Cognitive Approach to Memory: Studies

Explain the Working Model of Memory with reference to one study.

Researchers: Landry and Bartling

Aim: Investigate if the use of articulatory suppresion would influence the recall of a written list of phonologically dissimilar letters in serial recall.

Procedure (main points):

-The participants were tested individually.

-In the experimental group, participants first saw a list of letters that they had to recall while saying the numbers '1' and '2' at a rate of two numbers per second (an articulatory suppression task).

-The control group saw the list of letters but did not carry out the articulatory suppression task.

-Both the experimental group and control group received numerous sets of dissimilar letters. They were instructed to fill out an answer sheet per set.

-The experimental group participants received instructions to repeatedly say the numbers '1' and '2' at a rate of two numbers per second from the time of presentation of the list until the time they filled in the answer sheet.

-In the control group, the experimenter showed participants a printed list for five seconds, instructed them to wait for another five seconds, and then instructed them to write the correct order of the letters on the answer sheet as accurately as possible.

-Both of these processes were repeated numerous times.

Result:

-The results showed that the scores from the experimental group were much lower than the scores from the control group.

-In line with the Working Memory Model, articulatory suppression is preventing rehearsal in the phonological loop because of overload. Since the control group did not experience this overload, they were more successful in rehearsal.

Explain the Multi-store Model of Memory with reference to one study.

Researchers: Glanzer and Cunitz

Aim: To determine if the interval of time between words on a list would increase the number of words recalled at the start of the list, otherwise known as the primacy effect. (study one.)

Procedure:

-Participants were allocated to numerous conditions; but the significance of the results remains in the first two: 1. Each word read once at a 3-second rate, and 2. Each word read twice in succession at a 3-second rate.

-Participants listened to multiple lists of one syllable words, and instructed to write down as many as they could remember as possible in a short time frame.

Results:

-The researchers found that the increased time interval between words led to an increase in the recall of all words in the list except for those at the end of the list.

-The effect of repetition on recall was limited to the 3-second rate.

-This study supports the theory that the primacy effect is the result of rehearsal.  The increased time interval allowed for more rehearsal, leading to a greater overall recall of the list of words.  However, as words in the STM were still available in working memory, there was no significant change in the frequency of recall.

Explain The Schema Theory with reference to one study.

Researchers: Bartlett

Aim: Investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge, specifically if cultural background and unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion of memory when the story was recalled.

Procedure:

-Bartlett told participants a Native American legend called The War of the Ghosts. The participants in the study were British; for them, the story was filled with unknown names and concepts, and how the story was developed was also foreign to them.

-Bartlett allocated the participants to one of two conditions:  one group was asked to use repeated reproduction, where participants heard the story and were told to reproduce it after a short time and then to do so again repeatedly over a period of days, weeks, months, or years. The second group was told to use serial reproduction, in which they had to recall and repeat the story to another person.

Results:

-Bartlett found that there was no significant difference between the way that the groups recalled the story. Bartlett found that participants in both conditions changed the story as they tried to remember it - a process called distortion.

-Participants would either make the story became more consistent with the participants’ cultural expectations, make the story shorter with each retelling as participants omitted information that was seen as not important, or participants tended to change the order of the story to make sense of it using terms more familiar to the participants' culture.

-Bartlett's study indicates that remembering is not a passive but rather an active process, where information is retrieved and changed to fit into existing schemas. This is done to create meaning in the incoming information

Explain reconstructive memory with reference to one study.

Researchers: Loftus and Palmer

Aim: Investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect the estimation of speed - otherwise, investigate how the use of leading questions would affect an eyewitness testimony. (study one)

Procedure:

-Participants watched multiple films of traffic accidents. They had to answer a questionnaire about the accidents, with one critical question; the critical question was about their estimation of speed.

-Each participant answered this question, but the questionnaires differed in the verb used. One group of participants was asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?" The critical word hit was replaced by collided, bumped, smashed, or contacted in the other conditions.

Results:

-The mean estimates of speed were highest in the ‘smashed’ condition and lowest in the ‘contacted’ group.

-The results indicate that the critical word in the question consistently affected the participants’ answers to the question.

-This distortion of memory is based on reconstruction so that it is not the actual details of the accident that are remembered but rather what is in line with a cognitive schema of a severe accident. This interpretation is in line with Bartlett’s suggestion of reconstructive memory due to schema processing.

-In conclusion, it seems that participants’ memory of an accident could be changed by using suggestive questions.

Explain The Theory of Flashbulb Memory with reference to one study.

Researchers: Sharot et al

Aim: Determine the potential role of biological factors on flashbulb memories.

Procedure:

-The sample was made up of participants who were in New York City on the day of the 9/11 attacks.

-Participants were put into an fMRI.  While in the scanner, they were presented with word cues on a screen. Some of these words were connected to 9/11, such as “Summer” or “September,” to observe if participants connected them to 9/11, or other summer events or holidays.

-Participants’ brain activity was observed while they recalled the event. The memories of personal events from the summer served as a baseline of brain activity for evaluating the nature of 9/11 memories.

-After the brain scanning session, participants were asked to rate their memories for vividness, detail, confidence in accuracy, and arousal. Participants were also asked to write a description of their personal memories.

Results:

-Only half of the participants reported having what would be called "flashbulb memories" of the event - that is, a greater sense of detail and strong confidence in the accuracy of the memory.

-Those that did report having flashbulb memories also reported that they were closer to the World Trade Centre on the day of the terrorist attack. Participants closer to the World Trade Centre also included more specific details in their written memories.

-Sharot and her team found that the activation of the amygdala for the participants who were downtown was higher when they recalled memories of the terrorist attack than when they recalled events from the preceding summer, whereas those participants who were further away from the event had equal levels of response in the amygdala when recalling both events.

-The strength of amygdala activation at retrieval was shown to correlate with flashbulb memories. These results suggest that close personal experience may be critical in engaging the neural mechanisms that produce the vivid memories characteristic of flashbulb memory.

Explain The Dual Processing Model with reference to one study.

Researchers: