Memory

Memory

1. Models of memory

   • Working memory model
     • central executive - this is the coordinator of WM it attends to and filters stimuli from sensory register. It has limited capacity and can successfully take care of one issue at a time
     • phonological loop - this is a temporary acoustic storage system for verbal information or words before we speak. Buddeley (1986) divided this into two: inner ear (primary acoustic store) and inner voice (the articulatory processes).
     • episodic buffer - this temporarily stores and integrates the infromation from the CE, VSS, PL and LTM
     • visuo-spatial sketchpad - this rehearses visual and spatial information. Logie (1995) divided this into two: inner cache (stores visual information) and inner scribe (stores information about spatial relationships)
   • Multi-store model
     • sensory register - this takes information from the senses and encodes it, it has an unlimited capacity and a duration of max. 2 seconds
     • short-term memory - this is holding a small amount of information, its capacity is 7 (+/- 2) items and the duration is max 30 seconds. It encodes visually, acoustically and semantically
     • long-term memory - this stores information over a long period of time and is unlimited (both in duration and capacity), it encodes mostly semantically as we remebmer things that have meaning to us

2. Types of memory

   • short-term memory - this stores information for a small amount of time and is unable to store large amounts of it.
   • Long-term memory
     • episodic memory - these are memories of events in life, they are deeply processed as they have emotional content and meaning
     • semantic memory - these are memories that make up our knowledge, it requires some conscious thought to recall them
     • procedural memory - this is memory for how to do things such as ride a bike, walk or skip. Once it is learnt, it doesn't require conscious thought to recall it - it is simply done

3. Theories of forgetting

   • interference - there are two types of interferenc: retroactive and proactove. Retroactive interference happens when something newly learnt disrupts knowledge of something learnt previously. For example, learning French in year 10 could interfere with the knowledge of German from year 7. Proactive interference happens when already learnt knowledge disrupts soemthing you are trying to learn. For example, a familiar piece of music distracts us from learning a new piece.
   • cue-dependency - an absence of a cue can cause a failure to retrive a memory from the LTM. Cues can be context (from a situation) or state (from a physiological state that a person is in) dependant. Tulving (1983) said that for a cue to be effective it needs to be present during learning and recall. If cues are different at these stages it may equal in a failure to retrive memory even though it is in LTM.
     • Godden and Baddeley (1975) got divers to learn word lists on land or underwater. When the leaarning and recall conditions were the same, they achieved the best recall (e.g. words learned on land were best recalled on land)
     • Ucros (1989) did a meta-analysis of studies into mood dependance. He found a strong relationship between mood and learning and recall, and this effectwas stronger if the material was about real life

4. Eye-witness testimony

   • leading questions - a leading question is one that may suggest or alter the response that it will receive, it could bias the response given or alter the stored memory
     • Loftus & Palmer (1974) conducted a study in which students watched a video of a car crash and then were asked how fast they thought the cars were going when they: 'collided', 'bumped', 'hit' and 'smashed' into each other. They found that the mean estimated speed increased depending on which words were used, between 'contacted' at 31.8 mph and 'smashed' with 40.8 mph. This showed the effect of leading questions on eye-witness testimony
   • cognitive interview - a new technique developed to decrease the amount of unreliable testimonies. It has four stages: 1st - report everything, 2nd - reinstate the context, 3rd - reverse the order, 4th - change perspective.
   • anxiety - the amount of stress someone is under may also affect the way they view a situation and the eye-witness statement that they give later. Higher levels of anxiety make a witness statement less reliable
     • Johnson and Scott (1976) conducted a study in which participants were invited to a lab where they were asked to wait in the reception area. They were exposed to either: condition 1 ('no weapon') where they heard a conversation and after a man left the lab with a pen and his hand covered in grease, or condition 2 ('weapon') in which they heard a conversation and breaking glass and after a man walked past holding a bloodied letter opener. Later both groups were shown 50 images and were asked to point to the person that ran out of the lab. They found that in condition 1 49% of the identification was correct while in condition 2 it was only 33%. This suggested that anxiety can affect the reliability of testimony as people tended to focus more on the weapon (weapon focus effect) rather than the person holding it.
   • post-event discussion - this is when a witness discusses what they saw after a crime with other people. With other people's experiences, their memory can be altered. Witnesses should be kept apart until after interviews
     • Gabbert (2003) wanted to investigate post-event discussion, participants watched a video of a girl stealing money. They were tested either individually or in a group. Participants tested in a group were told that they watched the same video (they watched from different perspectives and only one person actually saw the girl steal). They discussed the video together and completed a questionnaire individually. Gabbert found that 71% participants from the group gave false information and 60% said that the girl was guilty even though they didn't see it. This shows that post-event discussions affect the accuracy of eye-witness testimony