Essay Plans: Memory

Página 1

Outline and evaluate the role of the sensory register and short term memory, within the multi-store model. (16)

Description

Sensory Register:

Sensory register takes in information through the echoic store (audio) and iconic store (visual). Information as modality-free.

The duration of the sensory register is less than 3 seconds. The information goes to short term if individual pays attention to the information.

Can store at least 9 items of information. Larger than short-term's capacity.

Short-Term:

Hold 7 +/- 2 information, fairly short capacity.

Acoustic coding- coded in the form of sounds.

Duration is 30 seconds, with rehearsal passing information down to long-term.

Evaluation

​​​​​​​S:-

Evidence to support the idea of duration into STM. Research show that people can still recall 10% of trigrams within 18 seconds, less than 30 seconds. This is a strength because there is evidence to support that STM does have a significant role in the multi-store model.

Evidence to support the idea of duration of the sensory register. Research shown that recall is 100% but gets worse with a slight delay by a couple of seconds. This is a strength because there is evidence to support that the sensory register does have a significant role in the multi-store model.

C:-

Some researchers argue that STM is not unitary. The multi-store model states that STM is unitary, which means that it is not split into different sections and is relatively simple. This is a criticism because STM's role in memory is oversimplified, through the multi-store model.

Página 2

Describe and evaluate research into at least one factor affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. (16)

Description

Lab experiment done, with students, about leading questions.

Were made to watch a film about a car crash, and answer a critical question about the speed of the cars.

Wording of that critical question changed, some had 'collided', some had used the word 'smashed' and some had the word 'contacted'.

Another lab experiment done about post-event discussions.

Participants were paired (match pairs) and were made to watch a crime video from different perspectives.

After watching the video, each pair were allowed to talk to each other, before being individually tested for recall.

Evaluation

S:-

Research have shown that there is an influence in the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, through the positive results into leading questions. The word 'smashed' had the highest estimated speed of 41 mph, and the word 'contacted' had the lowest estimated speed of 32 mph. This is a strength because the results does show that leading questions would affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Research to conduct the accuracy of post-event discussion could be considered unethical. It would be unethical to stage a crime and make participants to take part, just to see the effect of post-event discussion on eyewitness testimonies. This is a strength because doing lab experiments like this is one of the only ethical methods of doing research into post-event discussions into the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies.

C:-

One criticism into research into leading questions, affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies, is that the study for leading questions used lab experiments, which lacks ecological validity. The study used videos of car crashing to each other, which is an issue because not everyone sees a car crash in their daily life. This is a criticism because leading questions might not affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies in the way that the research had suggested, and could over-emphasise the effect of leading questions in the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies.