Memory

Types of long term memory

• Episodic- (declarative) Memory of Experiences and Events
• Semantic- (declarative) Memory of Facts,meanings,concepts and knowledge about the world.
• Procedural- (non-declarative) Unconcious memory of how to do things and skills

Evaluation of types of long term memory

• Clive Wearing- Suffered from amnesia which effected his episodic memory but remembers facts about his life semantic. He can also play piano procedural. - Shows episodic,procedural and semantic are separate brain areas using different areas of the brain.
• Evaluation-
• Ideographic research. Provides qualitative data which gave further info to understanding long term memory.
• This would not be possible in an experimental setting,lacks control and could not be generalisable to the normal population.
• The use of modern neuroscience allowed the brain to be study more scientifically eg tulving et al found that episodic and semantic at different sides of the brain. Data can be generalised.

The Working Memory Model

• The Central Executive- Oversees and prioritises any tasks to be done filters information to slave systems, It will ensure that attention is directed towards the most important tasks, provides link with long term memory.
• The Phonological loop- a) phenological store perception of sound/speech inner ear. b) articulatory loop this is a verbal rehersal system that repeats information to prevent decay. Speech production
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad - Maintains visual information in the working memory a) visual cache strong visual images b) inner scribe records arrangement of objects in the visual field.
• Episodic buffer links working memory with long term memory.

Evaluation of Working Memory Model

• Strengths:
• The working memory model is more accurate with describing memory as an active processor. Unlike the multi store model.
• Brain imaging research showed that different areas of the brain are active when performing different types of tasks providing biological evidence
• Weaknesses
• Research lab based highly controlled, strong internal validity. However issues with ecternal validity, most tasks lack mundane realism may not be generalisable to how use memory in day to day life.
• The central executive has been criticised by other psjychologists as a vague concept

Explanations of forgetting

• Interference theory
• Proactive Interference= old information effects new information
• Retroactive Interference= new information effects old information
• Research into explanations of forgetting
• McGeoch and McDonald
• Aim: to investigate retroactive interference by changing the similarity of two sets of materials
• Procedure: PPs learnt a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then leaned a new set of words and were placed in one of the 6 different conditions.
• Findings: recall of the original list depended on their second list. Those in the synonyms condition recalled fewer words than those in other conditions.
• Similarities make recall harder due to response competition.

Explanations of forgetting

• Retrieval failure theory
• Cues need to be present to recall memory.
• Context dependent forgetting
• State dependent forgetting
• Research into context dependent forgetting
• Godden and Baddeley
• studied divers who had learnt new material on dry land or while underwater, then tested either on dry land or water. Found recall was worse if in different context and best if was same eg. learnt underwater was recalled best underwater.

Factors affecting eye witness testimony

• Misleading information:
• Reconstructive memory- Memory is not an accurate recording of events. It is reconstructed in recalling and may produce errors
• Leading questions: questions that imply a particular answer can influence how a memory is recalled. This could be due to actual change to the memory (substitution bias explanation) or not to a change in memory, but due to an emotional pressure to give a particular response (response bias explanation)
• Schema: memories can altered to fit with the individuals pre-existing biases
• Research into leading questions influence on a witness memory
• Loftus and Palmer 1974 (1)
• 45 participants were shown clips of traffic accidents. After watching the clip they were asked the following critical question " how fast were the cars going when they ___ into each other". The missing verb was changed (to smashed,collided,bumped,hit or contacted). Found more extreme the verb the faster the estimation of MPH.
• Conclusion:
• Misleading information in the form of leading questions can influence the recall of information

Slide 8

• Loftus and Palmer 1974 (2)
• In a follow up study, participants were shown a car accident clip without broken glass. after viewing they were asked a question including either verb "hit" or "smashed ". After 1 week a questionnaire was sent to them asking "did you see broken glass?". After a week a questionnaire was sent to them asking "did you see broken glass?". Found participants were twice as likelyin smashed condition to respond yes
• Conclusion
• Misleading information in the form of leading questions can in the form of leading questions can be long lasting and acttually cahnges memories via substitution, rather than response bias

Post event discussion on the accuracy of eye witness testimony

• Gabbert
• videos of crime shot from different perspectives were shown to pairs of participants. with unique information availible in each film. Found 71% of pairs allowed to discuss what they had seen included aspects of the film they had not seen in their recollection of the video.
• Conclusion
• Witnesses will change their account of crimes to match other witnesses.This may be an attempt to seek social approval, resulting in memory conformity. Social approval.

Anxiety affecting eye witness testimony

• Yerkes-Dodson law of arousal:
• Too little or too much anxiety impaires performance. There is an optimum state of arousal = optimal performance
• Research: Yuille and Cutshall
• Interviewed 13 witnesses to a real life shooting in canada four months later. Despite using leading questions recall was high as 88% and those who reported the highest levels of stress at the same time gave the most accurate responses.
• Conclusion: In real life situations anxiety many not have the same effect on witnesses as it seems to on participants in a lab. Making them more accurate.