Memory Flashcards

Question

What were the findings of this research?

Answer 1

For STM, participants struggled with acoustically similar words suggesting that STM is coded acoustically For LTM, participants struggled with semantically similar words, suggesting that LTM is coded semantically

Answer 2

Peterson and Peterson tested 24 undergraduate students. Participants were shown trigrams e.g. "THX" and asked to recall them after varying intervals (3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds). To prevent maintenance rehearsal, participants counted backwards in thress during the intervals

Answer 3

Recall accuracy decreases rapidly. After 18 seconds, only about 10% of the trigrams were recalled accurately

Answer 4

Miller(1956) made observations of everyday practice and suggested that the STM can hold about 7 ± 2 items (between 5 and 9 items) Jacobs(1887) created a technique to measure the digit span. He tells the participants 4 digits and asks them to recall the digits in the correct order. If they did, he repeats the procedure with 5 digits, 6 digits..until the participants incorrectly recall the order of the digits

Answer 5

He found out that the capacity of STM can be improved through chunking. Chunking is grouping information into meaningful units or chunks This reduces the total number of items overall

Answer 6

He found out that the mean span for digits was 9.3 items, while the mean span for letters was 7.3 items. This suggests that STM capacity is limited with a capacity of 7 ± 2 items

Answer 7

Bahrick et al studied participants who were aged between 17-74. The participants were tested on their ability to recall names and faces of former classmates using high school yearbooks. Recognition tests(matching names to faces) and free recall tests(recalling names) were conducted.

Answer 8

Recognition memory:90% accuracy after 15 years, 70% accuracy after 48 years Free recall: 60% accuracy after 15 years, 30% after 48 years LTM can last a lifetime,especially when cues are provided

Answer 9

1. Baddeley's research provides strong evidence for the distinction between STM and LTM. His findings show that STM relies on acoustic coding, while LTM relies on semantic coding, supporting the idea that the memory stores are functionally separate. 2. The study was a well-controlled lab experiment, meaning extraneous variables were minimised. This increases internal validity, making it easier to draw cause- and-effect conclusions about how memory works.

Answer 10

1. Baddeley's research lacks ecological validity as the task involved recalling lists of words which do not reflect how memory is used in everyday life. The word list given was also quite artificial as it had no personal meaning to the participants so the findings aren't generalisable to other memory tasks. People may use semantic coding even for STM tasks when processing more meaningful information. 2. Oversimplification as coding in STM and LTM may not be exclusively acoustic or semantic, visual and other form of coding are also important

Answer 11

1. Miller's research provided a valuable framework for understanding STM as his idea of "7 ± 2" chunks aligns with real world memory systems e.g. in phone numbers and postcodes. He also introduced the idea of chunking which is widely used in cognitive psychology and education to improve memory 2. Jacob's research supported Miller's findings strengthening the validity of the findings.

Answer 12

1. Miller's estimate of 7 ± 2 items might have been overestimated as later studies suggested that STM capacity may be closer to 4 items and not 7 (Cowan 2001). This implies that miller's findings may lack accuracy and have a lower validity than originally thought. 2. The study lacks ecological validity as both studies used artificial tasks (learning digits and letters) which does not reflect how memory is used in real life settings. This reduces the generalisability of their findings to everyday memory usage.

Answer 13

1. The research was a well controlled lab experiment which means extraneous variables were well controlled. This makes it easy to establish a cause and effect conclusions that STM has a limited duration without rehearsal. It also supports the MSM which suggests that the STM is limited in duration and separate from LTM. This strengthens the theoretical basis of memory models used in psychology. 2. The rapid decay of information without rehearsal supports the idea that STM has a limited duration

Answer 14

Lacks ecological validity as participants were asked to remember meaningless trigrams which is not typical of everyday memory use. This means the findings may not be generalisable to real-life memory tasks like remembering names or directions.

Answer 15

1. The study has high external validity as it used real life memories (year books and classmates) rather than artificial lab materials. This makes the findings more applicable to everyday memory 2. It also supports the existence of very long term memory. The findings show that meaningful information, especially when associated with cues(like photos) can be retained in LTM for decades, supporting the durability of LTM

Answer 16

1. Confounding variables were not controlled as participants may have looked at yearbooks or kept in touch with classmates, meaning their memory was rehearsed, which could explain high performance. This reduced internal validity as it's unclear whether high recall was due to memory duration or repeated exposure. 2. Variability in participant's personal experience with classmates may have influenced recall

Answer 17

1. Empirical support- the studies provide strong empirical support for theories of memory, particularly the MSM 2. Application- insights from these studies have practical applications such as improving educational techniques and understanding memory impairments

Answer 18

1. Artificiality- Many of the studies used tasks that lack ecological validity. Real-life memory often involves more complex and meaningful material 2. Later research shows that neither the STM nor LTM are unitary stores as there are multiple types of LTM and STM which are better explained by the WMM

Answer 19

Episodic, Semantic and Procedural memory.

Answer 20

They are memories that involve conscious effort to be retrieved and can be put into words

Answer 21

They are memories that cannot be consciously recalled. It's unconscious and automatic memory of skills or muscle memory

Answer 22

It is a LTM store for personal events and experiences which include memories of when the event occurred, the people, objects and behaviours involved.

Answer 23

1. Time stamped: Memories are stored with reference to when the event happened 2. Autobiographical: Memories that "I" am a part of 3. Easiest memory to forget 4. Requires conscious effort to recall so it is explicit

Answer 24

It is a LTM store for our knowledge of the world, facts and concepts which are NOT linked to personal experiences

Answer 25

1. NOT time stamped as we do not remember when we learnt it 2. NOT autobiographical as the memories are shared knowledge that individuals know 3. Resistant to forgetting. 4. It also requires conscious effort to recall so it is explicit

Answer 26

It is a LTM store for knowledge of how to do things which include our memories of learned skills and motor skills

Answer 27

1. NOT time stamped 2. NOT autobiographical 3. Very resistant to forgetting. 4. It does NOT require conscious effort to recall so it is implicit

Answer 28

A major strength of the multi-component view of LTM is the support from clinical case studies of patients with amnesia. Both HM and Clive Wearing had severe brain damage that affected their ability to form new memories. However, while their Episodic memory was destroyed, their Procedural memory remained perfectly intact. For example, Clive Wearing could still play the piano, sing and read music. This supports the theory because it proves that there are different stores for different types of long-term memories. If LTM were one single store, these patients would have lost all types of memory simultaneously. The fact that one can be broken while the other functions proves they are handled by different parts of the brain (the hippocampus for episodic and the cerebellum for procedural). However, a limitation of using clinical case studies is the lack of control over variables. The researcher has no knowledge of what the patient's memory was like before the damage, and the brain damage is often widespread rather than localized.

Answer 29

Further support for the different types of LTM comes from objective scientific evidence using brain-scanning techniques like PET and fMRI. Evidence: Tulving et al. (1994) asked participants to perform various memory tasks while their brains were being scanned. They found that Episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex, while Semantic memories were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex. This provides biological evidence that different types of LTM are processed in different physical locations in the brain. Unlike the case studies of HM or Clive Wearing, this research used "healthy" brains in a controlled environment, which increases the internal validity of the findings.

Answer 30

1. Overlap between episodic and semantic memories. Some researchers argue that episodic and semantic memories are not completely separate. Squire and Zola(1998) argue that both episodic and semantic memories may be stored together initially, but episodic memories eventually become semantic over time 2. Studies like HM and Clive Wearing provide insights into the different areas of the brain that are associated with different types of LTM but they are based on unique cases, making it hard to generalize findings to all people.

Answer 31

The Working Memory Model (WMM) proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) is a more sophisticated alternative to the Multi-Store Model "short-term memory" (STM) store. Instead of viewing STM as a single, passive store for information, the WMM sees it as an active "multi-component" processor that handles different types of information simultaneously.

Answer 32

The central executive, the Phonological loop, the Visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer

Answer 33

It is an important component of the WMM that monitors incoming data, and acts as a filter deciding which information is important and directs it to the specific slave systems.

Answer 34

This is a component of the WMM that deals with auditory/sound based information. It also preserves the order in which the information arrives

Answer 35

Phonological store and articulatory process

Answer 36

It acts as our "inner ear" and stores the words we hear. It has a limited capacity of roughly 2 seconds worth of what we can say.

Answer 37

It acts as our "inner voice" and allows for maintenance rehearsal.

Answer 38

This is a component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space.

Answer 39

Visual cache: stores visual information Inner scribe: records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Answer 40

It acts as a temporary storage space for the central executive, integrating information from the other three components and links working memory to long-term memory. It has a limited capacity of about 4 chunks.

Answer 41

A major strength of the WMM is the evidence from dual-task performance studies, which support the existence of separate components for visual and verbal tasks. Baddeley et al. (1975) showed that participants had more difficulty performing two visual tasks at the same time (e.g., tracking a light and describing the letter F) than doing a visual and a verbal task simultaneously. This supports the model because it proves that the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad and the Phonological Loop are separate systems with limited capacities. When two tasks compete for the same component, performance drops because the "department" is overloaded. When they use different components, there is no competition, allowing one to perform effectively. This gives the model higher internal validity than the Multi-Store Model. Despite this, these laboratory experiments often use highly artificial tasks that lack mundane realism. In everyday life, we rarely "track lights" while "describing a letter." Consequently, the model may not fully capture how memory operates in the complex environment of the real world.

Answer 42

Another strength of the WMM is that it is supported by clinical evidence from brain-damaged patients, specifically Patient KF. After a motorcycle accident, KF suffered damage to his short-term memory. He had great difficulty processing verbal information (auditory) but his memory for visual information remained almost entirely intact. This supports the model's claim that there are separate "slave systems" for different types of information. If the STM were a single unitary store (as the MSM suggests), all of KF's short-term memory would have been damaged. The fact that only his "inner ear" (PL) was damaged while his "inner eye" (VSS) worked proves these components are physically and functionally distinct. However, we must be cautious when using case studies of brain-damaged individuals. The trauma of the accident and subsequent brain surgery are unique variables, meaning we cannot easily generalize these findings to the "normal" population.

Answer 43

A significant theoretical limitation of the WMM is the lack of clarity regarding the Central Executive, which is often described as the most important but least understood component. Research suggests that the Central Executive is not a single component but is likely made up of several different sub-components that have not yet been identified. Currently, the CE is often used as a "catch-all" term for anything the model can't explain, leading some psychologists to claim the concept is too vague to be scientifically useful. Nevertheless, the addition of the Episodic Buffer in 2000 was a direct attempt by Baddeley to address these gaps by explaining how the components integrate. Ultimately, while the model is currently "incomplete," it remains the most functional and widely accepted explanation of how we process information.

Answer 44

It is the inability to recall something that was previously learnt

Answer 45

Decay and Displacement Theory

Answer 46

It is the idea that memory leaves traces in the brain in the form of physical or chemical change in the nervous system. The theory states that forgetting occurs as a result of the automatic decay or fading of the memory trace. It focuses on the limited duration of the STM

Answer 47

1. There is very little support for decay theory as it is almost impossible to test. It is not possible to create a situation in which there is a blank period of time between the presentation of material and recall. Ppts could also rehearse the information presented to them, if a distractor task is brought in to prevent rehearsal it results in interference 2. Decay theory also has difficulty explaining why people can remember events that happened years ago, without them thinking about it during the intervening period.

Answer 48

It is based on the idea that the STM has a limited capacity for information. When STM is "full", new information displaces or "pushes out" old information and takes its place

Answer 49

It is the idea that words at the beginning of a list are remembered better. This can be explained using Atkinson and Shiffrin's MSM which proposes that information is transferred into the LTM through rehearsal. The first words at the beginning of the list are rehearsed more frequently because at the time they are presented, they don't have to compete for the limited capacity of the STM and so the words are more likely to be transferred to the LTM

Answer 50

It is the idea that words at the end of a list are remembered better because they are not displaced from the STM so they are available for recall

Answer 51

The theory provided a good account of how forgetting might take place in Atkinson and Shiffrin's model of MSM. However, it became clear that the STM store is not a unitary store and is in fact made up of different components

Answer 52

Interference and Retrieval failure

Answer 53

It is a theory that suggests that we forget because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgetting

Answer 54

Proactive interference: When older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories. Retroactive interference: When newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories. *P*roactive *O*ld memory disrupts the recall of the newer memory *R*etroactive *N*ewer memory disrupts the recall of the older memories.

Answer 55

1. Similarity: Interference is more likely to happen when two sets of information are similar which is due to response competition (when both information are available, but we can't decide which to choose) 2. Time sensitivity: The SMALLER the gap between learning and recall, the stronger interference is

Answer 56

McGeoch and McDonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials. Ppts were given a list of 10 words and were asked to learn it until they could remember it with 100% accuracy. They learned a new list. There were 6 groups of participants who had to learn different types of lists. Group 1 had synonyms to the original list Group 2 had antonyms to the original list Group 3 had unrelated words to the original list Group 4 has consonant syllables (e.g. THO) Group 5 has 3 digit numbers Group 6 had no new list- the ppts just rested

Answer 57

The most similar material(the synonyms) produced the worst recall. This supports the idea that interference is strongest when the memories are similar

Answer 58

1. Real-life studies that support the theory. Baddeley and Hitch(1977) asked rugby players to try and recall the names of the teams they played during that season. The number of games they’d played since was more important than the total time they’d been playing for. This can be explained in terms of interference, where the more games each player had played, the more likely the memories of these newer games would block the recall of older games i.e. retroactive interference. 2. Evidence from lab studies: Lab studies such as McGeoch and McDonald's research show that both types of interference are likely to be ways we forget info from LTM. This is a strength because lab experiments control the effect of irrelevant influences and this gives us confidence that interference is a valid explanation for forgetting

Answer 59

1. The use of artificial tasks such as learning list of words with no personal meaning to the participants which means that the findings of interference studies are likely to have low mundane realism. This is because in real life, we are likely to learn lists of meaningful information, such as revision topics for psychology, birthdays of our families and friends which have personal meaning to us. 2. A second methodological criticism of interference studies, further suggesting that they lack mundane realism and reliability, is that they are often conducted in very short spaces of time, with participants recalling their words 1 or 2 hours after they have learnt them. This does not reflect the normal passage of time in everyday life, where we often find that several days pass until we need to recall such information e.g. in the case of an exam. Therefore, this suggests that interference is unlikely to be a valid explanation for forgetting from the LTM.

Answer 60

This is an explanation for forgetting which states that forgetting occurs when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory.

Answer 61

Context-dependent forgetting(external cues) and State-dependent forgetting(internal cues)

Answer 62

It is an idea proposed by Tulving(1983) which states that if a cue is to help us recall information it has to be present at the time of encoding and at retrieval. If the cue available at encoding and retrieval are different, or if the cue is absent, then forgetting happens

Answer 63

It occurs when external cues that were available during encoding do not match those present at recall which inhibits memory.

Answer 64

Baddeley and Godden(1975) studied divers, asking them to learn a list of words either underwater or on land and then testing their recall either underwater or on land. This created four conditions: learnt UW- recalled on land, learnt UW-recalled UW, learnt on land-recalled on land, learnt on land-recalled UW

Answer 65

Recall accuracy was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions when compared to the matching conditions. This supports the idea of context-dependent forgetting as the external cues available at learning was different from the ones at recall which led to retrieval failure

Answer 66

It occurs when the internal cues available at encoding does not match those present at recall which inhibits memory

Answer 67

Overtun(1972) asked participants to learn words either drunk or sober and tested them when they were either drunk or sober. This created four conditions: Learnt when drunk-recalled when drunk, learnt when drunk-recalled when sober, learnt when sober-recalled when sober, learnt when sober-recalled when drunk.

Answer 68

Findings were better when the internal states were the same during testing and encoding

Answer 69

A significant strength of this explanation is its high practical application, as it can be used to improve memory in real-world settings like education and forensics. The Cognitive Interview, used by police to improve the accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony (EWT), uses a technique called "Context Reinstatement." Witnesses are asked to mentally return to the scene of the crime and imagine the weather, their feelings, and the surroundings to trigger more memories. This shows that retrieval failure has economic and social benefits. By applying the theory of cues, the justice system can gather more accurate evidence, and students can improve their revision by studying in "exam-like" conditions. This moves the theory from a mere laboratory concept to a tool that improves human performance and safety.

Answer 70

A major strength of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting is the significant amount of research support, particularly regarding context-dependent cues. Godden and Baddeley (1975) conducted a study with deep-sea divers who learned a list of words either on land or underwater. They found that recall was 40% lower when the environment of learning did not match the environment of recall (e.g., learned on land, recalled underwater). Carter and Cassaday (1998) gave participants antihistamine drugs (which have a mild sedative effect, making them feel slightly drowsy) while they learned lists of words. In conditions where the internal state at learning did not match the state at recall (e.g., learned on the drug, recalled sober), memory performance was significantly worse. This supports the Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP), which suggests that the "cues" present during learning (the external & internal environment) are encoded alongside the information. When these cues are absent during retrieval, forgetting occurs not because the memory is gone, but because the "trigger" to access it is missing. This gives the theory high internal validity as it clearly demonstrates the power of environmental hooks. However, Baddeley later pointed out that context effects are actually quite weak in real life unless the environments are as vastly different as being underwater versus on land. Most everyday environments (like moving from one classroom to another) are not distinct enough to cause significant forgetting. Ultimately, the explanation may have limited mundane realism in explaining everyday, minor memory lapses.

Answer 71

1. The findings from studies of retrieval failure may lack ecological validity. This is because Baddeley argued that it is difficult to find conditions in real-life which are as polar as water and land and thus questioning the existence of context effects in normal life. This suggests that RF may not be best suited to explaining cases of forgetting where the cues associated with encoding and retrieval are uncommonly distinct, thus not providing the accurate depiction of forgetting in day-to-day life

Answer 72

It refers to the information recalled about a crime by an eyewitness

Answer 73

1. Misleading information in the form of leading questions and post-event discussion 2. Anxiety

Answer 74

It is incorrect information given to the eyewitness after the event

Answer 75

They are questions that prompt or encourage the eyewitness to give a specific answer

Answer 76

1. Response-bias explanation: when the question only influences that eyewitness to give a certain answer 2. Substitution explanation: when the questions changes the eyewitness' memory of the event

Answer 77

Loftus and Palmer (1974) arranged for student participants to watch a film clip of a car crash and then gave them questions about the accident. Ppt were asked to estimate the speed of the cars based on the leading question of “About how fast were the cars going when they x into each other?”, with each group being exposed to a different critical verb. The verbs used were hit, bumped, contacted, collided and smashed. Those exposed to the verb “smashed” gave a speed estimate 8.7 mph greater than those who’d heard “contacted”. Therefore, this shows that leading questions, because of the way they are phrased, suggest that there is a correct answer

Answer 78

This was demonstrated because ppl who heard "smashed" later were more likely to report seeing broken glass than those who heard "hit". The critical verb altered the memory of the incident

Answer 79

It is when the recall of one event by a witness alters the accuracy

Answer 80

Memory conformity: This is when the recall of an eyewitness changes because they go along with the account of another co-witness. They do this either to win social approval or because they believe the other eyewitness is right and they are wrong.

Answer 81

Gabbert et al(2003) studied ppt in pairs. Each ppt watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different POV's. This meant that each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not. Both ppt then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall.

Answer 82

They found that 71% of the ppt had mistakenly recall events that they didn't see in their own video but had picked up in the discussion compared to a 0% control group rate who had worked along throughout

Answer 83

Research into misleading information has led to useful real-life applications where the consequence of inaccurate EWT can be very serious. An example is the development of cognitive interviews which is a technique used to reduce the influence of schemas on the accuracy of recall

Answer 84

The use of artificial tasks: Ppts from Loftus and Palmer study watched film clips of car accidents which is a very different experience from witnessing a real accident. This is a limitation because studies that use artificial tasks lack mundane realism and so they tell us very little about how leading questions affect EWT in cases of real accidents or crimes

Answer 85

It is a mental state or arousal that includes feelings of extreme concern and tension. It has strong emotional and physical effects but it is not clear whether these effects make eyewitnesses recall better or worse but there is research to support both possibilities

Answer 86

Johnson and Scott(1976) had ppts believe they were going to take part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room, they could hear conversations happening in the next room. In the low-anxiety conditions, the ppts listened to a normal convo about equipment failure with a man walking out with a pen and grease. In the high anxiety condition, they could hear a hostile argument with sounds of breaking glass and furniture being knocked over. A man walked out with a paper knife covered in blood

Answer 87

The ppts had to pick out the man from a set of 50 photos and 49% of the ppt were able to recognise the man who had the pen and grease compared to 33% of the ppt who had seen the man holding the blood-covered knife

Answer 88

The tunnel theory: It argues that a witness's attention narrows to focus on a weapon, because it is a source of anxiety making us lose focus on important cues

Answer 89

Yuille and Cutshall(1986) interviewed 13 witnesses to a deadly shooting five months after the event. It was found that witnesses resisted misleading information and those with the most stress produced the most accurate EWT. This suggests misleading information and anxiety may not be a significant problem for real world EWT

Answer 90

Yerkes-Dodson Law of arousal: It states that EWT accuracy increases as anxiety increases as the witness becomes more alert, however at a point anxiety becomes too high so distractions result in lower accuracy

Answer 91

1. The inverted-U explanation is too simplistic as it does not take into account the multiple factors which make up arousal i.e. cognitive, behavioural, emotional etc. 2. The weapon focus effect may be testing for the effects of surprise rather than anxiety. For example, Pickel found that the highest levels of accuracy of EWT were experienced in the condition with high unusualness i.e. a raw chicken in a hairdressing salon. This suggests that the weapon focus effect can only be used to explain certain influences of anxiety on the accuracy of EWT.

Answer 92

It is a method of interviewing EW to help them retrieve more accurate memories

Answer 93

Reinstate the context, report everything, change the perspective and reverse the order

Answer 94

Witnesses would mentally return to the scene of the crime and imagine the environment and their emotions at that time. This is based on cue dependent forgetting(state and context)

Answer 95

Witnesses are encouraged to report every single detail of the events even tho it may seem irrelevant. This is because seemingly trivial details may be important and my trigger other important memories

Answer 96

Witnesses should recall the incident from other people's perspective eg how it would have appeared to other witnesses or the perpetrator. This is done to disrupt the effects of expectations and schemas on recall

Answer 97

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 must have happened

Answer 98

Milne&Bull(2002) investigated the effects on recall of each of the four aspects on the CI separately and found that each aspect produced a similar level or recall. However, the report everything and reinstate the context produced the best recall. This is a strength because it suggests that at least these two elements should be used to improve police interviewing even if the full CI isn't used.

Answer 99

The CI does not only increase the recall of correct information by 81%, but also increases the recall of incorrect information by 61% as suggested by Kohnken et al(1999). This suggests that CI may be of limited practical use due to the increased errors 2. The CI can be time consuming requiring time for significant training and investment which may not be available

Memory Flashcards

MSM, Types of LTM, WMM, Explanations for forgetting, Factors affecting EWT, Improving the accuracy of EWT. (123 cards)