Flashcards
Memory Psychology

Cards in this deck (100)
- 1Evidence that the STM and LTM stores are separate processesGlanzer and cunitz- asked participants to free recall word lists (any order) it was found recall was much stringer for words and the start and at the end of the list. the results suggests there are separate short and long term memory stores, with the words first heard entering LTM and being recalled (primacy effect) and the most recent words being held by STM and being recalled (recency effect) but middle words were in the STM but got displaced but later new words.
- 2Evidence that STM AND LTM are separate stores- case studiesClive Wearing- stuck in the short-term memory store. he lost the ability to transfer new memories from STM to LTM and so he forgot new learning after 2-3 seconds.- This suggests that he is unable to rehearse information into LTM. High validity as patients have been studied and followed for years. However shows that the MSM is oversimplified as none of his short term memories are being passed into long term memories showing that they way that information is passed through the STM into LTM is more complex than the MSM explains it to be.
- 3Sensory register capacity studySperling- found that when participants were presented with a three by four grid of letters for 1/20th of a second. they had to recall one row. it was found that recall for a row was over 75%. this suggests that all rows were contained within the capacity of the iconic/visual store, so sensory memory is large.
- 4Short term memory codingBaddeley- gave four 10 words lists to four participant groups. A= acoustically similar- words sound the same, B= Acoustically dissimilar= words sound different C= Semantically similar, D= semantically dissimilar. It was found that participants mix up acoustically similar words after being asked to recall immediately- they were better at recalling acoustically dissimilar words. this is because STM codes acoustically so when words sound different it is easier for STM to recall them. SUPPORTING MULTI STORE MODEL.
- 5Short term memory- capacityJacobs- tested digit span- researcher read four digits and increases until the participants could no longer recall the order correctly. the final number they can manage is their digit span. Jacobs found that the capacity for letters was on average 7 items and 9 for numbers (usually stated 7+-2). suggesting the capacity of STM is very limited. Miller suggested this can be improved by chunking, making small sets/groups of items, reducing the total number of items overall
- 6Short term memory- duration study A03Peterson and Peterson - aimed to test the hypothesis that information that is not rehearsed is quickly lost from short-term memory. - Showed participants trigrams (three consonant syllables)- and then had to be recalled after intervals of 3,6,9,12 and 18 seconds. during this period an interference task to prevent p's from rehearsing the trigram. - asked to count backwards in threes or fours from a specific number. They found that recall was 80% accurate after 3 seconds but dramatically dropped after 18 seconds to around 15%
- 7Long term memory- codingBaddeley- semantically similar/dissimilar words- When participants were tested after 20 minutes- participants struggled with semantically similar words and couldn't put them in the right order, suggesting two stores code differently- SUPPORTING MULTI STORE MODEL
- 8Long term memory DurationBahrick- asked American graduates to look at a high-school yearbook and for each photograph, they were given a list of names and they had to select the name that matched the people in the photographs. He found that 90% of participants were able to correctly match the names after 14 years and 60% after 48 years. supports the fact that multi-store model of memory long term store has a duration of potentially a lifetime.
- 9Multi-store model overall evaluations - WEAKNESS- lacks external validityCognitive experiments testing aspects of the MSM are often highly artificial, lacking in external validity. there is low ecological validity, results collected in a lab environment may not be generalisable to more naturalistic situations like school and work. also there is a lack of mundane realism, the experimental tasks testing the MSM are unlike how people use their memory in real life scenarios.
- 10Multi store model weakness- oversimplifiedthe concept of rehearsal is over-simplified. rehearsal is not always needed to remember something.- we can remember information that we don't necessarily rehearse for example a flashbulb memory which is so significant to you that you don't need to rehearse it to remember it for a long-time whereas some information you need to rehearse it to be able to store it in your long term memory
- 11Evidence from case studies- clive wearingShows that the MSM is oversimplified as none of his short term memories are being passed into long term memories showing that they way that information is passed through the STM into LTM is more complex than the MSM explains it to be.
- 12What is procedural memoryknowing how to do something. these memories require a lot of repetition and practice- they are implicit- find them hard to explain how we do them even though the action is easy- non-declarative- how to ride a bike/swim/drive
- 13what is a semantic memoryMemories for facts, knowledge- explicit memory. - stores our knowledge of the world- not time-stamped and less personal than episodic memories
- 14what is episodic memorymemories of person events- explicit memory- usually includes details of an event, the context in which the event took place and emotions associated with the event- you have to make a conscious effect to remember them
- 15support for different types of LTM- Henry molasionthe case study of patient HM provides evidence to support the view that there is more than one type of LTM. HM had a procedure to remove his hippocampus as a treatment for epilepsy. after the surgery he was unable to form any new memories. in contrast he did retain the ability to remember some new motor skills, such as becoming faster at learning to use a walking frame when he sprained his ankle, but this learning was at a subconscious level. he had no conscious memory that he had ever used the walking frame previously. HM's semantic memory from before the surgery was still largely intact. he was unable to form new episodic memories.
- 16case studies for different types of LTM- Patient HM and Clive Wearingboth had brain damage which severely affected their episodic memory but their semantic memory and procedural memories were relatively intact. Clive Wearing could read and play very complex pieces of music on a piano. they show that procedural memory is distinct from both semantic and episodic memory. this supports the view that there are different types of memory store in LTM because one store can be damaged and another unaffected. however these are case studies so cannot be replicated for practical and ethical reasons so reliability of these findings cannot be checked. we also don't know anything about the peoples memory before the damage so we don't know how much it affected them
- 17patient KF- support for separate LTM typesPatient KF had a motorcycle accident. caused memory impairment- most of his general knowledge about the world, including knowledge about himself is intact but he is incapable of recollecting person events, this 'episodic amnesia' covers his entire lifetime.
- 18Brain scan studies- types of LTMTuvling performed brain studies scans on six volunteers and found that when the participants were using their episodic memory, part of the frontal cortex was active whereas when participants were using their semantic memory the back cortex was active. suggesting that episodic memory and semantic memory are two separate systems. this shows a physical reality in the brain to the different types of LTM.
- 19Who was working memory model proposed by?Baddeley and hitch
- 20why did they develop it?to replace the STM store of the MSM due to criticisms of the STM as it was too over-simplified. STM must be more complex than just a single story that only exists to pass information onto LTM
- 21Draw the working memory model

- 22what is the role of the central executivehead of the model.- controls attention, receives sense information and filters this before passing onto slave system. limited in capacity (4 items) working on one type of information at a time. but can switch attentions between different inputs
- 23Phonological loopprocesses auditory coded information
- 24Two types of phonological loopArticulatory process
Phonological store - 25What is the phonological storethe inner ear- holding words recently heard
- 26What is the articulatory processthe inner voice- holds information via sub-vocal repetition
- 27Capacity of phonological looplimited capacity of what you can say in 2 seconds
- 28what is the visuospatial sketchpadprocesses visual and spatially coded information, thought of as the inner eye
- 29Visual cacheStores visual data- passive store for forms and colour
- 30Inner scriberecords arrangement of objects in visual field
- 31Who divided the VSS into the visual cache and the inner scribe?Logie
- 32What is the episodic bufferadded to WMM in 2000, as the model needed a general store to hold and integrate information from the VSS, PL, CE and long term memory
- 33Evaluation of the working memory modelResearch has shown that there is more interference and more difficulty in performing two visual tasks together than a visual and a verbal task together. this is because two visual tasks compete for the same sub-system. there is no competition with a visual and verbal task. this supports the theory that these are separate types of slave systems in STM and suggests that people do have limits to their capacity in dual tasks that use the same parts of the working memory model.
- 34Case studies- KFKF provided evidence that STM must not be a single store- so against multi-store model and in support of working memory model. for the Working memory model it supports that there are separate stores that deal with verbal and visual information. in KF it would appear his phonological loop is impaired and VSS is still intact- so suggests these are different types of STM. This evidence supports the working memory model.
- 35Lack of clarity over the central executivelittle is known as to what exactly it is. it is vague and really not possible to test it. Baddeley said it is the most important and least well understood. some psychologists believe it may have many components. it needs to be clearer than just something that pays 'attention'. this means that we do not fully understand the functioning of the working memory model.
- 36More brain scan evidenceBraver showed that different areas of the brain are active when doing visual or verbal tasks suggesting that the Phonological loop and Visuo-spatial sketchpad are separate systems that are located in separated areas of the brain. the CE can be seen activated in the pre-frontal cortex. activity increases in the area as the task gets harder, suggesting the CE has to work harder to fulfil its function. Braver study suggests evidence for a physical reality of the central executive in the brain.
- 37Word length effect- capacity of phonological loop- 2 secondsparticipants asked to write down lists they had been shown in the correct order. one condition had monosyllabic words and one condition had polysyllabic words - it was found that the participants could recall more monosyllabic words than polysyllabic words. this suggests the capacity of the phonological loop is based on the time it says to say the words- (approx 2 seconds)
- 38What is interference theory?suggests we forget because our long term memories become disrupted by other information while it is coded
- 39proactive interferenceWhen old information disrupts new information
- 40retro-active interferencenew information disrupts old
- 41Retroactive interference- underwood and postmanaim- to find our if new learning interfere with old/previous learning. participants were divided into two groups. group A were asked to learn a list of word pairs- cat, tree, they were then asked to learn a second list of word pairs where the second paired word was different - e.g. cat-glass- Group B were asked to learn the first list of words only. both groups were asked to recall the first list of word pairs. Group B recall of the first word lost was much more accurate then the recall of group A. This suggests that learning the items in the second list interfered with participants ability to recall the list. this is an example of retroactive interference.
- 42A03 Retroactive interference- Rugby playersBaddeley and hitch examined rugby union players who had played every match in the season and players who had missed some games due to injury. the players were asked to recall the names of the teams they had played against earlier (old information) in the season. Baddeley and hitch found that players who had played the most games forgot proportionately more games than those who had played fewer games. these results support the idea of retroactive interference as the learning of new information (new team names) interfered with the memory of old information (old team names).- High ecological validity
- 43A03- Proactive interference- underwood and Keppelthey examined the effect of proactive interference on long-term memory, in an experiment that resembles Peterson and Peterson. participants were presented with meaningless trigrams at different intervals- to prevent rehearsal the participants had to count backwards in threes before recalling. They found that participants typically remembered the trigrams that were presented first, irrespective of interval length. They concluded that the results suggested proactive interference occurred, as memory for the earlier consonants, which had transferred to long-term memory was interfering with the memory for new consonants, due to the similarity of the information present
- 44A03- Evaluation of lab experiments for interferenceMost of the evidence supporting this theory comes from lab studies, i.e. underwood and postman. this is a strength as the extraneous variables can be controlled and these experiments can be replicated so reliability can be tested.however they use artificial materials (i.e. word lists) which are meaningless to the participants so they do not represent everyday situations when we have to remember things which have meaning to us. the participants do not have the same motivation to remember the stimuli used in an experiment than they have to remember things which are important to their lives, i.e. remembering studies for an exam, so the recall of the participants may be less accurate and make the effects of interference appear stronger than they really are.
- 45A03- Interference may be overcome by using cuesTulving found that when participants experiencing interference related forgetting were given a cue, it was much easier to access the forgotten word. this suggests the words were stored in LTM but interference prevented access to them.
- 46What is cue-dependant forgettingExplains forgetting in the LTM as a retrieval failure: the information is stored in the LTM but cannot be accessed. forgetting according to this theory is due to lack of cues. cues are things associated with the memory at the time it was stored
- 47Types of cuesexternal cues- weather or place we learnt the information in
Internal cues- emotions feelings- mental state we are in when we learn the information - 48Retrieval failure forgettingThis is when we cannot access the memory until the correct retrieval cue is used. when we encode a new memory we also store information that occurred around it- such as the way we felt or the place we were in. if we cannot remember or recall it, it could be because we are not in a similar situation to when the memory was originally stored.
- 49Context-dependant forgettingcan occur when the environment during recall is different form the environment you were in when you were learning.
- 50Gooden and Baddeley- diver studyinvestigated the effect of environment on recall. divers asked to learn lists of 36 words of two or three syllables. 4 conditions-1- learn on beach, recall on beach 2- learn on beach, recall underwater 3- learn underwater, recall on beach 4- learn underwater, recall underwater. the results showed that the context acted as a cue to recall as the participants recalled more words when they learnt and recalled the words in the same environment than when they learnt and recalled the words in different environments.
- 51DIVER STUDY EVALUATIONLacks ecological validity because the environment was familiar to the divers but the task was artificial as we are not usually asked to learn a list of meaningless words in our everyday life. - the groups who learnt and recalled in different environments were disrupted (had to change environment) whereas the groups who learnt and recalled in the same environment were not disrupted- this might have influenced their recall.
- 52A03- Support context dependant forgettingThis is used as a strategy to improve recall in eye-witness memory when the witnesses are asked to describe the context in which the incident they have witnessed took place during cognitive interviews
- 53A03 CONTEXT DEPENDANT FORGETTING SUPPORTThere is further support for the influence of contextual cues. researcher has found that students performed better in tests if the tests took place in the same room as the learning of the material had taken place and were administered by the same instructor who had taught the information. However the studies carried out do not take into account the meaning of the material and the level of motivation of the person when learning the information.
- 54What is state-dependant forgettingoccurs when your mood of physiological state during recall is different from the mood you were in when you were learning.
- 55Goodwin et al- state-dependant forgetting48 male medical students participated on day 1 in a training session and day 2 in a testing. they were randomly assigned to four groups. group One (SS) was sober on both days, group two (AA) was intoxicated on both days, group three (AS) was intoxicated on day 1 and sober on day 2, group four (SA) was sober on day 1 and intoxicated on day 2.the participants had to perform 4 tests: an avoidance task, a verbal-rote learning task, a word-association test, and a picture recognition task. more errors were made on day 2 in the AS and SA condition than in the AA or SS conditions. the SS participants performed best in all tasks. conclusion- this supports the state-dependant memory theory as the performance was best in the participants who were sober or intoxicated on both days.
- 56Evaluation of state dependant forgettingLab study- the participants know that they were taking part in a study so they might have changed their behaviour (demand characteristics) to fit in with the aims of the study. however it was a controlled experiment so It can be replicated so reliability can be tested.
- 57Eyewitness testimony-The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed.
- 58What can the accuracy of eye-witness testimony be affected by?Misleading information including leading questions, post-event discussion and anxiety
- 59Who did research into leading questions?Loftus and palmer
- 60how did Loftus and palmer research leading questionsparticipants were asked to watch film clips of a car accident and were then asked questions about the accident. a critical question was asked - how fast were the cars going when they hit each other? the verb hit was changed to smashed, collided, bumped, hit and contacted- the verb was manipulated. the question is leading as it suggests a speed in which the car was going.- had to give a speed in miles per hour
- 61What were the results of Loftus and palmer leading questions experimentthey found that the estimated speed was affected by the verb used in the question. for example participants who were given the verb smashed reported an average speed of 40.5mph, whereas participants who were given the word contacted reported an average of 31.8mph.
- 62what do the results of Loftus and palmers experiment show?the results clearly show that the accuracy of eye-witness testimony is affected by leading questions and that a single word in a question can significantly affect the accuracy of our judgements
- 63Strength of Loftus and palmer application of findings to real worldApplication of their findings to the criminal justice system- including police officers and investigators. the criminal justice system relies heavily on the accounts of eyewitnesses and Loftus and palmer's research highlights the damage of misleading questions being used in the courtroom by lawyers, as a single misleading question can affect the accuracy of eye-witness testimony. this matters because their research can help ensure that courtrooms operate fairly and that innocent people are not convicted of crimes they didn't commit, on the basis of inaccurate eyewitness evidence.
- 64Weakness of Loftus and palmer- lacks ecological validityit lacks ecological validity and used artificial film clips. Loftus and palmers research method consisted of watching a video of a car accident which is emotionally a very different experience from witnessing a real car accident. there were also no consequences of incorrectly estimating the speed, whereas in real life someone could lose their license or got to prison if their speed was misrepresented. this matters because the research may be suggesting that people are more willing to make mistakes in their eye-witness testimonies than they actually are in real life. equally the lack of emotional impact of the video may mean that people are more accurate in real life.
- 65Weakness of Loftus and palmer- population validityit lacks population validity. Loftus and palmer sample consisted of 45 American students. therefore it could be argued that the experiment is culturally biased. this matters because we do not know if other cultures would also be susceptible to the effects of misleading questions and we are unable to conclude whether misleading information affects the accuracy of EWT in other countries
- 66Weakness of lotus and palmer- individual differencesone weakness is that there may be individual differences in the accuracy of EWT. Research found that older people were less accurate than younger people when giving eye-witness testimonies. however they also found that all ages groups were more accurate when identifying people of their own age. similar findings have also applied to cross- race identification bias. research studies often use young white people as the target to identify, so some age groups may seem less accurate but this is really not the case.
- 67who studied Post event discussionGabbert et al
- 68What is post-event discussionmisleading information in the real world can come from other sources, for example other witnesses when they discuss the details of a crime or accident, following an incident.
- 69Method of gabbers study60 students from the university of Aberdeen and 60 older adults were recruited from a local town. participants watched a video of a girl staling money from a wallet. the participants were either tested individually (control) or in pairs (co-witness group). the participants in the co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video; however, they had in fact seen different perspectives of the same crime and only one person had actually witnessed the girl stealing. participants in the co-witness group discussed the crime together. all of the participants then completed a questionnaire, testing their memory of the event.
- 70Results of gabbert study71% of the witnesses in the co-witness group recalled information they had not actually seen and 60% said the girl was guilty, despite the fact they had not seen her commit a crime.
- 71Conclusion of gabbert studyhighlights the issue of post-event discussion and the powerful effect this can have on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
- 72Evaluation of gabbert study- questionable ecological validitythe participants in the co-witness group witnessed different perspectives of the same crime, which is typical of a real life crime. however as in Loftus and palmer research, these witnesses knew they were taking part in an experiment so were more likely to have paid closer attention to the details on the video clip. therefore these results do not reflect real life examples of crime where we may not be exposed to as much information
- 73Evaluation of Gabbert et al- population validitytested young and old people and found little differences between the two age groups. therefore this research provides good population validity and allows us to conclude that post-event discussion affects younger and older adults in a similar way
- 74Evaluation of gabbert study- why does the distortion occur?although gabbers results provide an insight into the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of eye-witness testimony, we are unable to conclude why the distortions occur. the distortions could be the result of poor memory, where people assimilate new information into their own accounts of the event and are unable to distinguish between what they have seen and what they have heard. on the other hand it could be that distortion occurs due to conformity and the social pressure from the co-witness.
- 75how does Anxiety affect eyewitness testimonyanxiety is a state of physical and emotional arousal. the emotions include worried thoughts and feelings of tension. physical changes include increase heart rate and sweatiness. anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations but it can affect the accuracy of EWT.
- 76What is the weapon focus effectwhere a witness focuses their attention on the weapon being used in a crime. this causes a state of anxiety which leads to difficulties in recalling other details accurately
- 77Johnson and Scott- argues that anxiety has a negative effect on EWTled participants to believe they were going to be in a lab study. while in the waiting room they hear an argument. in low anxiety conditions- they hear a heated argument and man comes out with grease on hands holding pen. in high anxiety condition- same but accompanied by sound of broken glass and a man emerges with paper knife covered in blood. participants asked to pick out the man from a set of 50 photographs. they argued for tunnel focus theory based on weapon focus
- 78Findings of Johnson and Scottfrom 50 photographs- 49% can identify the man with the pen
only 33% with the knife - 79conclusion of Johnson and Scottthe tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events. weapon focus as a result of anxiety can have this affect.
- 80Yuille and Cutshall- anxiety has a positive effectit is argued that stress triggers fight or flight which increases our alter ness and improves our memory
- 81Method of cutshall and yuilleReal life shooting- gun shop keeper shot a thief dead. there were 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to take part in a study. participants were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident. the information recalled was compared to police interviews at the time of the shooting. P's also rated how stressed they were at the time of the shooting
- 82Results of Yuille and cutshallwitnesses were very accurate in what they recalled and there was little change after 5 months
some details were slightly less accurate after five months such as age, weight and height
Participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (88%)
anxiety does not appear to reduce the accuracy of EWT for a real world event and may even enhance it - 83What is the inverted U theoryproposes that you reach your peak level of performance with an intermediate level of stress or arousal. too little or too much arousal results in poorer performance
- 84Supporting evidence for positive effectsa study showed that real life incidents involving high levels of anxiety and stress recall can be more accurate and long-lasting. they conducted a survey on people who had witnessed a genuine bank robbery. some of the people had been bystanders (Saw the event) and some had been directly threatened and victimised by the bank robbers. they found more than 75% accurate recall across all witnesses. direct victims who had experienced the greatest anxiety had a more detailed and accurate recall than bystanders.
this suggests that anxiety does not effect the accuracy of EWT and may even enhance it - 85Supporting evidence for negative effectsresearch used heart rates to divide visitors to London dungeon into low and high anxiety groups. high anxiety groups were less accurate at identifying a target person. this supports the claim that anxiety can have a negative effect on EWT.
- 86condratictory findings may be explained by the yerkes-dodson lawThis law states that performance improves with increased arousal up to an optimal point. This could explain both increased and decreased EWT recall. Accuracy is poor when arousal is either too low or too high but better when arousal is moderate. memory becomes more accurate as anxiety increases, however once the optimal level of arousal is reached (maximum accuracy) any more anxiety will decrease the accuracy of recall. the more violent the event, the higher the anxiety but past the optimal point= low recall
- 87what is a cognitive interviewquestioning technique used by the police ti enhance retrieval of information about a crime scene from the eyewitnesses and victims memory
- 88how is it conducted?interviewer tries to mentally reinstate the environment and person context of the crime for the witnesses- asking them about their general activities that day and their feelings on the day- include sights, sounds, feelings and emotions. often asked to use all 5 of their senses in their recollection of the event. this can help recreate the event clearly in their mind and may trigger the recall of context dependant memories
- 89features of the enhanced CImaking an relinquishing eye contact
redoing anxiety
minimising distratcs
witness to breath slowly
open ended questions - 90Who developed the cognitive interview and identified the 4 key principles they believed would enhance memory recallGeiselman developed the cognitive interviews identifying the four key principles that would enhance recall.
- 91What are the four key principles involvedcontext reinstatement
report everything
recall from changed perspective
recall in reverse order - 92what is context reinstatementrecalls the context of the event- the time of day, the weather, who they were with or how they were feeling. this can help the person to recall more information. there are clear links between this and context-dependant and state-dependant remembering
- 93what is report everythinga person recalls every detail they can remember
- 94what is recall from changed perspectivea person considers the event from someone else's point of view- they might consider what the offender saw
- 95what is recall in reverse orderwhere a person recalls the events in reverse chronological order
- 96absence of leading questionsdon't use these as they are worded to suggest a particular answer. witness will give a more accurate account of what they had seen rather than having their views altered by the way in which the interview questions are asked
- 97what is the encoding specificity hypothesissuggests that subjects can retrieve information from memory only via cues encoded for retrieval at the time of the study
- 98limitation of Cognitive interview- time consumingtime consuming- police are reluctant to use the cognitive interview because It takes too much Time, much more time than the standard interview. more time is needed to establish rapport between the witness and interviewer and allow them time to relax. the CI requires specialist training and many forces cannot provide this. this means it is unlikely that the proper version of the CI is actually used, because it is both expensive and time consuming for the over stretched police force
- 99Evaluation of cognitive interview- research support-milne et alMilne et al found that each individual element of the cognitive interview was equally valuable. however, they found that a combination of 'report everything' and 'context reinstatement' produced between recall than any of the other techniques individually. so at leats two of the elements should be used to improve police interviewing even if the full CI isn't used.
- 100Limitation of the cognitive interviewthe techniques of the cognitive interview aim to increase the amount of correctly recalled information but unfortunately the recall of incorrect information may also be increased, a study found an increase of 81% of correct information but a 61% increase in incorrect information compared to a standard interview. the increase in correct information implies that the CI should be used but the result suggest the police need to treat all information collected with caution
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- A level Psychology Flashcards on Memory Psychology, created by Eloise Rennie on 04/06/2021.
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- Eloise Rennie
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