Memory

Question 1

What are three memory stores?

Answer 1

capacity, duration, coding

Question 2

What are the three components of the multi-store model of memory?

Answer 2

sensory register, short-term memory, long-term memory

Question 3

Coding, capacity and duration in the sensory register?

Answer 3

coding = iconic, echoic, olfactory, gustatory, haptic
capacity = unlimited
duration = very brief

Question 4

Coding, capacity and duration in the short-term memory?

Answer 4

coding = acoustic
capacity = 7+/-2
duration = 18-30 secs

Question 5

Coding, capacity and duration in the long-term memory?

Answer 5

coding = semantic
capacity = unlimited
duration = a life-time

Question 6

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 6

keeps the information in the short term memory for longer, and it may pass into the long term memory eventually.

Question 7

What is elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 7

where we semantically encode the information (give it meaning), moving it directly from the short term memory to the long term memory.

Question 8

Research for coding in the sensory register?

Answer 8

crowder found sensory register only retains information in the iconic store for a few milliseconds but for 2-3 seconds in the echoic store

Question 9

Research for capacity in the sensory register?

Answer 9

sperling flashed 3 x 4 grid of letters onto a screen for 1/20 of a second, and asked pp’s to recall the letters of one row. as the info would fade very quickly but the recall of letters was high. this suggests all of the information was there and that capacity of the iconic store in the sr is quite large

Question 10

Research for duration in the sensory register?

Answer 10

treisman presented identical auditory messages to both ears of pp’s with a slight delay between presentations. pp’s noticed the messages were identical if the delay was two seconds or less, suggesting the echoic store has a limited duration of two seconds

Question 11

Research for coding in the short-term memory?

Answer 11

Baddeley!

Question 12

Research for capacity in the short-term memory?

Answer 12

jacobs gave 4 digits, then pp’s were asked to recall in the correct order out loud. then 5 digits read out loud and so on.

Question 13

Research for duration in the short-term memory?

Answer 13

peterson and peterson got students to recall combinations of 3 letters (trigrams) after longer and longer intervals. 90% trigrams recalled correctly after 3 seconds. 5% after 18 seconds.

Question 14

Research for coding in the long-term memory?

Answer 14

Baddely

Question 15

Research for capacity in the long-term memory?

Answer 15

anokhin number of possible neuronal connections in the human brain is 1 followed by 10.5mill kilometres of noughts. ltm capacity = limitless

Question 16

Research for duration in the long-term memory?

Answer 16

bahrick used high school year books to test how long people could remember their classmates for. remember for a lifetime

Question 17

What are the three components of the working memory model?

Answer 17

phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer

Question 18

What is the central executive?

Answer 18

• ‘the boss’
• acts like attention - selectively attends to info
• controls the other ‘slave systems’
• limited capacity so one item at a time

Question 19

What is the research for the central executive?

Answer 19

Baddeley discovered pp’s found it difficult to generate lists of random numbers while simultaneously switching between pressing numbers and letters on a keyboard, suggesting two tasks were competing for CE resources. supports idea of the CE being limited capacity

Question 20

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 20

deals with auditory information and split into phonological store and articulatory control system

Question 21

What is the phonological store?

Answer 21

• inner ear
• used for the words you hear

Question 22

What is the articulatory control system?

Answer 22

• inner voice
• used for words you see
• information decays after about 2 seconds unless rehearsed because loop is very small

Question 23

What is research for phonological loop?

Answer 23

Baddeley reported on word length effect, where pp’s recalled more short words in serial order than longer words, supporting the idea that the capacity of PL is set by how long it takes to say words, rather than actual words

Question 24

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 24

• used when planning a spatial task
• visual and spatial info is temporarily stored here
• recognises patterns and shapes
• separate visual cache and inner scribe

Question 25

What is research for the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 25

Klauer and Zhao reported more interference between two visual tasks than between a visual and a spatial task, implying the existence of a separate visual cache and inner scribe

Question 26

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 26

- used as a temporary store to hold spatial, visual and acoustic information - limited capacity of about 4 chunks - links working memory to LTM

Question 27

What is research for the episodic buffer?

Answer 27

alkhalifa reported on a patient with severely damaged LTM who demonstrated STM capacity of up to 25 prose items, far exceeding the capacity of both the PL and the VSS. Suggests the existence of an episodic buffer which holds items in working memory until they are recalled

Question 28

What are the three types of long term memory?

Answer 28

- episodic - semantic - procedural

Question 29

What is episodic memory?

Answer 29

- explicit - refers to ability to recall events from our lives and is autobiographical - these memories are complex and are time-stamped - strength of memories is influenced by strength of emotion - prefrontal cortex

Question 30

What is semantic memory?

Answer 30

- explicit - knowledge of world includes facts - combination of an encyclopedia and a dictionary - not time stamped - can also include concepts and meanings

Question 31

What is procedural memory?

Answer 31

- implicit - perform tasks with little conscious thought e.g. ride a bike - motor skills, language - doesn't require conscious thought

Question 32

What is research into episodic memory?

Answer 32

Herlitz found females consistently performed better on tasks requiring episodic LTM, but no difference in semantic LTM ability. Suggests gender difference in LTM ability - may be explained by females generally having deeper emotional experiences

Question 33

What is research into semantic memory?

Answer 33

Vicari had case study CL who demonstrated poor episodic LTM but could recall semantic memories, suggests separate systems using different brain areas

Question 34

What is research into procedural memory?

Answer 34

Finke had case study PM who could not rememeber musical facts but could still read and play complex pieces of music, suggests separate LTM areas

Question 35

What are the two explanations for forgetting?

Answer 35

- Interference theory - Retrieval failure

Question 36

What is proactive interference?

Answer 36

occurs where old learning affects recall of new information - e.g. memory of old phone number disrupts memory of new number

Question 37

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 37

occurs when new learning affects recall of old information - e.g. memory of new car reg prevents recall of a previous

Question 38

What is research into interference?

Answer 38

McGeoch and McDonald

Question 39

What was the procedure of McGeoch and McDonald's study?

Answer 39

- PP's had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember with 100% accuracy. - Then had to learn a new list. 6 groups of PP's who had to learn different types of lists e.g. 3-digit numbers, nonsense syllables, synonyms.

Question 40

What was the findings of McGeoch and McDonald's study?

Answer 40

- When PP's recalled the original list, their performance depended on the nature of the second list - The most similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall

Question 41

What was the conclusion of McGeoch and McDonald's study?

Answer 41

Interference strongest when memories are similar

Question 42

What is an eye-witness testimony?

Answer 42

evidence provided by those recalling an event who were present when the event took place

Question 43

What are the factors affecting eyewitness testimony?

Answer 43

misleading information and anxiety

Question 44

How does mis-leading information happen?

Answer 44

leading questions and post-event discussion

Question 45

What did Loftus and Palmer research?

Answer 45

Eye-witness testimony - Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction study

Question 46

What was the purpose of Loftus and Palmer's study?

Answer 46

to test their hypothesis that the language used in eyewitness testimony can alter memory

Question 47

What was the IV of Loftus and Palmer's study and how many conditions were there?

Answer 47

wording of the question - 5 conditions

Question 48

What was the DV of Loftus and Palmer's study and how was it measured - any problems?

Answer 48

speed reported by pp's. problem as people aren't accurate at estimating speed

Question 49

What were the 5 words used by Loftus and Palmer and speeds reported?

Answer 49

smashed = 40.8 mph collided = 39.3 mph bumped = 38.1 mph hit = 34.0 mph contacted = 31.8 mph sad charlie broke his chair

Question 50

What do the findings of Loftus and Palmer's study suggest about the reliability of EWT?

Answer 50

ewt might be biased by the way questions are asked after a crime is committed, not always reliable!

Question 51

What is a leading question?

Answer 51

questions which guide pp's towards an answer

Question 52

How are leading questions controlled?

Answer 52

cognitive interview

Question 53

Why do leading questions affect eye witness testimony?

Answer 53

Response-bias explanation + Substitution explanation

Question 54

What is a response-bias explanation?

Answer 54

suggests wording of the question has no real effect on the pp's memories, but just influences how they decide to answer, when a pp hears the word 'smashed' in a leading question, this encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate

Question 55

What is a substitution explanation?

Answer 55

wording of the question actually changes the pp's memory. those who heard smashed were more likely to report seeing broken glass (there was none)

Question 56

What is memory contamination in post-event discussion?

Answer 56

when co-witnesses discuss a crime, they mix (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories

Question 57

What is memory conformity in post-event discussion?

Answer 57

witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right

Question 58

What is research into post-event discussion?

Answer 58

Gabbert

Question 59

What was the procedure of Gabbert's study?

Answer 59

studied pp's in pairs. each pp watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view. this meant that each pp could see elements in the event that the other could not.

Question 60

What was the findings of Gabbert's study?

Answer 60

71% of the pp's mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in discussion. control group with no discussion was 0%

Question 61

What was the conclusion of Gabbert's study?

Answer 61

witnesses often go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right or wrong. memory conformity!

Question 62

How does anxiety affect eyewitness testimony?

Answer 62

freud argues anxiety hinders memory recall. forgetting is motivated by traumatic content of memories - access to distressing information is blocked to protect the individual from emotional distress

Question 63

What is the inverted U?

Answer 63

deffenbecher = shows moderate amounts of anxiety increase detail and memory recall. any further anxiety above this leads to a decrease in accuracy and detail of memory

Question 64

What is the weapons effect?

Answer 64

- Weapons effect - loftus said if a person is carrying a weapon, then witnesses focus on the weapon rather than person's face, negatively affecting ability to recall facial details of armed criminals - supports idea anxiety influences accuracy of EWT

Question 65

What is research on weapons effect?

Answer 65

Peters (1988) found that participants who visited a healthcare centre and interacted with a researcher and a nurse were more able to recognise the researcher than the nurse because the nurse gave them an injection, suggesting that there was weapon focus on the needle. This is better as it has high ecological validity (normal setting) and high mundane realism (getting an injection is a normal procedure) so its results are more generalisable.