Psychology: Memory

Front 1

Multi-Store Model

Back 1

The multistore model of memory was proposed by Atkinson and Shriffin and is a structural model. They proposed that memory consisted of three stores: sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). Information passes from store to store in a linear way.

Front 2

Coding

Back 2

Coding is the way information is changed so that it can be stored in the memory. There are three main ways in which information can be stored:

1. Visual

2. Acoustic

3. Semantic

Front 3

Capacity

Back 3

Capacity concerns how much information can be stored.

Front 4

Duration

Back 4

Duration refers to the period of time information can last in the memory stores.

Front 5

Sensory Register

Back 5

•Duration: 1/4 to 1/2 a second

•Capacity: all sensory experience (large)

•Coding: sense specific

Front 6

Short Term Memory

Back 6

•Duration: 0-18 seconds

•Capacity: 7 +/- 2 items

•Coding: Acoustic

Front 7

Long Term Memory

Back 7

•Duration: Unlimited

•Capacity: Unlimited

•Coding: Semantic

Front 8

Evaluation of the Multistore Model

Back 8

•One strength of the multistore model is that it gives us a good understanding of the structure and process of the STM. This is good because this allows researchers to expand on this model. This means that researchers can do experiments to improve on this model and make it more valid and they can prove what the stores actually do.

(STRENGTH)

Front 9

Serial Position Effect

Back 9

Glanzer and Cunitz showed that when participants are presented with a list of words, they tend to remember the first few and last few words and are more likely to forget those in the middle of the list.

This supports the evidence of separate LTM and STM stores because they observed a primacy and recency effect.

Front 10

Three Types of LTM

Back 10

1. Procedural Memory

2. Semantic Memory

3. Episodic Memory

Front 11

Procedural Memory

Back 11

Procedural memory is a part of the long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things e.g. memory of motor skills. It does not involve conscious thought and is not declarative.

Example: how to ride a bike.

Front 12

Semantic Memory

Back 12

Semantic memory is a part of the long-term memory responsible for storing information about the world. This includes knowledge about the meaning of words, as well as general knowledge.

Example: London is the capital of England.

Front 13

Episodic Memory

Back 13

Episodic memory is a part of the long-term memory responsible for storing information about events that we have experienced in our lives. It involves conscious thought and is declarative.

Example: memory of our 1st day at school.

Front 14

Working Memory Model

Back 14

The working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch) replaced the idea of a unitary STM. It suggests a system involving active processing and short-term storage of information.

Key features include the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad.

Front 15

Central Executive

Back 15

The central executive has a supervisory function and acts as a filter, determining which information is attended to. It can process information in all sensory forms, directs information to other slave systems and collects responses. It has a limited capacity and deals with only one piece of information at a time.

Front 16

Phonological Loop

Back 16

One of the slave systems is the phonological loop which is a temporary storage system for holding auditory information in a speech based form. It has two parts:

1. Phonological store: stores words you hear.

2. Articulatory Process: allows maintenance rehearsal.

Front 17

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Back 17

The second slave system is the visuospatial sketchpad (VSS). The VSS is a temporary memory system for holding visual and spatial information. It has two parts:

1. The visual cache: stores visual data about form and colour.

2. The inner scribe: records the arrangement of objects in the visual field, and rehearses and transfers information in the visual cache to the central executive.

Front 18

Episodic Buffer

Back 18

The third slave system is the episodic buffer which acts as a 'backup' store for information which communicates both long term memory and the slave system components of working memory.

Front 19

Evaluation of Working Memory Model

Back 19

•Working memory is supported by dual task studies. It is easier to do two tasks at the same time if they usr different processing systems than if they use the same slave system.

(STRENGTH)

•The KF Case Study supports the working memory model. KF suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident that damaged his short-term memory. KF's impairment was mainly for verbal information. This shows that there are separate STM components for visual information and verbal information. However, evidence from this study may not be reliable because it concerns unique cases with patients who have had traumatic experiences.

(STRENGTH/WEAKNESS)

•One limitation is the fact that little is known about the central executive works. It is an important part of the model but it's exact role is unclear.

(WEAKNESS)

•Another limitation is that the model does not explain the link betweeb working memory and LTM.

(WEAKNESS)

Front 20

Dual Task Experiment - Baddeley and Hitch

Back 20

Baddeley and Hitch conducted an experiment in which participants were asked to perform two tasks at the same time. A digit span task required them to repeat a list of numbers, and a verbal reasoning task which required them to answer true or false to various questions.

•Results: as the number of digits increased in the digit span tasks, participants took longer to answer the reasoning questions.

•Conclusion: the verbal reasoning task made use of the central executive and the digit span task made use of the phonological loop.

Front 21

Explanation for Forgetting - Interference

Back 21

Interference is an explanantion for forgetting from long term memory - two sets of information become confused.

Front 22

Proactive Interference

Back 22

Proactive Interference is where old learning prevents recall of more recent information. When what we already know interferes with what we are currently learning - where old memories disrupt new memories.

Front 23

Retroactive Interference

Back 23

Retroactive interference is where new learning prevents recall of previously learned information. In other words, later learning interferes with earlier learning - where new memories dirupt old memories.

Front 24

Evaluation of Interfence as an Explanation for Forgetting

Back 24

•Interference theory tells us little about the cognitive processes involved in forgetting. Secondly, the majority of research into role of interference in forgetting has been carried out in a lab using lists of words, a situation which is likely to occur fairly infrequently in everyday life. As a result, it may not be possible to generalise from the findings.

(WEAKNESS)

Front 25

Explanations for Forgetting - Retrieval Failure

Back 25

Retrieval Failure is where information is available in long term memory but cannot be recalled because if the absence of appropriate cues. Types of cues that have been studied by psychologists include context and state dependent.

Front 26

Context

Back 26

Context - external cues in the environment. Evidence indicates that retrieval is more liekly when the context at encoding matches the context at retrieval.

Front 27

State

Back 27

State - bodily cues inside us. 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.

Front 28

Baddeley - Deep-sea Divers

Back 28

Baddeley asked deep-sea divers to memorise a list of words. One group did this on the beach and the other group underwater. When they were asked to recall the words half the beach learners remained on the beach, the rest had to recall underwater.

Half of the underwater group remained there and the other had to recall on the beach. The results show that those who had recalled in the same environment which they had learned recalled 40% more words than recalling in a different environment. This suggests that retrieval of information is improved if it occurs in the context in which it was learned.

(STRENGTH)

Front 29

Carter and Cassaday - Antihistamines

Back 29

Carter and Cassaday did an experiment in which participants were split into two groups. One group was asked to learn a list of words in theire regular state, whilst the other half were given antihistamines and had to learn the words.

Half the group who were learning with antihistamines had to recall in a regular state of mind whilst the other half remained. It was found that participants were able to recall more words when they were in the same state as they were when they learned the words.

(STRENGTH)

Front 30

Evaluation of Retrieval Failure as an Explanation for Forgetting

Back 30

The ecological validity of these experiments can be questioned, but their findings are supported by evidence from outside the lab.

(STRENGTH/WEAKNESS)

Front 31

Eyewitness Testimony - Misleading Information

Back 31

Loftus and Palmer investigated how misleading information could distort eyewitness testimony accounts.

•Procedure: 45 students formed an opportunity sample. This was a lab experiment with five conditions, only one of which was experienced by each participant. Participants were shown slides of a car accident involving a number of cars and were asked to describe what had happened as if they were eyewitnesses. Then they were asked specific questions, including the question "about how fast were the cars going when they (hit/smashed/collided/bumped/contacted) each other?

Front 32

Eyewitness Testimony - Loftus and Palmer Findings

Back 32

The estimated speed was affected by the verb used. The verb implied information about the speed, which systematically affected the participant's memory of the accident. Participants who were asked the "smashed" question thought the cars were going faster than those who were asked the "hit" question.

Front 33

Evaluation of the Loftus and Palmer Experiment

Back 33

•The research lacks mundane realism, as the video clip does not have the same emotional impact as witnessing a real-life accident and so the research lacks ecological validity.

(WEAKNESS)

•A further problem with the study was the use of students as participants. Students are not representative of the general population in a number of ways. Importantly they may be less experienced drivers and therefore less confident in their ability to estimate speeds.

(WEAKNESS)

•A strength of the study is it's easy to replicate. This is because the method was a lab experiment which followed a standardised procedure.

(STRENGTH)

Front 34

Affects of Anxiety on Eyewitness Testimony

Back 34

When we are in a state of anxiety, we tend to focus on whatever is making us feel more anxious or fearful, and we exclude other information about the situation. If a weapon is used to threaten a victim, their attention is likely to focus on it. Consequently, their recall of other information is likely to be poor.

Front 35

Clifford and Scott (1983)

Back 35

Clifford and Scott found that people who saw a film of a violent attack remembered fewer of the 40 items of information about the event than a controp group who saw a less stressful version.

Front 36

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) - Procedure

Back 36

However, a study by Yuille and Cutshall contradicts the importance of stress in influencing eyewitness memory. 21 witnesses observed a shooting incident in Canada outside a gun shop in which 1 person was killed. All of the witnesses were interviewed by the investigating police, and 13 witnesses agreed to a research interview 4-5 months after the event. The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time. The eyewitness accounts provided in both the police and research interviews were analysed and compared.

Front 37

Yuille and Cutshall Experiment Findings

Back 37

The results of the study showed the witnesses were highly accurate in their accounts, and there was little change in amount of accuracy of recall after 5 months. This study showed that stress levels did not have an effect on memory, contrary to lab findings.

Front 38

Yuille and Cutshall Evaluation

Back 38

•One strength of the study is that it had high ecological validity compared with lab studies as it was not an artificial situation.

(STRENGTH)

•One weakness of this study was that there was an extraneous variable. The witnesses who experienced the highest levels of stress were actually closer to the event and this may have helped with their accuracy of their memory recall.

(WEAKNESS)

Front 39

The Cognitive Interview: Techniques

Back 39

1. Context Reinstatement: trying to mentally recreate an image of the situation, including details of the environment, such as weather conditions, and the individual's emotional state including their feelings at the time of the incident.

2. Recall from a Changed Perspective: trying to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view.

3. Recall in Reverse Order: the witness is asked fo describe the scene in a different chronological order - from the end to the beginning.

4. Report Everything: the interviewer encourages the witness to report all details about the event, even though these details may seem unimportant.

Front 40

The Enhanced Cognitive Interview

Back 40

The main additional features are:

•Encourage the witness to relax and speak slowly.

•Offer comments to help clarify witness statements.

•Adapt questions to suit the understanding of individual witnesses.

Front 41

Evaluation of The Cognitive Interview

Back 41

•One limitation of the cognitive interview is that it's time consuming to conduct and takes much longer than a standard police interview. It is also time consuming to train police officers to use this method. This means that it is unlikely that the 'proper' version of the interview is used.

(WEAKNESS)

•Another limitation is that some elements of the cognitive interview may be more valuable than others. For example, research has shown that using a combination of 'report everything' and 'context reinstatement' produced better recall than any of the conditions individually.

(WEAKNESS)

•A final criticism is that the police personnel have to be trained and this can be expensive.

(WEAKNESS)

•Geiselman set out to investigate the effectiveness of the cognitive interview. Participants viewed a film of a violent crime and after 48 hours, were interviewed by a policeman using one of three methods: the cognitve interview, a standard interview, or an interview using hypnosis.

The number of facts accurately recalled and the number of errors made were recorded. The average number of accurately recalled facts for the coginitve interview was 41.2, for hypnosis it was 38.0 and for standard interview it was 29.4.

This shows that the cognitive interview is more effective than other forms of interview.

(STRENGTH)