Memory

Memory

1. Are a physical change in your brain

   • They stimulate a neuron connection, usually around the concept of emotion
   • We can only remember things we pay attention to

2. The 3 processes of memory

   • Encoding
     • Transforming incoming information into a mental representation in the brain
   • Storage
     • Means to be able to hold onto the received information so that it can be recalled when needed
   • Retrieval
     • To be able to recall the stored info

3. Long Term Memory

   • Duration: Bahrick study- Yearbooks
     • Participants: 392, 17-74YO
     • Tested photo recognition and free recall
     • After 15 years, 60% accuracy
       • After 48 years, 30%
     • Conclusion: LTM can last a very long time
     • Evaluation: High external validity
       • But confounding variables were not controlled eg. looking at the yearbooks before the experiment
         • less reliable

4. Short Term Memory

   • Duration: Miller 7+-2
     • 'chunking'
     • High ecological validity
     • High mundane realism
     • But Cowan: 5 is more appropriate than 7
   • Peterson and Peterson: Triagrams
     • Asked to memorise a triagram and then count back from a certain number
     • Conclusion: STM has very short duration unless rehearsed

5. Multi Store Model of Memory

   • 3 stores
     • Sensory memory
       • Holds info as a literal copy for a very short time
         • Iconic memory: 1/2 a second
         • Echoic memory: 2 seconds
     • STM
       • Processed acoustically. We forget because of decay and displacement
         • Conrad
     • LTM
       • Processed semantically. Unlimited capacity, long duration. We forget because of decay and interference
   • Evaluation: Emotional memories aren't rehearsed and they are remembered
     • doesn't show how memories are taken from the LTM and made sense of in the STM
   • Supported by Miller, P&P, Conrad, Bahrick and Baddeley
     • Shows displacement
     • Shows displacement
     • Shows sensory memory
   • Primacy regency effect
     • things that are first or last in a list are remembered more
   • Case Studies
     • Patient HM supports
       • Suffered profound amnesia and epilepsy
       • Had his hippocampus removed
       • Lost the ability to form new memories
         • Antereograde amnesia
       • Motor learning still worked eg. mirror writing
     • Patient KF refutes
     • Clive Wearing
       • Had a virus in his brain which damaged his memory
       • No memories
         • Apart from wife and children
       • Deteriorating condition
       • Antereograde and Retrograde amnesia
         • Forgot the past
         • Can't form new memories
   • The Working Model Memory
     • Created by Baddeley and Hitch
       • Can we use different parts our memory at the same time? (Multitasking)
       • Digit span task (memorising numbers) and a verbal reasoning task (true or false)
         • More numbers=participants took longer answering the questions
         • Used the CE
         • Used the Phonological loop
     • Supported by
       • Patient KF: Shows there are seperate STM components
         • But results can't be generalised
       • Baddeley and Lewis
         • Articulatory and suppression task (deciding whether non-words sound like real words)
           • Showed that the CE and the AL were working at the same time for different tasks

6. Eye Witness Testimony

   • Experimental design
     • Independent measures
       • Avoids order effects More time consuming Participant variables
       • The participants only do one condition
     • Repeated measures
       • Less time consuming Risk of order effects
       • The participants do every condition
     • Matched Pairs: Recruit a similar set of people that match the participants' characteristics
       • Reduces participant variables No order effects Time consuming Impossible to match people exactly
   • Forgetting
     • Not being able to recall info that has been previously been learnt
       • Lack of availability/accessibility
     • STM
       • decay
       • displacement
       • Conrad-acoustic encoding
       • Miller 7+-2
       • P&P Triagrams, decay
     • LTM
       • Interference
       • Decay
       • Baddeley- acoustically similar, LTM is semantic
       • Bahrick- Yearbooks
     • State dependent forgetting
       • eg. drunk (Goodwin), drugs, tired
         • 48 male students. Groups who were drunk/sober on both days performed better
   • Commenting on things we've seen
   • Accuracy of memory
     • Leading questions
       • Post event information can cause memory to change
       • Loftus' study
         • Car crash video, 5 verb changes
           • Smashed Collided Bumped Hit Contacted
           • When asked if there was any broken glass, smashed condition 16/50 said there was
     • Schemas
       • Preconceived ideas about an event
   • Anxiety
     • Johnson and Scott
       • Lab study
       • Independent measures
       • Participants heard a conversation/argument then saw a man with a knife/pen
         • Knife condition: 33% could identify the man
           • Tunnel theory
         • Pen condition: 49%
       • Pickle
         • Knife was distinctive which was why it was noticed
         • Repeated experiment with scissors, handgun, raw chicken and wallet