Memory psychology Flashcards
(91 cards)
1
Q
What is the capacity of memory ?
A
How much data is held in each memory store
2
Q
What does duration of memory refer to ?
A
A measure of how long a memory lasts before it is no longer available
3
Q
What is coding in memory ?
A
The way information is changed so that it can be stored in memory ie can be stored visually, acoustically or semantically
4
Q
How was capacity of STM assessed ?
A
- assessed in 1887 by Joseph Jacobs
- this was done using digit span technique which involved a participant having to immediately recall a sequence of letters or numbers which increased by one letter or number with each trial.
- found that average span was 9.3 for digits and 7.3 for letters
5
Q
What is Miller’s magic number ?
A
- Miler reviewed psychological research in 1956 and concluded that span of short term memory was 7 items +- 2.
6
Q
What are some evaluation points related to STm capacity research ?
A
- Miller’s OG findings have not been replicated. Cowan ( 2001) reviewed many studies, concluded that STM capacity is limited to 4 chunks.
- Simon ( 1974) found people had a short memory span for larger chunks
- Jacobs found that recall ( digit span method) increased with age. 8 year olds on average were able to remember less digits ( 6.6 digits) compared to 19 year olds ( 8.6 digits)
This shows capacity of STM isn’t fixed, individual differences play a role
7
Q
How did Bahrick investigate the duration of LTM ?
A
Participants ( 400 people aged 17-74) were shown photos from high school year book to see how many classmates they could recognise. After 15 years of graduation, participants were 90% accurate in identifying faces, after 48 years this decreased to 70%.
Free recall condition ( had to list names) accuracy dropped from 60 -30% betw 15 and 48 years.
8
Q
Who developed the multi store model of memory ?
A
Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968
9
Q
Describe the multi store model of memory
A
Sensory register - takes in sensory information through your sense organs. Very large capacity but very brief duration
If a person pays attention, focusing on one of the sensory stores, data is transferred to short term memory
Maintenance rehearsal to keep info in STM and to transfer it to LTM
Info disappears from STM if new information enters displacing the OG info. This is due to limited capacity of STM
10
Q
How was the duration of STM studied ?
A
Studied by Loyd and Margaret Peterson ( 1959)
Participants were given a consonant syllable and a 3 digit number each trial ( 8 trials) ie THX 512
They had to try and recall consonant syllables after a retention interval of 3,6,9,15 or 18 secs.
During retention interval had to continuously count backwards from 3 digit number
11
Q
What were the findings of Loyd and Peterson’s study ?
A
Participants on average were 90% correct after 3 seconds, 20% correct after 9 seconds and only 2% correct after 18 seconds. Shows the very short duration of STM (duration- under 18 seconds) without verbal rehearsal
12
Q
What are some negative aspects of Peterson’s study ?
A
- experiment was artificial, lacking ecological validity as trying to memories consonant syllables - meaningless. Doesn’t reflect everyday memory activities
- STM results may have been due to displacement. Participants had to count backwards in retention intervals, may have “overwritten” syllables to be remembered.
13
Q
What was Baddley’s study into coding in memory ?
A
Found that by testing STM recall and LTM memory recall of (acoustically similar , semantically different words) and (semantically similar, acoustically different words) that participants had difficulty in remembering acoustically similar word lists in STM but not in LTM. Also found that semantically similar word are easier to remember in STM, not LTM.
Backs up idea that STM is encoded acoustically and LTM is mostly coded semantically
14
Q
Baddley’s coding study evaluation points
A
- in his study LTM was tested by waiting only 20 mins. Does this really test long term memory ?
- Nelson and Rothbart found evidence of acoustic coding in LTM - 1972
- Wickers et al found that STM sometimes uses semantic coding - 1976
15
Q
Who developed the working model of memory ?
A
Baddley and Hitch ( 1974).
16
Q
What store does the WMM address and what are the components ?
A
- addresses the STM store
- made up of central executive, episodic buffer, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad
17
Q
Phonological loop
A
- processes auditory information and preserves the order of the information
- made up of the phonological store ( inner ear - holds onto the words you hear) and articulatory control process ( inner voice - holds info in your head through silent looping)
18
Q
Central executive
A
controls attention and receives information from senses. Filters this before passing it onto the subsystems.
19
Q
What is the capacity of the central executive ?
A
limited, only holds one type of info at a time. can switch very quickly though
20
Q
What is the capacity of the PL ?
A
what can be said in around 2 seconds
21
Q
What criticisms of the MSM led to development of WMM ?
A
- too reductionist. Baddley and Hitch believed the STM must be more complex than just a single unitary store
- too passive. Believed that STM was an active processor, not just a stopping-off station for transfer of info to LTM.
22
Q
Visuospatial sketchpad
A
- used when you have to plan a spatial tasks ie getting from one room to another
- stores visual and spatial information
23
Q
What are the two components of the VS ?
A
- Logie suggested that it can be divided into a visual cache and inner scribe
- visual cache - stores visual info ie form and colour of objects
- inner scribe - stores arrangement of objects in space
24
Q
Episodic buffer
A
- added by Baddley ( 2000) realised that model needed a more general store
- integrates info from CE, PL and VS
- maintains a sense of time sequencing
25
Dual task performance studies, how do they support WMM ?
- dual task performance studies back up WMM.
- Baddley ( 1975) found that if you perform two visual tasks at same time, you perform them less well than separately
- if one of the tasks involves sound and the other is visual, no interference
- suggests that there are separate stores for visual and sound processing
26
weakness of dual task performance studies
- artificial tasks used challenge external validity
27
Case study support for WMM
- study of KF by Shallice and Warrington ( 1970)
- following brain injury from motorcycle accident, KF able to process letters and numbers but not auditory info ie meaningful sounds like ringing phone
- suggests that there are separate stores for visual and sound processing, and that in this case his brain damage restricted to PL.
28
Word length effect ( support for WMM)
- Baddley ( 1975) gave participants a list of long and short words. recalled more short than long words.
- this provides supporting evidence for the phonological loop having a limited capacity
29
Central executive as a unitary store is wrong
- Eshingger and Damasio 1985 studied EVR, who had cerebral tumour removed.
- performed very well on tests requiring reasoning, suggesting his CE was intact initially
- but his poor decision making skills suggests that his CE was not wholly intact
- may suggest that the CE is made of multiple components
30
What is a problem of using case studies of brain damaged patients to support WMM ?
-process of brain injury is traumatic so it may be this trauma rather than different parts of the brain being damaged causing the behaviour changes
- also case studies are unique, cannot be generalised to entire population
31
What is the encoding specificity principle and who was it proposed by ?
- proposed by Tulving and Thomson (1973)
- stated that memory is most effective if info present at coding is also present at time of retrieval
- also states that cues don't have to be exactly right, but the closer to the OG cue, the more effective
31
What was Tulving and Pearlstone's study in 1966 ?
- participants had to learn 48 words present in 12 categories. each word was presented as a category + word eg fruit - apple.
- free recall:approx 40% of the words recalled while 60% for cued recall
- provides evidence of encoding specificity principle + effectiveness of cues.
32
What is context-dependent forgetting ?
environmental cues present at encoding not present at retrieval
33
What was Godden and Baddley's study on context dependent forgetting ?
- partcipants were scuba divers. had to learn a set of words either on land or under water. then tested either on land or under water.
- results showed that highest recall occurred when learning and recall environment matched.
34
What is state dependent forgetting ?
if mental state ie sadness or drunkenness present at encoding isn't present at retrieval this results in forgetting
35
What was Goodwin et Al's experiment ( 1969)?
- asked male volunteers to remember a list of words either when drunk or sober ( those in drunk condition drunk 3 times the UK driving limit)
- participants then asked to recall list, some drunk and some sober
- results showed that the information learned when drunk was recalled most effectively when in the same state ( drunken )
36
What is an ethical concern about Goodwin et al's study into state dependent forgetting ?
ethical concerns about encouraging participants to get drunk meant that study cannot be replicated
37
What is retrieval failure ?
- occurs due to the absence of cues. an explanation of forgetting based on the idea that memory is there, just not accessible due to lack of cues
38
What is interference ?
an explanation of forgetting in terms of one memory disrupting the ability to recall another( usually the memories are similar to one another)
39
What is Benton Underwood's study of proactive interference ?
Participants had to learn a series of word lists. Underwood found that if they memorised 10 or more lists, after 24 hours could only remember 20%. If only 1 list, they remembered 70%.
This can be explained by proactive interference as each list makes it harder to remember subsequent lists.
40
What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference ?
Proactive interference - past learning interferes with current attempts to learn something
For example if you learn a new language, an old language that you have previously learnt might get in the way of your current learning and you might get mixed up between the two.
Retroactive interference - current attempts to learn something interfere with past learning
For example you might learn a new recipe for a dish and find that this causes you to forget an old recipe for the same dish that you might have used
41
What was Muller and Pilzecker's study into retroactive interference ?
- gave participants a list of syllables to learn for 6 minutes.
- had to recall the lists after a retention interval. Recall was less good if participants were given an intervening task between initial learning and recall.
- this is because the intervening task produces retroactive interference because the describing pics task interfered with prev learning.
42
What was Baddley and Hitch's study into interference ?
- investigated interference in everyday settings: rugby players remembering team names over a rugby season
- some players played all the games of the season, others missed some games due to injury
- according to interference theory, the players who played most games, should remember less. This matched the results found by Baddley and Hitch
43
How can interference theory be applied to advertising ( real life application)
- Danaher et al found that recall and recognition of advertiser's message was impaired when participants were exposed to two ads for competing brands within a week
- suggests that one strategy may be to enhance memory trace by running many exposures to ads in one day instead of over a week. This would result in reduced interference
44
What did Kane and Eagle find out about individual differences related to proactive interference ?
- individuals with greater working memory span less susceptible to proactive interference.
- researchers tested this by giving participants 3 word lists to learn. the participants with shorter working memory spans had greater proactive interference when recalling the second + third lists
45
Interference only explains some situations of forgetting
- criticism into interference is that interference effects don't occur often. Usually often when the memories are similar ( not always the case)
- Anderson ( 2000) concluded that interference definitely plays a role in forgetting, but how much of a role remains unclear
- suggests other theories are needed to provide complete explanations of forgetting
46
What was Loftus and Palmer's study on effect of leading questions ?
- 45 students were shown films of different traffic accidents. Were then questioned with a questionnaire including a critical question " How fast were the cars going when they hit one another" ?
- the question was phrased in different ways for each group of participants. Different verbs used: " smashed", "collided", "bumped", "hit"
- the use of the verb "smashed" led to a higher speed estimate of 40.8mph compared to the speed estimate of 31.8mph with the verb "collided"
- study shows the effect of leading questions, and how this can affect recall
47
What are the two factors which affect reliability of eye witness testimony ?
anxiety and misleading information ( leading questions & post event discussion)
48
How was Loftus and Palmer's experiment recreated ?
- 3 groups of participants were shown a film of a car accident lasting one minute
- a week later, asked about the speed of the cars ( leading q) for two groups, verbs "smashed" and "hit" were used. third group was a control group - no leading q
- also asked if they had seen any broken glass
- no broken glass in film but those exposed to verb "smashed" reported that they saw broken glass more than control group and "hit" condition group.
49
How can eyewitness testimony be affected by post - event discussion ?
memory of an event may be contaminated through discussing events with others or repeat interviewing
50
How and by who were the effects of post-event discussion investigated by ?
- investigated by Fiona Gabbert 2003
- participants were in pairs. each watched a different video of the same event so they viewed unique items.
- they were encouraged to them discuss event before recall
- 71% of witnesses who did this mistakenly recalled items obtained from discussion
51
How has Loftus' research been criticised ? What did Foster et al find out
- criticised for lack of ecological validity as her lab experiments don't present real life, not the same emotional arousal as a real life accident or people don't take experiment seriously enough
- Foster et al found out that in 1994 that participants who thought they were watching a real life robbery and also thought their responses would influence trial had more accurate identification of a robber.
52
What did Yuille and Cutshall find in 1986?
witnesses to an armed robbery in Canada gave very accurate reports of crime 4 months after the event, despite two misleading questions
- shows that misleading info may have less of an effect on real-life eyewitness testimony than Loftus' research suggests.
53
What is a real-life application of psychological research on EWT ?
- application to criminal justice system
- psychological research related to EWT has been use to warn justice system of problems with eye witness identification evidence
- this has been confirmed by DNA exoneration cases, which have shown that mistaken EW identification has been the largest factor in contributing to the conviction of innocent people
54
what are two real world applications of of retrieval failure research ?
- research can be used to improve recall when needed ie when taking exam
- Smith ( 1979) showed that even just thinking of the room where you did OG learning was as effective as being in room at time of retrieval
- cognitive interview is another real world application of retrieval cues
55
Do retrieval cues always work ?
no
according to Smith and Vela ( 2001) context effects are greatly eliminated when learning meaningful material, so can't explain all instances of forgetting
56
Danger of circularity
- idea that encoding specificity principle is impossible to test because it is circular
- if a stimulus leads to memory retrieval must have been encoded in memory
- if not according to ESP cannot be encoded in memory. however it isn't possible to test for an item that not coded in memory, so this can't be proved
57
What researchers conducted studies that support the multi store model of memory ?
- Jacobs, Petersons, Bahrick and Miller
58
Describe how the case study of HM supports the multistore model of memory
- HM's brain damage caused by an operation to remove hippocampus f
rom brain to reduce severe epilepsy
- HM unable to transfer info from STM to LTM but able to retrieve info from before surgery ( LTM)
- provides support for MSM's notion of separate stores
- investigated by scolville and milner in 1957
59
How is the multi store model of memory too simplistic ?
- suggests that both STM and LTM are both single unitary stores
- WMM contradicts this, suggests that STM is divided into different stores
- research also shows that there are different kinds of LTM ( procedural,episodic and semantic memory) which all behave differently ie maintenance rehearsal can explain long term storage in semantic memory but not episodic ( things you have experienced)
60
LTM involves more than just maintenance rehearsal
- deep processing of infomakes it more memorable
- Craik and Tulvin ( 1975) gave participants a list of nouns ie shark and asked them a question about each one which involved either deep or shallow processing
- participants remembered more words with deep processing
61
What are the two categories of LTM ?
explicit ( declarative) and implicit
procedural memory is a form of implicit memory and episodic and semantic memories are explicit
62
What is episodic memory ?
-personal memories of events ie what you did on holiday or a party you went to
- you may recall context surrounding event ie why you were there or emotions you felt at the time
63
What is procedural memory ?
-memory for how to do things ie riding a bike or learning how to read
- acquired through repetition and practise, become automatic so you can focus attention on other tasks
64
What is semantic memory ?
- memories for facts and knowledge ie the capital of France is Paris
- semantic memories may begin as episodic as we acquire knowledge based on personal experience, but overtime you lose the association to that particular event and it becomes semantic
65
What has brain scan research found that supports the existence of different LTMS ?
- fouynd that episodic memory associated with hippocampus, temporal and frontal lobe
- semantic associated with temporal
- procedural associated with cerebellum as well as basal ganglia and limbic system
- indicate that the three types of memory are found in diff parts of brain and so are seperate
66
How does HM's case study also support existence of different LTMs ?
- after his surgery could still form procedural memories but not episodic or semantic
- ie was able to draw a figure by looking at reflection in the mirror but had no memory of learning this
- supports the distinction between procedural and declarative memories
67
How does the Clive Wearing case study support that there are multiple types of LTM ?
- following a brain infection, his procedural memory seemed intact ( able to dress himself and play piano) but severe damage to episode memory
- When his wife left the room and returned after a few mins would always greet her as if he hadn't seen her in years
68
What are the problems of using case studies of brain damaged individuals
- process of brain injury is traumatic, can change behaviour so a person performs worse on certain tasks
- no way to tests memory of individ before brain damage so cannot be certain the changes in memory were due to brain damage
- case studies are unique; may not be generalisable
69
Distinguishing between episodic and semantic memory
-Hodges and Paterson 2007 studied patients with brain damage. found some patients who retained ability to form semantic but not episodic memories
- reverse was found with a group of Alzheimer's patients in 2011
- suggests episodic and semantic memories are seperate
70
Who found anxiety to have a negative effect on recall ?
Johnson nd Scott
71
What is the weapon focus effect ?
the view that a weapon in a criminals hand distracts attention from other features, and reduces accuracy of identification
72
What was the study and findings of Johnson and Scott's study in 1976
- participants were sat in a waiting room and overheard an argument in the adjoining room
- then saw a man running through a room either with pen cov in grease ( low anxiety condition) or knife covered in blood ( high anxiety )
- mean accuracy of identification of man was 49% in pen condition, 33% in knife condition
73
What did Christianson and Hubinette find evidence of in 1993 ?
- enhanced recall when 58 witnesses questioned who were either victims or bystanders ( had witnessed a bank robbery in sweden)
- they were interviewed 4-5 months after robberies and had better than 75% accurate recall
- victims (bank teller) who were most anxious had the best recall
74
What did Yuille and Cutshall (1986) find about the effect of anxiety on recall ?
- positive effect
- did interviews with eyewitnesses who had been in vicinity of a fatal shooting in Vancouver, Canada
- EWs interviewed 4-5 months after incident, police style interview qs used and two misleading qs
- EWs asked to rate their stress level at time of shooting. those who reported higher stress levels were most accurate in recall
75
What is the Yerkes Dodson effect ?
Deffenbaucher (1983) reviewed 21 studies on effect of anxiety on EWTM
- 10 of these studies showed higher anxiety to be linked with greater accuracy, 11 showed the opposite
- Yerkes Dodson effect proposed by D to explain this
- shows that moderate anxiety inc eye witness accuracy while if it is too extreme, will be reduced
76
What is a criticism of Weapon focus effect ?
- may not be caused by anxiety
- Pickel ( 1998) propose that reduced accuracy of identification may be due to surprise instead
- arranged participants to watch a thief enter a hairdressing salon carrying scissors (high threat, low surprise), handgun( high t,high s) wallet ( low t, low s) and a whole raw chicken (low t, high s)
- results showed that identification least accurate in high surprise conditions
77
Studies concerned with violent real life crimes
Harford and Milne (2005) showed that victims of violent crimes were more accurate in their recall of crime scene info than victims of non- violent
- shows that there is no simple rule about the effect of anxiety on accuracy of EWT
78
Individual differences in studies of anxiety
- key extraneous variable in studies of anxiety is emotional sensitivity
- study by Bothwell et al 1987 where participants were labelled either as neurotic ( tending to become anx quickly) or stable ( less emotionally sensitive)
- it was found that stable participants showed rising levels of accuracy as stress levels increased ; opposite for neurotics
- study shows importance of individ diff in EWT accuracy
79
Who developed the cognitive interview ?
Geiselmen et al ( 1984)
80
Describe the cognitive interview and the components it consists of
technique for interviewing witnesses to a crime, encourages them to recreate OG context of crime to inc accessibility of stored info
mental reinstatement of OG context, reporting everything, changing order, changing persepective
81
What is mental reinstatement ?
interviewer encourages interviewee to mentally recreate physical and psychological environment of the OG incident
ie interviewer may say things like "Think about that day.. Think about all the objects that were there. What was the weather like ?"
aim is to use contextual and emotional cues to make memories accessible
82
What does reporting everything mean ?
the interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail of an event
the logic is that remembering one small detail may then cue other major memories, also small details from diff witnesses can be pieced together to form a clear picture of events
83
What does changing the order mean ?
interviewer may ask person being interviewed to recount event backwards
this is to reduce impact of schemas ie if you went to a restaurant your recollection of that may be influenced by general expectations of what is likely to happen ie you are seated, waitress takes order etc
84
What does changing perspective mean ?
interviewer asks interviewee to recall incident from multiple perspectives ie imagining how it would have appeared to other witnesses present at the time
again this is to reduce effect on schemas
85
Research to support effectiveness of the cognitive interview
meta analysis of 53 studies found an increase of 34% in amount of correct info generated in the CI compared to a SI
however participants tested in a lab, so lack of ecological validity
86
Effectiveness of cognitive interview may be reduced in some cases
Milne and Bull ( 2002) found that when ps were interviewed using both the "report everything" and "mental reinstatement" technique, recall was a lot higher than when just using 1 component
87
Quality of the information may suffer
Kohnken et al ( 1999) found an 81% increase of correct info but also a 61% increase of incorrect info when using the CI compared to SI
this means that the info obtained from a cognitive interview should be treated with caution, doesn't guarantee accuracy
88
Time and training to implement the CI
police officers suggest this technique needs a lot of time, and so they prefer to limit EW report to min amount of info deemed necessary
also requires special training which many forces haven't been able to give
these limitations have meant the use of CI hasn't been widespread across police forces
89
When may the cognitive interview be more useful ?
interviewing older witnesses
negative stereotypes about elderly people having declining memories can make them overly cautious about reporting info. CI may overcome this as it stresses importance of reporting everything even if it seems insignificant
Melb and Fisher compared the memory of older and younger adults of a simulated crime. found that strength of CI over SI was greater for older than younger ps
90
What is misleading information ?
Supplying witnesses with information that may cause their memories to be altered
