memory case studies Flashcards
(25 cards)
Q: What did Sperling (1960) find about sensory memory?
A: Iconic memory has a large capacity but very short duration
Q: What did Baddeley (1966) discover about STM and LTM coding?
A: STM is coded acoustically and LTM semantically
Q: What did Peterson and Peterson (1959) show about STM duration?
A: Without rehearsal, STM lasts around 18–30 seconds using a trigram recall task with interference.
Q: What did Jacobs (1887) find about STM capacity?
A: Average digit span was 7 for numbers and slightly less for letters, showing STM has limited capacity.
Q: What did Miller (1956) propose about STM capacity?
A: STM holds 7±2 items
Q: What did Bahrick et al. (1975) conclude about LTM duration?
A: People could recall faces and names from school even after 48 years, showing long-lasting LTM.
Q: What types of LTM did Tulving (1985) propose?
A: Episodic (events), Semantic (facts), and Procedural (skills), supported by case studies like Clive Wearing.
Q: What does the Clive Wearing case show about memory?
A: Severe damage to episodic and semantic memory, but procedural memory (like playing piano) was intact.
Q: What does the HM case study reveal about memory?
A: After surgery, he couldn’t form new episodic memories but could learn new motor skills
Q: What did Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) propose?
A: The Multi-Store Model – memory flows from sensory to STM to LTM
Q: What did Milner et al. (1957) find with HM?
A: STM was unaffected but LTM impaired
Q: What does Korsakoff’s Syndrome tell us about memory?
A: Severe anterograde amnesia from alcohol abuse
Q: What is Baddeley and Hitch’s (1974) model of STM?
A: Working Memory Model with components like the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad.
Q: What did Shallice & Warrington (1970) find about KF?
A: KF had poor verbal STM but good visual STM, suggesting separate components in STM.
Q: What did Loftus and Palmer (1974) show about leading questions?
A: Stronger verbs in questions (e.g., “smashed”) distorted speed estimates in EWT.
Q: What did Loftus and Zanni (1975) find about question wording?
A: People were more likely to say “yes” when asked about “the broken headlight” than “a broken headlight.”
Q: What did Shaw et al. (1997) show about post-event discussion?
A: Participants changed their memory to match a confederate’s false statements.
Q: What did Gabbert et al. (2004) find about memory conformity?
A: 71% of participants recalled false details after discussing the crime video with others.
Q: What did Valentine and Coxon (1997) discover about age and EWT?
A: Older adults were more susceptible to misleading questions than younger participants.
Q: What did Loftus (1979) find about the weapon focus effect?
A: People focused on the weapon, reducing their ability to recall other details.
Q: What did Pickel (1998) find about unusualness and memory?
A: Poor recall occurred not just with weapons but with unusual objects like a raw chicken – surprise may impair memory.
Q: What did Yuille and Cutshall (1986) show about real-life EWT?
A: Real witnesses of a shooting had accurate memories even 5 months later, especially if highly aroused.
Q: What does the Yerkes-Dodson Law say about anxiety and memory?
A: Memory performance is best at moderate anxiety
Q: What is Fisher and Geiselman’s (1992) Cognitive Interview?
A: A method for improving EWT recall using context reinstatement, recall everything, perspective change, and reverse order.
