Cognitive

Front 1

Define cognitive psychology

Back 1

An approach or perspective in psychology, that relates to mental processes such as: perception, language, memory, attention & problem solving. The study of thinking processes.

Front 2

Define memory

Back 2

The process by which we retain information about events that have happened in the past

Front 3

Define sensory memory

Back 3

Initial contact for stimuli/information. Sensory memory is only capable of retaining information for a very short period of time

Front 4

Define short-term memory

Back 4

The information we're presetly aware of or thinking about. The information found in the short-term memory store comes from paying attention to sensory memories

Front 5

Define long-term memory

Back 5

Continual storage of information which is largely outside of our awareness, but can be retrieved into the short-term memory to be used when needed

Front 6

Define encoding

Back 6

How information (sensory experience) is transformed into a form that can be stored by the memory system, i.e. creating a trace

Front 7

Define capacity

Back 7

A measure of the amount of information that can be stored in the memory system

Front 8

Define duration

Back 8

A measure of how long a memory lasts before it's no longer available

Front 9

What's the capacity of the short-term memory?

Back 9

7+/-2 items of information

Front 10

What's the capacity of the long-term memory?

Back 10

Limitless

Front 11

What's the duration of the short-term memory?

Back 11

18-30 seconds

Front 12

What's the duration of the long-term memory?

Back 12

Up to a lifetime

Front 13

How is information encoded in the short-term memory?

Back 13

Mainly acoutically

Front 14

How is information encoded in the long-term memory?

Back 14

Mainly semantically

Front 15

Describe the multi-store model of memory

Back 15

Proposed by Atkinson & Shriffin. It's a structural model of memory because it suggests that our memory can be understood in terms of different memory stores. The 3 stores are: sensory memory, short-term memory & long term memory. Sensory store receives incoming info from the senses & is modality specific - information from each sensory system is encoded in the corresponding sensory format. 3 types of sensory memory have been investigated: iconic memory - for vision; echoic memory - for hearing & haptic memory for touch. Sensory memory has a short duration but a large capacity. Information is transferred from sensory memory to short-term memory through attention. Short-term memory has a limited capacity of 7+/-2 items and a max duration of 30 seconds. If info enters the STM quicker than it can be consolidated & transferred to LTM the forgetting occurs by displacement. Info is encoded acoustically. Info is transferred to LTM through rehearsal and retrieved through retrieval. LTM has an unlimited capacity & duration but forgetting still occurs. Encoding is semantic.

Front 16

What's the duration evidence for short-term memory?

Back 16

Peterson & Peterson - 90% remembered when there was a 3 sec interval but only 2% when there was an 18 sec interval.

Front 17

What's the evidence for capacity in short-term memory?

Back 17

Miller - generally it's found that participants are able to recall 5-9 items of info. Miller refined this to 7+/-2 items of info. Although chunking can increase this number.

Front 18

What's the encoding evidence for short-term memory?

Back 18

Baddeley - participants had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words but semantically similar words posed no problem.

Front 19

What's the evidence for duration in long-term memory?

Back 19

Bahrick - identification of names & faces was 90% within 15 years of leaving school & 70-80% 48 years after leaving school.

Front 20

What's the evidence for capacity in long-term memory?

Back 20

Brady - when participants saw the original object paired with a distinctively different object identification was 92%. When the original object was paired with a similar object identification was 88%

Hint 20

Patriots QB

Front 21

What's the evidence for encoding in long-term memory?

Back 21

Baddeley - Participants had difficulty remembering semantically similar words but acoustically similar words posed no problem.

Front 22

What can HM do?

Back 22

Remember things from before the surgery that removed his hippocampus

Remember things for the duration of short-term memory

Remember new skills learnt through rehearsal

Hint 22

Case study

Front 23

What can't HM do?

Back 23

Form new long term memories

Transfer memories to his long-term memory

Encode or retain new information

Hint 23

Case study

Front 24

What can Clive Wearing do?

Back 24

Retrieve skills previously learnt e.g. playing the piano from long-term memory

Retrieve memories from his long-term memory

Hint 24

Case study

Front 25

What can't Clive Wearing do?

Back 25

Transfer information from his short-term memory to his long-term memory

Access his short term memory

Hint 25

Case study

Front 26

How does HM (case study) relate to the structure of memory proposed by the multi-store model?

Back 26

He suggests that we have 2 types of memory - short-term memory & long-term memory which are completely separate stores

Front 27

How does Clive Wearing relate to the structure of memory proposed by the multi-store model?

Back 27

Suggests that the stores are separate

Front 28

What's the supporting evidence for the multi storey model of memory?

Back 28

Glanzer & Cunitz - condition 1 (immediate recall group), they remembered more words from the beginning (primacy) & end (recency) of the list - condition 2 (delayed recall group), they remembered more words from the beginning (primacy) of the list, interference task removed the recency effect.

Findings support the concept of separate memory stores as STM was affected by the interference task but LTM wasn't.

Or

HM case study as he could access old memories & form new ones for a short period of time but couldn't form new long term memories which suggests separate stores

Hint 28

Primacy - Recency effect

Front 29

What's the challenging evidence for the multi-store model of memory?

Back 29

Case study evidence challenges single LTM store. For example HM can't transfer new memories into his long term memory but he can transfer new skills that he's learnt which suggests there may be 2 LTM stores.

Front 30

What's another explanation for the multi-store model of memory evaluation?

Back 30

Working memory model as multi-store model of memory offers a over simplistic view of memory.

Front 31

Evaluate the usefulness of the multi-store model of memory

Back 31

It provides a general theoretical framework for understanding memory which has been useful & influential.

Front 32

Is the multi-store model of memory testable?

Back 32

The multi-store model of memory contains a number of testable hypotheses, e.g. memory consists of 2 separate stores or information is transferred from the STM to LTM by rehearsal. However model overemphasises the role of rehearsal in the transfer of information from STM to LTM.

Front 33

What are the 4 parts of the working memory model?

Back 33

Central executive

Phonological loop

Visuo-spatial sketch pad

Episodic buffer

Front 34

Describe the central executive

Back 34

The key component in the WMM, it drives the whole system. It has a very limited capacity but it's involved in general processing. The function of the central executive is to direct attention & resources to tasks. It has a supervisory role in deciding which information is allocated to the 2 slave systems & how they should function. It has the ability to deal with & process different types of sensory information.

Hint 34

Working memory model

Front 35

Describe the phonological loop

Back 35

It has a limited capacity & deals with the auditory information (spoken & written) & preserves word order. Baddeley subdivided it into the phonological store which holds words heard for 1-2 seconds (inner ear) & the articulatory process which holds the words heard/seen or silently repeated (looped) like an inner voice (speech production. A kind of maintenance rehearsal.

Hint 35

Working memory model

Front 36

Describe the visuo-spatial sketch pad

Back 36

It has a limited capacity. Stores visual (what things look like) &/or spatial (position/location between things) information (inner ear). Logie suggests a subdivision into the visual cache which stores information about visual items & the inner scribe for spatial relations which stores the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

Hint 36

Working memory model

Front 37

Describe the episodic buffer

Back 37

It was added to the working memory model by Baddeley in 2000 as he realised the model needed a more general store. It's an extra storage system that deals with visual & acoustic information but has limited capacity.

Hint 37

Working memory model

Front 38

What's the supporting evidence for the working memory model

Back 38

Baddeley et at - task 1 was difficult as it involved 2 visual tasks but task 2 was easy because the 2nd task involved 2 different slave systems (visual & verbal)

Case of KF - Shallice & Warrington found that KF's impairment was mainly for immediate recall of words presented verbally but his memory for visual information was mostly unaffected.

Hint 38

Case study

Front 39

What's the challenging evidence for the working memory model?

Back 39

Criticisms of using case studies:

- Generalisability to the wider population

- Difficult to replicate, someone in an accident may not have the same brain damage

Front 40

Evaluate the usefulness of the working memory model

Back 40

Helps in our understanding of Alzheimer's disease & memory. Baddeley's research of young, elderly & Alzheimer's patients showed that the performance of the Alzheimer's group didn't differ significantly from the other groups when performing a visual or verbal task but showed significant impairment when trying to do them together. This shows that there's significant problems with the central executive functioning.

Hint 40

Neurological degenerative disease

Front 41

Evaluate the testability of the working memory model

Back 41

The working memory model expands upon the multi-store model of memory & has been influential in generating lots of experimental research.

Front 42

Give 2 similarities between the multi-store model & the working memory model

Back 42

Both are supported by experiments which tend to use artificial tasks to test memory.

Both have generated lots of research.

Front 43

Give 2 differences between the multi-store model & the working memory model

Back 43

MSM was the 1st model of memory put forward which was then tested to see if it worked. Whereas WMM started from biological ideas about how the brain might function & then expanded upon MSM giving more information & refining it.

MSM explains STM as a single unitary store whereas WMM suggests that STM is made up of several stores with sub-components

Front 44

What did Tulving propose about long term memory?

Back 44

Long-term memory could be divided into 2 memory stores: episodic & semantic. The disassociation between semantic & episodic memory was based on evidence that each store was qualitatively different in terms of the nature of stored memories, time referencing, the nature of associations between memories in each store, the nature of retrieving memories held in each store & the independence of each store.

Hint 44

Explanation of long-term memory

Front 45

What are 2 memory stores that Tulving proposed that long-term memory could be divided into?

Back 45

Episodic memory

Semantic memory

Front 46

What did Tulving suggest about semantic memory?

Back 46

It represents a mental encyclopedia, storing words, facts, rules, meanings & concepts as an organised body of knowledge. These memories are associated with other facts that link concepts together (e.g. 'school & learning') without autobiographical association.

Front 47

How did Tulving describe episodic memory?

Back 47

As a mental diary, episodic memory receives & stores information about experiences or events that occur at a time in our life, that are linked to time & context.

Hint 47

Episodic similar to episode that show people's...

Front 48

What are the 3 types of long-term memory according to Tulving?

Back 48

Episodic

Semantic

Procedural

Front 49

Describe episodic memories & give an example

Back 49

Memory of person experiences or events associated with a particular time or place. Recall of my 1st day of high school.

Front 50

Describe semantic memories & give an example

Back 50

Memory for facts associated with other facts & independent of context. Recall of the capital of the USA.

Front 51

Describe procedural memories & give an example

Back 51

Concerned with learning motor skills. Recall of how to ride a bike.

Front 52

Are the episodic & semantic stores interrelated?

Back 52

Semantic memory can operate separately of episodic memory. E.g. we don't need to remember a lesson about equations to be able to use the them. But, episodic memory is unlikely to operate without semantic memory as we have to be able to recall previous knowledge of objects, people & events that occur in order to understand them. Tulving argues that although they may overlap they should be treated independently.

Front 53

Give 2 differences between semantic & episodic memory

Back 53

Semantic - mental encyclopedia

Episodic - mental diary

Semantic - independent of time referencing & input can be fragmentary

Episodic - time & context referenced & input is continuous

Semantic- retrieval possible without learning & not cued retrieval

Episodic - retrieval using cues which are encoded at the point of learning

Semantic - memory trace more robust & less susceptible to transformation

Episodic - forgetting due to retrieval cue failure & memory trace can be transformed/changed

Front 54

What's the supporting evidence for the two types of long-term memories (semantic & episodic)?

Back 54

Brain scans carried out by Tulving on 6 volunteers showed when possible were using their episodic memory, part of the front cortex (frontal lobes) was active, compared to when the position were using their semantic memory when the back cortex was active. Suggests that episodic memory & semantic memory are 2 separate stores

Brain damage case studies for disassociation between semantic & episodic memory, i.e. one store can be affected without affecting the other. E.g. KC had a motorcycle accident which left him with brain damage. This caused memory impairment, most of his general knowledge (semantic memory) was intact but he was inacapable of recalling any personal events before the accident (episodic amnesia). Suggests that semantic memory & episodic memory are 2 distinct processes.

Front 55

What's the challenging evidence for the two types of memories (episodic & semantic)?

Back 55

Clive Wearing & HM both had brain damage which severely affected their ability to retain & recall long-term memory from episodic storage. However, both men were able to perform LTM tasks, e.g. playing the piano & they could still learn new skills. This suggests a further long-term memory store for recalling practiced skills - procedural memory, which is distinct from episodic memory. Tulving later added this to his model of LTM.

Front 56

Evaluate the testability for the two types of long-term memory (semantic & episodic)?

Back 56

A significant problem of describing long-term memory in terms of 2 separate systems is that it doesn't account for any interrelationship or continuity between each system. Clearly they work together when an episodic memory task, such as learning a list of words, as a word can have a semantic feature (meaning of the word) & an episodic reference (when & where the word was remembered). This makes research into the separate stores problematic because they can't be studied in absolute isolation from one another.

Front 57

What's reconstructive memory?

Back 57

The theory that memories aren't exact copies of what's encoded & stored but they're affected by prior experiences & prior knowledge on the form of schemas.

Front 58

What's a schema?

Back 58

Plans/scripts that are built up using experiences about everyday life & that affect the processing of information.

Front 59

Describe reconstructive memory theory

Back 59

Bartlett suggested that memory is more of an imaginative reconstruction of past events; influenced by our attitudes & responses to those events at the time they occured. We tend to try & reconstruct memories on the basis of what we think probably happened, what usually happens & what must have happened. We piece the event together using a range of info & fill in the gaps. Bartlett used schema theory to explain this.

Front 60

Describe schema theory

Back 60

Bartlett proposed that remembering involves looking at units of memory called schemas - mental scripts that we have for every aspect of human life. Schemas are made up of all of our previous experiences & expectations about an event or object. They can be thought of as packets of stored info about a specific event or object. Bartlett argued that we don't remember all that we perceive but we draw on our schema when we recall an event to fill in the gaps. We use our schemas to reconstruct our memories of experiences. Recall is an active reconstruction of an event strongly influenced by previously stored knowledge, expectations & beliefs.

Front 61

What's the supporting evidence for reconstructive memory theory?

Back 61

Bartlett carried out many studies where he asked pps to reproduce stories on a number of different occasions. E.g. when testing British pps with War of the ghosts, Bartlett found their memory recall became shorter & also distorted by their culture. This supports the theory that the process of remembering is constrictive in nature.

Hint 61

Strength

Front 62

What's the challenging evidence for the reconstructive memory theory?

Back 62

Bartlett's war of the ghosts studies have been criticised for not being relevant to everyday memory & being deliberate attempt to manipulate evidence for his theory. E.g. war of the ghosts is an unusual story which doesn't make complete sense. It's possible pps changed the story due to demand characteristics as they were asked to retell the story. If the results of the study are invalid then the validity of the theory is affected.

Hint 62

Weakness

Front 63

What's another explanation for reconstructive memory theory?

Back 63

Reconstructive memory is more descriptive than explanatory. It describes reconstruction as an active process but doesn't say how the process works. E.g. it doesn't explain how memories are stored or how schemas are acquired in the first place. So theories such as multi-store model are more explanatory as they describe the entire process of encoding, storage & retrieval.

Hint 63

Weakness

Front 64

Evaluate the usefulness of reconstructive memory theory

Back 64

Reconstructive memory theory has led to lots of research demonstrating that we should be cautious when using eyewitness testimony as a sole source of evidence in criminal cases. But some psychologists argue that the experimental conditions of such research purposely induce errors, leading to the view that memory is unreliable. E.g. some research in real-life crimes has shown that in real situation recall can be very accurate.

Front 65

Evaluate the testability of reconstructive memory theory

Back 65

It can be scientifically tested but evidence is often lab based with tasks that are artificial & low in ecological validity. E.g. war of the ghosts was very unusual & not applicable to everyday life. So the results from these studies might not be relevant to real life memory.

Hint 65

Strength

Front 66

What are the individual differences in memory?

Back 66

Processing speed

Reconstructive memory (schemas)

Brain damage

Episodic memories

Front 67

Define autobiographical memory?

Back 67

It's a memory for personal events

Hint 67

Similar to episodic memory

Front 68

What's the classic study?

Back 68

Baddeley, 1966b

Hint 68

Same evidence for encoding in STM & LTM

Front 69

What's the aim of the classic study?

Back 69

To investigate the influence of acoustic & semantic word similarity on learning & recall in short-term & long-term memory

Hint 69

Similar to evidence for encoding in both memory stores

Front 70

What type of experimental design was the classic study?

Back 70

Independent groups design - pps are divided into 2 groups, each group receiving a different treatment

Front 71

What's the procedure for the classic study?

Back 71

The PPS were men & women recruited from the Applied Psychology Research Unit subject panel & were assigned 1 of 4 list conditions as an independent groups design.

Four list of 10 words were used:

- List A acoustically similar words

- List B acoustically dissimilar words

- List C semantically similar words

- List D semantically dissimilar words

- List B & D acted as a baseline control group to lists A & C

Each list was presented via projector at a rate of 1 word per 3 seconds in the correct order

Afterwards the pps were required to perform 6 tasks involving memory for digits

Pps were then asked to recall the word list in 1 minute in the correct order, this was repeated over 4 learning trials

Afterwards the groups were given a 15 minute interference task involving copying 8 digit sequences at their own pace

After the interference task pps were given a surprise retest on the word list sequence

Front 72

What are the results of the classic study?

Back 72

Recall of acoustically similar words was worse than dissimilar words during the initial phase of learning. But recall of the similar & dissimilar words wasn't statistically significant. Shows that acoustic encoding was initially difficult but didn't affect long-term memory recall. Pps found semantically similar words more difficult to learn than the semantically dissimilar words & recalled significantly fewer semantically similar words in the retest

Hint 72

Evidence for encoding STM & LTM

Front 73

What's the conclusion for the classic study?

Back 73

The fact that pps found it more difficult to recall list A in the initial phase of learning suggests that short-term memory is mostly acoustic, so acoustically similar words were more difficult to encode. Later retest recall of list C was impaired compared to all other lists because they were semantically similar which suggests that encoding in LTM is largely, but not exclusively, semantic

Front 74

Is the classic study generalisable?

Back 74

It's a lab experiment that employs experimental techniques that aren't typical of the way in which we use memory in an everyday context (we don't often learn lists of random monosyllabic words). Suggests that the results can't be generalised to everyday contexts.

Hint 74

Weakness

Front 75

Is the classic study reliable?

Back 75

It can be easily replicated as it was conducted in a controlled lab environment with a standardised procedure. So the study can be regarded as replicable & the reliability of the results can be established. Suggests that the research is highly credible in terms of being scientific.

Hint 75

Strength

Front 76

Is the classic study valid?

Back 76

It relies heavily on the role of rehearsal during the 4 learning trials in order for information to become established in LTM. The very concentrated nature of rehearsal is likely to have exaggerated this memory process with the result found being an artefact of the experimental procedure. We wouldn't normally be expected to use rehearsal in such a artificial way so the study lacks mundane realism.

Hint 76

Weakness

Front 77

What's the contemporary study?

Back 77

Sebastian & Hernández-Gil

Hint 77

Languages (Spanish)

Front 78

What's the aim of the contemporary study?

Back 78

To investigate the development of the phonological loop in children aged 5-17 using digit span as a measure of phonological capacity. They also wanted to compare the findings to their previous research of adult, aged & dementia patients.

Front 79

What's the procedure for the contemporary study?

Back 79

Sample of 570 volunteer pps from schools in Madrid. All pps were native Spanish & impairments in hearing, reading & writing were controlled

Pps were divided into 5 age groups & the average digit span was recorded for each age & age group

Digits were read out at a rate of 1 per second & the digit list increased 1 digit per sequence

Digit span for pps was recorded as the max digit recalled in the correct order without error

Front 80

What are the results for the contemporary study?

Back 80

There's a developmental trend of increasing digit span that rises steadily until around 11 years old where it slows. Digit span between 15-17 years remains fairly stable

Front 81

What did Sebastian & Hernández Gil find when comparing the results of the contemporary study to previous research?

Back 81

Elderly pps had a significantly higher digit span compares to the 5 year olds but it wasn't significantly different from other age groups

Patients with frontal variant frontotemporal dementia had a digit span that was significantly similar to the younger age group

Overall capacity of digit span was lower in Spanish population than the digit span of 7 found in Anglo-Saxon studies. The decrease in phonological capacity could be due to the Spanish language. Digits in Spanish tend to have 2 or more syllables but Anglo-Saxon digits are monosyllabic

Front 82

What's the conclusion of the contemporary study?

Back 82

Digit span was found to increase with age, the starting point of this development occurs when children are able to sub-vocalise at around 7 years. Digit span in the Spanish population is significantly shorter than Anglo-Saxon culture, probably due to the word length effect associated with digits. Comparing the findings to research into patients with dementia & the elderly, it's possible to speculate that poor digit span is a result of ageing rather than dementia.

Front 83

Is the contemporary study generalisable & reliable?

Back 83

A large sample size was tested in this study allowing the findings to be considered reliable & generalisable to the Spanish population. The sample size gathered was important for this research because comparisons were made across different cultures. Study also excluded pps with any hearing, reading or language impairments, known to diminish digit span, which could've affected the results

Front 84

Is the contemporary study applicable?

Back 84

Cultural differences in digit span have been reported by other researchers, Ellis & Hennelley reported poorer digit span in Welsh-speaking children compared to English children, largely because Welsh words for digits take longer to pronounce than English digit words. Research supports the finding that language & the phonological loop & interrelated

Front 85

Is the contemporary study valid?

Back 85

We rarely use verbal memory to memorise lists of digits in everyday life, other than when trying to rehearse a telephone number. Everyday verbal memory is used to hold sequences of words in order to understand sentences etc. So it's open to question whether or not digit span experiments reflect everyday use of verbal memory. But digit span tests have been reliably linked to performance in reading ability & intelligence, suggesting they're a good general measure of verbal memory. Digits are also considered to be a culture-free & meaning-free way of measuring pure verbal memory. But based on cultural differences found, digits may not be the best culture-free determinant of verbal memory capacity

Front 86

What's the key question?

Back 86

How can psychologists' understanding of memory help patients with dementia?

Front 87

Describe dementia without using psychological terms & concepts

Back 87

Dementia is a set of symptoms that may include memory loss & difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. It's caused when the brain is damaged by diseases. Dementia is a key question for society because the number of people diagnosed as having dementia has been increasing. 1 in 3 people over 65 will die from dementia & the Alzheimer's society estimates that over 1 million people will have dementia by 2025.

Hint 87

Key question