Paper 1: 2. Memory (COMPLETE) Flashcards

Question

What's the function of the central executive?

Answer 1

The function of the central executive is to direct attention to particular tasks, it determines which of the 3 slave systems is most appropriate to allocate for a set task. It deals with demanding tasks e.g. Problem solving. It also has a limited capacity and it has no capacity for storing data. Limited duration.

Answer 2

The Phonological Loop deals with auditory information and preserves the order of information. There are 2 sub-sections to the phonological loop: The Phonological Store which holds the words you hear, like an inner ear. An Articulatory process which is used for words that are heard/seen. These words are silently repeated (looped), like an inner voice. This is a form of maintenance rehearsal.

Answer 3

The Visuo-spatial sketchpad is used when you have to plan a spatial task(e.g. getting from one room to another, or counting the number of windows in your house). The VSSP is referred to as the inner eye. It gives visual info e.g. what things look like and spatial information which considers the physical relationship between things. Logie suggested that the visuo-spatial sketchpad can be divided into: - A visual cache which stores information about visual items, e.g. form and colour. - An inner scribe, which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

Answer 4

This is a temporary store for information; it integrates material from the other sub-systems (visual, spatial and verbal information) into a single memory. It also maintains a sense of time sequencing (records events as they happen). The episodic buffer also acts as a storage component for the central executive as that has no capacity to store. Finally the episodic buffer also links working memory to the LTM. (the closest link to the ltm)

Answer 5

✅Dual task performance Baddeley found that participants performed better when they were given a visual (follow a spot of light with a pointer) and a verbal task (recite a string of digits) simultaneously. In comparison to completing two visual tasks simultaneously (pointer task as well as answering question about the angles of letters e.g. ‘does the Capital letter A have a right angle?’). This is because completing a visual and verbal task makes use of different parts of the STM (visuo-spatial sketchpad and phonological loop). Whereas completing two visual tasks makes use of only one part of the STM the visuo-spatial sketchpad which has a limited capacity. This supports the idea that STM has more than one component. ✅Clinical support Support for the WMM comes from the case of KF. This patient had suffered brain damage due to a motorcycle accident. The accident had damaged his STM and he had difficulty recalling verbal information but he could process visual information normally. This suggests that his Phonological loop had been damaged but the other sections remained intact e.g. visuo-spatial sketchpad. This supports the existence of a separate visual and acoustic store. ❌However, evidence from brain-damaged patients may not be reliable because it concerns unique cases with patients who have had traumatic experiences which may in itself change a person’s behaviour. ❌Lack of clarity over the central executive The component of the WMM is unsatisfsctory and doesn't really explain much. baddley said the central executive is the moost important but least understood component needs to be more clearly speicified than just being attention. some psychologsts believe it has several components. this means the wmm hasnt been uflly explained ✅brain scanning support wmm Braver gave their participants tasks that involved the central executive whilst having a brain scan. The researchers found greater activity in an area known as the prefrontal cortex. What was espcially interesting was the activtiy in this area increased as the task became harder. This makes a lot of sense in terms of the wmm, as demands on the central executive increase, it has to work harder to fulfil its functions.

Answer 6

Leading questions | Anxiety

Answer 7

Procedure: Loftus arranged for 45 students to watch 7 film clips of car accidents. After each clip participants were given a questionnaire which asked them a series of questions about the accident. There was one critical question (a leading question) participants were asked, ‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ This is a leading question because the verb (action word) ‘hit’ suggests the speed the car was going. The other 4 groups were given the verbs smashed, bumped, collided, or contacted in place of the word hit. Findings: The mean estimated speed was calculated for each participant group. The mean estimate for the verb for smashed was 40.5mph. Whereas the verb 'contacted’ resulted in a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph.

Answer 8

Procedure: To test this Loftus had 3 groups of participants and they were also shown a film of a car accident and asked them about the speed of the car. The participants were then asked to return one week later when they were asked a series of 10 questions about the accident, including another critical question. ‘Did you see any broken glass?’ There was no broken glass in the film. Loftus found that those in the smashed condition were more likely to say they had seen broken glass which suggests that the leading question did change the actual memory of the event.

Answer 9

When co witnesses discuss crimes tgether, their eyewitness tesitmonies may become contaminated. This is because they combine information from other witnesses with their own memories. PROCEDURE Gabbert studied participants in peers. Each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view. This meant that each participant could see elements in the event that the other couldn't. For example, one participant could see the title of the book being carried by a woman. Both participants then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall. FINDINGS The researchers found that 71% of the participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion. The corressponding figure in a control group, where there was no discussion was 0%. Gabbert concluded that witnesses often go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right and they are wrong. They called this phenonmenon memory conformity.

Answer 10

✅Supporting evidence Braun asked college students (who had been to Disneyland when they were aged 10) to evaluate advertising material about Disneyland. Embedded in this material was misleading information about either bugs bunny or Ariel (neither character could have been seen at Disneyland because bugs bunny is part of Warner brothers and Ariel was not produced at the time they were at Disneyland) or a control group. Participants in the Bugs bunny or Ariel group were more likely to report that they shook hands with these characters than the control group. This shows that misleading information can create an inaccurate (false) memory. ❌Artifical tasks A real limitation of Loftus and Palmers study is that their participants watched film clips of car accidents. This is a very different experience from witnessing a real accident, mainly because such clips lack the stress of a real accident. Thus such studies are artificial and there is some evidence that emotions can have an influence on memory. For instance Cutshall interviewed 13 people who had witnessed an armed robbery in Canada. He interviewed them four months after the crime and including 2 misleading questions. Despite these Q’s the witnesses provided accurate recall that matched their initial reports. This suggests that misleading information may have less influence on real-life EWT. ✅Useful real-life applications A great strength of all research into misleading information is that it has hugely important practical uses in the real world, where the consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious indeed. For example Loftus believes that leading questions can have a distorting effect on memory and that police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses. Research into EWT is an area in which psychologists believe they can make an important difference to the lives of real people, for instance by improving the way the legal system works. ❌Demand characteristics Zaragosa argued that many answers participants give in lab studies of EWT are the result of demand characteristics. Participants usually do not want to let the researcher down, and want to appear helpful and attentive. So when they are asked a question they don’t know the answer to, they guess. For instance imagine if a participant was shown a clip of a car accident and then asked ‘Did you see the blue car?’ They might be inclined to say ‘yes’ because they think that seems like a helpful answer. This will have a negative effect on the results and the validity of the findings. ❌Consequences of ewt There is also another key difference between lab based research studies in leading questions and real life cases. In real life an eyewitnesses recall may lead to someone being sentenced to prison which is not true of studies like Loftus’.

Answer 11

Anxiety is a state of emotional and physical arousal – (emotions such as being worried) (physiological changes such as an increased heart rate) Research is inconclusive – some suggests that anxiety can aid recall whereas others suggest that it can impair recall.

Answer 12

Scott asked participants to sit in a waiting room. While seated in the waiting room participants heard an argument in the next room (these were staged arguments). In the ‘low anxiety’ condition a man then walked out of the room and through the waiting area, carrying a pen with grease on his hands. In the ‘high anxiety’ condition participants overheard the same argument, but this time accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man then walked out of the room, holding a knife that was covered in blood. Participants were then shown 50 photos and asked if they could identify the man that walked out of the room. Findings: 49% of the participants who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him. Only 33% of participants could identify the man who carried a knife. This is known as the weapons effect which suggests that the weapon in a criminals hand distracts attention from other features (e.g. their face) and therefore reduces the accuracy of identification. Research which monitored eyewitness’s eye movements supports this effect.

Answer 13

Christianson questioned 58 real witnesses to bank robberies in Sweden. T he witnesses were either victims (bank employee) who were face to face with the robber (High anxiety) or bystanders (employees that were far or customers and experienced Low anxiety). The interviews were carried out 4-15 months after the robberies. Finding: The researchers found that all witnesses showed generally good memories for details of the robbery itself (better than 75% accurate recall). However those who were most anxious had the best recall of all. This suggests that anxiety aids recall.

Answer 14

Deffenbacher suggested the Yerkes-Dodson effect . This suggests that when anxiety levels are at a moderate level then an eyewitnesses recall will be enhanced. However when anxiety levels are too low or too extreme then accuracy will be reduced (known as the inverted-U shape).

Answer 15

❌Extraneous variables Researchers usually interview real-life eyewitnesses sometime after the actual event (e.g. Christianson). All sorts of things could have happened to the participants during that time period that the researchers have no control over – e.g. discussions with other people about the event, accounts they may have read or seen in the media, the effects of being interviewed by the police (post event information). This is a limitation of such research because it is possible that these extraneous variables may be responsible for the accuracy/inaccuracy of recall. ❌ Ethical issues Creating anxiety in participants is potentially unethical as it could cause them psychological harm purely for the purpose of research. This is why real-life studies are beneficial as witnesses can be interviewed for a crime they have already seen. ❌Individual differences One key extraneous variable in many studies of anxiety is emotional sensitivity. Bothwell assessed participants for neuroticism (a personality characteristic where individuals tend to become anxious quite quickly). Participants were tested and labelled as ‘neurotic’ or ‘stable’ (less emotionally sensitive). In this study it was found that the ‘stable’ participants showed rising levels of accuracy as stress levels increased whereas the opposite was true of ‘neurotics’. This shows that effects of anxiety depend on the individual. An alternative model to the Yerkes-Dodson model Fazey proposed the catastrophe theory This suggests that a decline in recall of an event is not only due to a rise in physiological arousal – But in addition it could also be due to mental anxiety (e.g. worrying about the event).

Answer 16

Fisher identified the following issues with police interviewing techniques: - Witness are often asked closed questions - Witnesses are often bombarded with questions - The interviewer tends to interrupt witnesses when they are recalling information

Answer 17

Cognitive interview (proposed by Geiselman) applies psychological research to help improve police interviewing techniques. The cognitive interview aims to help eyewitnesses retrieve more accurate memories and consists of 4 key principles. 1. report everything 2. mental reinstatemnt of orignal context 3. reverse the orfer 4. changed persepective

Answer 18

Witnesses are encouraged to report every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant. Trivial details may be important and they may trigger other important memories. For example the interviewer may say: ‘Some people hold back information because they are not quite sure if it is important, but please do not leave anything out even if you think it is insignificant. I am interested in everything that you remember’.

Answer 19

This principle encourages the witness to mentally recreate both the physical (e.g. the weather, where they were) and psychological environment (e.g. how they felt) of the original incident. This aims to make the memory accessible by providing appropriate contextual and emotional cues (based on the context dependent retrieval theory). The interviewer may ask: I would like you to think back to the day the event happened, what had you been doing, what was the weather like, try and get that picture in your mind. Think about the objects and colours around you. How did you feel at the time?’

Answer 20

Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence, for example from the final point back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning. This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events. It also prevents dishonesty (this is because it is harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it). The interviewer may say: ‘I would like you to tell me what happened backwards. To start what is the last thing you remember... just before that what happened?’

Answer 21

Witnesses should recall the incident from other peoples perspective. This is done to disrupt the possible negative effects our expectations and schemas (mental concepts we use to help us interpret information) may have on our recall. For example the interviewer may say: ‘Try to recall the incident from the perspective of another person, for example by imagining how it would have appeared to other witnesses present at the time, just focus on that person what would he/she have seen?’

Answer 22

✅Supporting evidence - Geiselman’s study He found that participants recalled more information about a video of a simulated (fake) crime when the cognitive interview was used; in comparison to recall from the standard interview and hypnosis. This suggest that the cognitive interview is the most effective method. ✅❌Supporting evidence - Kohnken Kohnken Carried out a meta-analysis of 53 studies and found that there was an increase of 34% in the amount of correct information generated in the cognitive interview compared with standard interviewing techniques. However most of these studies involved volunteer witnesses (usually college students) tested in a lab (such studies may not reflect real-life practises). ❌Time consuming Police may be reluctant to use the cognitive interview because it takes much more time than the standard police interview. For example, more time is needed to establish a rapport with the witness. The cognitive interview requires special training and many forces are unable to provide more than a few hours to question a witness. ❌Inaccurate Kohnken found that although the cognitive interview increases the amount of correct information, it also led to a lot of incorrect information being recalled (61% incorrect information). This means that police need to treat all information collected from the cognitive interview with caution as it does not guarantee accuracy. ❌ One of the problems with evaluating the effectiveness of the cognitive interview when it is used in the real world is that different establishments use the cog. Interview in different ways. For example, Thames Valley Police use a version of the cognitive interview which does not include ‘change perspective’. Other police forces that claim to use the standard interview have tended to only use the mental reinstatement and report everything principles. ✅SOME ELEMENTS MAY BE MIRE VALUABLE THAN OTHERS Bull found that each principle was valuable and each principle used by itself produced more information that than standard interview. However, Bull found that using a combination of report everything and context reinstatement produced better recall than any of the other principles. This shows that some aspects of the cognitive interview are more useful than others. This is useful information because if police are limited in time, just using those two principles could help improve a police interview of an eyewitness. ❌Individual differences Research suggests that the cognitive interview may be more useful for older witnesses as it stresses the importance of reporting any detail even if it seems insignificant to a person who may be questioning their recall (due to age). Fisher compared older (mean age 72) and younger (mean age 22) adults’ memory of a filmed simulated crime using either a cognitive interview or a standard interview. The results showed that the cognitive interview produced more information than the standard interview but this effect was more significant in the older group of participants.