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112 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is memory? |
the registration, storage and retrieval of information |
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What are the two explanations of memory? |
MSM WMM |
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Define the term Capacity |
The amount of memory that can be held in a memory store at any one time. |
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Define the term Duration |
The length of the time that memories can be held
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Define the term Coding |
The way in which information is represented in the memory store, e.g. by sound, meaning or image
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Who suggested the MSM? |
ATKINSON AND SHIFFRIN 1968 |
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What does the MSM suggest are the 3 parts to our memory? |
Sensory Register Short term memory Long term memory |
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How does information enter our memory? |
through the sensory registers |
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What are the 3 sensory registers? |
Echoic Iconic Haptic |
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What is the capacity of the SR? |
large |
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What is the iconic register our memory of? |
visual information and processes raw information form our eyes. The sensory memory may integrate visual information into a smooth continuous visual experience rather than a series of images |
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What is the duration of the iconic register? |
The duration of the iconic register is only 0.5 seconds because of the continuously changing nature of visual sensory information.
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What is the capacity of the iconic register? |
The capacity may be 9-10 item based on Sperling.
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What is the echoic register our memory of? |
our memory of auditory information.
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What is the duration of the echoic register? |
3 seconds which is longer than the Iconic Register because of language and the need to Therefore process language sounds |
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What is the coding in echoic register? |
echoic |
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What is the haptic register our memory of? |
touch information |
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What is the coding in the haptic register? |
haptic |
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When is information transferred from the SR to the STM? |
when we pay attention to it |
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What is the STM? |
a temporary store of information that we are consciously thinking about at any one time
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How does information stay in our STM? |
Information is held in the STM by continuous reinsertion in the rehearsal loop. This is called maintenance rehearsal.
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How is information passed to the LTM from the STM? |
Information is transferred to the LTM by elaborative rehearsal which is the process of giving meaning to information.
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What is the duration of the STM? |
The duration of the STM without rehearsal is around 18-30 seconds. Transference to the LTM will have occurred by 30 seconds of elaborative rehearsal.
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What is the capacity of the STM? |
STM has a limited in its capacity to 7+/- 2 items.
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What type of encoding is in the STM? |
Encoding in the STM is mainly acoustic (auditory)
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How is information lost in the STM? |
Information is lost by displacement
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What is the duration of the LTM?
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Once information has entered the LTM it can remain there for between 2 minutes up to a lifetime (duration).
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What is the capacity of the LTM? |
The capacity is virtually unlimited and is therefore impossible to test.
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What type of encoding is in the LTM? |
Encoding is mainly through semantics. This is where meaning is associated with the information so it can be better remembered.
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How can information be retrieved from the LTM? |
Information can be retrieved from the LTM by passing it back to STM.
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How is information lost from the LTM? |
Information is lost by decay (memory trace disappears through lack of use).
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Explain Simon's 1974 study in evaluating the capacity in STM |
Simon (1974) tested how the size of each chunk of information might affect capacity. Participant’s STM capacity was tested using one-syllable, two-syllable and three syllable words. He also tested them on two and eight word phrases. He found that people could hold less of the larger syllable and eight word phrases in comparison the smaller chunks of information tested. So capacity of the STM may vary depending on the size of the each chunk to be recalled.
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Explain Sebrechts study in evaluating duration in STM |
The duration of the STM may be affected by the intention to remember. Sebrechts tested the recall of sets of 3 familiar English nouns. In the condition where the pps were not expected to recall the nouns correct recall fell to only 1% after 4 seconds.The duration of the STM may be affected by the amount of information to be stored. Pps were asked to recall 3 letter words (less information) vs three 3 letter words (more information). It was found that 3 letter words were remembered in STM longer than the larger amount of information tests.
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Evaluate how coding affects the STM |
Coding in STM be visual as well as acoustic. When pps were asked to recall a visual stimulus while being prevented from verbal rehearsal they were still able to recall the image in STM. Normally a person would translate an image to a verbal code to store in STM, but that was prevented in this study and so the fact that the images could be recalled suggested the pps encoded the information visually.
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Evaluate how coding affect the LTM |
Coding in LTM may be visual, olfactory and auditory as well as semantic. Everyday experience tells us that we can remember sights sound and smells without meaning so perhaps there has to be coding in those sense modalities as well.
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Explain how HM and Clive Wearing's cases support the MSM |
Both patients had severe damage to the hippocampus (the area of the brain responsible for storage of long term memories). HM’s brain was damaged during surgery to reduce epileptic fits, and Clive Wearing had a severe form of herpes that caused brain damage. After suffering their brain damage, both HM and Clive Wearing lost the ability to form new long term memories despite having normally functioning short term memories. provides strong evidence that short term and long term memory are completely separate entities in the human brain because only one memory store was affected which therefore adds validity to the claims made in multi store model of memory.
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Explain how Alzheimers patients support the MSM |
Alzheimer’s sufferers are thought to have love levels of acetylcholine which is a key neurotransmitter in memory. Researchers injected pp with a drug that blocks the action of acetylcholine. They tested STM and LTM function. They found that LTM was significantly impaired by the drug, suggesting that LTM and STM are quite distinct stores with their own neurotransmitters. Alzheimer’s patients also suffer from STM loss first followed by LTM loss. This again suggests that STM and LTM are distinct since the stores are affected separately.
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Explain how brain scans support the MSM |
Brain scans also show that STM and LTM are distinct stores as claimed in the model. Scan have shown that the hippocampus is activated when long term memory tasks are carried out. However, activity is shown in the prefrontal cortex when short term tasks are carried out suggesting that these stores are independent of each other, adding further validity to the MSM.
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Explain how flashbulb memory refutes the MSM |
‘Flashbulb’ memories are stored instantly and do not require rehearsal. The MSM can’t account for this because storage in the LTM can only occur through rehearsal. This suggests the model might not be a complete description of how memory works and therefore might not be totally valid. Memories which have an emotional significance can be remembered even without rehearsal for example, remembering where you were when Princess Diana died.
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Explain how the MSM can be claimed to be an oversimplified model |
The MSM has been accused of being an oversimplification. Human memory is very complex and it is highly unlikely that the MSM can account for this complexity. It may therefore be reductionist in making such complexity over-simplified.
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Give some details of Sperling's flashing rows study |
Sperling carried out a lab experiment to test the capacity and duration of the sensory memory. He used a grid of 12 consonant letters (3 rows and 4 columns) which he flashed on a screen for 50 milliseconds.
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What did Sperling's 1960 flashing rows study set out to investigate? (Iconic memory) |
capacity and duration of the sensory register |
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What was the aim of Sperling's 1960 study? |
Condition 1: To test the capacity of sensory memory Condition 2: To see if the duration interferes with the capacity of sensory memory |
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What was the method for Sperling's 1960 study? |
Condition 1: Participants had to remember as many letters as possible from the grid when it flashed up for 50ms. Condition 2: Sperling flashed up a similar grid but this time he played a tone (high, medium or low) after flashing up the grid. Previous to this, participants were told that if they heard the high tone, they must remember the top line only, if they heard the medium tone they must remember the middle row and the low tone, the bottom row. |
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What were the results for Sperling's 1960 study? |
Condition 1: participants could remember 3-4 letters out of the whole 12. Condition 2: Participants could remember 3 of the 4 letters in the row paired with the tone. |
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What was the conclusion for Sperling's 1960 study? |
Condition 1: sensory memory has a limited capacity
Condition 2: Because participants did not know which row they would have to recall (tone was played after the grid was flashed up), they must have remembered 9/12 letters in the grid initially to be able to recall 3 letters in any row. In conclusion, Sperling stated that capacity of sensory memory may be larger than the first experiment suggested, but duration is so short (a snapshot) that participants forgot the letters they saw before they could report them.i.e. Duration interferes with capacity |
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What did Miller's 1956 study aim to test? |
STM capacity |
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What was the method for Miller's 1956 study? |
These researchers used the Digit Span Technique with Immediate Serial Recall. Miller read aloud a digit string to participants, starting with 3 numbers and then increased the number of digits each time up to an 11 item digit string (using different numbers on each trial to prevent practice). e.g.4,7,93,5,1,83,8,9,2,6 etc.Immediately after they had heard the digit string, participants had to repeat back verbally what they had heard (in the correct order). This was repeated for a number of trials
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What were the results for Millers's 1956 study? |
Digit span was measured as the maximum of digits participants could correctly recall at least 50% of the time
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What did Peterson and Peterson's 1959 study aim to test? |
STM duration |
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What was the aim of peterson and peterson's 1959 study? |
Peterson and Peterson conducted a study to see how long people can hold information in their STM when rehearsal is prevented.
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What was the method of Peterson and Peterson's 1959 study? |
They presented participants with consonant trigrams (3 consonant letters) which disappeared as soon as they had been read. To prevent rehearsal, participants had to count backwards in 3s from a desired number and after 3,6,9,12,15 and 18 seconds they had to recall the trigram they had seen.
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What were the results of Peterson and Peterson's 1959 study? |
Peterson and Peterson found that after 3 seconds recall was very good (80% of trigrams were remembered). However, after 18 seconds, fewer than 10% of trigrams were remembered, showing that STM duration isn’t much longer than 18 seconds.
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What did Bahrick's 1959 study set out to measure? |
Long term memory duration |
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What was the method of Bahrick's 1959 study? |
Bahrick et al (1975) tracked down graduates from a AS high school over a 50 year period.392 graduates were shown photographs from the high school year book. He used two techniques to test their recall duration;1.Recall group: Participants were simply asked to name people in photos without being given a list of possible names2.Recognition group: Participants were given a group of names and had to select the name that matched the person in the photo.
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What were the results of Bahrick's 1959 study? |
The recognition group were best at recalling names. After 14 years, they were 90% accurate and still 60% accurate after 47 years. The recall group were only 60% accurate after 7 years and 20% accurate after 47 years.
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What was the conclusion for Bahrick's 1959 study? |
LTM duration is almost a lifetime, especially if there is a cue to prompt the memory.
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What did Conrad's 1959 study set out to measure? |
STM encoding |
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What was the method for Conrad's 1959 study? |
Conrad (1964) conducted a study using a repeated measures design. In the first condition, pp’s has to immediately recall, in order a list of letters which sounded the same (acoustically similar). In the second condition pp’s did the same but using acoustically dissimilar letters.B, G, C, T, D, V (acoustically similar)F, J, X, M, S, R (acoustically dissimilar)
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What were the results of Conrad's 1959 study? |
Conrad found that pp’s tended to confuse the order of similar letters. This suggests that participants were trying to remember the letters by repeating them sub vocally in their heads and because they sounded the same, they ended up getting the order muddled.
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What was the conclusion for Conrad's 1959 study? |
This suggests that encoding in STM is happening acoustically (i.e. ppl use sound to store info in short term memory).
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What did Baddeley's 1966 study set out to measure? |
LTM encoding |
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What was the aim of Baddeley's 1966 study? |
Baddeley (1966) conducted a study to investigate whether LTM encoding is acoustic or semantic.
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What was the method of Baddeley's 1966 study? |
There were 4 groups (independent samples design)Acoustically similar group (learned a set of words which sounded the same)Acoustically dissimilar group (learned a set of words which did not sound the same)Semantically similar group (learned a set of words with similar meaning)Semantically dissimilar (learned a set of words which different meaning)After a 20 minute break they were asked to recall the words (from the LTM) they had learned
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What were the findings of Baddeley's 1966 study? |
Recall rates were the same for the acoustic groups which suggest acoustic encoding was not important in the LTM. However, only 55% of the semantically similar words were recalled compared to 85% of the semantically dissimilar words, suggesting that the semantic encoding process had been interfered during the memorising of the words of similar meaning. Thus encoding is semantic in LTM.
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Who suggested the WMM? |
Baddeley and Hitch |
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What does the WMM see memory as? |
It sees memory as an active process rather than just a store of information.
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What is the role of the central executive in the WMM? |
The central executive is the control system. It controls our attention, overseas memory tasks and allocates work to the other parts (slave systems) as well as controlling the flow of information to and from the LTM. The central executive has a very limited capacity system and can be overloaded by too much information and too many tasks. The central executive therefore allocates work to the other stores to free up it own processing capacity.
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What is the role of the phonological loop in the WMM? |
The phonological loop stores speech based sounds for a short period of time. It has two parts, the phonological store (inner ear) which allows acoustically coded items to be passively stored for a brief period and the articulatory control system which allows repetition (sub-vocally) of sounds in the phonological store (inner voice) to prevent rapid decay of the information. Baddeley described the articulatory control system as a ‘tape loop of a tape recorder’ with a two second duration. The articulatory control system also codes visual information to verbal information.
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What is the role of the episodic buffer in the WMM? |
The episodic buffer combines information from different sources into episodes (events) for storage. It combines information from the LTM for use in the working memory. Imagine if you had to think of an elephant playing ice-hockey. You do not have an image of this in your LTM but you can call-up images of elephants and ice-hockey and combine them. The episodic buffer does this.
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What is the role of the visuo-spatial scratch pad in the WMM? |
The visuo-spatial scratch pad (inner eye) stores visual and spatial information (information about physical arrangements of something) for a short duration (decay is rapid without rehearsal). It includes the visual cache (stores information about shape and form) and the inner scribe (which stores information about position in space). Coding may be visual, spatial and even kinaesthetic (movement)
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What is the capacity of the WMM? |
Each part of the Working Memory has a limited capacity. If a person has to do two tasks at the same time which uses one of the systems it may become overloaded because the demand exceed the processing capacity. On the other hand if the two tasks require different systems then they are less likely to be overloaded and the person can comfortably do the two tasks –‘multi-task’.
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Explain the role of the episodic memory in the LTM |
Episodic memoryEpisodic memories are about knowing that. The term ‘episodic’ comes from the word ‘episode’ – an event or a group of events occurring as part of a larger sequence. This kind of memory is concerned with your personal experiences, with your recollection of your first day at school, a family holiday, playing with friends and so on. You may recall the time and place of such events as well as who was there.You also may recall the context surrounding the event such as what happened just before or after, or why you were there. Finally you may also recall associated emotions that you felt at the time. So episodic memories have three elements: specific details of the event, the context and the emotion.
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Explain the role of semantic memories in the LTM |
Semantic memories are also about knowing that eg. people of a certain age go to school and that 2 + 2 = 4 and that the capital of England is London. The latter three examples are semantic memories – knowledge about the world that is shared by everyone rather than the personal kind of knowledge which is classed as episodic memories. Semantic memories generally begin as episodic memories because we acquire knowledge based on personal experiences. There is a gradual transition from episodic to semantic memory where the memory slowly loses its association to particular events, so that the information can be generalised as a semantic memory.
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Explain the role of procedural memories in the LTM |
Procedural memory is concerned with skills, such as knowing how to tie a shoelace, knowing how to dive into a swimming pool or knowing how to read. It is about remembering how to do something rather than knowing the rules of what to do (knowing how to behave towards others is a semantic memory, as distinct from behaving nicely towards others which is procedural). Procedural memories are typically acquired through repetition and practice. Unlike episodic and semantic memory, this kind of memory is implicit. We are less aware of these memories because they have become automatic. Often if you try to think too much about such procedural memories this prevents you acting them out – try riding a bicycle while really thinking about what you are doing – you may lose your balance. This attention to the step-by-step procedure disrupts the well-learned, automatic performance. It is important that procedural memories are automatic so we can focus our attention on other tasks while performing these everyday skills.
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Explain how Brain Scans support the LTM in WMM |
The distinction made between the three kinds of memory is supported by research using brain scanning techniques. Such research shows that different areas of the brain are active when the different kinds of LTMs are active. Episodic memory is associated the hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe where the hippocampus is located. Episodic memory is also associated with activity in the frontal lobe. The memories of the different elements of a particular event may be distributed in other areas of the brain but they are all connected together by the hippocampus to form an episode. Semantic memory also relies on the temporal lobe. Procedural memory activation is associated with the cerebellum which is involved in the control of fine motor skills as well as the motor cortex. The basal ganglia and limbic system are also involved in this kind of learning.
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Explain how we can distinguish between procedural and declarative memories |
There is evidence to support the distinction between procedural and declarative memories. The case study of HM had a damaged LTM because of herpes virus which damaged his brain. However, was able to learn how to draw a figure by looking at its reflection in a mirror, a skill called mirrordrawing. He was later able to consistently show this skill (procedural memory) yet was not aware that he had done this (declarative memory). It therefore appears that his procedural memory was not damaged by the disease but his declarative memory was thus showing these two types of memory are separate.
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Explain how we can distinguish between episodic and semantic memories |
The relationship between episodic and semantic memories raises the question of whether episodic memories are a gateway to forming semantic memories or whether it is sometimes possible to form semantic memories independently. Researchers have sought an answer by studying patients with Alzheimer’s disease and found some patients who retain the ability to form new episodic memories but not semantic memories (Hodges and Patterson, 2007). This is a single dissociation; i.e. a separation between two abilities. This alone is not sufficient evidence that the two are distinct because it could be that episodic memory places greater general demands on mental processing and that’s why it is more affected by the brain damage. For that reason researchers look for double dissociations i.e. a second example of where one function is intact but the other isn’t. One example of such a second dissociation was found by Irish et al. (2011) in Alzheimer’s patients who have the reverse – poor semantic memories but generally intact episodic memories. This suggests that episodic memories may be a gateway to semantic memory but it is possible for semantic memories to form separately. This therefore suggests that these two stores are quite separate and distinct.
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What does interference theory suggest why forgetting occurs? |
Interference theory states that forgetting occurs because memories interfere with and disrupt one another, in other words forgetting occurs because of interference from other memories (Baddeley, 1999). There are two ways in which interference can cause forgetting:
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What is proactive interference? |
Proactive interference (pro=forward) occurs when you cannot learn a new task because of an old task that had been learnt. When what we already know interferes with what we are currently learning – where old memories disrupt new memories.
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What is retroactive interference? |
Retroactive interference (retro=backward) occurs when you forget a previously learnt task due to the learning of a new task. In other words, later learning earlier interferes with learning - where new memories disrupt old memories.
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When is interference thought to be more likely to occur? |
Proactive and retroactive Interference is thought to be more likely to occur where the memories are similar, for example: confusing old and new telephone numbers. Chandler (1989) stated that students who study similar subjects at the same time often experience interference.
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What was the method for Postman's 1960 study? |
Postman (1960) found evidence to support interference theory. He used a lab experiment was used. Participants were split into two groups. Both groups had to remember a list of paired words – e.g. cat - tree, jelly - moss, book - tractor. The experimental group also had to learn another list of words where the second paired word if different – e.g. cat – glass, jelly- time, book – revolver. The control group were not given the second list. All participants were asked to recall the words on the first list.
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What were the findings for Postman's 1960 study? |
The results found that the recall of the control group was more accurate than that of the experimental group. This suggests that learning items in the second list interfered with participants’ ability to recall the list. This is an example of retroactive interference.
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Explain how the absence of external context cues may cause retrieval failure |
Retrieval cues may be based on context-the setting or situation in which information is encoded and retrieved. Examples include a particular room, driving along a motorway, a certain group of people, a rainy day and so on. Context also refers to the way information is presented. For example, words may be printed, spoken or sung, they may be presented in meaningful groups - in categories such as lists of animals or furniture - or as a random collection without any link between them. Evidence indicates that retrieval is less likely when the context at encoding is absent in the context at retrieval. Cues in the situation act as prompts for retrieval.
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Explain how Baddeley's 1975 study supported absence of external context cues theory |
Baddeley (1975) asked deep-sea divers to memorize a list of words. One group did this on the beach and the other group underwater. When they were asked to remember the words half of the beach learners remained on the beach, the rest had to recall underwater.Half of the underwater group remained there and the others had to recall on the beach.
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What were the results of Baddeley's 1975 study? |
The results show that those who had recalled in the same environment (i.e. context) which that had learned recalled 40% more words than those recalling in a different environment. This suggests that the retrieval of information is improved if it occurs in the context in which it was learned and was poorer if that context was not there.
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Explain how the absence of internal state dependent cues may cause retrieval failure |
The basic idea behind state-dependent retrieval is that memory will be best when a person's physical or psychological state is similar at encoding and retrieval and vice versa. State Retrieval clues may be based on state-the physical or psychological state of the person when information is encoded and retrieved. For example, a person may be alert, tired, happy, sad, drunk or sober when the information was encoded. They will be less likely to retrieve the information when they are not in a similar state.
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Explain Goodwin et al's 1969 study in providing evidence for retrieval failure |
A study by Goodwin et al. (1969) supports the internal states can affect retrieval. The study investigated the effect of alcohol on state-dependent retrieval. They found that when people encoded information when drunk, they were more likely to recall it in the same state. For example, when they hid money and alcohol when drunk, they were unlikely to find them when sober. However, when they were drunk again, they often discovered the hiding place. Thus showing the importance of internal cues in forgetting.
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How can Anxiety affect eye witness testimony? |
Anxiety may affect the accuracy of EWT because it causes our attentional field to narrow onto the source of the anxiety. As a result, we miss other information in the situation.One area of research into anxiety which illustrates this is the weapons focus effect. Researchers have investigated how the presence of a weapon and the anxiety that may produce might affect the accuracy of EWT
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What was the method of Loftus' 1975 study? |
Group 1 overheard a low key discussion in a lab about equipment failure. A person then emerged from the lab with a pen and with grease on his hands. This was the low anxiety condition.Group 2 overheard a heated and hostile exchange between two people in the lab, a person emerged after the sound of breaking glass and crashing chairs, holding a paper knife covered in blood. This was the high anxiety condition because of the weapon and potential violence.Following this, participants had to identify the man they saw emerging from the lab from 50 photos
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What were the findings of Loftus' 1975 study? |
49% identified the man in group 1 (no anxiety)33% identified the man in group 2 (high anxiety)
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What is the conclusion of Loftus' 1975 study? |
This shows that anxiety in the situations seemed to reduce the accuracy of EWT because participants were focused on the weapon (the object of fear) rather than the man’s face.It may be that anxiety produced by the weapon causes our attentional field to narrow, so we focus on a narrower range of stimuli and so may miss other aspects of the scene such as the appearance of the man carry the weapon.
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What was the aim of Christianson and Hubinette's evaluating study of how anxiety affect EWT? |
Christiansson and Hubinette carried out research in a natural experiment to see if anxiety affects EWT in the real world.
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What was the method of Christianson and Hubinette's evaluating study of how anxiety affects EWT? |
They examined 22 genuine bank robberies and found surprisingly that people who were directly threatened (victims) remembered more about aspects of the scene and the perpetrators face than bystanders who were not directly threatened. This contradicts the findings of Loftus’ lab studies and suggests that studying anxiety in a lab is problematic.
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What did Deffernbacher's research show? |
Deffenbacher reviewed 21 studies into the effects of anxiety on EWT. He found 10 supported the idea that anxiety affects EWT whilst the remaining 11 did not! Deffenbacher gave an explanation for the apparent contradiction in results. He said that it depend on the levels of anxiety that were created in the study. He use the Yekes-Dodson Effect to explain. When arousal/anxiety is high performance on tasks such as memory if low, however, when arousal/anxiety is medium, memory performance is optimum. So it appears that some studies may have had medium levels of anxiety and other high levels.
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Explain the Yerkes-Dodson effect |
Also the results seen in studies of the effects of anxiety on EWT may not be due to anxiety anyway. Pickel (1998) showed that surprise might be the cause of poor recall rather than anxiety. In a study paricipants observed a thief entering a hair salon carrying either a pair of scissors (high threat/low surprise), a wallet (low threat/low surprise) or a whole raw chicken (low threat/high surprise). Identification of the thief was poorest in the raw chicken condition showing that surprise was a factor poor EWT rather than a threat.
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How can individual differences influence the accuracy of EWT? |
Individual differences may also influence the accuracy of EWT in potentially worrying situations. Tomes & Katz (1997) have suggested that people who are adversely affected tended to be:More empathic (good at identifying mood in others) and have stronger vivid memory in tests. However, these studies may lack ecological validity because it is very difficult to create real anxiety in a lab situation. People know they are in a study and they may have reacted unnaturally to the anxiety situation. Perhaps they were confused rather than anxious and that is why they did not pay attention.
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What is misleading information? |
Misleading Information: This is where a false memory is created AFTER the event has been witnessed. False information can be implanted into memory by leading questions and post-event discussions.
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Described Loftus and Palmer's 1974 study into how misleading information affect EWT |
Loftus and Palmer (1974) showed saw a short film clip of an accident. They were split into 5 groups. Each group was asked a slightly different question to see how it affected their estimates of how fast the cars were going. They were asked the question...“How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
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What were the findings of Loftus and Palmer's 1974 study? |
FindingsThe more dramatic/leading the question the higher the speed estimate. This shows that a leading question could influence the answers an eye witness gives and therefore possibly reduces the accuracy of their EWT.
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How does a leading question affect EWT? |
A leading Question subtly influences the respondent by biasing them towards a particular answer so implanting false information into memory (such as the idea that a car was at high speed or there was broken glass when there was none)
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What is a negative evaluation for EWT studies?
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These studies may lack ecological validity because they used films in a lab situation. They may have reacted unnaturally to the films and the results from real-life events might be different.
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How does Braun's study evaluate the EWT studies? |
support for this research comes from a study with high levels of realism. Braun (2002) used participants who had all visited Disneyland as a child. They were asked to review an advert for Disneyland. Embedded in this material was misleading information about Bugs Bunny (not Disney) and Ariel (not yet introduced when they were children). The participants were much more likely to report this false information (e.g saying they had shook hands with Bugs and Ariel) than a control group where there was no misleading information in the material. This therefore supports this research.
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How does Loftus' 1979 evaluate the EWT studies? |
Loftus (1979) herself found evidence to contradict these studies. She showed participants slides of a man stealing a red purse from a woman’s bag. Later, they read a description of the crime in which the purse was referred to as being brown. Most participants pointed out this error, showing that our memory for obviously important information accurately perceived at the time is not easily distorted, and so we are not always influenced by leading questions.
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What social and economic implications does the EWT research show us? |
This research tells us that those involved in interviewing witnesses must be very careful not to ask leading questions when talking to witnesses. They must also avoid discussions about the even which could implant false information in memory. Otherwise people may be convicted of crimes that they did not commit as witnesses may be mistaken about their defendant’s identity for example.
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What are the 4 parts of a cognitive interview? |
Restate the conditions or context: ask the interviewee to think back to the original event, recalling the physical (time of day, workspace, etc.), as well as the emotional (rushed, bored, etc.) surroundings.Report everything remembered no matter how trivial it may seem. Encourages multiple attempts and have interviewee recall details considered unusual, humorous, etcRecall events in a different orderAsk for the recall of details in reverse order, or starting from the middle and working to either endChange perspectiveA cognitive interviewer might ask the witness to recall an event from the perspective of a third party.
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What was the aim of Geiselman et al's 1985 study? |
Geiselman (1985) set out to investigate the effectiveness of the cognitive interview.
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What was the method of Geiselman et al's 1985 study? |
Participants viewed a film of a violent crime and, after 48 hours, were interviewed by a policeman using one of three methods: the cognitive interview; a standard interview used by the Los Angeles Police; or an interview using hypnosis. The number of facts accurately recalled and the number of errors made were recorded.
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What were the results of Geiselman et al's 1985 study? |
The average number of correctly recalled facts for the cognitive interview was 41.2, for hypnosis it was 38.0 and for the standard interview it was 29.4. There was no significant difference in the number of errors in each condition.
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What was the conclusion for Geiselman et al's 1985 study? |
The cognitive interview leads to better memory for events, with witnesses able to recall more relevant information compared with a traditional interview method.
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What was the method of Holliday's 2003 study? |
Children aged 4-5 and 9-10 were shown a 5 minute video a child’s birthday party. The children were interviewed the next day about the video. Children could remember more correct details when Cognitive Interview was used compared to standard techniques.
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