Memory

Question 1

Multi Store Model
- Evaluation

Answer 1

1. Research support - MSM shows stm and ltm to be their own separate, independent distinctive memory stores
   - Baddeley found that we tend to mix up acoustically similar words in stm and semantically similar words in ltm
   - counterpoint : - studies use artificial materials and are not meaningful to everyday life ( faces, names etc but they use words, letters )
   - not a valid model of telling us how memory works in real world situations
2. more than one stm store - wrong in claiming that there is one store which processes diff types of information
   - clinical evidence from KF who had brain damage shows that he could store ltm without it transferring from stm which criticizes what msm says 9 transfer from stm is needed for ltm storage )
   - his recall for digits was poor when read out loud to him but better when he read them himself which suggest there is an stm store for non verbal sounds
3. elaborative rehearsal - msm says prolonged and maintenance rehearsal is needed to transfer to ltm and the more u do it the more likely u are to store it in ltm
   - however craik and watkins said that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount and that elaborative rehearsal is needed for ltm storage ( when u link info to existing knowledge )

Question 1

Multi Store Model
- Knowledge

Answer 1

• Atkinson and Shiffrin
• Stimuli
• Sensory register : all stimuli from the environment passes into sensory register
• comprises several registers for each sense
• coding - modality specific - iconic for visual mem and echoic for acoustic / sound mem
• duration - less than half a second
• capacity - very high due to millions of receptors and cells storing data
• through attention it passes into stm
• coding - acoustic
• duration - around 18 secs
• capacity - limited - remembers certain amount of things before forgetting - 7+-2
• through prolonged and maintenance rehearsal ( repeating info ) it transfers to ltm
• coding - semantic
• duration - potentially permanent / lifetime
• capacity - unlimited
• recall back to stm through retrieval

Question 2

Types of LTM
- Knowledge

Answer 2

• Tulving suggested that the msm view of ltm is too inflexible and simplistic and that ltm has 3 diff types of stores
• Episodic Mem :
• our ability to recall events from our lives
• time stamped so we know when and what happened
• they store mem on how events relate to each other in time
• conscious effort needed to recall it
• elements interwoven to produce 1 memory

Semantic Mem :
- shared knowledge of the world
- less personal more about facts
- immense collection of materials
- less vulnerable to distortion

Procedural Mem :
- memory on actions or skills
- can recall without conscious awareness
- ability becomes automatic through practice

Question 3

Types of LTM
- Evaluation

Answer 3

1. Real world application
   - distinguishing between diff types of ltm allows specific treatments to be developed
   - in episodic mem it has been found that its harder to recall memories which have happened relatively recently while previous episodic memories remain intact
   - Belleville et al devised an intervention to improve episodic mem in older people
   - trained ppts performed better in test of episodic mem than control group
2. Clinical Evidence
   - case of hm and clive wearing - hm had his hippocampus removed in epilepsy procedure and clive had severe amnesia
   - both their episodic mems were severely impaired and damaged but their semantic mem remained unaffected and procedural was intact
   - (dog and music example)
   - supports idea that there are separate mem stores as one can be damaged and others remain unaffected
   - counterpoint - these clinical studies lack control variables as we have limited knowledge of how their memory was before injury as they are usually unexpected so its difficult to judge if its worser
3. conflicting neuroimaging devices
   - Buckner and Peterson reviewed evidence into location of semantic and episodic memory
   - was found that left side of prefrontal cortex was semantic and right was episodic
   - other research suggests that left is episodic encoding and right is episodic retrieval so challenges using neurophysiological evidence as there’s poor agreement over location

Question 4

Working Memory Model
- Knowledge

Answer 4

components :
1. central executive - supervisory role, monitors all incoming data
- focuses and divides our attention
- allocates subsystems to tasks
- capacity - limited as it doesn’t actually store info

2. phonological loop -
   - deals with auditory info and keeps order / preserves order in which info is received in
   - subdivided into phonological store which is words you hear and articulatory process which allows maintenance rehearsal to happen and keeps info in the loop while needed
   - capacity - 2 seconds worth of what you can say
3. visuospatial sketchpad
   - deals with visual and spatial info
   - subdivided into visual cache which is stores visual data and the inner scribe which records the arrangement of objects in visual field
   - capacity is 3 or 4 objects
4. episodic buffer
   - temp store for info and integrates the visual, spatial and verbal info processed by other stores
   - maintains time sequencing - events as they are happening
   - can be seen as storage component for ce
   - capacity is about 4 chunks

Question 5

Working Memory Model
- Evaluation

Answer 5

1. Clinical Evidence
   - Shallice and Warrington study of KF
   - After his brain surgery KF had poor stm ability for auditory information but could process visual info
   - his immediate recall for letters and digits was better when he read them himself ( visual ) than when they were read out loud to him
   - suggests that his phonological loop was damaged but his visuospatial sketchpad was intact- supports the separate existence of visual and acoustic mem stores
   - counterpoint : unclear whether kf had other cognitive impairments other than pl damage which may have affected his performance on memory
2. dual task performance
   - supports seperate existence of visuospatial sketchpad
   - in a study it was found that ppts had more difficulty doing 2 visual tasks at the same time rather than a verbal and visual one as both visual tasks are competing for the same subsystem
3. nature of central executive
   - lack of clarity over ce as it needs to be more clearly specified rather than just “attention”
   - some psychologists believe that the ce may have its own separate subcomponents
   - challenges integrity of the wmm
4. can also mention criticisms of visuospatial sketchpad

Question 6

Explanations for forgetting - Interference
- Knowledge

Answer 6

two types of interference includes
proactive - when older memories interfere with newer ones
retroactive - when newer ones interfere with older ones

research on effects of similarity :
- mcgeoh and mcdonald conducted research into retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarities between 2 sets of materials
- procedure : - asked ppts to learn lists of 10 words until recalled w 100% accuracy and then shown new list
- 6 groups
- findings were that when the material was similar the recall was much worse because interference is stronger when memories are similar

explanations for effects of similarities :
- pi - older memories make newer ones more difficult to store
- ri - newer memories overwrite older ones

Question 7

Explanations for forgetting - Interference
- Evaluation

Answer 7

1. support from drug studies
   - in a study ppts were told to learn a list of words and their intervening experiences were assumed to act as interference
   - when ppts learnt the words on diazepam the recall one week later was much worser than placebo control group
   - when they learnt before drug was taken then recall was better
   - drug facilitated the recall of material learnt beforehand.
2. interference and cues
   - interfernce causes the temp loss of accessibility but can be overcome using cues
   - tulving and psokta did a study where ppts were asked to learn a list of words organised into categories and recall average was 70% but got progressively worse when new lists were learnt
   - when they were given cues which were names of the categories recall rose to 70%
3. real world interference
   - real world evidence increases validity
   - Godden and Baddeley asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they had played in a season
   - all players played for same time interval but amount of intervening games varied
   - found that the player who played the most games had the worst recall because he had the most interference for memory
   - counterpoint : - interference is unusual in real life and is more likely in lab studies as they have more control and ideal conditions

Question 8

Explanations for forgetting - Retrieval Failure
- Knowledge

Answer 8

ESP :
- Tulving reviewed research into rf and found that a cue has to be present at both encoding and retrieval to be effective
- forgetting occurs when cues are different or absent
- two types of non meaningful cues :
1. context dependent forgetting - external cues such as place or weather
2. state dependent forgetting - internal cues such as being upset or drunk

research into context dependent forgetting :
- Godden and Baddeley asked deep sea divers to learn a list of words and then recall them in 4 different locations / conditions
- findings were that in two of the conditions the environmental context for learning and recall matched
- accurate recall was 40% lower when locations were mismatched
- concluded that the external cues available at learning were different to the ones available at recall which led to retrieval failure

research for state dependent forgetting :
- Carter and Cassady gave their ppts antihistamine drugs which had a mild sedative effect - slightly drowsy
- created an internal physiological state different to normal
- then asked to learn list of words and passages and prose and recall in 4 conditions
- findings were that recall was significantly worse when internal state of learning and recall mismatched

Question 9

Explanations for forgetting - Retrieval Failure
- Evaluation

Answer 9

1. real world application
   - retrieval cues can help us overcome forgetting in everyday situations
   - we should recall the environment pf learning when forgetting
   - these strategies are used in real world situations to help improve recall such as in the basic principle of the cognitive interview
2. research support
   - various studies support the retrieval failure explanation such as Godden and Baddeley and carter and Cassady who say a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to forgetting
   - the rf explanation is the most effective in explaining ltm forgetting
   - rf has been present in both real world situations and also highly controlled lab studies which increases validity
   - counterpoint - Baddeley argues that context effects are not strong and diff contexts need to be very diff in order for an effect to be seen
3. problems with esp
   - hard to determine whether a cue has been encoded or not and so there is no independent way of establishing this - just assumptions
   - esp not scientifically testable
   - cannot conclude forgetting is because of rf - undermines validity

Question 10

Factors affecting accuracy of EWT - Misleading info
- Knowledge

Answer 10

• the wording of a question can often mislead someone to give a certain answer
• police officers should also be careful with how they phrase their questions as it can direct a person to give a particular answer
• Loftus and Palmer conducted a study where they asked 45 students to watch a film clip of a car accident and asked the critical question “ about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other” - verb hit changed to collided, contacted, smashed and bumped
• mean estimated speed for word like contacted was 31.5 and for smashed it was 40.8
• shows bias question affects ewt
• it effects ewt as it leads to response bias questions
• has been argued that the wording of a question doesnt actually change a witnesses memory but just influences them on how they decide to answer question
• for example “ smashed “ led to a higher mean estimated speed
• loftus and palmer conducted second experiment which supported substitution explanation
• ppts who originally heard smashed reported broken glass compared to those who heard hit

post event discussion :
- gabbert et al conducted a study where he studies ppts in pairs
- he made them both watch the same clip of a crime but from different perspectives
- they then had the chance to discuss with each other before individually completing a test for recall
- found 71% recalled aspects of the event which they did not actually see - memory conformity
- corresponding figure in control group was 0%

• post event discussion affects ewt because of memory contamination which is when we combine misleading info from others with our own memory
• memory conformity - going along w others
• seek social approval as we believe they are right and we are wrong but our memory remains unchanged

Question 11

Factors affecting accuracy of ewt - misleading info
- Evaluation

Answer 11

1. real world application
   - importatnt practical uses in the criminal justice system
   - police officers should be careful with how they word questions in police interviews
   - psychologists can be bought into court trials as expert witnesses to explain the limits of ewt
   - they help improve the criminal justice system
   - counterpoint : - issues with research as watched clips in lab which doesnt resemble real life
   - foster et al suggested that ewt has actual consequences
   - ppts in research are less motivated to give accurate recall
2. evidence against substitution
   - study conducted where ppts watched video clip and later asked misleading qs
   - found ppts could accurately recall central details than peripheral ones
   - focused on central features so less resistant to misleading info
3. evidence against memory conformity
   - research was done which showed pairs of ppts a video clip, one version had the mugger with dark brown hair and the other version had light brown hair
   - each ppt in the pair watched one version and then discussed what they saw
   - it was found that they didn’t fully adopt the co witnesses versions but rather reported a blend of information such as saying it was medium brown
   - therefore memory itself is distorted through contamination by misleading post event discussion rather than memory conformity

Question 12

factory’s affecting ewt - anxiety
- knowledge

Answer 12

1. anxiety has negative effects on recall
   - anxiey can reduce our attention to important details as seen in the weapon focus effect when witnesses focus more on the weapon than other aspects of the scene
   - johnson and scott investigated this using a lab study where they had ppts in 2 conditions in a waiting room, first condition overheard a calm cohesion from the other room and a man walked out with a pen and grease on his hands ( low anxiety condition ) and the second condition ( high anxiety condition ) heard a heated argument, broken glass and walked out with a blood covered knife
   - found that that ppts in LAC could accurately identity the man 49% of the time and this dropped to 33% for HAC
   - shows that anxiety can narrow our attention and makes it easier to distort peripheral details
2. anxiety has positive effects on recall
   - yullie and cutshall studied a real life shooting in canada , interviewed the witnesses 4-5 months after anc compared their reports to original police reports, rated their stress on 7 point scale and stated if they suffered any emotional problems
   - found that the high anxiety ppts had 88% accuracy and low anxiety had 75% accuracy which shows that anxiety can enhance recall in everyday situations
3. explaining contradictory findings
   - yerkes-dodson law states that the rl between emotional arousal and memory performance follows an inverted U pattern and deffenbacher studies 21 study’s into ewt based on YD law and found that lower anxiety led to lower recall accuracy but as memory increased so did accuracy
   - there was an optimal level of anxiety which produced maximum accuracy, anything higher had impaired memory
   - explains why sometimes anxiety enhances it and sometimes it reduces it

Question 13

factors affecting ewt - anxiety
- evaluation

Answer 13

1. unusualness not anxiety
   - the weapon focus effect may be linked to unusualness rather than anxiety, pickel found that ppts who saw highly unusual items such as a handgun and a raw chicken in a hairdressing salon produced worse recall
   - suggests that the weapon focus effect is linked to surprise rather than anxiety and the study is limited in what it can tell us about anxiety’s true impact on ewt
2. support for negative effects
   - support for the idea that anxiety can reduce accurate recall , a study was done which measured ppts a hear rates and divided them into high anxiety and low anxiety groups
   - the high anxiety ppts in the london dungeons labrnyth had worse recall of event details / the actor
   - suggests that high anxiety can actually impair ewt
3. support for positive effects
   - support for the idea that anxiety can enhance recall , study done with reviewed a real life bank robbery in sweden and the ppts who were direct victims so high anxiety had produed more accurate recall than the average 75% across all witnesses, suggests that anxiety can improve EWT
   counterpoint : interviews took place months after the event and so factors like post event discussion could have influenced recall, without control over these variables its unclear whether anxiety actually had an effect on ewt

Question 14

improving accuracy of ewt - cognitive interview
- knowledge

Answer 14

• fisher and gieslman suggested that we can improve ewt for police when interviewing witnesses and base their idea on psychological insights into memory

1. report everything - witnesss encouraged to report every single detail of event even if they think it’s irrelevant or they lack confidence, seemingly trivial details can help trigger important memories
2. reinstate the context - witnesses should return to the original crime scene in their minds and imagine the environment and emotions they felt
   - links to context dependent forgetting
3. reverse the order - report everything in a reverse order to the original sequence so that it can reduce reporting expectations and dishonesty
4. change perspective - report from another persons perspective, prevents effect of schema on recall

enhanced CI :
- fisher provided additional developments to CI to focus on the social dynamics of interaction
- he suggested the interviewer takes time to build a rapport with the witness and encourage them to recall more info
- includes reducing ew anxiety, minimise distractions, speak slowly and ask open ended questions

Question 15

improving accuracy of ewt - cognitive interview
- evaluation

Answer 15

1. variations of ci
   - pick and mix approach used by police makes it more flexible as it is a collection of techniques rather than 1 overall method
   - allows forces to evolve their own approaches and makes it so they can adapt it to individual cases
   - so if we can adapt the ci that means it has increased validity
2. support for effectiveness
   - meta analysis of 55 studies was done which compared the CI , ECI and standard police interview
   - found CI produced 41% more accurate recall of info than SPI
   - only 4 studies showed no difference between the interviews
   - shows it is effective in helping people recall info stored in their memory but may be hard to access
   counterpoint : also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate info recalled with the ECI, the CI may sacrifice quality for quantity
   - police should be cautious with it
3. some elements more useful
   - it has been found that some elements may be useful than others, all 4 do produce more info than SPI however a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced more recall than others
   - confirms police suspicions of some being more useful which casts doubt on its credibility