Psychology Paper 1 - Memory Flashcards

Question

Explanations for forgetting - retrieval failure AO1 types of cues

Answer 1

Context – external cues in the environment, e.g., smell, place, etc. Evidence indicates that retrieval is more likely when the context at encoding matches the context at retrieval. State – bodily cues inside of us, e.g., physical, emotional, mood, drunk, etc. The basic idea behind state-dependent retrieval is that memory will be best when a person’s physical or psychological state is similar to encoding and retrieval. Organisation – Recall is improved if the organisation gives a structure that provides triggers, e.g., categories.

Answer 2

Strength - People tend to remember material better when there is a match between their mood at learning and at retrieval. The effects are stronger when the participants are in a positive mood than when they are in a negative mood. They are also greater when people try to remember events having personal relevance. Strength - Goodwin investigated the effect of alcohol on state-dependent (internal) retrieval. They found that when people encoded information when drunk, they were more likely to recall it in the same state.e.g when they hid money and alcohol when drunk, they were unlikely to find them when sober. However, when they were drunk again, they often discovered the hiding place. Other studies found similar state-dependent effects when participants were given drugs such as marijuana.

Answer 3

Loftus & Palmer Lab experiment - 5 conditions - independent measures 45 American students - opportunity sampling Participants were shown slides of a car accident involving a number of cars and asked to describe what had happened as if they were eyewitnesses. They were then asked specific questions, including the question, “About how fast were the cars going when they (hit/smashed/collided/bumped/contacted ) each other?” Findings- Estimated speed was affected by the verb used. The verb implied information about the speed, which systematically affected the participants’ memory of the accident. Smashed was quicker than the cars that hit

Answer 4

Lacks mundane realism - lacks ecological validity Not a representative sample only students lack generalisability Easy to replicate - high reliability

Answer 5

Yerkes-Dodson effect states that when anxiety is at low and high levels, EWT is less accurate than if anxiety is at a medium level. Recall improves as anxiety increases up to an optimal point and then declines. Yuille and Cutshall (1986) 21 witnesses in a shooting incident Canada 13 witnesses agreed to be interviewed 4-5 months later (15-32 age) Rate how stressed they were on a 7 point scale witnesses where highly accurate in their recall - showed anxiety did not affect recall - contradicts lab findings high anxiety = more accurate recall - 88% less anxious = less accurate recall - 75%

Answer 6

High ecological validity compared to lab experiments Weakness - extraneous variables those who were closer to the shooting had high accuracy rather than the more anxious you are

Answer 7

The cognitive interview involves a number of techniques: Context Reinstatement- reinforce what the environment was like eg. weather, time, individuals emotional state etc Recall from a Changed Perspective- mentally recreate a perspective of what another witness may have seen. Recall in Reverse Order- describe what happened in a different chronological order. Report Everything- encourage witness to report every detail even if they think it may be unimportant The Enhanced Cognitive Interview- -Encourage the witness to relax and speak slowly. -Offer comments to help clarify witness statements. -Adapt questions to suit the understanding of individual witnesses.

Answer 8

Limitation - time consuming - to train officers and to conduct interview Limitation - some elements of the cognitive interview are more valuable than others eg. report everything Strength - more effective interview compared to standard and hypnosis Cognitive = 41.2 Standard = 38.0 Hypnosis = 29.4 accurate recalled facts

Psychology Paper 1 - Memory Flashcards

(32 cards)