Flashcards in Memory Deck (81):
1
What do psychologist believe are the three stages of memory
Encoding- changing he form of information so it can be stored in the memory.
Storage- so it can be held in the memory system
Retrieval- so it can be brought back from the memory system and used.
2
What do psychologist believe are the three types of memory
Sensory register, short term memory and long term memory
3
Explain the multi store model of memory
Atkins and shiffrins attempt to explain the flow of memory. Based on the informational process approach: information passes through each stage in a fixed sequence.
External stimulus-----sensory register(decay)----attentions----short term memory(displacement)----rehears---long term memory(decay).
Retrieval is used to get info from the long term to the short term memory.
4
In the multi store model of memory how does information get from the sensory register to the short term memory
If attention is paid. Attention is about whether you actually consciously take notes of incoming stimulus. Research shows that information not paid attention to has a duration of a few seconds at the most.
5
What does cognitive psychology focus on and why may it be a problem
Focuses on the way in which we perceive, process, store and respond to information. It is interested in the sensory information and the behaviour. Cognitive psychologist believe the mind is a bit like a computer , calculating, analysing and interpreting information in a systematic way, we have been programmed by experience. This analogy has its flaws since no human behaviour is as neatly predictable as this.
6
Why do Atkinson and Shiffrin believe rehearsal is important in the multi store model of memory
It acts as a buffer between the sensory register and the long term memory by maintaining incoming information within the short term memory while you consider whether or not you want to process the information further.
It enables Information to be maintained in the short term memory otherwise it is lost because the short term memory has a limited duration.
Enables us to transfer information to the ltm. The longer we rehears the stronger the memory trace.
7
How would the multi store model say we rehears in information
Rehearsal is normally done by verbal repetition
8
What does Atkinson and Shiffrin mean by displacement
A process that takes place in the Stm if too much information enters the store. This is because stm has a limited capacity. Once this is reached any other Information pushes out earlier Information.
9
What is the sensory register according to the msm
It's not under conscience control, it responds to sensory information by the sense organs and is the first storage system I'm the multi store model.
Experiments to look into the sensory register are often highly artificial and lack mundane realism
10
How are things stored in the sensory register? According to the msm
What does crowder say about the way information is coded in the sensory register ?
In a raw and unprocessed form.
Separate stores for different sensory input
Information that is paid attention to passed to the stm the rest fade away through decay
Crowder- sr only retains iconic information for a few milli seconds but 2-3 seconds for echoic information. Supporting how the sensory information is processed in different sensory stores.
11
What is the capacity of the sensory register according to the msm
What was spelling research into the capacity of the sensory register
How may his study be criticised
Very large
Info stored in an unprocessed, highly detailed and ever changing format.
Sperling- flashes a grid of letters on a screen for 0.5 seconds and found that participants could only record up to 4/5 letters. He found that when he asked the participants to respond to cues and focus on one row participant were able to recall up to 75% of letters. Performance improved but still wasn't 100% suggesting that iconic memory has a limited capacity and the information decays rapidly.
Criticism- participants iq may effect how many letters there recall- such as dyslexia
12
What is the duration of the sensory register according to the msm
What did Darwen et Al find about the duration of the sensory register
Limited duration
Not constant across all stores
Different sensory stores have different durations. There is some research to suggest that duration decrease with age.
Darwen- presented a letter and a number list to participants through earphones so it seemed to participants that one list came from the left one from the right and one from behind. The participants were then asked to recall the list between 0 to 4 seconds after hearing it. It was found that as the time increased the recall decreased. Suggesting that info in the sensory register is stored in a raw form before being processed.
13
What is the short term memory according to the msm
Temporarily stores information received from the Sr. It's an active memory store as it stores info that is currently being though through.
14
How is info coded in the short term memory according to the Msm
What does Braddeley suggest about the way info is coded in the Stm
Arrives from the Sr In its raw format and is then encoded in a way that the stm can easily deal with it.
Information can be encoded visually, acoustically and semantically. Research suggest that acoustic is the main form of coding in the stm.
Baddeley- give participants 4 lists of words: acoustically similar and dissimilar and semantically similar and dissimilar. He asked ps to recall the list either straight away ( from the stm) or after 20 minutes (from the ltm)
He found that ps recalling from there stm were able to remember the semantically similar words accurately but made some mistakes on the acoustically similar words, recall was 10 percent. Recall from the other list was between 60-80%.
This suggest that stm codes acoustically. The reason participants struggled with the acoustically similar words was because they all enter the same box in the brain as they sound the same. Making it difficult to recall. Acoustically dissimilar words are all being placed in different boxed that cope with different sounds and so recall is easier.
15
How was the msm describe the capacity of the stm
How does miller study support this
Limited capacity
7+/-2 items is the average number of items individuals can hold in the stm before some items are displaced.
Miller- used the digit span technique to investigate how much information can be stored in the stm. Participants coped reasonably well with counting 7 dots flashed onto a screen but not many more than this. Miller concluded the span of stm to be 7 plus minus 2 he also said the capacity is determined by the number of chunks of info rather than the number of individual letters or numbers.
16
How would the msm explain the duration of the stm
How may Peterson and Peterson support how the stm is limited
Limited.
Info usually last up to 30 seconds unless items are repeated over and over again.
Peterson and Peterson- presented ps with trigrams ( LDH, CKX) ps were then required to count back in 3s from a given number so they wasn't rehearsing the trigrams in their head. Ps were asked to stop counting and repeat the trigram after intervals of 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds. 80% of the trigrams were recalled after 3 seconds but as the seconds increased the recall decreased. After 18 seconds ps could recall fewer than 10 % of the trigrams correctly.
17
How would the msm explain the coding of the ltm
How does Baddeley support this?
The preferred coding in the ltm is semantic.
Baddeley- 4 list of works: semantically similar and dissimilar and acoustically similar and dissimilar. Participants recalling the list from the ltm ( after 20 mins) performed worse on the list that was semantically similar ( 55%) compared to the other lists which recall was between 70 and 85%
Suggesting that the ltm is coded on a semantic basis as words with the same meaning were confused.
18
How would the msm explain the capacity of the ltm
How Wagenaar support this ?
How can this study be criticises?
Limitless - research can't determine a finite capacity.
Wagenaar- created a diary of 2,400 events over 6 years he tested himself on recalling the events rather than the dates finding he had an excellent recall suggesting the capacity of the ltm is large. However this is a case study- not representative of the general population- bias- self testing
19
How does the msm explain the duration of the ltm
What does bahrick propose about the long term memory
Permanent
It can be easily lost again
Duration depends on an individual's lifespan- many elderly have detailed childhood memories. Items in the ltm have a longer duration if they were coded well. Certain ltm have longer durations- those based on skills rather than facts.
bahrick- showed 400 ps aged between 17-74 a set of photos some of which where ex school friends and asked them to identify the photos. They also give them a free recall test where they where asked to identify the names of those who they have graduated with.
Those who left high school in the last 15 years identified 90% of faces and free recall was 60%
Those who had left 48 years previously identified 70% of faces and there free recall was 30 percent.
Suggesting that distant memory from the past was much better if we are given cues instead of free recall.
20
Why is the msm an important contribution to memory research
Allows psychologists to conduct studies and further our understanding of memory
21
How may Craik and Tulving argue with the msm as it proposes " with rehearsal information with be transferred into the ltm"
Craik and Tulving suggest that it is not the amount of rehearsal time in the stm that determines the long term retention. Rather it is how the info is rehearsed. 2 types of rehearsal-
Maintenance rehearsal- repeating it
Elaborative rehearsal- rehearsed making it meaning full- linking to existing knowledge
22
How may brown and Kulik argue with the msm and say In fact rehearsal is not crucial in transferring info to the stm to the ltm
Brown and Kulik described a specific type of remembering called "flashbulb memory" where insignificant details surrounding a emotional of shocking event are implicated directly into the ltm without any rehearsal eg- ( twin towers)
23
Why is the msm good in helping understand the way memory works
It supports the idea that the stm and the ltm are distinct stores, it also supports the claim that rehearsal is needed to keep items in the stm and that displacement happens if you try to hold to much info in the stm.
24
What two parts is the ltm split into
1. Explicit ( conscience)
- episodic memory
- semantic memory
2. Implicit (unconscious)
- procedural memory
25
What is episodic memory ?
Semantic memory?
Procedural memory?
Episodic- specific events occurring in a particular place at a particular time, personal events
Semantic- our knowledge of the world.
Procedural- memory of how to do things- through practicing
26
What parts are the brain are associated with episodic memory
The prefrontal cortex
Memories of different parts of the event are located in different visual, auditory, olfactory etc parts of the brain but are connected together in the hippocampus to create a memory of an episode rather than remaining a collection of separate memories.
27
What may semantic memories relate to ?
Things such as the functions of objects- they may relate to what behaviour is appropriate, social customs but also relate to abstract concepts such as maths and language.
28
How is procedural memory usually acquired
Through repetition and practice- implicit. We are less aware of these memories because they are often automatic enabling us to focus of other tasks while performing everyday skills.
29
What is declarative and procedural knowledge
What links to declarative knowledge
What links to procedural knowledge
Declarative- knowing that
Procedural- knowing how
Declarative- episodic memory and semantic memory making it explicit
Procedural- cognitive skills, perceptual skills, motor skills, repetition and classical condition making it implicit
30
What did Tulving find in his research where he injected participants with a small amount of radioactive gold which scanned to detect the location of thought with a gamma ray detector to find whether the episodic and semantic memory had different processes?
Participants showed consistent difference in cortical blood flow patterns between the episodic and semantic thinking.
There was greater activation in the frontal lobe of the cortex when thinking about episodic memories and greater activation in the posterior region of the cortex when retrieving semantic info.
31
What do brain scanning techniques reveal about areas of the brain that are associated with different types of the long term memory
Episodic- hippocampus, frontal lobes
Semantic- temporal lobes
Procedural- cerebellum, motor cortex, basal ganglia, and lambic system
32
How may Vicari report on the case study of CL help support the claims that there are different types of memories associated with different brain areas ?
CL an 8 year old girl who suffered brain damage due to the removal of a tumour.
She had deficiency in her episodic ltm functions but was able to create and recall semantic memories- supporting how there are different types of memory's in different parts of the brain.
33
Who proposed the working memory model
Baddeley and hitch
34
How did Baddeley and hitch criticise the multi store model
They argued that the multi store model presented a basic idea of the short term memory and in fact tasks in the short term memory are not equally difficult because they are not using the same one short term memory store.
They proposed that the short term memory has more than one component. They suggested that the short term memory is a work space, you can do three tasks at once as long as you are using different parts of the memory system.
35
How is the working memory model presented
Central executive ( in the centre)
1. Phonological loop
Phonological store
Articulatory control process
2. Visio- spatial sketch pad
Inner scribe
Visual cache
3. Episodic buffer
36
What is the role of the central executive in the working memory model
A supervisory component and has overall control of the working memory.
Most important component
Controls the phonological loop and the Visio spatial sketch pad.
It decided which systems are needed and what to pay attention to.
It retrieve information from the long term memory.
Has a limited capacity.
Can't attend to many things at once as it has no storage capacity.
37
What 2 parts is the phonological loop split Into
1. Phonological store- holds spoken words between 1.5-2 seconds. Spoken words can enter the phonological store directly but written words have to be converted to spoken words by the articulately control process before entering the phonological store.
2. Articulatory control process- this is our 'inner voice' it rehearses info from the phonological store. It circulates info round and round.
38
What did Baddeley and hitch say the capacity of the phonological loop is
2 seconds. Words that can be said in less than 2 seconds were remembered when ps were presented with a long list of words. Known as the word- length effect
39
What is the role of the Visio spatial sketch pad
Known as the 'inner eye'.
Limited capacity
Temporary memory system for holding visual and spatial info.
Consists of a passive visual store called the visual cache which is linked to an active 'inner scribe' that acts as a visual rehearsal mechanism.
40
Why can the working memory model be credited in terms what it helps us to understand about the phonological loop
The working memory model presents evidence that the phonological loop plays a key role in the development of readings and that the phonological loop is not functioning properly in some children with dyslexia. While the phonological loop seems to be less crucial for fluent adult readers, it still has an important role to play in helping comprehend complex tasks. Helps In the learning of new spoken vocab.
41
Why may the central executive be criticised?
Too vague. Some critics feel the notion of a single central executive is wrong and that there is properly several component. Eslinger and damasio suggest that the central executive fails to explain everything and is more complex than represented.
42
How can forgetting be defined
As a failure to retrieve memories ( retrieval failure)
43
What are two explanations for forgetting
Interference theory
Retrieval failure due to absence of cues
44
How does the interference theory explain why we forget
The interference theory says forgetting is caused by two memories competing. We can't remember because the memory is either being effected by a memory we already have or by future learning. The degree of completion is seemed to increase the more similar they are eg- revising French and then Spanish. Interference theory sees forgetting as due to info in the long term memory becoming confused with or disrupted by other info during coding leading to inaccurate recall.
There are two types of interference:
Retroactive interference
Proactive interference.
45
When does retroactive interference occur
What does Ceraso suggest are the two possible explanation for retroactive interference
When new information interferes with old information.
Ceraso
1. Competition of response theory- no loss of information instead the new information pushes the old information into another place. We then try to retrieve the old information from the wrong place resulting in errors in memory.
2. Unlearning theory- new info replaces old info so that the latter is effectively ' unlearned'
46
How does Schmidt et al support the idea of retroactive interference in the interference theory
In Schmidt research his aim was to asses the influence of retroactive interference upon the memory of street names learnt during childhood.
700 names were selected randomly from a list of 1700 former students of Dutch elementary school and they were sent a questionnaire. 211 participants responded ranging from 11-79.
They were given a map of the neighbourhood were they had gone to school. The street names were placed with numbers and ps had to remember as many as possible. Other relevant info was collected such as how many times they had moved and how often they visited.
The amount of retroactive interference experience was assessed by the number of times individuals had moved neighbour hoods. 25 % had never moved 1% had moved 40 times.
The findings showed a positive association between how many street names they could recall and how many times they had moved. Shoeing the more ps had move the less likely they was to recall street names.
Showing how retroactive interference does seem to be able to explain forgetting in some real life situations.
47
How does proactive interference work in the Interference theory
Works forward in time, occurring when info stored previously interferes with an attempt to recall something new. Eg- memory of an old phone number distrusts learning a new number.
48
How does Baddeley and hitch's study on rugby players support the interference theory
Got rugby players who had played in a variety of games to remember as many teams they had played as possible. It was found that the more games they played the less team names they remembered rather than the time passed between games, supporting the interference theory.
49
What is the main criticism of the interference theory
Only really explains forgetting when two sets of information are similar. This does not happen very often so interference cannot explain forgetting in the majority of real life settings.
Also interference effects are most strongly seen In a laboratory setting using memory tasks that lack mundane realism. It is unclear how much interference can explain forgetting in day to day life.
50
How does retrieval failure due to a scene of cues explain forgetting
Suggests that information is still in the long term memory but can't be accessed. Believe recall is dependant upon cues. We do not loose info from the memory we just cannot access it because the cues that were encoded with the memory are not available to help us when we try to retrieve it.
51
How does Tulving and Pearlstone study support the idea of retrieval failure due to absence of cues
Gave ps 48 words to learn organised into 12 categories of 4 words each. At the top of each category was a headline. Ps didn't have to recall the headlines just the words in the category's. Ps who weren't given the headline and just asked to freely recall the 48 words recalled less words than ps given the headline. Supporting the lack of retrieval cues as an explanation for forgetting
52
What are the two main forms of cue dependent forgetting
Context dependent failure- occurs when the external environment is different at recall from how it was encoded.
State dependant failure- when an individual's internal environment is dissimilar at recall to when info was encoded. Eg- trying to remember info learnt when sober while you are drunk
53
How does Albernethy support context dependent failure
Found that ps after learning some material recalled it less well when tested by an unfamiliar teacher in an unfamiliar room thanks ps who were tested by a familiar teacher in a familiar room. Supporting context dependent failure as an explanation for forgetting.
54
How does Darley et Al support the idea of state dependent failure
Found that ps who hid money while high on weed were less likely to recall where the money was when they were not high than when they were high again, providing support the ability of state dependent failure to explain forgetting
55
How can cue dependency studies be criticised
Many are laboratory experiment and are not like everyday memory tasks such as ones based in procedural memory. The ability to perform things such as ride a bike is not affected by state dependant failure.
Cue dependency can't explain all forms of forgetting.
56
What is repression
A type of motivated forgetting where emotionally threatening events are thought to be banished into the unconscious mind, to prevent the the feelings of anxiety they might cause. This is a controversial explanation of forgetting, it had been suggested that memories retrieved during memory therapy have often been false, implanted by their therapists.
57
How can the idea of repression be criticised
The idea of false memory syndrome is that it sees so called recovered memories as actually being false memories created through leading questions asked by therapists.
58
Give an example of cue dependency in the real world
Police use cues to solve crimes. Danielle Jones who was murdered but her body was never found. Her uncle was eventually convicted largely due to witness testimony where a witness recalled seeing Danielle with a man and getting into a blue transit van, a van owned by here uncle.
59
Who developed the cognitive interview and why
Fisher and Geiselman
It is a series of memory retrieval and communication techniques to improve recall in police interviews.
60
What are the four components of cognitive interviews
1. Change of narrative order- recall the event in a different chronological order eg- end to beginning
2. Change of perspective- recall the event from different people's perspective eg- from the offenders point of view
3. Mental reinstatement of context- recall both the environment and emotional context of the events
4. Report everything-even events which seemingly has little relevance or seems incomplete.
61
Why are change of narrative and change of perspective thought to be the most effective strategy in a cognitive interview
As they reduce witnesses use of prior knowledge, expectations and schemes, increasing eye witness accuracy.
62
What study may suggest that cognitive interviews are more effective than standard interviews
How can this study be criticised
Geiselman.
Showed 89 students a police training video of violent crimes. They where questioned 48 hours later by American law enforcement. Interviews were taped and analysed for accuracy recall:
Cognitive correct recall : 41.5
Standard correct recall: 29.4
However cognitive interviews showed more incorrect items recalled.
Criticised-
Laboratory experiment- lacks ecological validity
89 students- cants generalise to the population- lacks population validity.
Culturally bias
Lacks mundane realism- video
63
Who did Geiselman and fisher find out about the effectiveness of when cognitive interviews are taken after the event
Geiselman and fisher found that co genitive interviews worked better within a short time following a crime rather than a long time afterwards suggesting recall is enhanced best when cognitive interviews are conducted immediately after an incident occurred.
However it is not always possible to conduct the interview straight away
64
What is the enhanced cognitive interview
What are its included features?
Suggested by fisher and Geisleman- an amended version of the cognitive interview and seeks to build a trusting relationship between the interviewer and witness and improve the quality of communication between the two
Features: -interviewer is not distracting the witness with unnecessary questions
- the witness controls the flow of info
- asking open ended questions
- witness speaks slowly
- participants reminded not to guess or say I don't know- reduces false memory
- reduce anxiety of witness
65
How are enhanced cognitive interviews conducted
-Starts by getting he witness to control the flow of information
-Asking them open ended questions in neutral topics
-context reinstatement
- witness's free recall of events
- interviewer asks questions based on info revealed
66
What is a modified cognitive interview
Developed by Holliday
A version of cognitive interview and the enchanted cognitive interview which can be used with children. It focuses on building trust between the interviewer and witness giving the control to the witness and removes the change perspective as children are seen to be to young to empathise
67
What did the economic implication find about cognitive interviews
That the cognitive interview gives accuracy of eyewitness reporting which enabless better use of police time and resources.
68
What did Coker 2013 find about enhanced cognitive interviews
Found that an enhanced cognitive interview technique that stressed the use of focused mental imagery produced more accurate detail compared to the cognitive interview especially concerning personal detail.
69
What was the aim, findings and criticisms of memom, meissner and Frasers study of cognitive interviews
Meta analysis.57 studies
Aim: the effectiveness of cognitive interviews.
64% of studies involved young adult witnesses
28% involved children
8% elderly
6% learning disabled people.
32% of the studies used the cognitive interview and 23% used the enhanced cognitive interview and 45% used the modified cognitive interview.
Found:
-cognitive interview produced more accurate detail
- increase in inaccuracy detail was found in cognitive interviews.
- modified cognitive interview produced more false memories
- the modified cognitive interview produced more inaccurate detail than the cognitive and enhanced cognitive interview.
- cognitive interviews produce more detailed and accurate information
Criticism: didn't look equally into the techniques. The modified cognitive interview may have more flaws because they did more research into it.
Some factors where not considered like how long after the interview was conducted, the number of times a witness was questioned, the degree if emotional involvement a witness had.
70
What is a issue with cognitive interviews
The cognitive interview is time consuming- requiring more time than officers have available.
Some police officers believe the change perspective component misleads witnesses into speculating about the event and so it is less used.
71
What was Johnson and Scott's research on eye witnessing testimony and what did they find
Conditions
1. They overheard low key discussion about equipment failure. A person emerged holding a pen and a with grease on him hands
2. Overheard a heated and hostile exchange between people. After the sound of breaking glass and crashing chairs a men emerges from the room holding a paper knife covered in blood.
Participants were shown 50 photos and asked to identify which man emerged from the room
1. 49%
2. 33%
Showing that anxiety decreases the ability to recall accurately
Criticisms- independent measures- one person to each condition one participants more participant variables.
Ethical issues- psychological and physical harm
72
What term did loftus et Al create and what did it mean
What did they fine
Weapon focus effect
To describe the way in which anxiety focuses attention on central features of a crime. Recall may be impaired because the witness was paying attention to the weapon. They monitored eyewitness eye movements and found the presence of a weapon draws attention to the weapon and not other things such as a persons face.
73
What did Christianson and Hubinette find about eye witnessing testimony
Studied the recall of 58 witnesses to a real bank robberies. They interviewed victims and bystanders between 4 and 15 months after the robberies and found that all witnesses showed generally good recall of the robbery itself- 75% accurate recall. The victim tended to have better recall than bystanders.
Suggesting that he witnesses anxiety helped recall. This this valuable as it is a real life situation and therefore doesn't lack mundane realism.
Criticism- bystanders may not have been able to see and hear as much as the actual victims.
Ethical issues- psychological and physical harm by. Asking them remember back to the event.
74
What does the inverted U Hypothesis suggest about anxiety in eye witnessing testimony
Suggested that moderate amount of anxiety improves the detail of memory recall up to an optimal point, after further increase of anxiety leads to the decline in detail and accuracy of recall. However it is difficult to reach a firm conclusion because many other factors may effect the accuracy of recall:
Setting: more familiar with the environment (home) more detail
Ages: when asking children the may provide less detail.
75
What did peters find out about how anxiety affects recall
Tested people attention a health care clinic
For an injection. They met a nurse who give them the injections and then a researcher for quak amounts of time. Later on using photographs the researcher was easier to recognise the the nurse. Suggesting heightening levels of anxiety due to the injection led to decrease in memory accuracy.
76
What major factor my affect eye witnessing testimony
Misleading information
Especially in the form of leading questions and post event discussions. Leading questions increase the likely hood that an individual's schemes will influence them to give a desired answer and post event discussions concerns misleading information being added to a memory after the event has occurred.
77
What loftus and Palmers study to supports how misleading questions affect eye witnessing testimony
45 university students watched a film of a car crash and then asked 'how fast were the cars going with they...each other" the verb used in the question was altered; see the results in the table below.
Results
Contacted p: 31 mph
Smashed p: 41mph
Showing the question asked can influence the answer
Criticism: bias sample, same age 18-24
Lacks mundane realism
I dependant measures- not acting as there own control, Independent variable- eye site, tiredness
Laboratory experiment- demand characteristics- lacks ecological validity
Evaluation: bekerian and bowers argued that the reason the misleading questions influenced their recall was due to the fact that in the test phase of he study, the slides of the car crash were presented in a random order that was different to the order in which they were initially presented
78
What did loftus and Zanni find about mid leading questions
Conducted a similar study to loftus and Palmer and found that participate who were asked "did you see the broken headlight" where more that twice as likely to say yes compared to them who were asked "did you say a broken headlight" even though there was no broken head light .
79
How may a post event discussing affect eye witnessing testimony
Gabbert et al
Participants where in pairs where each partner watched a different video of the same event. Pairs in one condition was encouraged to discuss the event before each partner individually recalled the event they had watched. A very high number of witnesses 71% who had discussed the event went on to mistakenly recall items acquired during the discussion
80
What study may suggest that misleading question have less influence in real life compared to in research.
Yuille and Cutshall
Witnesses to an armed robbery in Canada gave accurate reports of the crime four months later even though they had initially been giving two misleading questions.
81