Memory

what is the multi-store model

Atkinson and shiffrin

every bit of info we come across must pass through 3 memory stores:

sensory memory: echoic, iconic, haptic, gustatory, olfactory

sort term memory:

long term memory

how do the 3 memory stores differ (DEC)

Duration: how long info can be stored

Encoding: the form in which info is stored

Capacity: how much info is stored

sensory register:coding

info is sotred in unprocessed form, with seperate stores for diff sensory inputs:

iconic: visual

echoic: auditory

haptic: tactile

gustatory: taste

olfactory: small

research: crowder 1993

the SR only retains info in the iconic store for a few miliseconds but for 2-3 seconds in the echoic store, supporting the idea of sensory info being coded in diff stores

sensory register: capacity

sperling (1960)- briefly presented ppts with sets of 12 letters arranged 3 rows

overall recall for each row was high (around 75% correct) which indicates that the info was originally there in the SM

therefore, speriling showed that the capacity of the iconic store in the SR is about 12 items

sensory register: duration

all stores have limited duration, the duration differs between the diff types of stores

research: Walsh and Thompson, 1978

iconic sensory store has an average duration of about half a second, which decreases with age.

this suggests duration of sensory memory is limited and dependant on age

short term memory: coding

visually (thinking of the image)

accoustically (repeating it)

semantically (meaning)

research: Baddeley

assumed STM encoded accoustically because there was confusion with accoustically similar words.

short term memory: capacity

limited capacity, about 5-9 items

research: Jacobs

serial digit span method used, where ppts are presented with increasingly long lists of numbers and they have to recall them in the right order.

when ppts fail on 50% they have reached their capacity

found that the avergage memory span was between 5 and 9 items

short term memory: duration

can hold info for a max of 30 seconds- can be extended if maintanenced rehersed.

research: peterson and peterson

ppts were presented with noncence trigrams

were then asked to cound backwards in 3s to stop them rehersing the trigram.

ppts were able to recall 90% of the trigrams after 3s

after 18s only 5% of the trigrams were correctly recalled

concluded rhat the max duration is 18-30seconds

long term memory: coding

coding usually occurs through meaning (semantically)

research: baddeley

long term memory: capacity

potential capacity is unlimited, info may be lost due to decay but these dont occur due to capacity

research: anokhin

estimated the number of possible neuronal connections in the human brain is 1 followed by 10.5km of noughts.

he concluded that no human yet exists who can use off of the potential of their brain- suggesting the capacity of the LTM is limitless

long term memory: duration

depends on an individuals lifespan, as memories can last a life time

research: banrick et al

showed 400 ppts aged between 17-74yrs a set of photos and a list of names, some of which were ex school friends and asked them to identify ex school friends

if theyd left school in the last 15yrs there was a 90% accurate recall

while those who left 48yrs ago identified 80% of names and 70% of faces

Baddeley

aim- to investigate whether accoustic similarity and semantic similarity influence the LTM and STM differently

procedure- conducted a study where ppts were given lists of words that were accoustically similar, semantically similar and dissimilar. They were asked to recall these words immediatly and after a delay

results- ppts remember words by sound in STM and meaning in LTM

conclusion- there are different encoding preferences in stm and ltm

The working memory model and its 4 components

Baddeley and Hitch: developed this model as a new approach to understanding how short-term memory works.

initially consisted of 3 components: central executive, visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop. The episodib buffer was added in 2000

central executive

oversees and coordinates the components of STM. It acts as a filter to determine which info recieved by the sense organs is/isnt attended to.

directs info to the slave systems (visual/auditory). it is limited in capacity and can only effectivly cope with one strand of info at one time.

research: D'Espocito et al

found using fMRI scans that the pre frontal cortex was activated when verbal and spatial tasks were performed simulataneously but not seperatley.

this suggests that the brain are has another controlling section- the central executive

visuo-spatial sketchpad (inner eye)

handles non-phonological info and is a temporary store for visual and spatial items and the relationship between them

visual cache: stores visual materials about form and colour

innerscribe: handles spatial relationships

research: Gathercole and baddeley

ppts had difficulty simultaneously tracking a moving point of light and describing the angles on a hollow letter F, because both tasks involved using the VSS.

other ppts had little difficulty in tracking one light and performing a simultaneous verbal task, as both tasks involved using the VSS & PL

phonological loop

deals with auditory information, has a limited suration of around 2 seconds. as it is mainly an accoustic store, confusions occur with similar sounding words.

in 1986 the PL was divided into 2 parts:

primary accoustic store (inner ear): stores words recently heard

articulatory process (inner voice): keeps info in the PL through sub vocal repetition of the information and linked to speach production

research: Baddeley et al

demonstrated the word length effect by asking ppts to remember long or short words in lists. they could hold fewer long words in the PL because each word occupied so much more memory space.

this supports the idea that the duration of the phonological loop is limited to around 2 secs.

episodic buffer

added in 2000 by Baddeley, used to explain how info can be retreived from the LTM and brought back to the STM to focus on as the CE cannot do this

research: alkalifa 2009

neuroscience evidence has found a different area of the brain (most posterior areas) when asking ppts to bring info from LTM back to STM, suggests the existance of an EB

What are the 3 types of LTM and are they explicit or implicit

explicit: semantic and episodic memory

implicit: procedural memory

episodic memory

this memory gives people an auto-biographical record of personal experiences.

strength of these memories are influenced by the emotions you felt at the time the memory was coded.

research: Tulving

semantic memory

contains all knowledge (facts, concepts, meanings etc)

linked to episodic memories as new memories tend to be learned from experience

overtime there will be a gadual move from episodic to semantic memory.

research: Tulving

procedural memory

skills

many procedural LTMs occur early in life

research: clive wearing

Tulving

Aim:

To explore whether episodic and semantic memory are located in different parts of the brain.

Method:

Tulving used neuroimaging (PET scans) to observe brain activity while participants (including Tulving himself) performed memory tasks.Tasks included recalling episodic memories (personal past experiences) and semantic memories (facts and general knowledge).

Findings:Episodic memory activated the right prefrontal cortex.

Semantic memory activated the left prefrontal cortex.

This suggests a clear distinction between the two types of memory in terms of brain location.

Conclusion:

The study supports the idea that episodic and semantic memories are stored in different areas of the brain.

what are the two explainations for forgetting

1. interferance theory

2. cue dependant failure

what are the two types of interferance and their definitions

1. proactive interferance: when previous learning interferes with later learning

2. retroactive interferance: when leater learning disrupts earlier learning

research support for interferance theory: Schmidt et al

surveyed over 2,000 participants who had attended school in the same Dutch city. They were asked to recall the names of streets they had lived on or near during childhood. The researchers found that participants who had moved house more frequently or had learned more new street names over time were less able to recall the original street names. This supported the idea of retroactive interference, where new information (new addresses) interferes with the recall of older information (childhood addresses).

Conclusion: The study provided evidence that retroactive interference can affect real-life, autobiographical memory—although it still relied on self-report and recall, which may be influenced by individual differences

cue dependent failure

the reason why people forget information may be because of insufficient cues. When information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time.

Encoding specificity principle (ESP)

Tulving researched into cue dependant forgetting /failure and found a pattern in what he called the ESP

this states that if a cue is to help us recall info then it has to be present at encoding and at retreval

if the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different there will be some forgetting

what are the 2 types of cue dependant forgetting

1. external cues: context dependant forgetting

2. Internal cues: state dependant forgetting

context dependant forgetting

Godden and Baddeley (1975) conducted a well-known study to investigate the effect of context-dependent forgetting.

Summary: They asked deep-sea divers to learn a list of words either on land or underwater, and then recall the words either in the same context or a different one. This created four conditions: learn on land/recall on land, learn underwater/recall underwater, learn on land/recall underwater, and learn underwater/recall on land.

The results showed that recall was significantly better when learning and recall took place in the same environment (i.e. context matched). When the context changed between learning and recall, performance dropped.

Conclusion: This study supports context-dependent forgetting—the idea that forgetting can occur when external cues present at learning are not available at recall.

State dependant forgetting

if we were to learn something when we feel happy/sad/drunk we could remember this information again when we are in the same mental state.

Carter and Cassaday (1998) investigated the effects of state-dependent forgetting, focusing on how internal states (like drug-induced drowsiness) affect memory.

Summary:

Participants learned word lists and passages of text either after taking anti-histamine drugs (which caused mild drowsiness) or while not under the influence of the drug. They were then tested on the material either in the same drug state or a different one, creating four conditions: learn on drug/test on drug, learn on drug/test off drug, learn off drug/test on drug, learn off drug/test off drug.

The results showed that recall was best when the internal state at learning matched the state at recall. When the state changed between learning and recall, performance dropped.

Conclusion:

This supports state-dependent forgetting, suggesting that internal cues (like physical or mental state) are important for memory retrieval.

what type of interferance is leading questions

retroactive interferance

influence of schema on EWTs

memories are not accurate snap-shots of events but are reconstructions of events influenced by active schemas ready made expectations based of previous experiences.

used to make sense of the world by filling in the gaps in our knowledgeaffects reliability of EWT because wittness' arn't recalling facts as they happened instread they'ree reconstructing memories that are biased by schemas which can lead to false memories

what is a leading question

a question that either by its form or content, suggests to the wittness what answer is desired or leads them to the desired answer

Loftus and Palmer leading question research.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted a study to investigate how leading questions can influence eyewitness memory.

Summary:

Participants were shown short clips of car accidents and then asked questions about what they had seen. The key question was: "How fast were the cars going when they [verb] each other?" — with the verb changed to words like smashed, collided, bumped, hit, or contacted.

They found that the verb used affected the speed estimate: participants who heard "smashed" gave higher speed estimates than those who heard "contacted".

In a follow-up experiment, participants who heard "smashed" were also more likely to falsely recall seeing broken glass, even though there was none in the video.

Conclusion:

The study showed that leading questions can distort memory, demonstrating the misinformation effect and suggesting that eyewitness testimony may not always be reliable.

what is anxiety

anxiety is an emotional state where we fear that something bad is about to happen. it tends to be accompanied with physiological arousal.

what is the weapons effect

witnesses to violent crimes focus on the weapon being used rather than the culprits face, negatively affecting their recall of important aspects.

research support for the weapons effect: Loftus et al

2 conditions: one involving a weapon and the other not

in both conditions ppts heard a discussion in an adjoining room while they waited in the corridor

in the first condition a man emerged from the room holding a pen with grease on his hands.

in the 2nd condition the discussion was rather more heated and a man emergedd holding a paper knife with blood

when asked to identify the man from 50 photos ½ of the condition 1 was accurate and only 1/3 of condition 2 was accurate

contradictiory research to the weapons effect: Christianson and Hubinette

carried out a survey among 110 people who had witnessed between them 22 bank robberies.

some of these people had been bystanders in the bank at the time of the hold ups while others had been directly threatened by the robbers.

the victims who had been directly threatned, showed more detailed and accurate recall than the onlookers. this directly contradicts what the experimental research suggests

Deffenbacher

contradictiory findings in research on anxiety effecting EWT can be explained with reference to the yerkes-dodson law

stated that performance improves with increases of arousal up to some optimum point and then declines with further increases.

what are the retrieval paths to each memory in a cognitive interview (PROM)

P- change the perspective: interviewee asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives

R- report everything: interview encourages reporting of every single detail even if it seems irrelevent.

O- change the order of recall: interviewer may try alternative ways through the timeline of the incident

M- mental reinstatement of context: interviewee encouraged to mentally recreate the context of the original incident.

research support for the cognitive interview: Geiselman et al

connducted a study to see the effectiveness of the cognitive interview compared to traditional interview techniques

videos of violent crime were shown to students where two days later they were either asked to recall using the standard interview of the cognitive interviews.

the students remembered more items when interviews used the cognitive interview compared to the standard interview

cognitive interviews is more effective than normal

what is the enhanced cognitive interview

the same as a normal cognitive interview but the interview builds a rapport with the interviewee to aim to reduce anxiety

what is a modification of the cognitive interview

the same as a normal cognitive interview but gets rid of one of the PROM components

e.g removing the change perspective component in interviews with children and they are too young to empathise