Memory Flashcards

Question

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 1

The component of the WMM that brings together material form the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. It also provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory.

Answer 2

Stores the words you hear

Answer 3

Maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds or words in a loop to keep them in working memory while they are needed). The capacity of this loop is believed to be 2 seconds worth of what you can say.

Answer 4

Stores visual data

Answer 5

Records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Answer 6

Three to four objects

Answer 7

Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.

Answer 8

Forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored disrupt the recall of newer one. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories and similar.

Answer 9

Forgetting occurs when newer memories distrust the recall of older memories already stored. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar

Answer 10

McGeoch and McDonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials. Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then learned a new list. There were six groups of participants who had to learn different types of lists: • Group 1: synonyms - words with the same meanings as the originals. • Group 2: antonyms - words with the opposite meanings to the originals. • Group 3: words unrelated to the original ones. • Group 4: consonant syllables. • Group 5: three-digit numbers. • Group 6: no new list - these participants just rested.

Answer 11

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Answer 12

When the participants then recalled the original list of words, their performance depended on the nature of the second list. The most similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall. This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar. The results are shown in the graph on the left.

Answer 13

A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning.

Answer 14

Incorrect information given to the eyewitness usually after the event.

Answer 15

Questions which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer.

Answer 16

Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with co-witnesses or with other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witness’s recall of the event.

Answer 17

Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer (1974) arranged for participants (students) to watch film clips of car accidents and then gave them questions about the accident. In the critical question (a leading question) participants were asked to describe how fast the cars were travelling: 'About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?' This is a leading question because the verb 'hit' suggests the speed the car was going. There were five groups of participants, each was given a different verb in the critical question. One group had the verb hit, the others had contacted, bumped, collided, smashed.

Answer 18

The mean estimated speed was calculated for each participant group. The verb contacted resulted in a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph. For the verb smashed, the mean was 40.5 mph. The leading question biased the eyewitness recall of an event.

Answer 19

Distorts original memories because witnesses confuse what they actually saw with what they subsequently heard.

Answer 20

Eyewitnesses go along with other witness testimonies.

Answer 21

Loftus and Palmer asked about broken glass, leading question had altered memory of the event.

Answer 22

Johnson and Scott (1976) did research on this. They led participants to believe they were going to take part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room participants heard an argument in the next room. In the 'low-anxiety' condition a man then walked through the waiting area, carrying a pen and with grease on his hands. Other participants overheard the same heated argument, but this time accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man walked out of the room, holding a paper knife that was covered in blood. This was the 'high-anxiety' condition.

Answer 23

The participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos; 49% of the participants who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him. The corresponding figure for the participants who had seen the man holding the blood-covered knife was just 33%. The tunnel theory of memory argues that a witness's attention narrows to focus on a weapon, because it is a source of anxiety.

Answer 24

John Yuille and Judith Cutshall (1986) conducted a study of a real-life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses - 13 agreed to take part in the study. The interviews were held 4-5 months after the incident and these were compared with the original police interviews made at the time of the shooting. Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account. The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident, using a 7-point scale, and asked if they had any emotional problems since the event, such as sleeplessness.

Answer 25

The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount or accuracy after 5 months - though some details were less accurate, such as recollection of the colour of items and age/height/weight estimates. Those participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group).

Answer 26

1. Report everything Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn't feel confident about it. Seemingly trivial details may be important and, moreover, they may trigger other important memories. 2. Reinstate the context The witness should return to the original crime scene 'in their mind' and imagine the environment (such as what the weather was like, what they could see) and their emotions (such as what were their feelings). This is related to context-dependent forgetting discussed on page 56. 3. Reverse the order Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence, for example, from the final point back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning. This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events. It also prevents dishonesty (it's harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it). 4. Change perspective Witnesses should recall the incident from other people's perspectives. For example, how it would have appeared to other witnesses or to the perpetrator. This is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema on recall. The schema you have for a particular setting (such as going into a shop) generate expectations of what would have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened.

Memory Flashcards

(50 cards)