Memory: Evaluation

Question 1

Multi-Store Model of Memory AO3

Answer 1

+ support from Jacobs, Miller, Peterson and Peterson, Bahrick, Baddeley, and also brain scans show STM: prefrontal cortex, LTM: hippocampus
+ case studies: HM, loss of hippocampus: no new LTMs
- too simple: STM and LTM subdivided eg components of working memory and LTM subtypes
- more than maintenance rehearsal: elaborative processing

Question 2

The Working Memory Model AO3

Answer 2

+ Hitch and Baddeley: ps slower when doing dual tasks
+ brain-damaged patients: KF: damage to PL, problems with verbal material, SC: damage to PL, unable to learn word pairs presented out loud
- case studies limited eg trauma itself may cause problems, individuals not typical and not generalisable
- CE doesn’t explain anything and more complex than currently represented

Question 3

Types of LTM AO3

Answer 3

+ brain scans: episodic - frontal and temporal lobe (including hippocampus, semantic - temporal lobe, procedural - cerebellum, basal ganglia and limbic system
+ procedural vs declarative memories - HM formed new procedural memories but not semantic and episodic ones
- brain damage evidence unreliable - cant be certain that causal part of brain identified
+ episodic v semantic memories can form independently, double dissociation demonstrated in Alzheimers patients

Question 4

Interference AO3

Answer 4

• artificial research: words and nonsense syllables and low motivation, doesn’t represent everyday memory
• only explains some situations of forgetting, where two sets of stimuli are quite similar
  + real-world application: competing adverts reduce their effect because of interference, better to show three in one day
• indivdual differences: people with greater working memory span less susceptible to proactive interference

Question 5

Retrieval Failure AO3

Answer 5

+ research support eg Tulving and Pearlstone, Abnernethy
+ real world application: to revising and the cognitive interview
- retreival cues dont always work: not useful when learning meaningful material
+ retrieval failure can explain interference effects: thus is the more important explanation of forgetting

Question 6

Misleading Information AO3

Answer 6

+ supporting evidence: misleading information altered participant recall (Bugs Bunny)
- EWT in real-life may be more accurate: lab studies not taken seriously
+ real world application: mistaken EWT largest factor in conviction of inocent people
- individual differences: misinformation effect in older people thus more susceptible to misleading information

Question 7

Anxiety AO3

Answer 7

• may not be anxiety: weapon focus effect due to suprise
  + real-life studies show even less accuracy than lab studies, lab findings underestimate effects of anxiety
• no simple conclusion: victims of violent crime more accurate than those of non-violent crimes
• individual differences: neurotic ps become less accurate with increasing anxiety, opposite for emotionally more stable ps

Question 8

Cognitive Interview AO3

Answer 8

+ effectiveness: review of 53 studies found 34% more info, most due to ‘report everything’ and ‘mental reinstatemnet’ components
- quality may suffer: 81% increase in correct recall but 61% false positives
- CI in practice: police dislike because time consuking and inadequate training
- comparisons difficult: police forces use different versions
- individual differences: older adults’ memories helped more by CI than younger adults