Memory studies backwards Flashcards
Research on coding of memory
Baddely
semantically and acoustically similar and dissimilar words
EVAL- strength identified a clear difference between the memory stores.
limitation- artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material
Research on capacity STM
Jacobs
Digit span study
Miller
Span of memory and chucking. 7+/- 2
JACOBS EVAL- strength has been replicated. Bopp and Verhaegen
MILLER EVEAL- limitation- overestimated the STM capacity. Cowan reviewed other research and found that the capacity is only about 4 +/- 1 chunks
Research on duration of STM
Peterson and Peterson
nonsense trigrams and asked to recall after either bounding backwards 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds
3 seconds 80% . 18 seconds 3%
EVAL- meaningless stimuli
Duration of LTM
Bahrick
highschool
15 years- photo recognition 90% free recall 60%
48 years- photo recognition 70% free recall 30%
shows LTM can last up to a lifetime for some memories
EVAL- high external validity due to meaningful memories.
The multi store model
Atkinson and Shiffrin.
EVAL
Research support- Baddely- we mix up words that sound similar when using STM. But words with similar meaning with LTM.
Case study- KF amnesia. STM for digits and was poor when they were read out but recall was much better when he read it.
Types of LTM
Tulving
Episodic, semantic, procedural
EVAL
Clinical evidence- HM and Clive Wearing. Both episodic severely impaired due to brain damage. But their semantic memories were unaffected. They still understood words. HM could not remember stroking a dog half an hour earlier but didn’t need the word dog to be explained to him. Procedural memories were still intact so they both knew how to speak and walk.
Working memory model
Baddely and Hitch
EVAL-
Clinical evidence- Shallice and Elizabeth. KF study, after injury he had poor STM ability for auditory information but could process visual information normally. E.g. his recall of letters was better when he read them compared to having them read out loud to him.
Dual task performance- Baddely. visuo-spatial sketch pad. Participants visual and verbal task at the same time, their performance on each was similar when they carried out tasks separately. But when they we e done at the some time the performance declined
Explanations for forgetting: Interference
Research on effects of similarity
McGeoch and McDonald
studied retroactive interference by changing amount of similarity between two sets of materials.
list of 10 words until they could be lessened with accuracy. Then a new list.
6 Groups and conditions
EVAL
real world interference- strength real world interference. Baddeley and Hitch rugby players recall teams. Players who played the most had the worst recall.
Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure
Research on context dependent forgetting
Godden and Baddeley
EVAL- strength Real world application
limitation Recall versus recognition- effects may depend substantially on the type of memory being tested
Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure
Research on state dependent forgetting
Carter and Cassaday
EVAL- Research support Eysenck and Keane argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from LTM
Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Misleading information
LEADING QUESTIONS
Loftus and Palmer.
Car crash contacted, bumped, collided, smashed
EVAL
real world application- leading questions have a distorting effect on memory so police officers need to be careful with phrasing.
Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Misleading information
POST-EVENT DISCUSSION
Gabbert et al.
Put in pairs. Each participant watched a video of the same crime from different angles. 71% mistakenly recalled aspects of event that they did not see and picked up in the discussion.
EVAL-
Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Anxiety
NEGATIVE EFFECT ON RECAL (WEAPON FOCUS)
Johnson and Scott
Participants believed that they were taking part in a lab study. While in the low anxiety waiting room they heard a casual conversation and saw a man walk past carrying a pen and grease.
In the high anxiety room they heard an argument followed by breaking glass and saw a man walk holding a knife covered in blood.
picked man from photos 49% with pen 33% with knife
Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Anxiety
POSITIVE EFFECT ON RECALL
Yullie and Cutshall
Real robbery shooting. 21 witnesses-13 took part in study. Interviewed 5 months after incident . Interviews compared to police interviews. Rate how stress they felt at the incident and whether they had any emotional problems since.
Highest levels of stress more accurate High 88% low 75%
EVAL research support
Anxiety
Explaining contradictory findings
Yerkes and Dodson
relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an ‘inverted U’.
Performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point, where it decreases drastically.
Improving accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview
Fisher and Geiselman
1Report everything
2Reinstate the context
3Reverse the order
4Change perspective
enhanced CI- added elements to focus on social element of interaction like when to establish and relinquish eye contact.
EVAL
time consuming- need time to build rapport, and required special police training (Kebbel and Wagstaff)
some elements may be more useful. Combination of report everything and reinstate context produced better recall (Milne and Bull)
