AQA Psychology - Memory

Coding

how information is transformed into a storable format.

Coding Experiment STM and LTM

Baddeley's Cat/Mat - participants read a list of words, then recall it and repeat for 4 more lists. Conditions were similarly sounding words and similar meaning words. Immediate recall - difficulty recalling acoustically similar words. Recall after 20 minutes- difficulty recalling semantically similar words.

Capacity

Amount of info that can be held in memory.

Capacity Experiment STM

Jacobs Serial Digit Span - participants read a list of digits and were told to recall immediately. Digit span gradually increased. Recall was around 5-9 digits.

Miller's Magic Number

7 +/- 2 items.

Capacity Experiment LTM

Capacity is unlimited so cannot be tested.

Duration

Length of time info can be held in either memory store.

Duration Experiment STM

Peterson & Peterson's Trigram Retention - participants read a nonsense trigram. Immediately had to count backwards in 3s from a large number. Time they counted for varied from 3-30 seconds - used to prevent rehearsal. Then had to recall trigram. 3s - 90% recall. 18s - 10% recall. 30s - 0% recall.

Duration Experiment LTM

Bahrick's Yearbook Study - 400 participants aged 17-74 told to recall everyone in their year. Condition 1 - free recall, no cues. Condition 2 - cued recall, given a set of names and had to select those they knew. Condition 3 - cued recall, given a set of photos and had to select those they knew. 70 - 80% accurate recall with cues.

Multi-Store Model

Memory has three stores which are linked by processes.

Working Memory Model

STM is more complex, so should be split into separate stores.

Sensory Register

Detects information from environment and pays attention to what we see as important.

Central Executive

Allocates information to either store, controlling the slave systems.

Phonological Loop

Temporary acoustic store for auditory and verbal information. Used to repeat information or store words before we speak.

Visuo Spatial Sketchpad

Rehearses visual and/or spatial info. Sets up and manipulates mental images.

Episodic Buffer

Integrates information from the two stores and existing info retrieved from LTM.

Baddeley & Hitch

Dual Task Experiments - participants had to complete 2 tasks at the same time. Condition 1 - one verbal, one visual task. Condition 2 - both verbal. Condition 3 - both visual. Participants were only able to complete the tasks using separate stores at the same time.

KF Case Study

STM impairment due to motorbike accident. Capacity is reduced to 1-2 verbal items. Undamaged for visual and acoustic items. LTM undamaged.

Clive Wearing Case Study

LTM damaged by herpes. STM is undamaged, and lasts up to 2 minutes. Is still able to recall sheet music and procedural memories.

Episodic Memory

Ability to recall personal experiences and past events including time, place and emotions.

Semantic Memory

General knowledge about the world, including facts, concepts and meanings.

Procedural Memory

Knowledge of how to do things, including muscle memory.

Types of LTM Experiment

Tulving's PET Scans - semantic in prefrontal cortex and cerebrum. Procedual in cerebellum. Episodic in hippocampus.

Explanations of Forgetting

Interference and retrieval failure.

Proactive Interference

Previous information disrupts the learning of new information.

Retroactive Interference

Recent information disrupts the recall of old information.

Similarity of Items in Interference Experiment

McGeoch and Mcdonald - Participants were asked to learn and recall lists of words. Condition 1 (control group) - learnt adjective list, then recalled 10 minutes later. Condition 2 - learnt adjective list, then list of numbers for 10 minutes, then recalled adjective list. Condition 3 - learnt adjective list, then a different adjective list for 10 minutes, then recalled the original list. Interference was worse when items were similar.

Retrieval Failure

Stored memory cant be recalled due to a lack of appropriate cues.

Cue

Trigger of info that allows us to access a memory.

Cued Recall Experiment

Tulving & Pearlstone's Retrieval Category Experiment - PPs were read a list of words. Condition 1 - given blank paper to recall words onto. Condition 2 - shown 7 categories relating to the words. Condition 2 had significantly better recall.

Encoding Specificity Principle

Memory retrieval is most effective when recall and encoding occur in the same environment.

Context Dependant Forgetting

Occurs due to a lack of environmental/external cues.

Context Dependant Forgetting Experiment

Godden & Baddeley's Underwater Divers Experiment - PP's had to learn and recall words in 4 different conditions. Condition 1- underwater learning, dry land recall. Condition 2 - underwater learning, underwater recall. Condition 3- dry land learning, underwater recall. Condition 4 - dry land learning, dry land recall. 50% increase in recall when the environment of learning and recall was the same.

State Dependant Forgetting

Occurs due to a lack of personal/internal cues.

State Dependant Forgetting Experiment

Carter & Cassaday's Antihistamine Experiment - PP's learnt and recalled words in 4 different conditions. Condition 1 - learn drowsy, recall alert. Condition 2 - learnt drowsy, recall drowsy. Condition 3 - learn alert, recall drowsy. Condition 3 - learn alert, recall alert. Drowsy conditions used antihistamine. Significant increase in recall when state of learning and recall was the same.

Schemas

A mental framework built from our memories that allows us to understand and interpret the world. Suffers cultural bias and excludes information that contrasts our beliefs.

Schemas Experiment

Bartlett's War of the Ghosts - 20 English college students were told a Native American folk tale, then had to retell it. Retelling was highly inaccurate and culturally biased.

Leading Questions

Influences a respondant's answer by prompting them to give a certain answer. Influenced by schema.

Misleading Information

Supplying information that may lead a witness' memory to be altered during an EWT.

Post-Event Discussion

Conversation between witnesses after an event that can influence thinking.

Leading Questions Experiment

Loftus and Palmer's Car Crash - PP's watched a clip of a car crashed, then asked questions including what speed the cars hit each other. Words varied: smashed, bumped, contacted. Smashed condition - estimate of 40.8mph. Bumped condition - 38.1mph. Contacted condition - 31.8mph.

Misleading Questions Experiments (x2)

2 Experiments. Loftus and Palmer's Car Crash - PP's asked if they saw broken glass in the video, although there was no. Many PP's said yes, especially in smashed condition. Loftus and Pickerell's Bugs Bunny in Disneyland - PP's were shown an advert containing Bugs, then asked about their childhood memories of Disneyland. Many reported meeting him and added details.

Effect of Anxiety on EWTs

Yerkes-Dodson Inverted-U Hypothesis - as anxiety increases so does accuracy of memory recall up until an optimal level. Beyond this, increases in anxiety will decrease accuracy.

Effect of Weapon Focus on EWTs

Witnesses use selective attention to focus on the weapon rather than on other details. Also increases anxiety of an event.

Weapon Focus Experiment

Johnson and Scott's Weapon Effect Experiment - PP's witnessed two different scenarios. Condition 1 - heard a discussion, then a man left holding a pen. Condition 2 - heard an argument, then a man left carrying a bloody knife. High anxiety condition were 33% accurate, low anxiety was 49% accurate.

Real Life EWT Experiment

Yuille and Cutshall's Field Experiment - PP's had witnessed a real shooting. Interviewers used leading questions and misleading information, however recall remained highly accurate. High anxiety did improve recall 4 months after the event.

Cognitive Interviews

Police technique to improve accessibility to memories to increase EWT accuracy.

Techniques of CIs

Report Everything, Reinstatement of Context, Change Order and Change Perspective. Also aims to establish a rapport, reduce anxiety and minimise distractions.

CI Experiment

Fisher and Geiselmann's use of CI's - PP's had witnessed shoplifting/mugging. Condition 1 had standard interviews. Condition 2 had CIs. CIs improved recall by 47%.