Memory Flashcards

Question

What's episodic memory?

Answer 1

Personal memories of events. They're time stamped. They require conscious effort to recall. They're declarative .

Answer 2

Knowledge of world, eg Facts and is likened to a dictionary or encyclopedia There not times stamped and require conscious effort to recall They're declarative eg cities

Answer 3

Memory of how to perform motor actions Eg riding bike Not time stamped but require lots of repetition and practice No conscious effort to recall- they occur automatically They're non declarative

Answer 4

Comes in clinical case studies. The case of Clive wearing supports the 3 types of long term memory as his episodic memory was affected as he couldn't remember that he had siblings. However, his procedural was unaffected as he could play piano and his semantic was unaffected as he could read. This supports tulvings views that there's different stores in ltm Therefore this increases the internal validity Another strength is the theory of the types of long term memory comes in evidence from neuroimaging techniques. Brain studies provide evidence that different types of memories are stored I different parts of the brain. Tulving got their ps to perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned using a pet scanner. They found that episodic and semantic memories were recalled from the prefrontal cortex in the brain. Additional evidence found that procedural memory is linked in the cerebellum, which is involved in control of motor movement. Increases scientific validity for the explaination of different stores in the ltm Cohen and squire disagree with tulvings division of ltm They argue that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in one store they call declarative memory. In contrast, procedural memories are non declarative. This reduces the validity of tulvings theory that there are 3 stores in lgm and suggests there are 2 instead

Answer 5

Availability Problems of accessibility

Answer 6

2 pieces of info conflict eachother resulting in forgetting one or both of them Explanation for forgetting in LTM

Answer 7

Older memory affects the recall of a new memory (Old memory affects recall of new memory Forget new info)

Answer 8

This occurs when a newer memory affects the recall of an older memory (Forget old info Newer info interferes with ability to remember old info)

Answer 9

Occurs when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory When we initially store a memory, some associated cues are stored with it

Answer 10

That there are 3 ltm stores Tulving was one of the first cognitive psychology to realise that the msms view of ltm was too simplistic

Answer 11

Supported by clinical evidence. People suffering from amnesia can prove.Shallice and Warrington studied the case of KF, whose brain was damaged in motorbike accident. They found that he could see but couldn't speak. This can be explained by damage to the phonological loop but the visiopatial sketchpad still intact. Supports stm more than 1 component in real life situations Central executive is too vague. Eslinger and damasio argue that there are probably several components within the central executive . Eg Evr he performed well on reasoning but showed poor judgement. This implies that central executive is not unitary and its explanations too sim&plistic Has positive practical applications. Wmm is used to help children who have an impaired working memory. Eg alloway developed several methods to improve the wm of children with adhd. These including breaking instructions down to into individual steps and asking the child to repeat instructions. These applications strengthen wmm in its validity in relation to the real world

Answer 12

Proactive and retroactive interference, and retrieval failure

Answer 13

Lots of supporting evidence. Interference in memory is one of the most consistently demonstrated findings in psychology. Mcgeoch and McDonald's research (where ps had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then learnt a new list. There were 10 groups who had to learn different types of lists eg words with sim meanings to originals and opposite to original. Found that when ps recalled original list, performance depended on the nature of the second list. This supports theory that interference is strongest when memories are similar) this is a strength bc lab experiments no extraneous. So valid explanation for forgetting Weakness is that materials used in research into interference theory are artificial. There's much greater chance that interference will be demonstrated in the lab than in real life situations, bc they typically involve using lists of words which don't represent real life memory tasks such as your friends birthday. Additionally, another diasdv is that research conducted in a lab is that the tasks given to ps occur in a short period of time. In real world learning of material is more spaced out. Limitation as such research can't be generalised to forgetting in real life situations However, not all studies conducted on interference take place in a lab. Eg baddeley and hitch looked at the effects of interference in an everyday situation. Procedure- rugby players were asked to remember the names of the teams they had played in the season week by week, bc most players had missed games for some the last team they mightve been long ago. Findings- accurate recall didn't depend on how long the matches took place, more important was the num of games they played. This is a strength as it shows interference can apply to atleast some everyday situations

Answer 14

Tulving reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovered a pattern to findings, this states that if a cue is to help us to recall info, then it must be present after the encoding and retrieval. If cues available at encoding and retrieval are different there will be some forgetting

Answer 15

The context in which we experience or learn something in is crucial. Provided with right external cues, we can quickly recover memories demonstrated by many experimental studies

Answer 16

Procedure - divers were required to learn a list of words and then recall them either underwater or on land. 4 bonds 1) learn on land recall, on land 2) learn on land recall underwater 3) learn underwater recall on land 4) learn underwater recall underwater Findings ps recalled the words better in the place they originally learnt the list of words. Demonstrates the usefulness of env cues

Answer 17

Recall is impaired if we try to remember something when we are in a different physical or mental state. Have difficulty recalling in diff states. Goodwin found that people who drank a lot forgot where they had put items when they were sober. However, they could recall the locations when they were drunk again. Ppl who learned a list of words while exercising on bike recalled more words when exercising rather than rest Miles and handman

Answer 18

A strength of this theory is supporting evidence. An impressive range of research supports the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting, additionally a researcher eysenck argued that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting in ltm. This increases the validity of the explanation. Shows it occurs in real life situations However, limitation of theory is that it may be limited as evidence suggests that context only affects memory when it's very different at recall. Different contexts mist be very different before effect is seen, eg hard to find environment as diff as land and underwater (godden and baddely) in contrast learning something in one classroom and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting bc contexts not diff enough. Limitation as presence or absence of cue only affects memory when you test it in a certain way The effect of context on recall may be related to the kind of memory being tested. Godden and baddely replicated their underwater explanation but used a recognition test instead of recall, ps had to say whether they recognised a word read to the, from the list instead of retrieving it themselves . When recognition was tested, context didn't have any effect on performance. Further limitation of context dependent forgetting bc it means that the presence or absence of cues only affects memory when you test it in a certain way

Answer 19

statement given to a court of law by an eyewitness who was at scene of the crime under oath. includes identification of perpetrators details of crime scene and any other relevant details

Answer 20

loftus and palmer investigated the effect of leading questions on ewt using students procedure. ps watched film clips of car accidents and were then asked various question about what they had seen in critical Q- how fast were the cars going when hit. leading q due to hit 5 groups of ps, each given a different verb in the critical question conclusion- study suggests the wording of the Q calter the recall of memories from the Ps

Answer 21

response bias- suggests that the wording of the question has no real affect on the ps memories but just influences how they decide to answer. when a p gets a leading question using the word smashed this encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate memory is altered: the wording of the leading question, eg smashed changes the persons memory of the film clips. therefore those asked the critical question with the verb smashed will remember the incident as more serious than someone asked the same question with the verb hit being used

Answer 22

leading questions, post event discussions, anxiety/stress, weapon focus

Answer 23

Form of misleading information that can lower reliability of ewt. Can often occur when several eyewitnesses discuss the crime with eachother. this can cause the eyewitnesses to combine incorrect information from other witnesses with their own memories. research by fiona gabbert has demonstrated how this happens

Answer 24

research by fiona gabbert procedure - ps were paired up and then watched a video of the same crime but from different viewpoints. meant that ps could only see elements in the event that others couldnt both ps then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall findings- gabbert found that 71% of the ps mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they didnt see in the video but picked up in the discussion. in comparison none of the ps in control group with no discussion made the same mistake suggests that ped reduces reliability of the ewt because witnesses often go along with eachother in other to win social approval bc they believe other witnesses are right and theyre wrong. she called this memory conformity

Answer 25

Practical applications- Strength of research into misleading information is that it had hugely practical uses in the real world. Psychologists are sometimes used to act as expert witnesses in court trial and explain the limitated ewt to juries. Possible applications could be adopted by the legal profession from this research for example in the development of the cognitive interview. loftus claimed leading questions can distort memory and therefore police are careful in the phrasing of their questions. research into ewt is one area in which psychologists believe they can make an important positive difference by improving the way the legal system works. A limitation of research into misleading information is that research used artifical tasks. for eg in loftus and palmers study, their ps watched film clips of car accidents rather than witnessing real accidents. this id a limitation because studies that use such artificial tasks may tell us very little about how leading qs affect ewt in real life accidents or crimes. it has been suggested that many answers ps give in lab studies of ewt are result of demand characteristics and therefore lowers the validity of research into misleading information A limitation to this explanation is that individual differences are ignored. There is 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. This is a limitation as evidence fails to acknowledge such age differences and also tends to use younger people in their sample. this may mean that resrarch findings shouldnt be generalised to older people thus lowering the validity of the research

Answer 26

anxiety has strong emotional and physical effects but is not clear wether these effects make eyewitness recall better or worse. research to support both possibilities

Answer 27

Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cue, thus worsening recall. Johnson and Scott (1976) studied the effect of weapons (which create anxiety) on accuracy of recall of the witness. Procedure: Participants were led to believe that they were going to take part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room, the participants heard a heated argument in the next room, followed by a man walking through the waiting area. • In the 'low-anxiety' condition, the man who walked through the waiting area was carrying a pen and had grease on his hands • In the 'high-anxiety'condition, the man was holding a knife that was covered in blood. Weapon-Focus Findings: 49% of Ps who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him compared to only 33% who had seen the man holding the knife. Conclusion: This study suggests that anxiety can reduce the reliability of EWT. Loftus claimed that the participants who saw the knife were less accurate because they focused their attention on the weapon (known as weapon focus effect) rather than on the surrounding events.

Answer 28

Anxiety is thought to increase the accuracy of an eyewitness because the stress of witnessing a crime or accident triggers the fight-or-flight response. This response increases our alertess, which makes us more aware of what is happening in the situation. Procedure: Yuille and Cutshall (1986) conducted a study of a real-life shooting in Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead. 13 witnesses to the event agreed to take part in the study. Participants were interveiwed 4-5 months after the incident and these were compared to the original police interviews made at the time of the shooting. The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they felt at the time of the incident. Findings: The witnesses proved to be very accurate in their accounts. Interestingly those Ps who reported the highest levels of stress where the most accurate (88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group) Conclusion: This study suggests anxiety can improve memory for EWT

Answer 29

Problems with the inverted U theory-Although the inverted U appears to be a reasonable explanation of the contradictory findings regarding both the positive and negative effects of anxiety on recall it only focuses on physical arousal.This is an issue as it ignores the fact that anxiety presents in many different forms. For example, it can also be cognitive .This matters because by using the inverted U theory we are oversimplifying the relationship between anxiety accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Weapon Focus Effect is Invalid The participants who saw the knife in Johnson and Scott's study may have had poorer recall because they were surprised rather than scared or anxious.In a study by Pickel (1988) participants were shown a video clip of a man walking up to a hairdresser's receptionist with either a pair of scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken. Eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions (such as the chicken and the gun).This suggests that weapon focus is due to the unusualness of the object in the situation (you would not expect someone to hold up a hairdressers!) rather than anxiety/threat. Therefore this suggests that weapon focus is an invalid explanation of eyewitness recall. Field Studies lack Control A weakness of this explanation is the methodology of the supporting research. Field studies, such as that performed by Yuille & Cutshall, involve interviewing real-life eyewitnesses after an event. All sorts of things could have happened to the participants before the interview that the researcher has no control over. For example, they may have seen a report of the event on TV.This is a limitation because it is possible that these participant variables may be responsible for the accuracy of recall, thus reducing the validity of field research. HOWEVER, one benefit of conducting field research is that it is more ETHICAL than Lab based research, where participants are deliberately made anxious. This suggests that the ethical benefits of field research may outweigh the issues of control that are outlined above.

Answer 30

Devised by fisher and gieselman, they thought the standard police interview could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses. standard interview procedure involves a period of free recall about an event, followed by specific questions the cognitive interview is a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. it used 4 main techniques report everything, reinstate the context, report in reverse order, report in changed perspective

Answer 31

1. Report Everything Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant. can trigger external cues 2. Reinstate the context The witness should return to the original crime scene 'in their mind' and imagine the environment (such as what the weather was like, what they could see) and their emotions (such as what they were their feelings). 3. Reverse the order Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence,This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event might have happened rather than the actual events. It also prevents dishonestly as it is harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it. 4. Change perspective Witnesses should recall the incident from other people's perspectives. For example, how it would have appeared to other witnesses or to the perpetrator. This is done to prevent witnesses being affected by their expectations rather than what they actually saw. For example, if you failed to get a clear view of the purse-snatcher above, you may have presumed they were male, which of course may be incorrect!

Answer 32

A strength of the cognitive interview is that it is well supported by psychological research. For example Geiselman (1985) showed participants a film of a violent crime. They were later interviewed using a cognitive or standard police interview. Geiselman found that Cl led to better memory for events, with witnesses able to recall more relevant information compared to the standard interview. This breadth of data suggests that the Cl offers real practical benefits to thepolice, especially when the enhanced version is used. These improvements to the way police interview witnesses will result in more criminals being caught and charged; benefitting society. The Cl is time-consuming A limitation to the Cl is that it is time-consuming. Police may be reluctant to use the Cl because it takes much longer than a standard police interview More time is needed to establish a relationship with the witness and to allow them to relax. Additionally the Cl requires special training and many police forces do not have the funds to provide the necessary training.This is a problem because the proper version is less likely to be used and the specialist training causes an increased cost to the economy A final weakness of the Cl is that it doesn't improve recall in all cases. For example, Geiselman (1999) reviewed many cases and found that in children under 6, recall of events was slightly less accurate possibly due to the complexity of the instructions provided as part of the Cognitive Interview. This is a weakness because it shows that the cognitive interview is not effective at improving testimony in all situations.

Memory Flashcards

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