1
Q
What is coding
A
How information is stored
2
Q
What is capacity
A
How much the stores can hold
3
Q
What is duration
A
How long it stays in these stores
4
Q
What is the sensory register
A
Information gathered from the senses
5
Q
What is the coding, capacity and duration of the sensory register
A
Coding= from the senses
Capacity= unlimited
Duration = iconic (visual)- 0.5s echoic (auditory)- 2s
6
Q
What is the short term memory
A
Our memory for the immediate past
7
Q
What is the coding, capacity and duration of the STM
A
Coding= acoustically
Capacity= 7+/-2 items
Duration= 18s
8
Q
What is the long term memory
A
Our memory for the past
9
Q
What is the coding, capacity and duration of the LTM
A
Coding= semantically
Capacity= unlimited
Duration= unlimited
10
Q
What does acoustic mean
A
Based on how things sound
11
Q
What does semantic mean
A
Based on what things mean
12
Q
Who did the research into coding
A
Baddeley
13
Q
What was Baddeleys aim into researching coding
A
Used word lists that sounded similar or had similar meanings to study how information was stored
14
Q
How did Badddeley split the participants for his research into coding
A
Group 1- words that sounded similar
Group 2- words did not sound the same
Group 3- words that had similar meanings
Group 4- words that had all different meanings
15
Q
What did Baddeley find after his research into coding
A
When measuring short term memory participants were asked to recall immediately after and recall was worse for the acoustically similar words (group 1)- due to STM getting confused as it codes acoustically
When measuring long term memory recall was worse for the semantically similar words (group 3)- due to LTM getting confused as it codes semantically
16
Q
Strengths of research into coding
A
Baddeley identified a clear difference between two memory stores
STM codes acoustically and LTM codes semantically
Important step in understanding memory, led to multi store model of memory
Very well controlled research
All participants received the exact same instructions
All extraneous variables were controlled so easy to replicate to test reliability
These are important scientific features that makes this research scientific
17
Q
Limitation of research into coding
A
Lacks ecological validity
Wordlists were artificial, that do not have specific links to everyday life
Therefore stimuli we are faced with on a daily basis may be coded differently
May not apply to wider context
18
Q
Who did research into capacity
A
Jacobs
19
Q
What was Jacobs aim into researching capacity
A
To investigate how many letters and digits can be held in the STM
20
Q
How did Jacobs conduct his experiment to research capacity and what did he find
A
Researcher read our 4 digits and asked participant to recall, if correct researcher would add digits and so on until participant can’t recall anymore (this indicates the individual digit span)- for digits it was 9.3 items and letters was 7.3 items
21
Q
What was Millers research into capacity
A
He noted that most things come in 7s e.g 7 days on the week so he thought capacity of STM was 7+/-2 items
But he noticed that people can recall 5 words as easy as five letters- we do this by chunking
22
Q
What is chunking
A
Grouping sets of digits or letters into units or chunks
23
Q
Strength of research into capacity
A
Has been replicated
This study is old and lacked controls (confounding variables)
Jacobs findings has been confirmed by other better controlled studies since
Suggests Jacobs study is a valid test of digit span in STM
24
Q
Limitation of research into capacity
A
May have overstimulated STM capacity
Cowen concluded that capacity of STM is only about 4+/-1 chunks. Further evidence shows that different ages have different STM capacity suggested that memory declines with age
Research doesn’t consider individual differences
May not be generalisable to all
25
Who did the research into STM duration
Peterson and Peterson
26
How did Peterson and Peterson research STM duration
Gave participants trigrams then asked to count backwards in threes, they did this for either 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds
27
What did Peterson and Peterson conclude about the duration of the STM
No longer than 18 seconds
28
Who did research into duration of LTM
Bahrick et al
29
How did Bahrick study the duration of LTM
Investigated memories of school friends by asking participants to see who they could remember e.g through free recall or photos recognition
30
What was Bahricks findings regarding duration of LTM
When recognising photos those who graduated in last 15 years had 90% accuracy, those after 48 years had 70% accuracy
Free recall was not as accurate 60% after 15 years and 30% after 48 years
31
What did Bahrick conclude about his research into LTM duration
Has a potentially unlimited duration for some material
32
Strength of research into duration
Bahrick et al research has a high external validity
Investigating memories
More representative
More applicable to scenarios outside of research context
33
Limitation of research into duration
Peterson and Petersons study has a low ecological validity
Stimuli do not have any relevance to everyday life
Nonsense trigrams
Findings may not be relevant
34
Who created the multi store model of memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin
35
How does the multi store model of memory work
Sensory register holds everything our senses take in, if info is paid attention to it passes to STM, then it can be transferred to LTM through prolonged rehearsal
36
What are the ways that info can be forgotten in the MSM
Decay
Displacement
Interference
37
In the MSM are the stores completely separate
Yes
38
What is the sensory register and examples of subdivisions
Holds all incoming info from the environment and there are subdivisions that relate to each of the five senses
E.g iconic= visual and echoic= sound
39
What is the coding capacity and duration of the sensory register
Coding- based on sense it is linked to
Capacity- very high
Duration- Sperling found that iconic store is 0.5 seconds
40
How can we keep information in our STM for longer
Through a rehearsal loop- this is done through maintenance rehearsal where we repeat info over and over again
41
What happens if we rehearse info in the STM for long enough
It will move to LTM
42
How do we retrieve info from the LTM
Info needs to be transferred back to STM through retrieval
43
Strength of MSM
Support from studies showing that STM and LTM are different
Baddeley found that we mix up words that sound similar in STM and mix up words with similar meanings in LTM
Further supported by Jacobs research
STM and LTM are separated and independent stores
44
Limitations of MSM
Studies are artificial
In everyday life we form memories e.g peoples faces and names
But these studies instead use digits (Jacobs) and syllables with no meanings (Peterson and Peterson)
MSM may not be valid of how memory works in our everyday lives
STM and LTM are not in completely separate stores
Shallice and Warrington studied KF whose STM was spoor when digits were read out loud to him but recall was much better when he read digits to himself
MSM is wrong in claiming that there is just one STM store
Prolonged rehearsal is simply not enough to guarantee the movement of info into LTM
Elaborative rehearsal is much more effective as we are adding meanings to info
Limits MSM idea that prolonged rehearsal is necessary to move things to LTM
45
What are the three types of long term memory
Episodic
Semantic
Procedural
46
Who was the first to distinguish between different types of LTM
Tulving
47
What is episodic long term memory
Our ability to recall memories of specific episodes or events
48
What is semantic long term memory
Our general knowledge including ideas and facts such as capital of country
49
What is procedural long term memory
Our ability to recall how to do something often in form of actions or skills
50
Strengths of the types of long term memory
Case of Clive Wearing
Contacted a virus that attacked his brain so lost most of his LTM but his procedural memory did not suffer damage
Cannot remember his wedding day but can remember how to play piano
Supports that there are separate long term memories as his episodic memory was damaged but his procedural wasn’t
Useful applications as when people age they experience memory loss
Research has shown this is specific to episodic memory as its harder to recall recent memories but past episodic memories remain intact
Sylvie Belleville et al improved episodic memories in older people as they performed better on a test after training
Distinguishing types of LTM enables specific treatment
51
Limitations of types of long term memory
Use of case studies/limited number of participants
Clive Wearing was a case study
Other studies may show different results
Ungeneralisable to wider populations
Conflicting research findings
Buckner and Peterson said semantic is on left side and episodic on right
Other research links left prefrontal cortex with encoding episodic memories and right side with episodic retrieval
Challenges neurophysiological evidence as there is a poor agreement on where each type is located
52
Who proposed the working memory model
Baddeley and Hitch
53
What does the working memory model focus on
Short term memory they believe it is more complex and active than suggested by MSM
54
What are the 4 components that the working memory model is divided into
Central executive
Visuospatial sketchpad
Phonological loop
Episodic buffer
55
What is the central executive
Processes all incoming information from our senses
Has a limited capacity so has other subdivisions known as slave systems
56
What is the visuospatial sketchpad and its two subdivisions
Deals with visual and or spatial material, limited capacity of 3-4 items
Subdivisions: visual cache= stores visual material, inner scribe= stores spatial info
57
What is the phonological loop and its two components
Deals with auditory information, coded acoustically
Two components: phonological store= holds words and sounds that we hear, articulatory system= repeats the info we have listened to
58
What is the episodic buffer
Temporary store that accesses info from two slave systems and records these events to sequence this information
Due to central executives limited capacity the episodic buffer can hold info
Links working memory to long term memory
59
What is dual task
Using one or more different slave system at the same time
Cannot do two or more of the same= competition
60
Strengths of the working memory model
Case of KF
Damage to STM (poor ability for auditory information but could still process visual info normally)
Appear that his phonological loop was damaged but his visuospatial sketchpad escaped damage
Supports that STM is divided
Dual task performance supports separate existence
When participants carried out visual and verbal tasks at the same time their performance was similar but when both task were visual performance declined
Because both visual tasks compete for the same slave system, where as there is no competition when performing tasks together
Shows must be separate slave systems
61
Limitations of working memory model
Unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments
May have other damage as well as phonological loop which may affect performance
Injury was caused by motorcycle accident so trauma is involved
Challenges evidence from clinical studies
Low ecological validity
Procedures need to be very controlled to eliminate extraneous variables
Tasks are artificial do not represent everyday dual tasks
Limited generalisability
62
According to the interference theory why does forgetting occur
There are two competing memories that disrupt each other
Particularly bad when memories are similar as this causes confusion
63
What are the two types of interference
Proactive interference
Retroactive interference
64
What is proactive interference
When an old memory interferes with the recall of a newer memory
65
What is retroactive interference
When a new memory interferes with the recall of an old memory
66
Strengths of interference theory
Evidence of interference effects in more everyday situations
Baddeley and Hitch asked rugby players to recall names of teams they played against
Players who played the most games (most interference) had poorest recall
Increases validity
Evidence of retrograde facilitation
Researchers found when words were learned under influence of drug, recall was poor but when words were learnt before drug was taken recall was better
Wixted said drug prevents new info reaching parts of the brain so cannot interfere
Shows if you reduce interference you reduce forgetting
67
Limitations of the interference theory
May only be an explanation of temporarily forgetting info
If there is a cue then we can almost always retrieve from LTM
Limits theory as this cannot be explained here
Interference is temporary and can be overcome by using cues
Tulving and Pstoka gave participants words
Recall for first list was 70% then declined for each additional list but when given a cue rose to 70% again
Shows interference causes a temporary loss
Research doesn’t reflect the length of time before recall is needed in everyday life
Baddeley said in most research participants learn material then recall straight after
Outside of research we don’t recall an older memory for sometimes years after
May not apply to everyday life so questions validity
68
Why does the retrieval failure theory say nothing is ever forgotten
We just lack the cues needed
69
Who developed the theory of the encoding specificity principle
Tulving
70
What does the encoding specificity principle say
Cues are only helpful if:
Cues are present at the time we encode
Cues are present at the time we need to retrieve info
71
What is context dependent forgetting
External cues
72
What is state dependent forgetting
Internal cues
73
Who did research on context dependent forgetting
Godden and Baddeley
74
What was Godden and Baddeley research on context dependent forgetting
Studied deep sea divers and they learned a list of words either underwater or on land then asked to recall underwater or on land
75
What did Godden and Baddeley find regarding context dependent forgetting
When environmental contexts matched it had better recall when conditions did not match there was a 40% lower accuracy
76
Who researched state dependent forgetting
Cater and cassaday
77
What was carter and cassadays research on state dependent forgetting
Gave antihistamine drugs and participants had to learn list of words then recall
78
What did carter and cassaday find regarding state dependent forgetting
When there was a mismatch between internal state of learning and recall, memory was significantly worse
79
Strengths of the retrieval failure theory
Useful implications
Steps can be taken to avoid forgetting in important situations
Cognitive interview is used to increase accuracy of witness testimony, encouraging the witness to use cues to try and trigger memories
This theory helped develop these strategies and in turn contributed to the economy positively
Godwin et al supports this theory
Divided male students into drunk and sober conditions
Found recall was best when state of learning matched state of recall
Supports idea that we might forget due to lack of internal cues
80
Limitations of the retrieval failure theory
Context effects may depend substantially on the type of recall being tested
Godden and Baddeley replicated theory study but used recognition test instead of recall
When recognition was tested there was no context dependent effect, performance was the same in all conditions
Retrieval failure is a limited explanation as it only applies when a person has to recall
Often have to infer forgetting has occurred due to absence of cues
We cannot directly measure so researchers have to assume that forgetting occurred due to there being an absence of cues at encoding/retrieval
Memory being a cognitive process, these inferences may not be accurate
Limits validity
81
What are two types of misleading information
Leading questions
Post event discussion
82
What are leading questions
Questions which suggests the answer that should be given
83
What was Loftus and Palmers study regarding leading questions
Showed 45 students film clips of traffic accidents and asked “how fast the car was going when it …… the other car ?”
The students were divided into 5 groups each with a different verb e.g bumped smashed and collided
Smashed condition reported a mean speed of 40.5mph and contracted condition reported a mean speed of 31.8mph
84
Why does this happen (leading questions)
Response bias- suggests wording of question doesn’t alter individuals memory instead they are just biasedly responding to the question based on how the question influenced them to answer
However loftus and palmer say leading questions do alter memory as a week later they asked participants if they saw broken glass those in smashed condition were more likely to say yes - this is known as substitution as our whole perspective of the event is changed
85
What is post event discussion
Witnesses of crime may discuss what they saw with other witnesses
86
What was Gabbert et al study regarding post event discussion
Placed 60 participants into pairs and made them watch a video of a crime but was filmed from different perspectives, meant that one participant saw things that others were unable to see
They then had to discuss what they saw and found that 71% recalled information they had not actually seen
87
Why does this happen (post event discussion)
When witnesses discuss this can distort their original memory and change this to what others reported - memory contamination
Witnesses alter their memories to gain social approval- memory conformity
88
Strength of misleading information
Useful applications
Loftus indicate how leading questions can heavily distort an eyewitnesses memory, policing system worked hard to ensure that leading questions are avoided
Cognitive interview has been developed to ensure leading questions are not present and eyewitnesses are gathered as soon as possible to avoid post event discussion
Allowed us to ensure as best as possible that innocent individuals are not convicted
89
Weaknesses of misleading information
Issues with research
Participants watched film clips in a lab different experience from witnessing a real event
Rachel foster et al point out what eyewitnesses remember has important consequences on the world but in research the responses do not matter in the same way
Loftus is too pessimistic about the effects of misleading information
EWT is more accurate for some aspects of an event than for others
Sutherland and Hayne showed participants a video clip when participants were asked misleading questions their recall was accurate for the central details of the event
Shows attention was on central features and memories were resistant to misleading information
Suggest original memories for central details survived
Post event discussion actually alters EWT
Skagerberg and wright showed participants video clips there were two versions
Participants discussed the clips and there was a blend of the two when answering questions
Memory is distorted through contamination rather than conformity
Low ecological validity
Watched fake video clips so participants did not see actual crime as important so paid less attention
More susceptible to change their witness accounts
In real life individuals may not be influenced by misleading information
90
Who does the study of anxiety having a negative effect on recall
Johnson and Scott
91
What was Johnsons and Scotts study of anxiety having a negative effect on recall
Two conditions: anxiety- participants overheard a heated conversation and a man left with a blood stained knife
Non anxiety- overheard a low key conversation and saw a man leave with a pen and grease on hands
Participants were given photos and asked to identify man that left those in anxiety recognised man 33% of the time shows anxiety led to decrease in EWT accuracy due to weapon focus as participants become fixated on weapon instead of face
92
Who did the study on anxiety having a positive effect on recall
Yuille and Cutshall
93
What was yuille and cutshall study on anxiety having a positive effect on recall
Examined real life case of an attempted robbery
Owner was shot by thief and then owner shot the thief killing him
Interviewed eyewitness months after and asked how stressed they were
All witnesses had high level of accuracy of event and those who were most anxious remembered the most (88%)
94
What law explains that too much/too little anxiety can negatively effect EWT accuracy but if anxiety levels are kept moderate this leads to highest level of accuracy
Yerkes Dodson law
95
Limitations of anxiety affecting eye witness testimony
Study by Johnson and Scott may not have tested anxiety
Participants focused on weapon because they were surprised rather than scared
Pickel did an experiment in a hair dressers using unusual objects- EW accuracy was poorer in high unusualness conditions (chicken), weapon focus is due to unusualness rather than anxiety
Tells us nothing about effects of anxiety on EWT
Counter argument for strength
Christian and Hubinette interviewed participants after several months
Researchers had no control over what happened in the intervening time e.g post event discussion
Effects of anxiety may be overwhelmed by other factors
Lack of control over confounding variables may be responsible for these findings, invalidating their support
96
Strengths of effects on anxiety on EWT
Anxiety has a negative effects on accuracy of recall
Valentine and Mesaut divided participants into high and low anxiety groups, after participants would be asked to recall the actor who was scaring them
Shows anxiety clearly disrupted the participants ability to recall
High levels of anxiety has a negative effect on eyewitness recall of stressful event
Anxiety can have positive effects on recall
Christianson and Hubinette interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies some were directly involved e.g workers
Researchers assumed that those directly involved would experience most anxiety, found recall was more than 75% accurate across all witnesses and direct victims were even more accurate
Anxiety does not reduce accuracy of recall it may even enhance it
97
What are the four techniques of the cognitive interview
Report everything
Reinstate the context
Recall in reverse order
Recall from different perspectives
98
How does report everything improve accuracy of EWT
Could trigger additional memories about the event
99
How does reinstate the context improve accuracy of EWT
Related to context- dependent forgetting
Will trigger cues that allows for retrieval of forgotten info
100
How does recall in reverse order improve accuracy of EWT
Reduces chance of expectations (schemas) affecting what is recalled as opposed to to what was actually witnessed
101
How does recall from different perspectives improve accuracy of EWT
Reduces chance of expectations (schemas) affecting what is recalled
102
Who added to the cognitive interview
Fisher et al
103
What did Fisher et al add to enhance the cognitive interview
Interviewer being an active listener- through eye contact
Interviewer should encourage witness to relax and speak slowly- ensuring distractions are minimised and aim to reduce their anxiety
104
Strength of cognitive interview
Evidence that it works
Kohnken et al combined data from 55 studies comparing cognitive interview and standard interview
Cognitive interview gave a 41% increase in accurate information compared to standard interview, only 4 studied showed no difference
Effective technique in helping witnesses recalling info
105
Limitations of the cognitive interview
Counter argument for strength
Kohnken et al found an increase in amount of inaccurate info recalled
Issue in enhanced cognitive interview which produced more inaccurate details than cognitive interview
Cognitive interviews sacrifice quality of EWT in favour of quantity
Treat info from eyewitness evidence from cognitive interviews with caution
Concerns how useful each of the techniques actually are
Milne and bull argue some techniques are more effective than others
Found that report everything and reinstating the context when combined lead to more accurate testimony in comparisons to when any other techniques are combined
Some elements are not as effective questions validity
Time consuming to conduct
Kebell et al surveyed police officers they expressed their concern with the time the CI takes and requires officers to be specially trained
Not most practical technique
Police forces may not have funding to use CI
Psychology
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