshall’s research on how anxiety has a positive effect on recall?
The witnesses were accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled or accuracy after 5 months. Participants who reported the highest stress levels had the most accurate recall.
93
What is a limitation of the research on how anxiety affects an eyewitness testimony? (May not test anxiety)
Johnson’s research on weapon focus may not test anxiety. Participants may have focused on the weapon because they were surprised rather than scared. In a similar study, someone walked through a hair salon with scissors, a handgun, and a raw chicken. Eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer I the high unusualness conditions (chicken and handgun). Suggests that weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety and so tells us nothing specifically about the effect of anxiety on EWT.
94
What is a strength for the positive effects of anxiety on EWT? (Supporting evidence)
Christianson- interviewed 58 witnesses to real bank robberies in Sweden. Some were directly involved, some were indirectly involved. Researchers assumed those directly involved would have the most anxiety. Recall was more than 75% accurate for all witnesses. The direct victims (most anxious) were even more accurate. Findings from actual crimes confirm that anxiety doesn’t reduce the accuracy of recall for EWT, and may enhance it.
