Memory

Question 1

Who made the multi story model of memory

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shriffin (1968)

Question 2

What were the 3 separate memory stores called in the multi store model of memory

Answer 2

Sensory
Short term
Long term

Question 3

What are the 3 features in the 3 separate memory stores called and define them

Answer 3

Coding- transformation of a sensory input into a form or code which allows it to be stored in memory
This is either acoustic or visual

Capacity- memory may be measured in terms of the number of bits of information that can be held in a memory store

Duration- information is held for differing lengths of time

Question 4

What are the 3 things that can happen to the information in the STM

Answer 4

1)Rehearsal helps keep the information in short term memory

2)The information is rehearsed and goes into long term memory.

3)The information is not rehearsed and is forgotten

Question 5

Talk about the capacity and duration of each of the memory stores

Answer 5

Sensory register- extremely large capacity but duration is half a second

Short term memory- capacity about 7-+2 chunks and duration about 18 seconds

Long term memory- limitless capacity and almost a lifetime duration

Question 6

What is the coding for short term memory

Answer 6

Acoustic

Question 7

What is the coding for long term memory

Answer 7

Semantic

Question 8

How does information enter the sensory register

Answer 8

Everything we hear, see, touch, taste, smell enters the sensory register

Question 9

Describe the process of Sperling (1960)

Answer 9

Displayed to his participants visual arrays containing three rows containing 4 letters and wanted to find how many letters participants could recall in 50 milliseconds

Question 10

What are the findings of Sperling 1960

Answer 10

Participants could recall four or five of the letters from the 50 milliseconds array

Question 11

Describe the procedure of Sperling’s partial report procedure

Answer 11

He trained participants to recognise 3 tones:
A high tone indicating the top row of the display
A medium tone for the middle row
Low tone for the bottom row

Then Sperling presented them again with a series of displays for 50 milliseconds each, and sounded a tone quickly afterwards to tell them which row of letter to write

Question 12

What did Sperling find in the partial report procedure

Answer 12

Participants recalled on average 75% of the letters in the cued row. This suggests a large amount of capacity in the sensory register but duration is very short

Question 13

Describe Miller (1956)

Answer 13

Noticed many every day things ( days of week, musical note on scale) come in sevens, and produced the chunking theory. This suggest that we can hold 7+- chunks of information in STM .

Question 14

Describe Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Answer 14

investigated the duration of short term by investigating whether trigrams can be recalled following an interference task of varying length.

Participants briefly shown a trigram and asked to recall it after a period of 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds. They Were given an interference task of counting backwards in 3’s between the initial presentation of the trigram and recall. This was to prevent rehearsal.

The procedure was repeated several times with each participant using different trigrams each time

Question 15

What are the finding of Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Answer 15

As the time between the presentation and recall increased, successful recall decreased.

After 3 seconds participants recalled 80% of trigrams. After 6 seconds there was 40% recalls. After 18 seconds there was only 10% recall

Question 16

What are the procedures for Baddkey (1966)

Answer 16

Investigated the main form of coding in STM by identifying errors in the recall of lists of similar sounding word and similar meaning words.

Participants were shown various lists of words and asked to recall them in the correct order

Question 17

What were the findings of Baddley (1966)

Answer 17

When tested immediately after presentation it was found that more mistakes came from mixing up words that were acoustically similar rather than words that were semantically similar

Question 18

Evaluate the research into short term memory

Answer 18

Highly controlled lab condition.
Standardised procedure means the research can be replicated easily

Controlled lab environment means participants were in highly artificial environment.

The research therefore lacks external validity as some of the tasks were also artificial.

Question 19

What did Bahrick (1975) aim to investigate

Answer 19

The duration of long term memory by identifying whether or not people can still remember the names and faces of their classmates many years after they left school.

Question 20

What was the procedure to Bahrick 1975

Answer 20

Cross section study using 392 ex high school students aged 17-74.

For the free recall participants had to free call the names of their classmates.

For the photo recognition participants had to sort 50 photos into those that were or were not in their class

Question 21

What are the findings of Bahrick 1975

Answer 21

Results after 15 years of leaving: 60% accuracy in free recall, 90% accuracy in photo recognition

Results after 48 years of leaving 30% accuracy in free recall, 60% accuracy in photo recognition

Question 22

Evaluation of Bahrick’s study 1975

Answer 22

Only 1 type of long term Morty was being investigated -> recognition of classmates faces.

Study tells us nothing about duration of semantic memories

High external validity asking participants to recall class mates test is a real life memory

Question 23

How does Clive wearing support the multi store model

Answer 23

Suffered brain damage as a result of a virus. He is unable to lay down new long term memories but can hold a brief conversation and has some short term memory. Thus supports the multi store model as it suggests there are separate short and long term stores.

Question 24

What does Clive wearing study show about long term memory

Answer 24

He was able to play the piano but unable to recognise photographs. This suggests distinction between procedural memories (how to do things) and declarative memories (memories of things and events)

Question 25

What does KF study show about short term memory

Answer 25

He suffered from a motorcycle accident. His STM was reduced to only 2 digits but he could still for new long term memories. This supports the distinction between STM and LTM. However the model can not explain how KF could form new LTM’s even without a normal STM, as it assumes information should flow through short term memory to reach long term. This evidence challenge MSM. Some parts of KF’s short term memory still function such as visual info which suggests the STM is not a unitary story but there must be at least 2 separate STM stores

Question 26

What does HM study show about Long term memory?

Answer 26

Had an operation to treat epilepsy which removed the hippocampus. After this he was unable to form any new long term memories, although he recalls events prior to the operation. He is happy to read the same magazine many times. He performed well on the test of digit span showing good STM. This shows support to the MSM as HM had damaged to LTM but not STM suggesting stores are separate. However HM was able to develop new skills showing that LTM is not a single unitary store which goes against the MSM. The MSM ignores the role of incident learning such as gossip and puts too much emphasis on rehearsal. Incident learning suggesting information can pass straight to the LTM

Question 27

Who created the working memory model of memory 1974

Answer 27

Baddley and Hitch

Question 28

Define central executive in the working memory model

Answer 28

Important part of the model which has a supervisory role and directs attention to particular tasks. It does this by allocating tasks to various subsystems. Very limited capacity and so can attend to a limited number of things at any time but can code information from any type of source

Question 29

Define the phonological loop in the working memory model

Answer 29

Very limited capacity. Stores a limited number of speech based sounds(acoustic coding) for brief periods (2 seconds). This component divides into the phonological store- holds the words you hear like an inner ear and an articulatory process- silently repeating words you hear like an inner ear

Question 30

Define the visual spatial sketch pad in the working memory model

Answer 30

When you have to visualise a spatial task. Holding visual and spatial information (visual coding) and capacity is limited to about 4 objects.

Question 31

Define the episodic buffer in the working memory model

Answer 31

Introduced by Baddley in 2000. Enables the central executive to access information in the LTM and integrate it with information in the other systems. Capacity is limited to about 4 chunks and coding is modality free

Question 32

What was the procedure with Baddley dual task performance

Answer 32

Tracking a moving light with a pointer and another task which was either: 1)Imagining a hollow letter F and going round it saying whether each of the angels were inside or outside the shape Or 2)Repeating words

Question 33

What were the findings of Baddley dual task performance

Answer 33

Task 1 had impaired performance on the pointer task but Task 2 did not So if we attempt to use the same subsystem for 2 tasks at once they will be in competition for its limited capacity and performance will be impaired

Question 34

Strengths for Working memory model

Answer 34

Support of WMM comes from dual task experiment which shows that there must be separate subsystems that process visual and sound based information. The case study of KD had very poor STM for sound based information but normal STM for visual info. This supports the idea of separate parts of STM

Question 35

Weakness of the Working Memory Model

Answer 35

Central executive doesn’t give enough information on how it allocates resources. Some psychologists believe it’s too vague to suggest its attention.

Question 36

Define Eposidic memory a type of long term memory

Answer 36

Memories of events that have happened in our lives. Time stamped- remember when they happened Not taught to us

Question 37

Define semantic memory as a type of long term memory

Answer 37

Knowledge of facts about the world and meaning of words. Not time stamped Does require effort to recall May be taught to us

Question 38

Define procedural memory as a type of long term memory

Answer 38

Memory for actions or skills How to do things (driving a car) Usually recalled without conscious effort Not time stamped May be taught to us

Question 39

What are evidence that there are different types of long term memory

Answer 39

Clive wearing and KF showed episodic memory was severely impaired, both men retained their procedural memory. They both knew how it walk talk etc. Brain scans have shown that episodic memories involve activity on the right side of the prefrontal cortex whereas semantic memories involve the left side of the prefrontal cortex

Question 40

Explain why interference is an explanation for forgetting

Answer 40

Proactive interference: when old memories interfere with newer ones. Eg putting a key in a different position and you keep going to old position Retroactive interference: when new memory interferes with older ones. Eg once you have learned your new postcode you may find it hard to recall the one from your old adress

Question 41

Study on interference for explanations of forgetting

Answer 41

Baddley and Hitch asked rugby players to recall the teams they had played against that season. They found that recall for games played a few weeks ago was better if players had missed one or more games since then. This suggests that interference is the reason that the more regular players performed worse on recall. This demonstrates that interference can explain forgetting in real life situations as well as in the more artificial laboratory environment. However the degree of similarity in the names is unclear and there could be many confounding variables.

Question 42

Explain why retrieval failure is an explanation of forgetting

Answer 42

We need cues which are triggers that allow us to access information and they are often coded at the time of learning. Internal cues are mood and external cues are physical location.

Question 43

Define context dependent forgetting

Answer 43

When we try (and fail) to recall information in a very different environment (context) to that in which it was learned

Question 44

Describe the procedures of Godden and Baddley study of retrieval failure

Answer 44

Asked divers to learn a list of words either on the beach or whilst they were underwater. Half of each group were then tested on land and half underwater. Divers who learned and were tested in the same environment recalled 40% more words that those tested in a different environment which they learned the words. This is because the external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall and this led to retrieval failure

Question 45

Define state dependent forgetting

Answer 45

When we try to recall information in a different internal state to the one we were in when we learned it

Question 46

Describe Carter and Cassaday study on context dependent forgetting

Answer 46

Participants asked to learn words either with or without taking a mild sedative beforehand. Those who learned and were tested in different states did significant worse on recall that those who learned And were tested in the same state. When internal cues that were there on learning are absent on recall we are more likely to forget

Question 47

Evaluation of Carter and Cassiaday

Answer 47

The study is a highly controlled laboratory study which would be easily replicated. Artificial and learning word lists may not reflect forgetting in everyday life suggesting that other factors may be involved in forgetting Artificial setting may have led to demand characteristic

Question 48

Evaluation of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

Answer 48

Godden and Baddley and Carter and Cassiaday are good evidence that forgetting can be due to retrieval failure, argued that this could be the main reason to forgetting in LTM Research supporting may lack ecological validity because a great difference between context and state must be very rare.

Question 49

Define eye witness testimony

Answer 49

Refers to the description given by people of an event they have experienced

Question 50

Describe the study to show anxiety as a factor affecting accuracy of Eye witness testimony

Answer 50

Johnson and Scott (1976) made two conditions: 1) participants overheard a causal conversation in the next room and about and equipment failure. A person then emerged from the room holding a pen and with greasy on his lands ( low anxiety condition) 2) participants overheard a heated and hostile exchange between people in the next room. After the sound of breaking glass and crashing chairs a man emerged from the room holding a knife covered in blood ( high anxiety condition)

Question 51

What are the findings of Johnson and Scott (1976)

Answer 51

Participants who had witnessed the man holding the pen accurately identified the person 49% of the time. Participant who had witness the man with the knife were successful only 33% of the time. This suggests anxiety makes EWT less accurate.

Question 52

Describe the study to show misleading information as a factor of accuracy for EWT

Answer 52

Loftus and palmer (1974) investigated the effects of participants hearing different words when asked about their memory of a car crash. Participants were shown a 30 second videotape of 2 cars colliding. Then asked a question about the speed that the cars were travelling. All 45 participants had the same critical question “about how fast were the cars going when they -> hit,smashed,collided,contacted A week later they got asked if the glass shattered

Question 53

What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer

Answer 53

Participants that got the word smashed had a mean estimation speed of 40.5 mph and 32% said test to broken glass Hit 34mph and 14% yes Contacted has 31.8mph and 7% yes This shows that the wording or the question can influence the answer participants give but may not actually alter their memories

Question 54

Describe the study for post event discussion as a factor affecting the accuracy of EWT

Answer 54

Gabert et al (2003) asked pairs of participants to watch videos of the same crime, but filmed in different view points, showing slightly different details of the crime. They then discussed together what they had seen before individually completing recall tests.

Question 55

What did the researcher find in Gabert et al study

Answer 55

71% of participants recalled events they had not seen in the video but had picked up from the discussion. The group which did not have a chance to discuss, none recalled events that were not in the video they had watched.

Question 56

Criticism of research into eye witness testimony

Answer 56

Laboratory experiments have the advantage that they allow us to draw conclusions about caused and effect but the lacy external validity.

Question 57

Identify the 4 components of the cognitive interview

Answer 57

Report everything- interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail even this detail which may seem irrelevant Mental reinstatement of the original context- interviewer encourages the participant to mentally recreate the scene in their mind. They ask about smell, sound, weather conditions so that cues recall reducing risk of content dependent forgetting. Changing the order when recalling- interviewer may try alternative ways through timeline incident to avoid use schema which may create inaccuracies based on what we think makes sense Changing the perspective- interviewer asks to recall incident from different perspectives, this disrupts them reporting their expectations of what would have happened rather than genuine memories