memory Flashcards

Question

research on duration: high external validity (A03) (1)

Answer 1

P: strength of research into duration is that some studies use meaningful memories as stimuli E+ E: eg. Bahrick asked Ps to recall yearbook photos of people they saw + went to school w/every day L: strength bc everyday memories were represented-suggesting that study has high external validity + results can be generalised to real-life memories

Answer 2

Atkinson & Shiffrin’s multi store model was the first cognitive explanation of memory model argues that memory is made up of three separate unitary stores 3 stores are Sensory Register, Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory information to be retained as a memory processes of attention + rehearsal are required

Answer 3

Sensory Register receives huge amount of information through 5 senses but most of it receives little or no attention and is lost sensory register can only hold information for a very short time- if person pays attention to information-transferred to the short-term memory store 1-2 seconds Each 5 senses has its own sensory register research into sensory memory focuses on Iconic Memory + Echoic Memory senses

Answer 4

STM is for events in present or immediate past STM codes all information acoustically that is according to sound Visual information is transformed to its acoustic codes capacity= 7 +-2 duration=18-30 seconds

Answer 5

memory for events that have happened in more distant past is referred to as LTM Information is coded into LTM using semantic coding required information to be meaningful in order for it is be stored info is stored in LTM it is stored permanently -the model, any ‘forgetting’ at this stage is because of a failure to retrieve rather than an actual loss of the information

Answer 6

P: strength of MSM is that it is well supported by range of research evidence E: Glazner + Cunitz provide clear support for existence of STM + LTM as distinct memory stores Ps heard a list of words + had to recall them immediately in any order E: Ps had good recall for first part of the list + last part of list words in the middle of list had poorest recall L: supports MSM as it suggests STM + LTM are distinct separate memory stores

Answer 7

P: weakness of the MSM is that it is too simplistic E: MSM states that STM is unitary store in other words there is only one type of short-term memory However evidence from people suffering from a clinical condition called amnesia show that this cannot be true eg. Shallice + Warrington studied a patient with amnesia known as KF Although KF’s memory for verbal material was poor his memory for visual information was unaffected E: suggests that there may be more than 1 store for STM L: very serious limitation of the MSM because it is another research finding that cannot be explained by the model later memory models give a more accurate depiction of STM

Answer 8

P: limitation to MSM is that it overemphasises importance of rehearsal E + E : MSM more you rehearse information more likely you are to transfer it to LTM and remember it for a long time-this is not always the case- often we able to recall information which we did not rehearse yet are unable to recall information which we have rehearsed L: role of rehearsal as means of transferring from STM to LTM is much less important than Atkinson + Shiffrin claimed in their model

Answer 9

P: strength supported by scientific, brain scanning evidence E + E: eg. Beardsley found pre-frontal cortex-active during STM tasks but not LTM tasks Squire used brain scanning + found that hippocampus was active when LTM was engaged STM + LTM located in different areas of brain L: strength bc research scientifically demonstrates plausible of separate + LTM stores support the MSM

Answer 10

our ability to recall events from our lives- imagine this as a diary of events the following features: ‘time-stamped’ so you will know when they happened-eg. I started my new job last Saturday. single memories which include several elements such as places, people, objects and behaviours make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories

Answer 11

limitation of the MSM is its description of LTM as a single store psychologists now know that there are several long-term stores- is unsurprising when you consider the vast range of information we can remember in LTM Tulving was 1 of first cognitive psychology to realise that MSM’s view of LTM was too simplistic Tulving suggested that there are 3 LTM stores containing quite different types of information

Answer 12

our memory for motor actions + skills memories can be recalled without conscious awareness or effort eg. of procedural memory are riding bicycle, driving car or swimming our ability to do all of these things relies on our procedural memory

Answer 13

our knowledge of world-may include facts + this memory is often likened to dictionary or encyclopaedia eg. of semantic memories could be what different fruit tastes like, how to apply to university memories are not ‘time-stamped’ and the memories are less personal-memory is constantly developing and being added to

Answer 14

P: strength of theory of types of LTM comes in clinical evidence E: case studies of HM and Clive Wearing support view that LTM is made of 3 different stores episodic memory in both men was severely impaired as consequence of amnesia E: but, their semantic + procedural memories were relatively unaffected eg. they understood meaning of word knew how to tie their shoelaces + in case of Clive Wearing still knew how to read music + play piano L: supports Tulving’s view that there are different stores in LTM this is clear evidence that not only are these types of memory different but they’re stored in different parts of the brain

Answer 15

P: strength of theory of types of long-term memory comes in evidence from neuroimaging techniques E: eg. brain scan studies provide evidence that different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain- Tulving et al got their Ps to perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned using PET scanner-found that episodic + semantic memories were recalled from prefrontal cortex in brain E: found procedural memory is linked to cerebellum which is involved in control of fine motor movement L: objective evidence increases scientific validity of explanation for different stores in LTM

Answer 16

P: Cohen and Squire disagree w/ Tulving’s division of LTM E + E: argue that episodic + semantic memories are stored together in one store they call declarative memory-contrast procedural memories are non-declarative L: reduces reliability of Tulving’s theory that there are three stores in LTM + suggests there are two stores instead

Answer 17

Braddley + Hitch- said STM of MSM was too simplistic so made WMM- called slave systems duel task performance-people able to do 1 visual task + 1 verbal task-peformance simultaneously not impaired but when 2 visual OR 2 verbal tasks are done they are more difficult to perform so this suggests that there is 1 store for visual processing + separate store for auditory processing

Answer 18

main component of WMM- decides what we pay attention to makes decisions and allocates tasks to slave systems CE has very little no storage capacity + can only pay attention to limited number of stimuli

Answer 19

Loop deals w/auditory info e.g. spoken or written material + preserves order in which information arrives coding is acoustic PL plays key role in learning of vocabulary particularly in early childhood years phonological store is often referred to as ‘inner ear’ because it holds speech based information such as words we hear for 1-2 sec articulatory control process silently repeats words from PS on loop to prevent them from decaying

Answer 20

stores + manipulates visual information from eyes or long-term memory- imagine an object + then picture it rotating you are using your VSS visual cache – stores visual information eg. shape and colour inner scribe - deals with spatial + movement information eg. how far or close objects are in relation to each other

Answer 21

Baddeley added third slave system to WMM EB is dedicated to integrating visual, spatial + verbal information from different slave systems into single unit of information eg. scene from TV programme will comprise of visual information, speech, sounds + movement EB joins this information together into memory episode EB has limited capacity of about 3-4 chunks- buffer provides link between LTM and working member to LTM as it is able to assess information for LTM about time + order

Answer 22

P: weakness of WMM is that it has it can't account for musical memory E: eg. Berz showed that Ps could listened to instrumental music w/x impairing performance on other acoustic tasks E: suggests 2 auditory tasks can be completed at same time w/x impairment- but WMM is not possible if they use same store L: weakness bc WMM expects Ps to not be able to complete both tasks as they use same store-undermining key component of WMM

Answer 23

P: strength of WMM is supporting research E: Baddeley conducted an experiment in which Ps performed two tasks at same time Condition 1: Ps performed two visual tasks at same time Condition 2: Ps tracked light whilst performing verbal task at same time E: Ps found it more difficult to do two visual tasks at same time-both tasks were competing for same component of WMM showing their different roles L: controlled findings support idea that STM has more than 1 component

Answer 24

P: WMM is further supported by clinical evidence E + E: Shallice & Warrington studied KF whose brain was injured in motorcycle accident- KF’s memory for verbal material was poor his memory for visual information was unaffected in WMM can be explained by damage to articulatory loop but w/sketchpad remaining intact L: case study supports that STM has more than 1 store in real life situations

Answer 25

P: explanation of CE is too vague E + E: CE is most important component of WMM but it is 1 we know least about- Eslinger + Damasio argue that notion of CE is wrong and that there are probably several components within CE eg. in case study of EVR he performed well on tests requiring reasoning but showed poor judgement L: implies that CE is not unitary + its explanation is too simplistic

Answer 26

forgetting bc one memory blocks another causing 1 or both memories to be distorted or forgotten Interference has been proposed mainly as an explanation for forgetting in LTM common everyday example of proactive interference is when you rearrange location of items in a room you may keep going back to place where items used to be instead of where they are now

Answer 27

forgetting occurs when older memories already stored disrupt recall of newer memories degree of forgetting is greater when memories are similar eg. your teacher has learned so many names in past that she has difficulty remembering names of her current class

Answer 28

when there was no type of interring material the recalled more words correctly however synonyms had the lowest number of correctly recalled words

Answer 29

Ps had to learn list of 10 words until they could remember then w/100% accuracy- then learned new list- were 6 groups who had to learn different types of lists eg. words w/ similar meanings to originals, opposite meanings to originals nonsense syllables

Answer 30

forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt recall of older memories already stored degree of forgetting is again greater when memories are similar your teacher has learned so many names this year that she has difficulty remembering names of students last year

Answer 31

P: strength of interference theory is that there is wealth of supporting evidence E + E: interference in memory is probably 1 of most consistently demonstrated findings in whole of psychology thousands of lab experiments have been carried out into this explanation for forgetting such as McGeoch + McDonald’s research above L: strength bc lab experiments control effects of extraneous variables + thus give us confidence that interference is valid explanation for forgetting

Answer 32

supports theory that interference is strongest when memories are similar

Answer 33

P: weakness of this is that materials used in research into interference theory are artificial E: much greater chance that interference will be demonstrated in lab than in real-life situations because they typically involve using lists of words- everyday life, we are seldom required to learn lists of meaningless words real life memory tasks include remembering people’s names + faces, the food items we need in supermarket E: Another disadvantage of research conducted in lab is that the tasks given to Ps occur in short period of time- the real world, learning of new material is more spaced out L: limitation as such research cannot be generalised to forgetting in real life situations

Answer 34

P: not all studies conducted on interference take place in lab E: eg. rugby players were asked to remember names of teams they had played in season, week by week- most of players had missed games for some ‘last team’ they played might have been two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, or more E: results very clearly showed that accurate recall didnt depend on how long ago matches took place- Much more important was number of games they played in meantime So player’s recall of team from 3 weeks ago was better if they had played no matches since then L: strength as it shows that interference can apply to at least some everyday situations

Answer 35

P: limitation of this theory is that it is limited E: Tulving & Psotka gave Ps 5 lists of words to learn recall was high for first list but fell as Ps were given more lists to learn presumably due to interference- end of test Ps were given cues eg. category names + recall rose again to 70% suggesting retrieval failure was cause of forgetting not interference- 1 prominent memory researcher Eysenck argues that retrieval failure is main reason for forgetting in LTM rather than interference E: theory only can explain forgetting of similar material-means that there are many types of forgetting that are not explained by this theory also it seems that interference is not most important explanation for forgetting L: weakness as it reduces validity of this explanation for forgetting suggesting that retrieval failure may be better explanation in some situations

Answer 36

occurs when we do not have necessary cues to access memory when info is initially placed in memory associated cues are stored at same time- someone gives you cue then memory might pop back into your head, but in meantime, you are faced w/blank ‘cue’ therefore, is something that triggers memory- Cues can either be external or internal

Answer 37

Tulving reviewed research into retrieval failure + discovered consistent pattern to findings- summarised this pattern in what he called the ESP states that if a cue is to help us to recall information then it must be present at encoding + retrieval follows from this that if cues available at encoding + retrieval are different there will be some forgetting

Answer 38

context in which we experience or learn something is crucial many of us will have had experience of memories coming 'flooding back' when we return to old haunts such as your old Primary School we may be able to recall the names of classmates who we have not seen for many years if we see an old school photograph effect of context on forgetting is known as context dependent forgetting or cue dependent forgetting w/right external cues we can quickly recover memories as demonstrated by many experimental studies

Answer 39

Ps recalled words better in place they had originally learnt the list of words study clearly demonstrates usefulness of environmental cues in aiding recall + of course explains why police officers often use reconstructions in their investigations

Answer 40

not only physical context that can affect memory retrieval recall is also impaired if we try to remember something when we are in a different physical or mental state eg. if we were to learn something when we felt happy/sad/sleepy we could remember this information when we are in same state but have difficulty recalling it in different state explain why we tend to remember more bad memories when we are in sad mood + we why remember fewer of these memories when we feel happy

Answer 41

Godden & Baddeley (1975) carried out an interesting study involving deep-sea divers divers were required to learn list of words + then recall them either underwater or on land 4 conditions: 1. Learn on land – recall on land 2. Learn underwater – recall on land 3. Learn on land – recall underwater 4. Learn underwater – recall underwater

Answer 42

Goodwin found that people who drank lot forgot where they had put items when there were sober they could recall the locations when they were drunk again People who learned list of words while exercising on an exercise bike recalled more words when exercising rather than at rest

Answer 43

P: strength of this theory is supporting evidence E: impressive range of research supports retrieval failure explanation for forgetting E: Additionally prominent memory researcher Eysenck argued that retrieval failure is main reason for forgetting in LTM L: increases validity of explanation especially true when evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-life situation as well as in lab

Answer 44

P: limitation of this theory is that it may be limited E+E : suggests that context only affects memory when it is very different at recall different contexts must be very different indeed before an effect is seen eg. it would be hard to find an environment as different from land as underwater In contrast learning something in one classroom + then recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because these contexts are not different enough L: limitation bc it means that the presence or absence of cue only affects memory when you test it in certain way e.g. when you context is very different at learning + recall

Answer 45

P: effect of context on recall may be related to kind of memory being tested E + E: Godden & Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used recognition test instead of recall – Ps had to say whether they recognised word read to them from list instead of retrieving it themselves- when recognition was tested context did not have any effect on performance e.g. Ps performance was same in all 4 conditions L: further limitation of context-dependent forgetting bc it means that presence or absence of cues only affects memory when you test it in certain way e.g. when you are tested recall rather than recognition of words

Answer 46

P: disadvantage of retrieval failure is that ESP is untestable E + E: an experiment- if person can successfully recall word we presume that cue which triggered memory must have been present when person was learning the list of words-this is just an assumption – there is no way to independently establish where or not cue was ever encoded when information was learnt L: W/x evidence to directly link forgetting to absence of cue that was encoded during learning it is impossible to verify validity of ESP. weakens theory of retrieval failure as a theory of forgetting

Answer 47

statement given to court of law by an eye witness who was at scene of crime under oath includes identification of perpetrators details of crime scene + any other relevant details that may have been seen by eyewitness Psychologists have identified several psychological factors that are thought to affect the reliability of EWT such as: Leading questions-any information that 'leads' you into giving a particular response- opposed to necessarily accurate response Post-Event discussions Anxiety/stress Weapon Focus

Answer 48

Verb Mean Estimated Speed (mph) Smashed 40.8 Collided 39.3 Bumped 38.1 Hit 34.0 Contacted 31.8

Answer 49

Ps watched film clips of car accidents + were then asked various questions about what they had seen- critical question Ps were asked: ‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ leading question bc verb ‘hit’ suggests speed car was going

Answer 50

study suggests that wording of question could affect recall of memories from Ps

Answer 51

suggests that wording of question has no real effect on Ps’ memories, but just influences how they decide to answer when P gets leading question using word ‘smashed’ this encourages them to choose higher speed estimate

Answer 52

wording of leading question eg.‘smashed’ changes person’s memory of film clip those asked critical question w/verb ‘smashed’ will remember accident as being more serious than someone asked same question w/verb ‘hit’ being used

Answer 53

1 week after 1st experiment Ps were asked whether they had seen any broken glass Ps who originally heard ‘smashed’ were more likely to answer ‘yes’ than those who had heard word ‘hit’ appears that critical question had altered their memory of car accident

Answer 54

occur when several eyewitnesses discuss crime w/each other can cause eyewitnesses to combine incorrect information from other witnesses w/their own memories

Answer 55

Ps were paired up + then watched video of same crime but from different viewpoints meant that each P could see elements in event that other could not eg. only 1 of the Ps could see title of a book being carried by young woman Both Ps then discussed what they had seen before individually completing test of recall

Answer 56

Gabbert found that 71% of Ps mistakenly recalled aspects of event that they did not see in video but had picked up in discussion comparison none of Ps in control group w/x discussion made same mistake

Answer 57

suggests PED reduces reliability of EWT bc witnesses often go along w/each other in other to win social approval or because they believe other witnesses are right + they are wrong- called this phenomenon memory conformity

Answer 58

P: strength of research into misleading information is that it has hugely practical uses in real world E +E : possible applications could be adopted by legal profession from this research eg. in development of Cognitive interview- claimed leading questions can distort memory + therefore police are careful in phrasing of their questions L: research into EWT is 1 area in which psychologists believe they can make an important positive difference by improving way legal system works

Answer 59

P: limitation of research into misleading information is that research uses artificial tasks E: their Ps watched film clips of car accidents rather than witnessing real accidents E: limitation bc studies that use such artificial tasks may tell us very little about how leading questions affect EWT in real life accidents or crimes- suggested that many answers Ps give in lab studies of EWT are result of demand characteristics + therefore lowers validity of research into misleading information L: However witnesses were unaffected therefore suggesting that misleading information might not affect people in real life situations

Answer 60

P: limitation to this explanation is that individual differences are ignored E + E: evidence that older people are less accurate than younger people when giving eyewitness reports- Anstasi + Rhodes found that people aged 18- 45 were more accurate than people aged 55-78 years L: limitation as evidence fails to acknowledge such age differences + also tends to use younger people in their sample-mean that research findings should not be generalised to older people thus lowering validity of the research

Answer 61

49% of Ps who had seen man carrying pen were able to identify him compared to only 33% who had seen man holding the knife

Answer 62

Anxiety has strong emotional + physical effects but it is not clear whether these effects make eyewitness recall better or worse research to support both possibilities

Answer 63

Ps were led to believe that they were going to take part in lab study While seated in waiting room Ps heard heated argument in next room followed by man walking through waiting area ‘low-anxiety’ condition man who walked through waiting area was carrying pen + had grease on his hands ‘high-anxiety’ condition man was holding knife that was covered in blood

Answer 64

suggests that anxiety can reduce reliability of EWT Loftus claimed that Ps who saw the knife were less accurate bc they focused their attention on weapon rather than on surrounding events

Answer 65

Anxiety is thought to increase accuracy of an eyewitness bc stress of witnessing crime or accident triggers fight-or-flight response response increases our alertness which makes us more aware of what is happening in situation

Answer 66

suggests anxiety can improve memory for EWT

Answer 67

real-life shooting in Canada shop owner shot thief dead -13 witnesses to event agreed to take part in study Ps were interveiwed 4-5 months after incident and these were compared to original police interviews made at time of shooting witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they felt at time of incident

Answer 68

witnesses proved to be very accurate in their accounts Interestingly those Ps who reported highest levels of stress where most accurate

Answer 69

relationship between arousal + performance is an inverted U inverted U theory states that performance will increases w/stress-only to a certain point-decreases quickly

Answer 70

P: although inverted U appears to be reasonable explanation of contradictory findings regarding both positive + negative effects of anxiety on recall it only focuses on physical arousal E + E: issue as it ignores fact that anxiety presents in many different forms eg. it can also be cognitive L: using inverted U theory we are oversimplifying relationship between anxiety accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Answer 71

P: Ps who saw knife in Johnson + Scott’s study may have had poorer recall because they were surprised rather than scared or anxious E: Pickel Ps were shown video clip of man walking up to hairdresser’s receptionist w/either pair of scissors, handgun, wallet or raw chicken- eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in high unusualness conditions E: suggests that weapon focus is due to unusualness of object in situation rather than anxiety/threat L: suggests that weapon focus is an invalid explanation of eyewitness recall

Answer 72

P: weakness of this explanation is methodology of supporting research E + E: Field studies such as that performed by Yuille + Cutshall involve interviewing real-life eyewitnesses after an event-sorts of things could have happened to Ps before interview that researcher has no control over eg. they may have seen report of event on TV L: limitation bc it is possible that these P variables may be responsible for accuracy of recall thus reducing validity of field research

Answer 73

They thought that standard police interview improved if police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses standard interview procedures involves period of free recall about an event followed by specific questions CI is method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories uses four main techniques all based on well-established psychological knowledge of human memory

Answer 74

Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of event even though it may seem irrelevant trivial details may be important + moreover may trigger other important memories

Answer 75

witness should return to original crime scene ‘in their mind’ + imagine environment + their emotions

Answer 76

Events should be recalled in different chronological order to original sequence eg. from final point back to beginning or from middle to beginning prevent people reporting their expectations of how event might have happened rather than actual events also prevents dishonestly as it is harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it

Answer 77

Witnesses should recall incident from other people’s perspectives eg. how it would have appeared to other witnesses or to perpetrator done to prevent witnesses being affected by their expectations rather than what they actually saw eg. if you failed to get clear view of purse-snatcher above you may have presumed they were male which of course may be incorrect

Answer 78

P: strength of cognitive interview is that it is well supported by psychological research E + E: Geiselman showed Ps film of violent crime later interviewed using a cognitive or standard police interview Geiselman found that CI led to better memory for events w/witnesses able to recall more relevant information compared to the standard interview Fisher et al conducted a field experiment w/actual interviews of real witnesses by serving Police detectives- detectives used standard police interview or CI Strong support was obtained for effectiveness of CI in field L: breadth of data suggests that CI offers real practical benefits to police especially when enhanced version is used- improvements to way police interview witnesses will result in more criminals being caught + charged benefitting society

Answer 79

P: limitation to CI is that it is time-consuming E: police may be reluctant to use CI bc it takes much longer than standard police interview-more time is needed to establish relationship w/witness + to allow them to relax E: Additionally CI requires special training + many police forces do not have funds to provide necessary training L: problem bc proper version is less likely to be used + specialist training causes an increased cost to economy

Answer 80

P: techniques of CI aim to increase the amount of correct information recalled but recall of incorrect information may also be increased E + E: Kohnken found that although CI produced massive increase in correct information- he also found 61% increase in incorrect information when enhanced CI was used compared to standard interview L: suggests that police need to treat all information collected from CI w/caution

Answer 81

P: weakness of the CI is that it doesn’t improve recall in all cases E + E: Geiselman reviewed many cases + found that in children under 6 recall of events was slightly less accurate possibly due to complexity of the instructions provided as part of Cognitive Interview L: weakness bc it shows that cognitive interview is not effective at improving testimony in all situations

memory Flashcards

(105 cards)