Memory Flashcards
(88 cards)
1
Q
What is coding?
A
-The format in which information is stored in memory stores/converting info.
2
Q
What is capacity?
A
-The amount of information that can be held in memory stores.
3
Q
What is duration?
A
-The length of time information can be held in memory.
4
Q
Who did research on coding?
A
-Baddeley 1966.
5
Q
What was the research on coding?
A
- Gave 4 groups of PP different words.
- Group 1; acoustically similar. -Group 2; acoustically dissimilar. -Group 3; semantically similar. -Group 4; semantically dissimilar. PP had to recall words.
6
Q
What were the findings on coding?
A
- Recall immediately (STM); recalled acoustically similar words the worst.
- Recall after 20 mins (LTM); worse on semantically similar words, LTM is coded semantically.
7
Q
What was the weakness of research on coding?
A
-Artificial stimuli=not meaningful material so words had no personal meaning to PP, so difficult to generalise findings.
8
Q
What were the two studies on capacity?
A
- Digit span.
- Chunking.
9
Q
What was the digit span research?
A
- Jacobs (1887), gave 4 digits to PP and asked to recall, if correct then gave 5 and so on.
- Mean digit span was 9.3 items, and letters was 7.3.
10
Q
What was the chunking research?
A
- Miller (1956), noted things come in sevens, suggests capacity for STM is 7+/-2.
- Also found people can group sets of info together by chunking.
11
Q
What was the weakness of the digit span study?
A
-Lacks validity=study was many years ago and may have lacked adequate control.
12
Q
What was the weakness of the chunking study?
A
-Not so many chunks=Miller may have overestimated capacity of STM, e.g. Cowan (2001) found capacity of STM is 4 chunks.
13
Q
What was the research on the duration of STM?
A
-Peterson and Peterson (1959) tested 24 PP. PP given a trigram and 3-digit number, flashed the trigram for a few seconds and then had to count backward from number to stop rehearsing. Stopped at different retention intervals, as time was longer the recall was worse.
14
Q
What was the research on the duration of LTM?
A
-Bahrick (1975) tested 392 PP with yearbooks. Recall tested on 1) photo-recognition, 2) free recall (names). -PP tested 15 years were 90% accurate in face recognition and after 48 years 70%, after 15 years in free recall 60% and after 48 years it was 30%.
15
Q
What was the weakness of the STM duration study?
A
-Meaningless stimuli=trigrams are not used often in real-life situation and so lacks external validity.
16
Q
What was the strength of the LTM duration study?
A
-High external validity=real-life meaningful memories were studied.
17
Q
What is the multi-store model of memory?
A
-Atkinson and Shiffrin MSM describes how info flows through the memory system and how it’s transferred from one store to another, how it’s remembered and forgotten.
18
Q
What are the components of the MSM?
A
- Sensory register.
- STM.
- LTM.
- Attention.
- Retention.
- Retrieval.
- Rehearsal.
19
Q
What is the sensory register?
A
- Stimulus from environment e.g. sound pass into SR.
- Several stores, two main are iconic and echoic memory.
- Duration is less than half a second but high capacity.
20
Q
What is the short-term memory?
A
- If attention is paid then info goes from SR to STM.
- Capacity is 5-9 items, coded acoustically and 30 second duration.
- Keep info by maintenance rehearsal.
21
Q
What is long-term memory?
A
- If prolonged rehearsal then info goes from STM to LTM, recall info by retrieval.
- Unlimited capacity, coded semantically, lifetime duration.
22
Q
What are the main points of MSM?
A
- Linear model.
- 3 different stores in MSM, SR, STM and LTM.
- Created by Atkinson and Shiffrin.
- Unitary stores.
23
Q
What are the strengths of MSM?
A
- RS=STM and LTM are qualitatively different.
- Support from amnesiacs=HM has LTM problems but STM stayed intact.
- Understanding of STM structure=researchers can expand.
24
Q
What are the weaknesses of MSM?
A
- MSM is oversimplified=there are more types of LTM.
- WMW shows more types of STM.
- Not unitary stores=KF suffered brain damage, normal visual but verbal memory was a problem.
25
What is STM’s coding, duration and capacity?
- Coding; acoustic.
- Duration; 30 seconds.
- Capacity; 5-9 items.
26
What is LTM’s coding, duration and capacity?
- Coding; semantic.
- Duration; lifetime.
- Capacity; unlimited.
27
Who came up with the three different LTM’s?
-Tulving (1985) proposed three types of memory because MSM was too simplistic.
28
What is episodic memory?
- Ability to recall events like birthday party, explicit.
- Complex memories, time-stamped, have to make a conscious effort to recall, include several elements like people who were there and emotions.
29
What is semantic memory?
- Knowledge of the world and facts, e.g. taste of an orange, explicit memory.
- Not time-stamped, complex concepts like love, combination of dictionary and encyclopaedia.
30
What is procedural memory?
- Memory for actions and skills, implicit.
| - Recall without conscious awareness, we can easily do actions but find it difficult to explain them e.g. driving a car.
31
What are the strengths of the different LTM’s?
- Clinical evidence=Clive Wearing had amnesia and damaged episodic memory but procedural was intact.
- Neuroimaging evidence=brain scans show different memory is stored in different places.
32
What are the weaknesses of the different LTM’s?
- Problems with clinical evidence=may be a lack of control of variable during CW study.
- May be 2 types not 3=Cohen (1980) stated episodic and semantic are stored as “declarative”.
33
What is the working memory model?
- Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed explanation of how STM is organised and functions.
- Concerned with the active part when we temporarily store info.
34
What are the 4 main components of the WMM?
- Central executive.
- Phonological loop.
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad.
- Episodic buffer.
35
What is the central executive?
- Monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to tasks.
- Limited storage capacity.
36
What is the phonological loop?
- Deals with auditory info.
- Subdivided into; -Phonological store=stores words, -Articulatory process=allows maintenance rehearsal, capacity is 2 seconds.
37
What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
- Stores visual info, capacity is 3/4.
- Logie (1995) subdivided into;-Visual cache=stores visual info, -Inner scribe=records arrangement of objects in visual field.
38
What is the episodic buffer?
- Added by Baddeley in 2000, temporary store, integrate visual and auditory info, records events.
- Capacity of 4 chunks.
- Links WMM to LTM.
39
What are the strengths of the WMM?
- Dual-task performance=different tasks take part in different parts of the brain.
- Clinical evidence=KF had poor STM ability for verbal info but visual was fine.
40
What are the weaknesses of the WMM?
- Lack of clarity over CE=need more explanation, seen as unnecessary.
- Research is lab based=lacks ecological validity due to artificial setting.
- Only includes STM and not LTM too.
41
What is interference?
- Forgetting because one memory blocks another, also there may be distortion in memory.
- We cannot access the memories even though they’re available.
42
What are the two types of interference?
- Proactive interference (PI).
| - Retroactive interference (RI).
43
What is proactive interference?
- When old memory interferes with new memory.
| - E.g. teacher has learned so many names in past that she has difficulty remembering her new class.
44
What is retroactive interference?
- When a new memory interferes with an old memory.
| - E.g. teacher has learned so many names this year so she has difficulty remembering names from past.
45
What is the effect of similarity on interference?
-Interference is worse when memories are similar, this was discovered by McGeoch and McDonald.
46
What is the effects of similarity study?
- McGeoch and McDonald studied RI by changing similarity between two materials. PP learned words until 100% accuracy so then learnt 2nd group of words.
- The groups e.g.= synonyms, antonyms, 3-digit-numbers, no new list etc.
47
What are the findings from the effects of similarity study?
- PP recall first list depended on the second list.
| - Synonyms (most similar) produced worst recall, shows interference is worst when memories are similar.
48
What are the strengths of interference?
- Evidence from lab studies=effect of similarity study.
| - Real-life study=rugby players study show interference is worst when memories are similar.
49
What are the weaknesses of interference?
- Artificial material=interference more likely in lab studies that everyday life.
- Time between learning=PP have few days to learn e.g. words but in real-life we don’t learn like that.
50
What are cues?
-Trigger of information which allows us to access a memory, cues can be associated with a certain memory.
51
What is retrieval failure?
-When we cannot access the memories that are available because we don’t have the necessary cues.
52
What is encoding specificity principle?
- If a cue is to help us recall it has to be present at encoding and at retrieval.
- But if cues are different or absent then there will be forgetting.
53
Who came up with ESP?
-Tulving (1983).
54
What are the two types of cues?
- External cues=context-dependant forgetting.
| - Internal cues=state-dependant forgetting.
55
What is context-dependant forgetting?
- Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied divers working underwater and how they remember instructions.
- ALL ABOUT ENVIRONMENT.
56
What was the study of context-dependant forgetting?
- 4 conditions of learning words;
- Learn on land&recall on land. -Learn on land&recall underwater. -Learn underwater&recall on land. -Learn underwater&recall underwater.
57
What were the findings of context-dependant forgetting?
-Accurate recall 40% lower if 2 conditions were not the same=due to external cues not being available and so retrieval failure occured.
58
What is state-dependant forgetting?
- Carter and Cassaday (1998) gave histamine drugs to PP, which had mild sedative effect.
- ALL ABOUT PHYSIOLOGICAL STATE.
59
What was the study of state-dependant forgetting?
- 4 conditions of learning words;
- Learn on drug&recall on drug. -Learn on drug&recall no on it. -Learn not on drug&recall on it. -Learn not on drug&recall not on it.
60
What were the findings of state-dependant forgetting?
-Performance worse when 2 conditions were not the same=when cues are absent more forgetting occurs.
61
What are the strengths of retrieval failure?
- Supporting evidence=Godden and Baddeley study supports retrieval failure, increase validity.
- Real-life application.
62
What are the weaknesses of retrieval failure?
- Lacks ecological validity=most research done in labs and so difficult to generalise to everyday life.
- Recall vs recognition=absence of cues affects recall not recognition.
63
What was the leading question study?
-Loftus and Palmer (1974) gave PP clips of car accidents and then questions. In the leading qu asked, “how fast were the cars travelling when they hit”, hit was replaced with smashed, collided, bumped.
64
What were the findings of the leading questions study?
-Mean speed when “contacted” was 31.8mph, but when “smashed” it was 40.5 mph. So leading question biased the recall.
65
Why do leading questions affect EWT?
-Wording of leading question has an influence on PP answer.
66
What was Loftus and Palmer’s second study?
-Loftus and Palmer gave leading question and used word smashed and this altered memory of PP, they were more likely to report broken glass than “hit” PP even if there was none.
67
What was the post-event discussion study?
-Witnesses discuss the event together, Gabbert (2003) gave PP same crime but different angles, they then discussed clip before test of recall.
68
What were the findings of the post-event discussion?
- 71% of PP recalled events they did not see but picked up in the conversation.
- In control group (no talking) it was 0%.
- PP went along to gain social approval.
69
What were the strengths of misleading information?
- Real-life application=improve legal system and giving witness testimony in court.
- Good control of variables in the lab.
70
What were the weaknesses of misleading information?
- Artificial task=clips are far different than experiencing a real life crime.
- Individual differences=older people less accurate at recall than younger people.
- Demand characteristics.
71
What is the negative effect of anxiety on recall?
-Creates a physiological arousal which prevents us from paying attention to important details which gives us worse recall.
72
What was the procedure of negative anxiety?
-Johnson and Scott (1976) made PP wait in waiting room and heard argument, in “low-anxiety” man walked out with pen and grease, in “high-anxiety” heard breaking glass and man walked out with paper knife with blood.
73
What were the findings of negative anxiety?
-PP picked out man from 50 photos, 49% accurate from “low-anxiety” and 33% from “high-anxiety”, due to the tunnel theory=focused more on weapon.
74
What is the positive effect of anxiety on recall?
-Fight or flight response activated which increases alertness and improves our memory=better recall.
75
What was the procedure of positive anxiety?
-Cutshall and Yuille (1986) shooting in gun shop, shop owner shot thief dead, 21 witnesses, interviews after 4 months compared to original. Accuracy determined by details, PP also asked to rate their stress level.
76
What were the findings of positive anxiety?
-Very accurate and little change in the 4 month interview, PP who were most stressed were most accurate 88% compared to 75%.
77
What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?
-Yerkes and Dodson said relationship between stress and performance is inverted “U” shape. Low level of anxiety=low levels of accuracy, but then too high anxiety=lower accuracy.
78
What are the strengths of anxiety?
-RS=Johnson and Scott research, and Cutshall and Yuille research.
79
What are the weaknesses of anxiety?
- Weapon focus effect may not be relevant=may be due to surprise rather than scared.
- Ethical issues=PP very stressed and anxious.
- Field studies lack control=PP exposed to extraneous variables.
80
What is the cognitive interview?
-Fisher and Geiselman (1992) argued EWT can be improved by police using better techniques when interviewing which form the cognitive interview.
81
What are the steps of cognitive interview?
- Report everything.
- Reinstate the context.
- Reverse the order.
- Change perspective.
82
What is report everything in CI?
-Witnesses encouraged to report every detail even if it may seem irrelevant which may trigger more memories.
83
What is reinstate the context in CI?
-Witness should return to crime scene and imagine it like what the weather was like or who was there, and their emotions.
84
What is reverse the order in CI?
-Events should be recalled in a different order to prevent witnesses reporting their expectations so prevents dishonesty.
85
What is change perspective in CI?
-Witnesses should think about crime from others POV, this disrupts the schema and expectations of the event.
86
What is the enhanced CI?
-Fisher (1987) developed this to focus on social elements of the interview, like adding eye contact and minimising distraction etc.
87
What are the strengths of CI?
- Practical application=Kohnken (1999)= meta analysis of 50 studies provided more correct information than the SI.
- More information is produced=Milne and Bull (2002) found each technique is equally as valuable and that each technique produced more info than a SI.
88
What are the weaknesses of CI?
- More time consuming than SI=requires specialist training from worker.
- Variations of CI are used=police forces evolve their own methods and so may not be valid.
