A01 Memory

Question 1

STM definition

Answer 1

Limited capacity store - 7+or-2
Coding is acoustic
Duration is 18 secs
Memory of information which we store for a short period of time

Question 2

LTM defintion

Answer 2

Permanent memory store
Coding is semantic
Unlimited capacity
Unlimited duration

Question 3

Research on coding

Answer 3

Baddeley gave a list of 4 different words to p’s
Group 1: words sound similar (acoustically similar)
Group 2: words sound different (acoustically dissimilar)
Group 3: words with similar meanings (semantically similar)
Group 4: words with different meanings (semantically dissimilar)
When p’s recalled words immediately (STM) they did worse with the acoustically similar than when they had 20 mins after to recall words due to this being in their LTM and did better with the semantically similar words.
This suggests that information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM

Question 4

Research on capacity

Answer 4

Digit span - how much info STM can hold at one time (capacity)
Jacobs found out that mean span for digits is 9.3 but for letters its 7.3
He found this by doing a task where if the participant gets the 4 digits correct then they have to remember a 5th digit from the beginning
Miller found that everything comes in 7s
Capacity is 7+or-2
Chunking - we can recall 5 letters as easily as we can recall 5 digits. We group the sets of data into chunks

Question 5

Research on duration

Answer 5

STM - Peterson and Margaret tested 24 students in 6 trails. On each trial the student was given a consonant syllable to remember - 3 digit number which they counted backwards.
On each trail they were told to stop after varying periods of time 3,6,9,12,15,18.
After 3 secs average recall 80% after 18secs 3%.
LTM - Bahrick studied 392 American p’s aged 17-74
Recall for school yearbooks were tested in multiple ways:
1) photo recognition
2) name listing (free recall)
P’s within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years declined to 70%
Name listing - 60% after 15 years, 30% after 48 years. Shows that LTM may last up to a lifetime.

Question 6

Multi-store model- Atkinson and shiffrin

Answer 6

stimulus from environment —> sensory register (iconic - what you see and echoic - what you hear) —> STM —> LTM
from sensory register to STM attention is needed
from STM to LTM prolonged rehearsal
from LTM to STM retrieval
from prolonged rehearsal to STM it’s maintenance rehearsal
from STM branching off its response

Question 7

sensory register - duration, capacity and coding

Answer 7

coding - iconic and echoic
duration - a few secs
capacity - high quality eg over 1 hundred mill cells in one eye storing data

Question 8

Types of LTM - Tulving

Answer 8

Episodic - ability to remember events that are time stamped eg what I got as a present for my 15th bday
Semantic - factual info, not time stamped eg Paris is the capital city of France
Procedural - skills or actions /how we do things. Concious effort not needed. Eg making tea

Question 9

Working memory model - Baddeley

Answer 9

Central executive - monitors incoming data. Has limited processing capacity and doesn’t store info
Phonological loop - deals with auditory info - coding is acoustic
Phonological store - stores the words you hear
Articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal
Visuo-spatial sketchpad - limited capacity
Visual cache - stores visual data
Inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in the visual field
Episodic buffer - temporary store of info, integrating the visual spatial and verbal info. Links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception. Maintains a sense of time sequencing.

Question 10

Explanations for forgetting: interference

Answer 10

Interference theory suggests that forgetting is a matter of accessibility rather than availability. The information is still in your (LTM), but you cannot “get to it” because another memory is blocking the path. This usually occurs when two memories are similar
Proactive interference - old memories interfere with new ones eg calling your bf by your exs name
Retroactive interference- new memories interfere with old ones. Eg teacher can’t remember old students names and only new students
Research on effects of similarity- Mcgeoh and McDonald studied retroactive interference
Ps had to memorise a list of words until they could 100% remember them with accuracy. They then learnt a new list of words- there were 6 groups of ps:
Group 1- synonyms
Group 2 - antonyms
Group 3 - words unrelated to original ones
Group 4- consonant syllables
Group 5 - 3 digit numbers
Group 6 - control group no new list
Synonyms created worst recall. This shows that inference is strongest when memories are similar.
Explanations of the effects of similarities on recall:
PI : previously stored in info makes new similar info more difficult to store.
RI: new info overwrites previous similar memories because of the similarity.

Question 11

Explanations for forgetting - retrieval failure

Answer 11

Insufficient cues
Retrieval failure is where we can’t access memories that are there
Encoding specificity principle - Tulving suggested that if a cue is helpful it has to 1) present when learning 2) present at recall
Meaningful cues include - mnemonics
Non meaningful cues:
Context-dependant forgetting - external cues such as the weather or place
State-dependant forgetting - recall depends on internal cue eg being sad or drunk
Research on context dependant forgetting:
Godden and Baddeley had 4 conditions for ps to learnt the lists and recall them:
1) learn list on land - recall on land
2) learn list on land - recall underwater
3) learn list underwater - recall underwater
4) learn list underwater - recall on land
They found that accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions
Externals cues available at learning were different to at recall leading to retrieval failure
Research on state-dependant forgetting:
Carter and cassaday gave antihistamine drugs to ps to make them drowsy. Ps learnt words and had to recall them under 4 conditions:
1) learn on drug - recall when on drug
2) learn on drug - recall when not on drug
3) learn off drug - recall off drug
4) learn off drug - recall when on drug
In conditions when there was a mismatch within learning and recall, recall was worse. So when cues are absent there is more forgetting.

Question 11

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading info

Answer 11

Research on leading qs:
Loftus and Palmer - 45 ps to watch clips of car accidents and then answer qs. In one of the qs the ps were asked how fast did the car travel at when it hit each other. The verbs hit, contacted, bumped, smashed and collided were used and replaced in each qs.
Findings: for the word smashed the mean speed was 40.5mph but for contacted it was 31.8mph. The leading qs biased the eyewitnesses recall of an event.
Why do leading qs affect EWT?
Response-bias explanation suggests that the wording of the qs had no real effect on the ps memories it just influences how they decide to answer.
research on post-event discussion
Gabbert et al studied ps in pairs. she gave each p a different view of the same crime. Both ps discussed what they saw before completing an individual test of recall.
they found that 71% is ps mistakenly recalled events that they didn’t see but picked up in discussion. compared to the control group who had 0%
Why does post -event discussion affect EWT?
1) memory contamination - when witnesses discuss with each other their EWT’s become altered or distorted. this is because they combine (mis)information from each other with their own memories.
2) memory conformity
The witnesses memories are still intact and haven’t changed but they may do this because of NSI OR ISI as they want to be liked or to be right.

Question 12

Factors affecting the accuracy of EWT: Anxiety

Answer 12

Positive effect of anxiety on recall - Yullie and Cutshall
21 witnesses- 13 took part in the study
Shop owner shot thief dead. Interviwed 4-5 months after the incident. Accuracy was determined by no of details reported. Also from a 7 point scale of how stressed they felt.
Findings - those who reported high levels of stress had the best recall (88% compared to 75%). This suggests that anxiety doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of EWT and may even enhance it.
Negative effect of anxiety on recall - Johnson and Scott. 2 conditions. All ps sitting in a waiting room. 1) man walks past with a pen and grease on his hands (low anxiety condition). 2) man walks past with blood on his hands with a knife, and heard breaking glass and a heated argument (high anxiety condition).
Findings: ps saw 50 photos and had to identify the man. 49% who saw man holding pen and grease identified him. 33% who saw man with knife and blood identified him. Due to tunnel theory which argues that people have enhanced memory for central events.
Yerkes-Dodson law:
Inverted U graph. Lower levels of anxiety and stress/ arousal produce lower levels of recall accuracy and memory becomes more accurate as anxiety increases. However there is an optimum level of anxiety, any more than that and their recall can lead to a drastic decline

Question 13

Improving the accuracy of EWT: Cognitive interview - Fisher

Answer 13

1) Report everything - ps need to report every detail in order for cues
2) reinstate the context - get ps to look at the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment - links to context-dependant forgetting
3) Reverse the order - read the event in different chronological order to how it occurred - prevents dishonesty + expectations
4) Change perspective - think about the scene from another witnesses POV - allows schemas to not build up which generates expectations.

Enhanced cognitive interview:
Fisher added some elements into ECI eg interviewer needs to know when to hold eye contact and when not to. Also when to slow down talking to reduce anxiety from eyewitnesses.