Memory (general) Flashcards
What technique did Miller discover in relation to the capacity of the STM?
Chunking - he realised that people can recall 5 words as easily as 5 letters, so by grouping the letters into chunks, they are more easily recalled.
Outline the procedure of Peterson and Peterson’s study.
The participant was given a trigram to remember (e.g. BRK). They were then told to count backwards from a 3-digit number for 3/6/9/12/15/18 seconds. At the end of the time, they were asked to recall the trigram.
What were the findings of Peterson and Peterson’s study? What does this show?
The longer the participant had to count for, the lower their chance of recalling the trigram. This shows that the STM may have a very short duration unless we do verbal rehearsal.
Outline the procedure of Jacob’s study.
The researcher gives the participant a 4 digit figure to recall. If they get it right, they are given a 5 digit figure, and so on until they get the figure wrong. Jacob did the same for letters.
What were the findings of Jacob’s study? What does this show?
Jacob found that the average person recalled 9.3 numbers and 7.3 letters. This shows that the capacity of the STM is 7 (plus or minus 2).
Outline the procedure of Bahrick’s study.
Bahrick took 392 participants aged 17-74 and obtained their yearbooks. The participants were tested by doing 1) a photo-recognition test of students in their yearbook and 2) free recall of the names of the students in their yearbook.
What were the findings of Bahrick’s study? What does this show?
He found that in photo recognition, after 15 years of graduation there was 90% accuracy, and after 48 years there was 70% accuracy. In free recall after 15 years there was 60% accuracy, and after 48 years there was 30% accuracy. This shows that the duration of the LTM can be very long/unlimited.
Outline the procedure of Baddeley’s acoustic/semantic words study.
He gave different lists of words to four different groups of participants to remember. Group 1: acoustically similar words, group 2: acoustically dissimilar words, group 3: semantically similar words, and group 4: semantically dissimilar words. They were then asked to recall them in the correct order.
What were the findings of Baddeley’s acoustic/semantic words study? What does this show?
When they recalled the words immediately after hearing them (STM) they did worse with acoustically similar words. When they recalled the words 20 minutes after hearing them (LTM) they did worse with semantically similar words. This shows that information is coded acoustically in the STM, and coded semantically in the LTM.
Describe the case study of HM.
HM underwent brain surgery to relieve his epilepsy, and unfortunately his hippocampus (a section of the brain central to memory function) was removed. After the surgery he did not know what year it was or his age, he had very little memory of the operation, and he would read the same magazine over and over without remembering it. However, he performed well on tests of immediate memory span.
What does the case study of HM tell us about memory?
The case study of HM provides supporting evidence for the MSM as his LTM was corrupted by the operation but his STM was not
Describe the case study of Clive Wearing.
Clive Wearing suffers from a severe form of amnesia after a viral infection in his brain which damaged his hippocampus. He is a world-class musician and can still play the piano and conduct a choir. He can remember aspects of his life pre-infection but not others, for example he knows he has children, but he doesn’t know their names. He recognises his wife, but each time he sees her he believes he hasn’t seen her in years, even if she has just left the room for a moment.
What does the case study of Clive Wearing tell us about memory?
The case study of Clive Wearing provides evidence for separate LTM stores because his episodic store was impaired, but his procedural and semantic stores weren’t.
Describe the case study of KF.
KF suffered from brain damage after a motorcycle accident. The brain damage affected his STM for verbal information, but not for visual information.
What does the case study of KF tell us about memory and the WMM?
The case study of KF provides evidence for the WMM, in particular suggesting that there are separate visual and acoustic components of the STM
Outline the procedure of Baddeley’s dual task study.
One group of participants were made to do two tasks at the same time which involved the visuo-spatial sketchpad. The other group were made to do two tasks at the same time, one involving the VSS and one involving the phonological loop.
What were the findings of Baddeley’s dual task study? What does this show?
Baddeley found that the group doing the two VSS tasks did worse than the group doing one VSS and one PL task. This supports the WMM because it shows that multiple separate processing systems can work at the same time.
Describe McGeoch and McDonald’s research into interference (including findings)
All participants had to memorise a set of words until they could recall them with 100% accuracy. Then the participants were split into 6 groups and given a new set of things to memorise (synonyms, antonyms, unrelated words, nonsense syllables, 3-digit numbers, or no new list). The participants then had to recall the original set of words. The more similar the second set was to the first set, the worse the recall. This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.
Describe Baddeley and Hitch’s research into interference (including findings)
Rugby players were asked to recall the names of the teams that they had played against so far that season. Some players had missed matches so their last game might have been two weeks ago. The results showed that accurate recall did not depend on how long ago the matches took place, but the number of matches they had played in the meantime. This suggests that interference affects memory more than time does.
Describe Burke and Skrull’s research into interference (including findings)
The participants were presented with a series of magazine adverts, which they then had to recall the details of. In some cases, the participants had trouble remembering the earlier adverts (retroactive interference) and some had trouble remembering the later adverts (proactive interference). This shows the presence of both types of interference.
Describe Baddeley and Godden’s research into context-dependent forgetting (including findings)
A group of deep-sea divers learned a list of words either on land or underwater, and then were asked to recall the list of words on land or underwater. This created 4 conditions (land-land, land-water, water-land, water-water). Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non matching conditions; the external cues available at learning were not present at retrieval, leading to retrieval failure.
Describe Carter and Cassaday’s research into state-dependent forgetting (including findings)
The participants learned a list of words either on an anti-histamine drug (which made them slightly drowsy) or not. They were then asked to recall the words either on the drug or not. This created 4 conditions (drug-drug, drug-no drug, no drug-drug, no drug-no drug). Accurate recall was significantly lower with the non matching conditions; the internal cues available at learning were not available at retrieval, leading to retrieval failure.
Describe Baker et al’s research into forgetting (including findings)
The participants had to learn a list of words either while chewing gum or not, and after 24 hours they had to recall the words either chewing gum or not. Recall was best when the participant chewed gum in both stages, and worst when the participant has mixed conditions in the stages.
Describe Aggleton and Waskett’s research into forgetting (including findings)
The study was carried out in an underground museum in York. In the museum, smells similar to those present in the town 1000 years ago are replicated. Research found that recreating these smells helped visitors to remember their trip to the museum more accurately. This is an example of context-dependent forgetting.
