What is coding?
Format in which info is stored in various memory stores
What is capacity?
Amount of info that can be held in a memory store
What is duration?
Length of time info can be held in memory
What is short-term memory (STM)?
Limited capacity memory store
Coding = acoustic (sounds)
Capacity = 7+/-2 items
Duration = 18 - 30 seconds
What is long term-memory (LTM)?
Permanent memory store.
Coding = semantic (meaning)
Capacity = unlimited
Duration = lifetime
What is the MSM?
Presentation of how memory works in terms of 3 stores: sensory register, STM and LTM. and how info is transferred from one store to another, how it’s remembered and forgotten.
What is the sensory register?
Memory stores for each of our 5 senses:
vision (iconic store) = coding is visual
hearing (echoic store) = coding is acoustic
capacity is huge (millions of receptors) but info only lasts half a second.
Who came up with the MSM?
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
What is Episodic memory?
LTM store for personal events, when they occurred, people, objects, places and behaviours involved. (Have to make a conscious effort to retrieve)
What is semantic memory?
LTM for knowledge of the world, facts,words and concepts. (Need to be consciously recalled).
What is Procedural memory?
LTM store for knowledge of how to do things, memories of learnt things e.g. riding a bike, driving a car. (Retrieved unconsciously)
What is the WMM?
The working memory model - representation of STM, suggesting it is a dynamic processor of different types of info using sub units coordinated by a central decision-making system. (Made up of the central executive, Phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and Episodic buffer.
What does the central executive do?
Coordinates activities of the 3 subsystems in memory and allocates processing resources to those activities.
What does the Phonological loop do?
Processes info in terms of sound, both written and spoken material included. Divided into the Phonological store and the articulatory process.
What does the visuo-spatial sketchpad do?
Processes visual and spatial info in a mental space (our inner eye).
What does the Episodic buffer do?
Brings together material from other subsystems into single a memory rather than separate strands and provides brief between working memory and LTM.
What is interference?
Forgetting because one memory blocks another causing one of both memories to be distorted or forgotten
Name the 2 times of interference:
Proactive and retroactive
What is proactive interference?
Forgetting occurs when older memories disrupt recall of newer memories. Degree of forgetting is greater when memories are similar.
What is retroactive interference?
Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. Greater when memories are similar
What is retrieval failure?
Form of forgetting. Occurs when we don’t have necessary cues to access memory. It’s accessible but not unless a suitable cue is provided.
What is a cue?
A trigger of info that allows us to access a memory. Some may be meaningful while others may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning.
What are the 2 types of cues?
External (environment)
Internal (mood/degree of drunk ness)
What is eye witness testimony (EWT)?
Ability of people to remember details of events (accidents/crimes) which they have observed first hand.
What can affect the accuracy of EWT?
Misleading info
leading questions
anxiety
What is misleading information?
Incorrect info given to the eyewitness usually after the event. It can’t take many forms: leading questions, post-event discussion between people/co-witnesses
What is a leading question? Plus give an example.
A question which because of the way it’s phrased suggests a certain answer e.g. did the accused have blonde hair? Suggesting he did.
What is post-event discussion (PED)?
When there is more than one witness to an event, so may discuss what they ha e seen. This may influence accuracy of their recall of an event.
What is anxiety (in EWT)?
Emotional and physical arousal.
Emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension.
Physical changes include increased heart rate and sweat.
It is a normal reaction to stressful situations but can affect accuracy and detail in EWT.
What is the cognitive interview (CI)?
Method of interviewing eyewitness to help them retrieve more accurate memories.
Uses 4 main techniques: report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order (prevent reporting their expectations), change perspective (disrupt schema on recall)