Memory Flashcards
who conducted research into coding?
Baddley
Explain Baddeley’s research into the coding of the short term memory
participants given two lists to remember: 1) acoustically similar-(cat,cab,can), 2) acoustically dissimilar-(pit, few, cow). recall
was tested immediately.
- found acoustically similar words were harder to recall
CODING IN STM = ACOUSTIC.
Explain Baddleys research into the coding of the long term memory.
participants given tewo lists to remember: 1) semantically similar-(big,high,tall), 2) acoustically dissimilar-(wind,box, brown). recall was tested after 20 mins.
- found words remembered least well were those with similar meanings.
55% accuracy for those semantically similar
85% accuracy for those semantically dissimilar.
CODING IN LTM = SEMANTIC.
describe JACOBS research study into capacity of the short term memory
JACOBS- ‘digit span test’, researcher reads a sequence of 4 digits then ps have to repeat digits in the correct order. each time the p gets it correct they say a new sequence adding on another digit each time untill they cant recall it. mean numer for accurately recalled digits= 9.3(numbers), 7.3(letters).
Describe MILLERS study into capacity of short term memory.
MILLER- everyday items come in 7s(e.g day of week), he referred it the magical number 7, plus or minus 2). found that amount of info retained can be increased by chunking- packaging info into larger(meaninful units) but STM will still only retain 7+/- 2 of these chunks.
CAPACITY OF STM= 7+/- 2 ITEMS.
Describe Wagenaars study into the capacity of the long term memory
WAGENAAR- conducted research ln himself, he created a diary of 2,400 events over 6 years and tested himself on recall of events in his life - found excellent recall of what the event was, who was involved, and when and where it happened.
CAPACITY OF LTM= EXTREMELY LARGE/UNLIMITED
Describe the study into duration of the short term memory
PETERSON + PETERSON- trigram experiment:
1. asked ps to remember a nonsense syllable of 3 consonants.
2. gave ps an interference task(counting back from 100 in 3s).so stop them rehearsing =important.
tested recall after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18sec intervals:
- recall=80% after 3 secs
- fewer trigrams recalled as intervals lengened.
- dropped to 10% after an 18 sec interval
Research into duration of the long term memory.
BAHRICK- tested 392 graduates (aged 17-74) from a US highschool on face and name recognition of people in their high school year.
participants either tested using photo recognition tests or free recall( have to name person in pic.
photo recognition: tested with 15 years of graduation demonstrated 90% accurate recall and after 10 years dropped to 70%.
free recall: after 15 yrs = 60% accurate recall, after 48yrs dropped to 30%.
DURATION OF LTM CAN LAST FROM A FEW MINS - A YEAR.
Explain the primacy and recency effect - Glanzer + Cunitz to support the multi store model of memory
ps shown a list of words and asked tp recall them in any order( free recall). the first and last word = remembered the best…explain why. provides evidence for memory being split into diff stores rather than one.
Describe evidence supporting the MSM from brain damaged patients.
HM:
had good LTM for events before his accident, but couldn’t create new memories as he was unable to transfer information from his STM to LTM. so he was trapped in a world as short as his STM
- supports idea that our memory is split into different stores which likely have different brain locations.
two case studies that provide support for the existence of different types of long term memory
episodic memory in both men was severely impaired as a result of amnesia, but semantic and procedural memory = relatively unaffected. this is clear evidence that not only are these types of memory different but they’re stored in different parts of the brain.
Describe Tulving et al’s study to support different types of long term memory
neuro - imaging evidence:
they got participants to perform various memory tasks whilst their brains were scanned using a PET scanner. they found that both episodic and semantic memories were recalled from the prefrontal cortex. left = semantic + left = episodic. suggests biological basis to LTM and this is an objective way of measuring cognitive processes.
Describe a lab experiment to support the interference theory explanation of forgetting
MCGEOCH & MCDONALD
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 6 groups of participants who had to learn different types of lists e.g. synonyms, antonyms.
when the participants had to recall original list of words, their performance depended on the nature of the second list. The most similar material produced the worst recall.
this shows interference is strongest when the info is similar,
this supports claims that similar info becomes confused and interferes with the memory, resulting in forgetting.
this validates the interference explanation.
Describe supporting correlation evidence for the interference theory explanation of forgetting.
SCHMIDT ET AL
tested retroactive interference in a real life setting(high ecological validity) by using childhood memories of street names.
a random sample of 211 old students of a Dutch school aged 11-79yrs completed a questionairre. - had to remember as many street names as possible from a map of an area they had gone to school in.
- other details collected included how many times moved house, where they had lived + for how long.
found positive correlation between number of times ps moved house and the number of street names forgotten.
explain Godden and Baddeley’s research to support context dependent forgetting: retrieval failure explanation of forgetting
GODDEN + BADDLEY
field experiment- got divers to learn a list of words either on land or under water = 4 conditions.
recall was worse when it occurred in a diff context to coding.
explain carter and cassaday’s research to support state dependent forgetting: retrieval failure explanation to forgetting.
CARTER + CASSADAY:
gave anti-histamines to ps (creates a diff internal state to normal) - asked to learn a list of words and passages.
recall was significantly worse when in diff internal state to learning the words.
explain Loftus and Palmers procedure( research into leading questions)
LOFTUS + PALMER:
ps shown a film of a car accident and then asked question: “how fast were the cars going when they HIT eachother?”
HIT- changed with collided, smashed, bumped or contacted.
participants asked to estimate the speed that the car was going in the video
explain loftus and palmers findings and conclusions ( research into leading questions)
FINDINGS:
“smashed”- had the highest speed estimate
“contacted”- had the lowest speed estimate
- a week later ps were asked if they had seen any broken glass( there was not any)
“smashed” group were more likely to say yes.
CONCLUSIONS:
- peoples memory of an incident can be easily influenced by changing just a single word in the question
- also can alter peoples memory by using ‘after the fact info’.
explain Gabbert et al’s procedure (research into post even discussions).
studied ps in pairs:
each participant watched a video of the same crime but from different POVs.
both ps discussed what they had seen before individually completing a recall test.
control group had no post - event discussion.
