Memory Flashcards
1
Q
what is interference?
A
when 2 pieces of information disrupt each other, resulting in forgetting in one or both.
2
Q
name the two types of interference
A
proactive interference and retroactive interference
3
Q
what is proactive interference
A
occurs when an older memory interferes with a newer one. (eg: when your teacher has learnt so many names in the past she has difficulty remembering her names in the new class.)
4
Q
what is retroactive interference
A
when a newer memory interferes with an older one (eg: your teacher has learnt so many new names this year she has difficulty remembering the names of students last year)
5
Q
when is interference worse
A
interference is worse when the memories are similar
6
Q
describe the procedure of the research of effects on similarity
A
mcgeogh and mcdonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of material. the groups were synonyms, antonyms, words unrelated to original, consonants, 3 digit numbers and no new list.
7
Q
what were the findings of the research on effects of similarity
A
when participants were asked to recall the original list of words, the synonyms had the worst recall. this shows that the interference is strongest when the memories are similar.
8
Q
evaluate one strength of interference
A
one strength is that there is more evidence of interference effects in more everyday situations.
baddeley and hitch asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they had played against during a rugby season. the players all played for the same time interval but some players missed matched due to injury. players who played the most games had the poorest recall.
this shows that interference can operate in at least some real world situations, increasing validity of the theory
9
Q
evaluate one limitation of interference
A
interference is temporary and can be overcome by using hints to help us remember something.
tulving and psotka gave participants lists of words organised into categories, one list at a time. recall averaged about 70% for the first list but became progressively worse as participants learnt each additional list.
this shows that interference causes a temporary loss to material that is still in ltm.
10
Q
what is retrieval failure
A
not being able to access memories that have been previously encoded and stored
11
Q
what is the encoding specificity principle
A
it is when a cue has to be both present at encoding (when material is learnt) and present at retrieval (whne we are recalling it)
12
Q
who discovered the encoding specificity principle
A
tulving researched into retrieval failure and discovered a consistent pattern of findings
13
Q
what is context dependent forgetting
A
recall depends on external cue (eg weather or a place)
14
Q
what is state dependent forgetting
A
recall depends on internal cue (eg feeling upset, being drunk)
15
Q
procedure on research on context dependent forgetting
A
godden and baddeley studied deep sea divers who work underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered their work underwater. the divers learnt a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land
16
Q
findings of the research on context dependent forgetting
A
in two of these conditions the environmental contexts of learning and recall matched, however in the other two they did not. accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions.
17
Q
conclusions of the research on context dependent forgetting
A
they concluded that the external cues available at learning were different from the ones available at recall and this led to retrieval failure
18
Q
procedure of research on state-dependent forgetting
A
carter and cassaday gave antihistamine drugs to their participants. these drugs had a mild sedative effect making the participants slightly drowsy. this creates and internal physiological state different from the normal state of being awake and alert. the participants had to learn lists of words and passages of prose and then recall the information against four conditions.
19
Q
findings of research on state-dependent forgetting
A
in the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall performance on the memory test was significantly worse. so when the cues are absent there is more forgetting.
20
Q
strength of retrieval failure
A
there are a lot of research studies providing evidence for retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting.This is a strength because more supporting evidence increases the validity of an explanation.Evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs both in real life situations and in controlled conditions e.g a lab.
21
Q
limitation of retrieval failure
A
baddeley argued that context effects aren’t very strong in real life.In order to see an actual effect in retrieval failure the contexts have to be very different and that it is very hard to do .This is a limitation as it means that real life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues don’t explain much forgetting.
22
Q
why is misleading information a particular issue for eyewitness testimony
A
because police questions may direct a witness to give a particular answer
23
Q
procedure for the research on leading questions
A
loftus and palmer arranged for 45 participants to watch film clips of car accidents and then asked them questions about it. participants were asked how fast the cars were going. there were five groups ad each group was given a different verb.
24
Q
findings of research on leading questions
A
the mean speed was calculated for each participant group. the verb contacted was estimated 31.8 mph and the verb smashed it was estimated 40.5 mph. this leading question biased the eyewitnesses recall of an event.
25
why do leading questions affect ewt?
the question has no real effect on the participants memories, but just influences how they decide to answer.
26
procedure of research on post-event discussion
gabbert et al studied participants in pairs. each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view. this meant that the participants could see elements in the videos that other participants could not see. then both participants discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall.
27
findings of research on post even discussion
71% of the participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion. the corresponsing figure in a control group, when there was no discussion, was 0%. this was evidence of memory conformity.
28
give one way why post-event discussion affects ewt?
memory contamination. when co-witnesses discuss it with each other, the eyewitness testimonies may become altered. this is because they combine misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories.
29
give another way why post-event discussion affects ewt?
memory conformity. gabbert et al concluded that witnesses often go along with each other , either to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right.
30
strength of research into misleading information
it has important practical uses in the criminal justice system. the consequences of inaccurate ewt can be very serious. loftus believed that leading questions can have a distorting effect on memory that police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses. this shows that psychologists can help to improve the way legal system works.
31
counterpoint of the strength for misleading information
however, the practical applications of ewt may be affected by issues with research. eg loftus and palmers participants watched film clips in a lab, very different experience from watching it in real life. this suggests that researchers such as loftus are too pessimistic about the effects on misleading information.
32
limitation of ewt : misleading information
ewt is more accurate of some aspects of an event than for others. for example sutherland and hayne showed participants a video clip. when participants were later asked misleading questions, their recall was more accurate for central details of the event than for peripheral ones. this suggests that the original memories for central details survived and were not distorted, an outcome that is not predicted by the substitution explanation
33
why does anxiety have a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)
as anxiety creates a physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues, so recall is worse.
34
procedure of anxiety having a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)
johnson and scott did research on this. their participants believed they were doing a lab study. while seated in a waiting room (low-anxiety condition) they heard a casual conversation in the next room and then they saw a man walk past them carrying a pen and with grease on his hands. other participants overheard a heated argument with the sound of breaking glass. a man walked out of the room holding a knife covered in blood (high-anxiety condition)
35
findings of anxiety having a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)
the participants later picked out a the man from a set of 50 photos, 49% who had seen the man carrying a pen were able to identify him. the tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events. weapon focus as a result of anxiety can have this effect.
36
why does anxiety have a positive effect on recall
the fight or flight response is triggered including alertness. this may improve memory for the event we become more aware of cues in this situation
37
the procedure of anxiety having a positive effect on recall
yuille and cutshall conducted a study in an actual shooting in a gun shop. the shop owner shot a thief dead. there were 21 witnesses- 13 took part in the study. they were interviewed four to five months after the incident and these interviews were compared with the police interviews at the time of the shooting. accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account. they were also asked to rate how bad it was and if they had any emotional problems
38
findings of anxiety having a positive effect on recall
the witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled - though some details were less accurate. the participants who had the highest levels of stress were most accurate (88% compared to 75%). this suggests that anxiety does not have a detrimental effect on accuracy of eyewitness memory.
39
strength for the negative effects of anxiety
there is evidence supporting the view that anxiety has a negative recall. the study by valentine and mesout supports the research on weapon focus. the researchers used heart rate to divide participants into high anxiety and low anxiety. in this study anxiety clearly disrupted the participants ability to recall details about the actor in the london dungeon show. this suggests that a high level of anxiety does have an negative effect on the immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event.
40
limitation of negative effect on recall
that it may not have tested anxiety. the reason participants focused on the weapon may be because they were surprised at what they saw rather than scared. pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken as the hand-held items in a hairdressing salon video. eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions. this suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat and therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety of ewt.
41
strength that anxiety has positive effects on recall
evidence showing that anxiety can have positive effects on the accuracy on recall
christianson and hubinette interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in sweden. some were indirectly or directly involved. researchers assumed that those directly involved would experience the most anxiety. it was found that recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses.
these findings from actual crimes confirm that anxiety does not reduce the accuracy of recall for eyewitnesses and may even enhance it
42
counterpoint for that anxiety has positive effects on recall
christianson and hubinette interviewed their participants several months after the event. the researchers therefore has no control over what happened to their participants in their intervening time. the effects on anxiety may have been overwhelmed by these other factors.
therefore it is possible that a lack of control over confounding variables may be responsible for these findings, invalidating their support.
43
what is cognitive interview
a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories.
44
who argues that eyewitness testimony can be improved if the police used better techniques
fisher and geiselman
45
what are the four main techniques of eyewitness testimony
report everything
reinstate the context
reverse the order
change perspective
46
what additional element did fisher develop
the enhanced cognitive interview
47
what is report everything
witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event.
48
what is reinstate the context
witness should return to the original crime scene and imagine the environment and their emotions. this is related to context-dependent forgetting.
49
what is reverse the order
events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence. this is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than reporting the actual events. prevents dishonesty.
50
what is change perspective
witnesses should recall the incident from other peoples perspectives. for example, how it appeared to other witnesses or to the perpetrator. this is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and also the effect on schema on recall
51
what is the enhanced cognitive interview
additional element to the cognitive interview such as interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it. this also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open ended questions
52
strength for the cognitive interview
the ci is effective. for example, a meta analysis by kohnken et al combined data from 55 studies comparing the ci with the standard police interview. the ci gave an average 41% increase in accurate information compared with the standard interview. only four studies in the analysis showed no difference between the types of interview. this shows that ci is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is stored in memory but not immediately accessible/
53
counterpoint for strength for ci
he also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants. this was an issue in the ecl, which produced more incorrect details than the ci. ci may sacrifice quality of the ewt in favour of quantity. this means that the police officers should treat eyewitness evidence with caution
54
limitation of ci
not all elements are equally effective. milne and bull found that each of the four techniques used alone produced more information than the standard police interview. but they also found that using report everything and reinstate context produced better recall than any of the other elements or combination of them. this casts some doubt on the credibility of the overall cognitive interview.
55
what is coding
when information is stored in memory in different forms, depending on the memory stores
56
another limitation of ci
it is time consuming and needs more training than the standard police interview. for example, more time is needed to establish rapport with a witness and allow them to relax. the ci also requires special training and many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours. this suggests that the complete ci as it exists is not a realistic method for police officers to use and it might be better to focus on just a few key elements.
57
what was the procedure to test coding
baddeley gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember:
group 1 - acoustically similar
group 2 - acoustically dissimilar
group 3 - semantically similar
group 4 - semantically dissimilar
participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order. when they did this immediately, recalling from stm, they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words. when they recalled the word list after a time interval of 20 mins, recalling from ltm, they did worse with the semantically similar words.
58
what were the findings of the research on coding
suggest that information is coded acoustically in stm and semantically in ltm
59
strength of research on coding
it identified a clear difference between two memory stores. later research showed that there are some exceptions to baddeleys findings. but the idea that stm uses mostly acoustic coding and ltm mostly semantic has stood the test of time.
60
limitation of research on coding
it used quite alot of artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. for example , the word lists had no personal meaning to participants. so baddeleys findings may not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory tasks, especially in everyday life. when processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for stm tasks. this suggests that the findings of this study has limited application.
61
what is capacity
the amount of information which can be held in a memory store
62
two types of research on capacity
digit span and span of memory and chunking
63
how was digit span researched
jacobs read out for digits and the participant recalls these out loud in the correct order. if this is correct the researcher reads out five digits and so on until the participant cannot recall the order correctly. this indicates the individuals memory span. jacobs found that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items. for letters it was 7.3.
64
how was span of memory and chunking researched
miller made observations of everyday practice. for example, that things come in sevens : seven notes in music, seven days of the week, seven deadly sins etc. miller thought that the span of stm is about 7 items, plus or minus 2.
65
strength of research on capacity
it had been replicated. the study is a very old one and early research often lacked adequate controls. for example, some participants digit spans might have been underestimated because they were distracted during tested. jacobs findings have been confirmed by other, better controlled studies since. this suggests that jacobs study was a valid test.
66
limitation on research on capacity
he may have overestimated stm capacity. cowan reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of stm is only about chunks. this suggests about the lower end of millers estimate is more appropriate than seven items.
67
what is duration
the length of time information can be held in memory
68
how was duration on stm tested
peterson and peterson tested 24 students in eight trials each. on each trial they were given a consonant syllable to remember. a 3 digit number was also given to them. the student counted backwards until told to stop. the counting backwards was to prevent any mental rehearsal of the consonant syllable. on each trial they were told to stop after varying periods.
69
what were the findings for the research on duration for stm
after 3 seconds, average recall was about 80%, after 18 seconds it was about 3%. this suggested that stm duration may be about 18 seconds.
70
how was duration on ltm tested
bahrick et al studied 392 american participants aged between 17 and 74. yearbooks were obtained from the participants or directly from some schools.
recall was tested in various ways icluding : photo recognition, free recall test
71
what were the findings on duration of ltm
participants tested within 1 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. after 48 years, recall declined to about 70% for phot recognition. free recall was less accurate than recognition- about 60% after 15 years, dropping to 30% after 48 years. this shows that ltm may last upto a lifetime.
72
limitation of duration of stm
the stimulus material was artificial. the study was not completely irrelevant because we do sometimes try to remember fairly meaningless material. recalling consonant syllables does not reflect most everyday memory activities where what we are trying to remember its meaningful. this means the study lacked external validity.
73
strength of duration of ltm
it has high external validity. this is because the researchers investigated meaningful memories. when studies of ltm were conducted with meaningless pictures to be remembered , recall rates were lower. this suggests that bahrick et als findings reflect a more real estimate of the duration of ltm.
74
What is the multi store model
Atkinson and shiffrins multi store model describes how informations flows through the memory system. A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called the sensory register, short-term memory and long term memory.
75
How does the sensory register work
All stimuli from the environment pass into the sensory register. This prt of memory comprises several registers, one for each of our five senses. Coding in each store is modality specific.
E.g sotre coding for visual information is iconic memory and the store coding acoustically is echoic memory. There are also other sensory stores for touch, taste and smell information.
Duration in sensory register - less than half a second.
Capacity - high
Information passes further into the memory system only if u pay attention to it.
76
Stm in the multi store model
Information in stm - acoustically , 18 seconds unless rehearsed, so stm is more of a temporary store.
Stm is a limited capacity store, it can only contain a certain number of things before forgetting occurs.
Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again. We can keep information in our stms as long as we rehearse it. If we rehearse it long enough, it passes into long term memory.
77
Ltm in muti store model
Permanent memory store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time. Ltms are coded mostly semantically. Duration - lifetime.
Bahrick et al found that many of their participants were able to recognise the names and faces of their school classmates almost 50 years after graduating. The capacity of ltm is thought to be practically unlimited.
When we want to recall information from ltm, it has to be transferred back into stm through a process called retrieval
78
Strength of the multi store model
There is supporting research evidence
For example, baddeleys research concluded that stm is coded acoustically, wheres our ltm is coded semantically.
This suggests that there are separate stores as described by the multi store model
Therefore, Atkinson and shiffrins msm might be a useful tool in explaining how our memory is structured.
79
Limitation of msm
Despite such apparent support, the studies are limited due to their reliance on artificial stimuli
In everyday life, memories are useful to us when related to peoples names, facts, places and so on
However, many of the studies used to construct the model use digits, letters and meaningless consonant syllables
Therefore the msm may not be a valid model of how memory works in everyday life when memory tends to involve meaningful information
80
A limitation of the msm
There is more than one type of ltm
Shallice and warrington studies the patient KF who suffered from amnesia. He was able to recall digits much better when he read them compared to when he was told them
This suggests that there must be a separate auditory and visual stores within the stm that are not shown by the model.
This therefore suggests that rhe stm is much more complex than how the msm states it is.
81
Another limitation of msm
There is more than one type of rehearsal
Craik and watkins found tha the type of rehearsal matters. They argued that elaborative rehearsal is important for transferring information from our stm to our ltm. This is where we connect information to our pre existing knowledge or we think about the information
This means that maintenance rehearsal as suggested by the msm iis not enough to transfer information from stm to ltm
Therefore it is unhelpful in showing us how we might improve memory or learn information. It is now an outdated model.
82
What are the three types of long term memory
Episodic, semantic and procedural
83
Who researched the types of long term memory
Tulving relaised that the msms view of the long term memory model was too simplistic and inflexible. Therefore he prposed three types of ltm stores.
84
What is episodic memory
Refers to our ability to recall events from our lives. A record of personal experiences.
They are time-stamped
Your memory of a singles episode will include several elemnets
You have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories
85
What is semantic memory
This store contains our shared knowledge of the world. It includes knowledge of such things as : how to apply to university, what an orange tastes like etc
These memories are not time stamped. Semantic knowledge is less personal and more about facts we all share.
It contains an immense collection of material which, given its nature, is constantly being added to. According to tulving, it is less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic memory.
86
What is procedural memory
This is our memory for actions or skills or how we do things. We can recall these memories without conscious awareness or much effort. A good example is drving a car.
These are sorts of skills we might even find quite hard to explain to someone else.
87
Strength of ltm model
It is supported by case study evidence
The clinical case study of clive wearing showed that he was unable to recall episodic memories after his brain was damaged. He was also unable to create new memories. However his semantic and procedural memories remained intact.
This is evidence for long term memory having seperate stores.
This supports the idea that LTM is not as simplisitc as the original msm of memory.
88
Counterpoint for strength
However, evidence from clinical case studies is limited as researchers have a low levels of control in these studies
It is impossible for researchers to know if patients such as clive wearing had any memory issues before their brain damage.
Therefore clinical studies are limited in what they can tell us about different types of ltm.
89
Limitation of ltm stores
Conflicting findings about the types of ltm and brain areas
Since the 1990s, psychologists have searched for the areas of the brain that a relinked to ltm, but have found conflicting results.
For example, buckner and petersen found that semantic memory issues located in the left prefrontal cortex, whereas tulving concluded it was associated with the right prefrontal cortex
This weakens neuropsychological evidence of different types of ltm as there is poor agreement on the location of each.
90
Another strength of tulvings model
It has real life applications
Belleville found that episodic memories can be improved with training
Research on ltm has helped psychologists to target certain kinds of memory to improves peoples lives
Therefore, this highlights that distinguishing between different types of memory has allowed us to develop specific treatments.
91
What is the working memory modeloo
Working memory is an executive function that plays a big role in how we process, use and remember information on a daily basis.
Particularly how STM functions
92
What are the 4 main components of STM
Central exceutive
Phonological loop
The visuospatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer
93
Whats the central executive
Conductor of the brain
Allocates data to the subsystems : the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad
It also deals with cognitive tasks such as mental arithmetic and problem-solving
Very limited storage capacity
Coding is modality specific
94
What is phonological loop
It deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which the information arrives.
The PL subdivides into:
The phonological store which stores the words you hear
The articulatory process, which allows maintenance rehearsal . The capacity of the loop is believed to be two secondss
95
What is the visuo spatial sketchpad
Stores visual and spatial information when required.
It also has limited capacity, which according to baddeley is about three or four objects. Logie subdivided the VSS into:
The visual cache which stores visual data
The inner scribe, which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field.
96
What is the episodic buffer
This was added to the model by baddeley in 2000. It is a temporary store for information, integrating the visual, spatial, and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing - basically recording events that are happening.
It can be seen as the storage component of the central executive and has a limited capacity of about four chincks.
97
Strength of the WMM
Support from clinical evidence
Shalllice and warrington carried out a case study of patient KF who had brain damage. He had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual info normally.
This suggests his PL had been damaged but other areas of his memory were intact
This supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic stores which supports this WMM
98
Another strength of the WMM
There is research support for the VSS from dual task performance studies
Baddeley et al found that PPS had more difficulty doing two visual tasks than doing visual and verbal task at the same time
The greater difficulty is because both visual tasks compete for the same subsystem
These findings suggest separate subsystems that process visual input and verbal processes, supporting the WMM
99
Limitation of the WMM
Lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive
Baddeley himself recognised this when he said recognised this when he said, ‘the central executive is the most important but the least understood component of working memory.’ The CE needs to be more clearly specified. For example, some psychologists believe the CE may consist of separate subcomponents
This means that the CE is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the WMM
100
Counterpoint for strength of the wmm 1
However, evidence from case studies may not be reliable as it concerns a uniques case studies may nit be reliable as it concerns a unique case with a patient who suffered a traumatic experience. Therefore the results may not be generalisable to others and so cant provide strong support for the WMM.
101
Another strength of interference
Supporting evidence from lab studies
Thousands of experiments have been carried out (including mcdeoch and mcdonald)
This is positive because lab experiments have high levels of control, meaning we can idolate particular variables and support the role of interference
Means that interference is valid
102
Limitation of interference
Lab studies of memory are limited because they lack generalisability
E.g mcgeoch and mcdonald asked pps to memorise a list of words and then asked them to recall a second list, this is not how memory functions in everyday life
We needs to understand how interference functions in day to day life.
Therefore, lab studies of interference lack application to real life.
103
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