Memory

Question 1

what is meant by coding?

Answer 1

-the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores
-can be acoustic ( sounds ), visual ( images ) or semantic ( meaning )

Question 2

what research is there on coding?

Answer 2

-Alan Baddeley ( 1966 ) = participants in group 1 were given a list of acoustically similar words ( that sound similar ) to remember, group 2 were given a list of acoustically dissimilar words, group 3 were given a list of semantically similar words ( that have similar meanings ) and group 4 were given a list of semantically dissimilar words
-findings = when asked to recall the words in the correct order immediately after being shown them, participants did worse with the acoustically similar words as they were all stored together in STM, and after a time interval of 20 minutes, they did worse with the semantically similar words as they were all stored together in LTM
-conclusions = information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM

Question 3

evaluate Baddeley’s research on coding

Answer 3

-P = one strength is that his study identified a clear difference between two memory stores
-E = later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley’s findings, but STM is mostly acoustic coding and LTM is mostly semantic
-E = this was an important step in our understanding of memory, which led to the multi-store model

-P = one limitation is that his study used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material
-E = for example, the words used had no personal meaning to the participants, so Baddeley’s findings tell us little about coding for everyday memory tasks as people use semantic coding to process more meaningful information even in STM
-E = this suggests that his findings have limited application and lack ecological validity

Question 4

what is meant by capacity?

Answer 4

-the amount of information that can be held in a memory store at any one time

Question 5

what research is there on the capacity of STM?

Answer 5

-George Miller ( 1956 ) observed that things come in sevens e.g. 7 days of the week, so he thought that the capacity of STM is about 7 +/- 2 items ( the ‘magic number’ ), and he said that people can recall 5 words as easily as 5 letters by chunking i.e. grouping sets of information e.g. digits or letters into units or chunks
-Joseph Jacobs ( 1887 ) = he measured digit span by reading out 4 digits which the participant then had to recall out loud in the correct order, followed by 5 digits and so on until they were unable to correctly recall the sequence
-findings = the mean digit span was 9.3 items and the mean letter span was 7.3
-conclusions = the capacity of STM is limited to about 7 +/- 2 items

Question 6

evaluate Miller’s research on capacity

Answer 6

-P = one strength is its high external reliability due to consistent findings
-E = Miller’s conclusion that the capacity of STM is about 7 +/- 2 items has been supported by various studies, such as those involving digit span tasks ( e.g. by Jacobs )
-E = this suggests that Miller’s research provides a strong, reliable foundation for understanding the limitations of STM capacity, increasing the credibility of his theory

-P = one limitation is that Miller may have overestimated STM capacity, which could reflect his use of outdated methodologies and lack of control over CVs and EVs
-E = Nelson Cowan ( 2001 ) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is only about 4 +/- 1 chunks
-E = this suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate ( 5 items ) is more appropriate than 7

Question 7

evaluate Jacobs’ research on capacity

Answer 7

-P = one strength is that his study has been replicated
-E = despite Jacobs’ study being very old and thus likely lacking adequate controls ( CVs e.g. participants being distracted during testing ), his findings have been confirmed by later, better controlled studies e.g. Bopp and Verhaeghen 2005
-E = this suggests that Jacobs’ study is a valid test of digit span in STM

-P = one limitation is that his research lacks mundane realism and thus ecological validity
-E = the task of recalling digits in a specific order may not reflect how we use STM in real-life situations, where the information we need to retain is often more complex and meaningful
-E = this suggests that Jacob’s findings are less generalisable to everyday memory processes

Question 8

what is meant by duration?

Answer 8

-the length of time that information can be held in memory

Question 9

what research is there on the duration of STM?

Answer 9

-Margaret and Lloyd Peterson ( 1959 ) = 24 students were tested in 8 trials and on each they were given a consonant syllable ( e.g. YCG ) to recall and then a 3 digit number to count down from to prevent mental rehearsal, and the retention interval increased with each trial
-findings = after 3 seconds average recall was about 80%, and after 18 seconds it was about 3%
-conclusions = the duration of STM is limited to about 18 seconds, unless we repeat the information over and over ( i.e. rehearsal )

Question 10

evaluate Peterson and Peterson’s research on duration

Answer 10

-P = one strength is that their study was conducted in a controlled lab environment
-E = this allows for a high degree of control over CVs and EVs and the use of standardised procedures, so that cause-and-effect relationships can be more confidently established and the study can be replicated
-E = this suggests that Peterson and Peterson’s findings are high in internal validity and external reliability

-P = one limitation is that the stimulus material was artificial
-E = recalling consonant syllables does not reflect most everyday memory activities, where what we are trying to remember is meaningful and isn’t limited just to letters ( e.g. it could also be images or numbers )
-E = this means that the study lacked mundane realism and thus external validity ( ecological ), and it only considered one stimulus
-counterpoint = however, there are cases where we try to remember fairly meaningless material ( e.g. phone numbers ), therefore the findings aren’t completely irrelevant

Question 11

what research is there on the duration of LTM?

Answer 11

-Harry Bahrick et al. ( 1975 ) = 392 American graduates aged between 17 and 74 were involved in two tests, the first being a photo-recognition test consisting of 50 photos, some from their high school yearbooks, and then a free recall test where participants recalled all the names of their graduating class
-findings = participants tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition and 60% in free recall, and after 48 years, recall declined to 70% in photo recognition and 30% in free recall
-conclusions = photo recognition was more accurate than free recall, suggesting that the information had always been stored in their LTM but was difficult to retrieve, and thus the duration of LTM is unlimited

Question 12

evaluate Bahrick’s research on duration

Answer 12

-P = one strength is that his study had high external validity
-E = this is because the researchers investigated meaningful memories ( e.g. of people’s names and faces ), whereas when lab studies were done with meaningless pictures, recall rates were lower ( e.g. Shepard 1967 )
-E = this suggests that Bahrick’s findings reflect a more realistic estimate of the duration of LTM

-P = one limitation is that his study lacks control over the participants’ individual differences
-E = for example, their age, cognitive abilities or how frequently they had thought about or interacted with their old classmates could have influenced their ability to recall information
-E = this makes it difficult to determine whether the findings are due to the duration of LTM itself or individual differences in memory performance, limiting internal validity

Question 13

what are the three memory stores?

Answer 13

-sensory memory ( SM ) / sensory register ( SR ) = the memory stores for each of our five senses
-short-term memory ( STM ) = the limited capacity store
-long-term memory ( LTM ) = the permanent memory store

Question 14

what are the key features of sensory memory?

Answer 14

-stores sensory / environmental information just long enough to be transferred to STM
-contains one sub-store for each of our 5 senses and coding depends on the sense, e.g. the echoic memory codes for auditory information and the iconic memory codes for visual information
-very high capacity e.g. over 100 million cells in one eye
-duration of less than half a second
-information only passes further into memory system ( i.e. to STM ) if it is payed attention to

Question 15

what are the key features of short-term memory?

Answer 15

-coding is mainly acoustic
-capacity is between 5 and 9 items on average
-duration is about 18 seconds
-maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again, allowing information to be kept in STM
-prolonged maintenance rehearsal allows information to pass into LTM, whilst lack of it causes forgetting

Question 16

what are the key features of long-term memory?

Answer 16

-coding is mainly semantic
-unlimited capacity
-very long duration e.g. up to a lifetime
-when we want to recall information from LTM, it has to be transferred back into STM by retrieval

Question 17

what is the multi-store model ( MSM ) of memory?

Answer 17

-Atkinson and Shiffrin’s ( 1968 ) theoretical representation of how information flows through the memory system in terms of three stores called the sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory
-it also describes how information is transferred from one store to another, what makes some memories last and others disappear

Question 18

how does the MSM work?

Answer 18

-environmental information enters our sensory register ( SR ) via our five senses where each sense has its own sub-store, e.g. echoic store for hearing and iconic store for sight
-this information fades ( i.e. is forgotten ) after a fraction of a second unless it’s payed attention to, in which case it passes to our short-term memory ( STM )
-the STM can store this information for up to 18 seconds, and it can be maintained in the STM through maintenance rehearsal or if this is done enough, it becomes prolonged rehearsal which passes the information to the long-term memory ( LTM ) where it can be stored for up to a lifetime
-to recall the information from the LTM, it has to first be transferred back into the STM through retrieval

Question 19

evaluate the MSM

Answer 19

-one strength is support from studies showing that STM and LTM are different
-another strength is support from case studies showing that STM and LTM are different, e.g. HM who could no longer form new LTM memories after his hippocampus was removed during brain surgery for epilepsy, but still performed well on tests of immediate memory span ( a measure of STM )
-one limitation is evidence suggesting that there is more than one STM store
-one limitation is that prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer to LTM

Question 20

why is it a strength that the MSM is supported by studies showing that STM and LTM are different?

Answer 20

-E = for example, Baddeley ( 1966 ) found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when we use our STM ( so STM coding is acoustic ), but we mix up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTM ( so LTM coding is semantic )
-E = this supports the MSM’s view that these two memory stores are separate and independent, increasing the model’s validity
-counterpoint = despite such apparent support, the studies tend to use artificial stimuli rather than meaningful, everyday information, e.g. Baddeley used meaningless words which held no personal meaning to participants, which suggests that the MSM may not be a valid model of how memory works in everyday life where we have to remember much more meaningful information

Question 21

why is it a limitation that there is evidence of more than one STM store?

Answer 21

-E = for example, Shallice and Warrington ( 1970 ) studied an amnesia patient known as KF whose STM recall for digits was poor when they were read out loud to him, but much better when he read them to himself, showing that there could be a separate STM store for non-verbal information
-E = this evidence suggests that the MSM is wrong in claiming that there is just one STM store processing different types of information ( e.g. visual, auditory etc. )

Question 22

why is it a limitation that prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer to LTM?

Answer 22

-E = according to the MSM, what matters about rehearsal is the amount of it ( i.e. prolonged rehearsal ), but Craik and Watkins ( 1973 ) found that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount, and it is elaborative rehearsal that is needed for long-term storage which occurs when you link information to your existing knowledge or think about its meaning
-E = this suggests that the MSM doesn’t fully explain how LTM storage is achieved

Question 23

who was the first cognitive psychologist to disagree with the MSM?

Answer 23

-Tulving ( 1985 ) realised that the MSM’s view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible
-he proposed that there are in fact three LTM stores, containing quite different types of information

Question 24

what are the three types of LTM?

Answer 24

-episodic = stores personal events / episodes, which includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, places, objects and behaviours involved
-semantic = stores our knowledge of the world, which includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean
-procedural = stores our knowledge of how to do things, which includes our memories of learned skills

Question 25

what are the key features of episodic memory?

Answer 25

-memories are time-stamped ( i.e. you remember when they happened as well as what happened ) -each episode involves several elements, e.g. people, places, objects and behaviours, which are all interwoven to produce a single memory -memories have to be recalled consciously and with effort

Question 26

what are the key features of semantic memory?

Answer 26

-memories are not time-stamped -they are less personal and more about facts / knowledge we all share -it contains an immense collection of material which is constantly being added to -according to Tulving, it is less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic memory -memories usually need to be recalled deliberately

Question 27

what are the key features of procedural memory?

Answer 27

-these skills / actions become automatic with practice -explaining the step-by-step procedure is hard because you recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort

Question 28

evaluate the types of LTM

Answer 28

-one strength is evidence from the famous case studies of HM and Clive Wearing -another strength is that understanding types of LTM allows psychologists to help people with memory problems -one limitation is that there are conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain

Question 29

why is it a strength that there is case study evidence of different types of LTM?

Answer 29

-E = episodic memory in both HM and Clive Wearing was severely impaired due to brain damage ( caused by a brain surgery and infection ), but their semantic and procedural memories were relatively unaffected, e.g. HM understood the concept of 'dog' and Clive ( a professional musician ) knew how to read music, sing and play the piano -E = this supports Tulving's view that there are different memory stores in LTM as one store can be damaged while the others are unaffected -counterpoint = researchers lack control in clinical case studies, e.g. they have no knowledge of the individual's memory before brain damage, therefore clinical studies are limited in what they can tell us about different types of LTM

Question 30

why is it a strength that understanding types of LTM allows psychologists to help people with memory problems?

Answer 30

-E = for example, research has shown that memory loss in old age is specific to episodic memory, and that it becomes harder to recall memories of recent experiences although past episodic memories are intact -Belleville et al. ( 2006 ) devised an intervention for older people targeting episodic memory, which improved their memory compared to a control group -E = this shows that distinguishing between types of LTM enables specific treatments to be developed

Question 31

why is it a limitation that there are conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain?

Answer 31

-E = for example, Buckner and Petersen ( 1996 ) reviewed research findings and concluded that semantic memory is located in the left prefrontal cortex and episodic memory in the right, but other research ( e.g. Tulving et al. 1994 ) links the left prefrontal cortex with episodic memory and the right with semantic memory -E = this challenges any neurophysiological evidence to support types of LTM as there is poor agreement on where each type might be located

Question 32

what is the working memory model ( WMM )?

Answer 32

-Baddeley and Hitch's ( 1974 ) theoretical representation of how STM is organised and functions -it is concerned with the mental space that is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating information -the model consists of four main components called the central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer

Question 33

what is the central executive?

Answer 33

-the component of the WMM that controls working memory by monitoring incoming information, focusing and dividing our limited attention and allocating subsystems to tasks -it has a very limited processing capacity and doesn't store information

Question 34

what is the phonological loop?

Answer 34

-the component of the WMM that processes auditory information ( i.e. coding is acoustic ) and preserves the order in which the information arrives -it is divided into the phonological store ( stores verbal material ) and the articulatory process ( allows for maintenance rehearsal and acts like an inner voice repeating information to keep it in WM ) -capacity is 2 seconds worth of what you can say

Question 35

what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 35

-the component of the WMM that combines the visual and spatial information processed by other stores, giving us a complete picture, e.g. when recalling how many windows there are on your house -Logie ( 1995 ) divided it into the visual cache ( stores visual data ) and the inner scribe ( records the arrangement of objects in the visual field ) -it has a limited capacity, which according to Baddeley ( 2003 ) is about 3 or 4 objects

Question 36

what is the episodic buffer?

Answer 36

-the component of the WMM that integrates the auditory, visual and spatial information processed by other stores and maintains a sense of time sequencing -it was added to the WMM by Baddeley in 2000 -it can be seen as the storage component of the CE and has a limited capacity of about 4 chunks ( Baddeley 2012 ) -it links WM to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception

Question 37

evaulate the WMM

Answer 37

-one strength is support from clinical evidence ( e.g. amnesia patient KF ) -another strength is support from dual-task performance studies -one limitation is a lack of clarity over the nature of the CE

Question 38

why is it a strength that there is clinical evidence of separate STM stores?

Answer 38

-E = for example, Shallice and Warrington ( 1970 ) studied an amnesia patient KF who had poor STM ability for auditory information but could process visual information normally as his immediate recall of letters and digits was better when he read them than when they were read to him, showing that his PL was damaged but his VSS was intact -E = this supports the WMM's view that there are separate visual and acoustic STM stores, increasing the model's validity -counterpoint = it is unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments which might have affected his performance on memory tasks, apart from damage to his PL, challenging evidence from clinical studies of brain injury

Question 39

why is it a strength that there is support from dual-task performance studies?

Answer 39

-E = for example, Baddeley et al.'s ( 1975 ) participants found it harder to carry out two visual ( or two verbal ) tasks at the same time than do a visual and a verbal task together because both visual tasks compete for the same subsystem ( VSS ), whereas there is no competition when performing a visual and verbal task together -E = this shows that there must be separate components processing visual ( VSS ) and verbal information ( PL ) -counterpoint = dual-task studies are highly-controlled and use tasks that are unlike everyday WM tasks ( e.g. recalling random sequences of letters ), challenging the validity of the model because it is not certain that WM operates this way in everyday situations

Question 40

why is it a limitation that there is a lack of clarity over the nature of the CE?

Answer 40

-E = for example, Baddeley ( 2003 ) himself recognised this when he said the CE is the most important but the least understood component of WM, and there must be more to it than just being attention e.g. some psychologists believe the CE is made up of separate subcomponents -E = therefore the CE is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the WMM

Question 41

what are the two explanations for forgetting in LTM?

Answer 41

-interference = when two pieces of information disrupt each other, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten -retrieval failure = when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory

Question 42

what are the two types of interference?

Answer 42

-proactive = when an older memory disrupts a newer one, e.g. a teacher has learned many names in the past and can't remember the names of her current class -retroactive = when a newer memory disrupts an older one, e.g. a teacher has learned many new names this year and can't remember the names of her previous students

Question 43

what research is there on the effects of similarity on interference?

Answer 43

-McGeoch and McDonald ( 1931 ) = participants learnt a list of 10 words to 100% accuracy and then they were given a new list to learn which varied in the degree to which it was similar to the old list ( e.g. group 1 = synonyms, group 2 = antonyms, group 3 = unrelated, group 4 = consonant syllables, group 5 = 3-digit numbers, group 6 = no new list i.e. control condition ) -findings = when the participants were asked to recall the original list of words, the most similar material ( synonyms ) produced the worst recall, and performance increased from group 1 to group 6 due to decreasing similarity -conclusions = interference is strongest when the memories are similar -explanation = PI ( previously stored information makes new similar information more difficult to store ) or RI ( new information overwrites previous similar memories because of the similarity )

Question 44

evaluate interference as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 44

-one strength is evidence of interference effects in real-world situations -another strength is support from drug studies -one limitation is that interference effects may be overcome using cues -another limitation is that most studies supporting interference theory are lab-based

Question 45

why is it a strength that there is evidence of interference effects in real-world situations?

Answer 45

-E = for example, Baddeley and Hitch ( 1977 ) asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played against during a rugby season, and they found that those who played the most games ( most interference for memory ) had the poorest recall -E = this shows that interference operates in at least some real-world situations, increasing the validity of the theory -counterpoint = interference in everyday situations is unusual because the necessary conditions are relatively rare e.g. similarity of memories / learning doesn't occur often, therefore most everyday forgetting may be better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure due to lack of cues

Question 46

why is it a strength that interference theory is supported by drug studies?

Answer 46

-E = for example, material learned just before taking diazepam was recalled better than a placebo group one week later ( i.e. retrograde facilitation ) because the drug stopped new information reaching brain areas that process memories, so it could not retroactively interfere with stored information ( suggested by Wixted 2004 ) -E = this shows that the forgetting is due to interference as reducing the interference reduced the forgetting

Question 47

why is it a limitation that interference effects may be overcome using cues?

Answer 47

-E = for example, Tulving and Psotka ( 1971 ) gave participants lists of words organised into categories, one list at a time ( they were not told what the categories were ), and recall averaged about 70% for the first list but fell with each new list ( interference ), but when given a cued recall test ( names of categories ) recall rose again to about 70% -E = this shows that interference causes just a temporary loss of access to material still in LTM, a finding not predicted by interference theory

Question 48

why is it a limitation that most studies supporting interference theory are lab-based?

Answer 48

-E = lab studies of interference have tight control of confounding variables ( e.g. time interval between learning and recall ), thus a clear link between interference and forgetting, but they use artificial materials and unrealistic procedures and so lack ecological validity -for example, in everyday life we often learn something and recall it much later ( e.g. revising for exams ) -E = this means that because research is mostly lab-based it may overestimate the importance of interference as a cause of forgetting

Question 49

what does Tulving's encoding specificity principle ( ESP ) state?

Answer 49

-if a cue is going to helpful, it must be present at both encoding ( when we learn the material ) and retrieval ( when we are recalling it )

Question 50

what is a cue?

Answer 50

-a trigger of information that allows us to access a memory because when information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time -they may be meaningful or indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning ( i.e. non-meaningful ) -indirect cues may be external ( e.g. weather or a place ) or internal ( e.g. mood or degree of drunkness )

Question 51

what are the two types of forgetting?

Answer 51

-context-dependent = when our external cues at the time of encoding don't match those present at recall -state-dependent = when our internal cues at the time of encoding don't match those present at recall

Question 52

what research is there on context-dependent forgetting?

Answer 52

-Godden and Baddeley ( 1975 ) = deep-sea divers learnt word lists either underwater or on land which they were later asked to recall either underwater or on land, thus creating 4 conditions: 1 = learn on land, recall on land; 2 = learn on land, recall underwater; 3 = learn underwater, recall underwater; 4 = learn underwater, recall on land -findings = accurate recall was 40% lower in the two non-matching conditions ( i.e. conditions 2 and 4 ) -conclusions = in the non-matching conditions, the external cues available at learning were different from those at recall which led to retrieval failure

Question 53

what research is there on state-dependent forgetting?

Answer 53

-Carter and Cassaday ( 1998 ) = participants learnt lists of words / prose either on antihistamine drugs ( drowsy ) or not on them ( alert ) which they were later asked to recall either on antihistamine drugs or not on them, thus creating 4 conditions: 1 = learn on drug, recall on drug; 2 = learn on drug, recall not on drug; 3 = learn not on drug, recall not on drug; 4 = learn not on drug, recall on drug -findings = in the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall ( i.e. conditions 2 and 4 ), performance on the memory test was significantly worse -conclusions = there is more forgetting when the cues are absent

Question 54

evaluate retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 54

-one strength is real-world application -another strength is the impressive range of supporting evidence -one limitation is that context effects vary in recall and recognition -another limitation is that the ESP cannot be tested

Question 55

why is it a strength that retrieval cues have real-world application?

Answer 55

-E = for example, people often go to another room to get an item and then forget what they wanted, but they remember again when they go back to the original room, suggesting that when we have trouble remembering something, it is probably worth making the effort to recall the environment in which you learned it first -also, the 'reinstate the context' element of the cognitive interview uses research on context-dependent and state-dependent forgetting to improve the accuracy of EWT which has important impacts e.g. reduced miscarriage of justice -E = this shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in the real world to improve our recall

Question 56

why is it a strength that retrieval failure is supported by an impressive range of evidence?

Answer 56

-E = for example, Godden and Baddeley ( divers ) and Carter and Cassaday ( drugs ) show that a lack of relevant cues at recall leads to everyday forgetting, and Eysenck and Keane ( 2010 ) argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting in LTM -E = this evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the lab, increasing the validity of it as an explanation for forgetting -counterpoint = Baddeley ( 1997 ) argues that different contexts have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen ( e.g. on land versus underwater ) as learning something in one room and recalling it in another for instance is unlikely to result in much forgetting because the environments are not different enough, meaning that retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting

Question 57

why is it a limitation that context effects vary in recall and recognition?

Answer 57

-E = for example, Godden and Baddeley ( 1980 ) replicated their underwater experiment using a recognition test instead of recall so participants had to say whether they recognised a word read to them from a list, and findings were the same in all four conditions whether the contexts for learning and recall matched or not, so there was no context-dependent effect -E = this suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall information rather than recognise it, and that the findings from studies of retrieval failure suffer from poor generalisability

Question 58

why is it a limitation that the ESP cannot be tested?

Answer 58

-E = retrieval failure theory is supported by research showing that forgetting occurs when there is a mismatch or absence of cues ( the ESP ), but it is not possible to independently establish whether a cue has been encoded or not, so the argument for the role of cues is circular and based on assumptions -E = therefore, the ESP is not scientifically testable, so we cannot be certain that forgetting is due to retrieval failure

Question 59

what is meant by eyewitness testimony ( EWT )?

Answer 59

-the ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed

Question 60

what are two factors that affect the accuracy of EWT?

Answer 60

-misleading information = incorrect information given to an eyewitness usually after the event, e.g. leading questions ( questions that suggest a certain answer due to their wording / phrasing ) and post-event discussion ( when co-witnesses to an event discuss what they have experienced ) -anxiety = a physiological response to external pressures, characterised by an increased heart rate, vasoconstriction of blood vessels, increased sweat production etc.

Question 61

what research is there on the effects of leading questions?

Answer 61

-Loftus and Palmer ( 1974 ) = 45 students watched a film clip of a car accident which they were then asked questions about, e.g. the critical ( i.e. leading ) question was 'about how fast were the cars going when they x each other?' with each of the 5 groups being exposed to a different critical verb ( either hit, contacted, bumped, collided or smashed ) -findings = the verb 'smashed' produced a mean estimated speed of 40.5 mph, which was 8.7 mph greater than 'contacted' -conclusions = the leading question ( verb ) biased eyewitness recall of an event as the verb 'smashed' suggested a faster speed of the car than 'contacted'

Question 62

why do leading questions affect EWT?

Answer 62

-response bias explanation = the wording of a question has no enduring effect on an eyewitness's memory of an event, but just influences how they decide to answer -substitution explanation = the wording of a question does change an eyewitness's memory of an event as it interferes with the original memory, distorting its accuracy

Question 63

which explanation does Loftus and Palmer's study support and why?

Answer 63

-substitution explanation because those who originally heard 'smashed' were more likely to report having seen broken glass 2 weeks later ( despite there being none ) than those who heard 'hit', so the critical verb altered their memory of the incident

Question 64

what research is there on post-event discussion?

Answer 64

-Gabbert et al. ( 2003 ) = paired participants watched a video of the same crime but from different points of view so each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not, and then both participants discussed what they had seen on the video before individually completing a recall test -findings = 71% of participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they didn't see in the video but had heard in the PED, compared to 0% in a control group ( there was no discussion and no subsequent errors ) -conclusions = this was evidence of memory conformity

Question 65

why does PED affect EWT?

Answer 65

-memory contamination = when co-witnesses to a crime discuss it with each other, they combine misinformation from other witnesses with their own memories ( memory is changed ) -memory conformity = witnesses go along with each other to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right and they are wrong ( memory is added to not changed )

Question 66

evaluate misleading information as a factor affecting the accuracy of EWT

Answer 66

-one strength is real-world application in the criminal justice system -one limitation is evidence challenging the substitution explanation -another limitation is evidence challenging the memory conformity explanation -another limitation is the use of lab studies in research

Question 67

why is it a strength that research into misleading information has important practical uses in the criminal justice system?

Answer 67

-E = the consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious, e.g. Loftus ( 1975 ) believes that leading questions can have such a distorting effect on memory that police officers need to be careful in phrasing questions to eyewitnesses, and psychologists sometimes act as expert witnesses in court trials and explain the limits of EWT to juries -E = therefore, psychologists can improve how the legal system works and protect the innocent from faulty convictions based on unreliable EWT -counterpoint = Loftus and Palmer's participants watched film clips in a lab, a very different experience from witnessing a real event ( e.g. less stressful ), and research participants are less concerned about the effect of their responses in a lab study as they don't matter in the same way as they would in the real world, so they are less motivated to be accurate ( Foster et al. 1994 ), suggesting that researchers may be too pessimistic about the effects of misleading information and so EWT may be more reliable than many studies suggest

Question 68

why is it a limitation that there is evidence challenging the substitution explanation?

Answer 68

-E = Sutherland and Hayne ( 2001 ) found their participants recalled central details of an event better than peripheral ones, even when asked misleading questions, presumably because their attention was focused on the central features and these memories were relatively resistant to misleading information -E = this suggests that the original memories for central details survived and were not distorted, which is not predicted by the substitution explanation

Question 69

why is it a limitation that there is evidence challenging the memory conformity explanation?

Answer 69

-E = Skagerberg and Wright's ( 2008 ) participants discussed film clips they had seen ( in one version the mugger had dark brown hair and the other light brown ) and they recalled a blend of what they had seen and what they had heard from their co-witness, rather than one or the other ( e.g. said hair was medium brown ) -E = this suggests that the memory itself is distorted through contamination by misleading PED and is not the result of memory conformity

Question 70

why is it a limitation that research into misleading information uses lab studies?

Answer 70

-E = lab studies give researchers high control over variables ( high internal validity ), so they can demonstrate that misleading post-event information causes inaccurate EWT, but they suffer from demand characteristics as participants want to be helpful and not let the researcher down so they guess when they can't answer a question ( low internal validity ) -E = therefore, to maximise internal validity researchers should reduce DCs by removing the cues that participants use to work out the hypothesis

Question 71

what research is there on the negative effect of anxiety on recall?

Answer 71

-Johnson and Scott ( 1976 ) = participants were sat in a waiting room and believed they were taking part in a lab study, those in the low-anxiety condition heard a casual conversation in the next room and then saw a man walk past them carrying a pen with grease on his hands, and those in the high-anxiety condition heard a heated argument accompanied by the sound of breaking glass and then saw a man holding a knife covered in blood -findings = 49% of low-anxiety participants and 33% of high-anxiety participants were able to identify the man from a set of 50 photos -explanation = the tunnel theory of memory and the weapon focus effect argues that people have enhanced memory for central events as their attention is drawn towards the weapon as a source of anxiety

Question 72

what research is there on the positive effect of anxiety on recall?

Answer 72

-Yuille and Cutshall ( 1986 ) = in an actual crime, a gun-shop owner shot a thief dead in Canada and there were 21 witnesses, 13 of which agreed to participate in the study and were interviewed 5 months after the incident and the information recalled was compared to the police interviews at the time of the shooting -findings = witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change after 5 months, though some details were less accurate ( e.g. age / weight / height estimates ), participants who ranked their anxiety as 'high' at the time of the shooting using a 7-point scale were most accurate ( about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group ) -explanation = heightened anxiety draws our attention to external cues through the fight or flight response, increasing alertness which may improve memory for the event

Question 73

how can the contradictory findings on the effect of anxiety on recall be explained?

Answer 73

-Yerkes and Dodson ( 1908 ) argue that the relationship between performance and arousal / stress is an inverted U, so performance will increase with stress but only to a certain point where it decreases drastically -when we witness a crime / accident we become emotionally and physiologically aroused, i.e. we experience anxiety as well as the fight or flight response -both low and high levels of anxiety produce poor recall whereas optimum levels can lead to very good recall

Question 74

evaluate anxiety as a factor affecting the accuracy of EWT

Answer 74

-one strength is supporting evidence for negative effects -another strength is supporting evidence for positive effects -one limitation is that anxiety may not be relevant to weapon focus -another limitation is problems with the inverted-U theory

Question 75

why is it a strength that there is evidence supporting the view that anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of recall?

Answer 75

-E = Valentine and Mesout ( 2009 ) used heart rate ( objective measure ) to divide visitors to the London Dungeon's Labyrinth into low- and high-anxiety groups, and they found that the high-anxiety participants were 58% less accurate than low-anxiety in describing and identifying a target person in a line-up -E = this supports the claim that anxiety has a negative effect on the immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event

Question 76

why is it a strength that there is evidence supporting the view that anxiety has a positive effect on the accuracy of recall?

Answer 76

-E = Christianson and Hübinette ( 1993 ) interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in Sweden, some of which were direct victims ( high anxiety ) and others were bystanders ( less anxiety ), and they found that recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses and the direct victims ( e.g. bank workers ) were even more accurate -E = these findings from actual crimes suggest that anxiety doesn't reduce the accuracy of eyewitness recall and may even enhance it -counterpoint = the witnesses were interviewed several months after the event ( 4 to 15 months ) and the researchers therefore had no control over what happened to their participants in the intervening time ( e.g. post-event discussions ), so it is possible that a lack of control over confounding variables may be responsible for these findings, invalidating their support

Question 77

why is it a limitation that anxiety may not be relevant to weapon focus?

Answer 77

-E = Johnson and Scott's participants may have been focused on the weapon because they were surprised at what they saw rather than anxious because Pickel ( 1998 ) found that accuracy in identifying the 'criminal' was poorest when the object in their hand was unexpected e.g. raw chicken and a gun in a hairdressers compared to scissors which would be high anxiety but low unusualness -E = this suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety / threat and therefore tells us nothing about the specific effects of anxiety on EWT

Question 78

why is it a limitation that there are problems with the inverted-U theory?

Answer 78

-E = although the inverted-U theory appears to be a reasonable explanation of the contradictory findings linking anxiety with both increased and decreased eyewitness recall, it only focuses on physical anxiety and ignores other elements, including cognitive ( how we think about a stressful event affects what we recall ) -E = therefore, the inverted-U explanation is probably too simplistic to be useful, e.g. anxious thoughts may not always lead to symptoms of anxiety but may block memory

Question 79

what is meant by the cognitive interview?

Answer 79

-a method of interviewing eyewitnesses that was proposed by Fisher and Geiselman to help eyewitnesses retrieve more accurate memories by using four main techniques: report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order and change the perspective ( all based on psychological knowledge of human memory )

Question 80

what does the report everything element of the CI involve and why?

Answer 80

-witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event, even if it seems irrelevant or the witness doesn't feel confident about it because seemingly trivial details may be important and trigger the recall of other memories by acting as a cue

Question 81

what does the reinstate the context element of the CI involve and why?

Answer 81

-the witness returns to the original crime scene in their mind and imagines the environment ( e.g. the weather, what they could see ) and their emotions ( e.g. what they felt ) to prevent context- and state-dependent forgetting by reminding the eyewitness of their external and internal cues at the time

Question 82

what does the reverse the order element of the CI involve and why?

Answer 82

-events are recalled in a different order other than chronological ( e.g. from the end back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning ) to prevent dishonesty ( it's harder to produce an untruthful account if it has to be reversed ) and people basing their descriptions on their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events

Question 83

what does the change the perspective element of the CI involve and why?

Answer 83

-witnesses recall the incident from other people's perspectives ( e.g. the victim or persecutor ) to prevent the influence of expectations and schema on recall because the schema you have for a particular setting generate expectations of what would have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened

Question 84

what is the enhanced CI?

Answer 84

-Fisher et al. ( 1987 ) developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction between the eyewitness and interviewer ( e.g. knowing when to establish and relinquish eye contact ) and other ideas such as reducing the eyewitness's anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions to increase rapport with the interviewee

Question 85

evaluate the CI as a method of improving the accuracy of EWT

Answer 85

-one strength is research support for the effectiveness of the CI -one limitation is that some elements of the CI are more useful that others -another limitation is that it takes more time and training than the standard police interview

Question 86

why is it a strength that there is research support for the effectiveness of the CI?

Answer 86

-E = a meta-analysis by Köhnken et al. ( 1999 ) combined data from 55 studies comparing the CI ( and ECI ) with the standard police interview and found that the CI produced an average of 41% more correct information than the standard interview with only 4 studies showing no difference between the types of interview -E = this shows that the CI is effective in helping witnesses recall information that is stored in memory ( available ) but not immediately accessible -counterpoint = they also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants, especially in the ECI, therefore cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT in favour of quantity, meaning that police officers should treat eyewitness evidence from CIs / ECIs with caution

Question 87

why is it a limitation that some elements of the CI are more useful than others?

Answer 87

-E = Milne and Bull ( 2002 ) found that each of the four techniques used alone produced more information than the standard police interview, but using a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any other technique individually or combined -E = this casts doubts on the credibility of the overall CI because not all of its elements are equally effective or useful

Question 88

why is it a limitation that the CI takes more time and training than the standard police interview?

Answer 88

-E = more time is needed to establish rapport with a witness and allow them to relax, and the CI also requires special training but many forces don't have the resources to provide more than a few hours ( Kebbell and Wagstaff 1997 ) -E = this suggests that the complete CI is not a realistic method for police officers to use and it might be better to focus on just a few key elements