Memory

What is Memory?

Memory is the mental capacity to encode, store, and retrieve information. It involves processes that allow us to retain experiences and knowledge over time.

Who developed the Multi-store model?

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

Describe the Multi-store model (3)

• 3 separate stores, Sensory Register (SR), Short Term Memory (STM) and Long Term Memory (LTM)

• These stores are unitary

• Info flows through the three separate stores in a FIXED linear order

Describe the Sensory Register (SR)

• How it gathers info

• Capacity

• Duration

• Coding

• Gathers info from our sense organs

• Very large capacity

• Duration from ¼ to 2 seconds (depending on the sense it is processed in)

• Modality (Sense) specific

Describe the Short term memory (STM)

• Capacity

• Duration

• Coding

• 7±2 pieces of info

• 18-30 seconds

• Acoustic (Sounds)

Describe the Long term memory (LTM)

• Capacity

• Duration

• Coding

• Unlimited

• A lifetime

• Semantics (Meanings)

Draw the Multi-Store Model

What are strengths and limitations of the MSM?

• Strengths

  • Clinical Studies

  • Experimental Support

• Limitations

  • LTM & STM are not unitary stores

  • Too much emphasis on Rehearsal

Evaluate ‘Clinical Studies’ as a strength of the MSM (4)

• There are clinical studies of patients with Korsakoff’s Syndrome (KF) which can sometimes develop for chronic alcoholics, leading to damaged brains

• For these patients, there is little effect on STM but LTM is severely impaired

• Further clinical evidence comes from a KF patient who had suffered brain damage as a result of a motorcycle accident, this led to unaffected LTM but led to poor performance of the STM

• This suggests that STM and LTM are completely separate stores in memory, and supports the MSM

Evaluate ‘Experimental Support’ as a strength of the MSM (4)

• The Glazner & Cunitz’s study on Primacy and Recency Effects shows that when participants are asked to recall a list of words they are more likely to remember the first few (the primacy effect) and last few words (the recency effect)

• And are more likely to forget those in the middle of the list

• This can be explained as the first few words have been transferred to LTM through rehearsal (or repeating the words) while end words are still in short term memory

• This supports the idea that STM and LTM are separate memory stores as the Multi-store Model suggests

Evaluate ‘LTM & STM are not unitary stores’ as a limitation of the MSM (4)

• One issue is the MSM proposes that LTM is a single, unitary store however, evidence suggests that LTM is made up of several components

• Tulving proposed that the LTM is made up of episodic, semantic and procedural memory; The case of Clive Wearing supports separate LTM stores

• Clive suffered extensive brain damage due to contracting a virus. He lost his episodic memory (e.g. he has no memory of his wedding) but still has use of his procedural memory (he can still play piano)

• This evidence suggests that there are at least two separate systems of LTM therefore criticising the multi-store model as it’s view on LTM is far too simplistic.

Evaluate ‘too much emphasis on rehearsal’ as a limitation of the MSM (4)

• The MSM suggests rehearsal is the only method of transferring info from STM to LTM

• It can be argued that the model lacks face validity as it is clear that we do not always need to rehearse information to remember it e.g. gossip

• There are other things that impact on how information is transferred, for example, some things are easier to recall because they are funny, distinctive or significant. Also, what is distinctive or significant to one person may not be to another person

• Therefore, these individual differences in human memory influence how information is transferred to LTM and is not accounted for by the MSM

Research for Capacity of the Sensory Register

• Who did it

• Procedure

• Findings

• Sperling

• Sperling flashed a 3x4 grid of letters onto a screen for one twentieth of a second and asked participants to recall the letters from one of the rows. To decide which row to recall Sperling would sound a different tone

• Recall of the indicated row was high, which suggests that all the information was originally there, suggesting that the capacity of SR is quite large.

Research for Duration of the Sensory Register

• Who did it

• Procedure

• Findings

• Treisman

• Participants were presented with identical auditory messages to both ears, with a slight delay between the presentations

• Participants noticed the messages were identical if the delay was 2 seconds or less. This suggests that SR has a limited duration of 2 seconds.

Research for Coding of the Sensory Register

• Who did it

• Procedure

• Crowder

• Crowder found that the SR only retains information presented visually for a few milliseconds, but if the information is presented in an auditory form, then it can be retained for 2-3 seconds. This supports the idea that information coded in the SR is coded in different formats

Research for Capacity of the Short Term Memory

• Who did it

• Procedure

• Findings

• Experimental Design

• Jacobs

• Participants were presented with a series of letters or digits, which they had to repeat back immediately to the experimenter in the same order they were presented (serial recall). The list increased by a single item until participants consistently made mistakes.

• The average STM span was between 5-9 items. Digits (9.3) were recalled better than letters (7.3). STM span increased with age e.g. 8 year olds (6.6) and 19 year old (8.6)

• Repeated Measures design

Research for Duration of the Short Term Memory

• Who did it

• Procedure

• Findings

• Experimental Design

• Peterson & Peterson

• They presented nonsense trigrams (i.e. VGT, PXR) to participants, and asked them to recall the trigrams after either 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds. They were prevented from rehearsing the trigrams by being asked to count backwards in 3’s from 999. The % of trigrams correctly recalled was recorded for each time interval

• Peterson and Peterson found that if rehearsal is prevented then recall is negatively affected with the maximum duration being around 18-30 seconds

• Repeated Measures design

Research for Coding of the Short Term Memory

• Who did it

• Procedure

• Findings

• Experimental Design

• Baddeley

• Participants were presented with one of two word lists: List A; acoustically similar words (e.g. ‘cat’, ‘mat’, ‘sat’) and List B; acoustically dissimilar words (e.g. ‘pit’, ‘day’, ‘cow’). To test coding, participants were given the list in the wrong order. Their task was to rearrange the words in the correct order

• Participants given List A (acoustically similar) performed worse, with a recall of only 10%. They confused similar-sounding words, e.g. recalling ‘cap’ instead of ‘cat’, suggesting that STM is coded on an acoustic basis

• Repeated Measures design

Research for Capacity of the Long Term Memory

The capacity of the LTM is assumed to be limitless, as research has not been able to determine a finite capacity

Research for Duration of the Long Term Memory

• Who did it

• Procedure

• Findings

• Bahrick

• A longitudinal study, 400 participants aged between 17–74. They were shown photographs and names of old high school classmates and asked to identify their old school friends

• They found 90% of people could remember classmates’ names and faces after 15 years. They also found that 80% of people could remember classmates’ names and 70% of faces after 48 years suggesting that meaningful memories are long lasting

Research for Coding of the Long Term Memory

• Who did it

• Procedure

• Findings

• Baddeley

• Participants were presented with one of two word lists: List C; semantically similar words (e.g. ‘big’, ‘huge’, ‘tall’) and List D; semantically dissimilar words (e.g. ‘hot’, ‘safe’, ‘foul’). To test coding, 20 minutes after looking at the words, participants were given the list in the wrong order. Their task was to rearrange the words in the correct order

• Participants given List C (semantically similar) performed worse, with a recall of only 55%. They confused semantically similar words, e.g. recalling ‘big’ instead of ‘huge’, suggesting that LTM is coded on a semantic basis

What does Tulving suggest in terms of Long term memory?

Tulving (1985) suggests that LTM is a multi-part system made up of two or more sub-systems containing different types of information

What are the 3 types of LTM?

• Episodic Memory

• Semantic Memory

• Procedural Memory

Explain Episodic memory (4)

• Our ability to recall personal experiences and events from our lives

• You have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories

• The strength of the episodic memory depends on the emotions present at the time a memory is coded

• These memories are complex and are ‘timestamped’

Explain Semantic memory (3)

• Contains facts about the world and is always being added to e.g. the capital of England is London

• This is also a conscious type of memory in that you have to make an effort to recall

• It is less personal and is not timestamped

Explain Procedural memory (3)

• This is a memory for actions and skills

• We can recall these without conscious awareness e.g. riding a bike

• However, it can be difficult to verbalise these skills

What are the strengths & limitations of types of LTM?

• Strengths

  • Neuro-Imaging Research evidence

  • Real Life Applications

• Limitations

  • Overlap between semantic and episodic LTM stores

  • Low population validity of using case studies

Evaluate ‘Neuro-Imaging Research evidence’ as a strength of types of LTM (4)

• Empirical research support for LTM having different subsystems comes from Tulving et al (1989)

• In this research, participants were asked to perform various memory tasks whilst scanning their brains using PET scans

• Tulving found that episodic memories were recalled from the pre-frontal cortex and semantic memories in the posterior region of the cortex. As the different types of LTM are found in different brain areas, this suggests that the different types of LTM are separate

• Further to this, PET scans provide physical (empirical), objective neuro-imaging evidence. This strengthens the support for types of LTM as this type of evidence is free from bias and is considered to be highly scientifically credible

Evaluate ‘Real Life Applications’ as a strength of types of LTM (3)

• Episodic memory is the type of memory that is most often affected by mild cognitive impairments, which highlights the benefit of being able to distinguish between types of LTM

• Belleville et al (2006) demonstrated that episodic memories could be improved in older people who had a mild cognitive impairment. Trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group

• This suggests that if psychologists know about the separate stores of LTM then treatment programmes can be developed to help these people, which means the contribution to the clinical world is highly valuable

Evaluate ‘Overlap between semantic and episodic LTM stores’ as a limitation of types of LTM (4)

• One main issue with the LTM subsystems theory is that the extent to which episodic and semantic memory stores are different is unclear

• Although different brain systems are involved, there is a lot of overlap between the two systems

• Because we acquire knowledge based on personal experiences, semantic memories (facts) can originate in episodic memories (events), therefore it is unclear if a semantic memory is just a gradual transformation from episodic memory rather than a separate system

• As this is difficult to explain it questions the overall validity of the theory especially as researchers cannot be sure of the internal validity of the research that is presented as evidence

Evaluate ‘Low population validity of using case studies’ as a limitation of types of LTM (4)

• A limitation of the research into long-term memory is that it uses very small samples

• Psychologists are very interested in studying cases studies of brain injury, like Clive Wearing, which have provided a lot of useful information about what happens when memory is damaged. But such clinical case studies are unique to one individual and this means that the findings from studying Clive wearing are difficult to generalise to the wider population

• This is a problem because the evidence is not able to provide solid conclusions that can be applied to explain everybody’s long-term memory

• Therefore, the research lacks population validity

Who proposed the Working Memory Model?

Baddeley & Hitch

Explain the Working Memory Model (WMM) (3)

• A model of STM that replaced the idea of a unitary STM

• It suggests STM is more active and complex than the MSM proposed

• It believes STM CAN COMPLETE TWO DIFFERENT TASKS AT THE SAME TIME

Draw the WMM

Describe the Central Executive

• Capacity

• Coding

• Features (2)

• Limited to no storage capacity

• It is flexible as each sense is coded differently

• - Controls the other ‘slave’ components and decides which component is required for the task

  - Involved in planning, problem solving and decision making, decides what the Working Memory pays ATTENTION to

What is the phonological loop divided into? (2)

• Phonological Store (Inner ear)

• Articulatory Control Process (Inner voice)

Describe the Phonological Loop

• Capacity

• Coding

• Features (2)

• Limited Capacity (2 seconds’ worth of what you can say)

• Codes information acoustically

• Divided into

  • Primary Acoustic Store (PAS) – Linked to speech perception. It receives auditory information and remembers sounds in the order that they were presented

  • Articulatory Process (AP) – Linked to speech production. It is used to prepare sounds and speech by using rehearsal

What is the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad divided into?

• Visual Cache

• Inner Scribe

Describe the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

• Capacity

• Coding

• Features (2)

• Limited Capacity (3-4 objects)

• Codes information visually

• Divided into

  • Visual Cache (VC) – stores material about form and colour

  • Inner Scribe (IS) – handles spatial relationships (like following a map in our heads)

Describe the Episodic Buffer

• Capacity (2)

• Features (3)

• - Temporary storage system

  - Limited capacity of about four chunks

• - Brings together different types of information from the VSSP and P.L.

  - Provides temporary storage of information

  - Is controlled by the C.E. It plays an important role in retrieving information from LTM

What are the strengths & limitations of the WMM?

• Strengths

  • Studies of dual task performance support the existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad

  • Research Support from PET Scans

• Limitations

  • The Central Executive component is oversimplified

  • WMM does not account for all types of memory

Evaluate ‘Studies of dual task performance support the existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad’ as a strength of the WMM (4)

• Baddeley found that participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks (tracking a light and describing the letter F) than doing both a visual and verbal task at the same time

• The increased difficulty is because both visual tasks compete for the same slave system (VSSP) whereas, when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously, there is no competition because they are using separate components (VSSP and PL)

• This suggests that when undertaking two visual tasks they exceed the limited capacity of the VSSP and provides strong evidence of its existence

• This evidence supports the idea that there are different components within WM and they have a limited capacity

Evaluate ‘Research Support from PET Scans’ as a strength of the WMM (3)

• Empirical support from PET scans provide physiological evidence of different components specialising in particular tasks

• Cohen et al found that brain activity was higher in the part of the brain known as Broca’s area (which is linked to phonological loop) when participants were completing a verbal task, whereas regions of the occipital lobe (which is linked to visual processing) are activated when participants complete a task using the VSSP

• This provides strong neurocognitive support for the WMM suggesting there being different components being responsible for different STM tasks

Evaluate ‘The Central Executive component is oversimplified’ as a limitation of the WMM (4)

• One major issue of the WMM is that the most important component, the CE, has been over looked and oversimplified

• Evidence from the case study of EVR contradicts the idea of a unitary CE

• After having a tumour removed, EVR performed well on tests requiring reasoning which suggested his CE was intact, however he had poor decision-making skills (for example he would spend hours deciding where to eat), suggesting the CE was damaged

• This suggests there are several components to the CE rather than one as the WMM suggests and in EVR’s case only one was damaged

Evaluate ‘WMM does not account for all types of memory’ as a limitation of the WMM (4)

• One factor that undermines the WMM as an explanation for memory is its inability to account for all types of memory

• Berz (1995) criticised the model for failing to account for musical memory, as we are able to listen to instrumental music without impairing performance on other acoustic tasks

• Listening to instrumental music should occupy the Primary Acoustic Store’s limited capacity, making it difficult to carry out other acoustic tasks, however, this is not the case

• This suggests that the WMM does not give us a complete picture of how different types of memory are processed

What are the 3 differences between the MSM and the WMM?

MSM	WMM
Processing information in MSM is passive	Processing Information in WMM is active
STM in MSM is one component	STM in WMM is a multicomponent structure
Information in MSM passes in a fixed order	There is interchange between components of WMM and no fixed order
Coding in STM is acoustic	Coding in STM is acoustic and visual

What is the definition of forgetting?

The failure to retrieve  memories from the long term store

What is the interference theory & when is it more likely to happen?

Interference is when one set of information competes with another, causing it to be confused in the LTM. This is more likely when

• 2 sets of information are similar

• When there is a short time gap between instances of learning

What are the 2 interference theories that lead to forgetting?

• Proactive Interference

• Retroactive Interference

What is proactive interference?

When previous information competes with new information so new information is forgotten

What is retroactive interference?

When recent information competes with old information, so that the old information is forgotten

What are the strengths and limitations of the interference theories?

• Strengths

  • Research support for proactive interference

  • Research support for retroactive interference

  • Application to real world

• Limitations

  • Artificiality

Explain ‘Research support for proactive interference’ as a strength of the interference theories (4)

• Wickens (1972) gave participants 4 trials using nonsense trigrams: The stimuli in the first 3 trials were the same (letter-based), but the stimuli in the 4^th trial were number based

• Wickens found that performance gradually declined in trials 1-3, but the number-based trial remained at almost 100% recall

• Wickens believed that because the material in the 4^th trial was different with it being numbers rather than letters because it was easier to remember

• The decline in performance in trials 1-3 shows evidence of interference as the old information i.e. trial 1 interfered with the learning of the letters in trials 2 and 3 because the information was similar

Explain ‘Research support for retroactive interference’ as a strength of the interference theories (3)

• Baddeley and Hitch (1977) investigated interference effects in an everyday setting of rugby players recalling the names of the teams they had played against over a rugby season

• Some players played in all the games whereas others missed games due to injury. It was found that the players who had played most games had the poorest recall (most interference)

• These results support the idea of retroactive interference, as the learning of new information (new team names) interfered with the memory of old information (earlier team names) causing them to be forgotten

Explain ‘Application to real world’ as a strength of the interference theories (4)

• One strength of interference theory is that this area of research has important practical applications

• Chandler (1989) found that students who study similar subjects at the same time often experience interference and are more likely to forget information

• For example, due to the similar nature of the material, revision of Psychology followed by Sociology should be avoided because one will interfere with the recall of the other. Students should therefore plan their revision effectively to prevent confusion

• This is a strength because interference research can be used to help us avoid forgetting and to improve recall in important real-world situations such as within education

Explain ‘Artificiality’ as a limitation of the interference theories (4)

• Interference research is often criticised for being artificial

• Much of the research evidence has come from artificial laboratory experiments which use tasks that lack mundane realism

• For example, Wickens (1972) study required participants to learn and recall nonsense trigrams. These tasks are very rare in day to day life; therefore, the research appears to have very little relevance to everyday situations day-to-day

• Because of this, ecological validity can be questioned, and the results cannot be applied to forgetting in the real world

What is retrieval failure?

When people forget information due to insufficient cues

What is the Tulving Specificity Principle?

If cues are not present at the time of recall that were there during encoding, then the information is not accessible and therefore appears ‘forgotten’

What are the 2 types of retrieval failure?

• Context-dependent forgetting

• State-dependent forgetting

Explain Context-dependent forgetting

The absence of external cues can lead to Context-Dependent  Forgetting

Explain the research done by Godden & Baddeley in support of Context-dependent forgetting

• Procedure

• Findings

• Conclusion

• In this study, the 18 divers learned a list of 36 unrelated words either underwater or on land and then were asked to free recall the words either underwater or on land. The word lists were recorded on tape and specialist equipment was used to play the words underwater. This created 4 conditions (LL, UL, LU, UU)& each diver took part in all conditions making it a repeated measures design

• (diagram attached)

• This suggests that forgetting is more likely to occur when inconsistent contexts occur. If these contexts are DIFFERENT at the time of retrieval, then it may appear that you have forgotten the information. However, this is retrieval  failure where you are not able to access memories that are there

Explain State-Dependant Forgetting

The absence of internal cues can lead to State-Dependent Forgetting

Explain the research done by Godden & Baddeley in support of State-dependent forgetting

• Procedure

• Findings

• Conclusion

• Male volunteers were required to learn a list of words when they were either drunk or sober. Those in the ‘drunk’ condition were three times over the UK drink-driving limit. Participants were asked to recall lists of words after 24 hours. Some were sober, but others had to get drunk again

• The recall scores suggest that information learned when drunk makes forgetting less likely to occur when asked to recall in the same state later on i.e. drunk again later on

• This suggests that our memory is less likely to forget when the internal mental state is consistent for both learning and recall. If the mental states are DIFFERENT at the time of learning and retrieval, then it may appear that the material has been forgotten. This is retrieval failure where you are not able to access memories that are there

What are the strengths & limitations of retrieval failure theory?

• Strengths

  • Research Support for state dependant forgetting

  • Application to Real World

• Limitations

  • Retrieval cues do not always work

  • Recall versus Recognition

Evaluate ‘Research Support for state dependant forgetting’ as a strength of retrieval failure theory (4)

• There are a large number of research studies to support the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting e.g. Carter and Cassaday (1998) gave anti-histamine drugs to their participants to make them slightly drowsy. This created an internal physiological state different from the ‘normal’ state of being awake and alert. The participants then had to learn a list of words

• It was found that in the conditions where there was a mismatch between the internal state of learning and recall performance on the memory test was significantly worse

• Moreover, Eysenck (2010) argues that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting in LTM

• This is a strength because supporting evidence increases the validity of the explanation. This is especially true when the evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-life situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the laboratory

Evaluate ‘Application to Real World’ as a strength of retrieval failure theory (4)

• One strength of retrieval failure theory is that important practical applications have arisen from the research, e.g. the cognitive interview whereby the interviewer encourages the interviewee to mentally recreate both the physical and psychological environment of the incident

• Mental health professionals have also used this principle to aid therapy sessions and improve recovery from trauma or PTSD by using specific cues during treatment to increase clients’ ability to recall important details for their own benefit

• This helps to improve recall as the same contextual and emotional cues are present to help retrieve the memories

• This helps to improve recall as the same contextual and emotional cues are present to help retrieve the memories

Evaluate ‘Retrieval cues do not always work’ as a limitation of retrieval failure theory (4)

• One limitation of retrieval failure theory is that context effects are actually not very strong in real-life

• Baddeley (1997) argued that contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen. For example, in Godden and Baddeley’s (1975) research the contexts of learning and recall are extremely different, e.g. Land or Underwater and the conclusions drawn from this suggest that forgetting occurs due to retrieval failure because the environment has changed

• In the real world, learning material in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because the environments are not different enough

• This is a limitation because it means that the real-life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues do not explain all forgetting, therefore the validity of this explanation for forgetting is reduced

Evaluate ‘Recall versus Recognition’ as a limitation of retrieval failure theory (4)

• One limitation of retrieval failure theory is that context effects only occur when memory is tested in certain ways

• Godden and Baddeley (1980) replicated their underwater experiment using a recognition test instead of recall. Participants had to say whether they recognised a word read to them from the list instead of retrieving it for themselves

• When recognition was tested there was no-context dependent effect; performance was the same in all four conditions whether environmental contexts for learning and recall matched or not

• This limits retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting because the presence or absence of cues only affects memory when you test it in a certain way

What is an Eyewitness Testimony?

Evidence provided in court by a person who has witnessed a crime/incident with a view to identifying the perpetrator of the crime

What are the factors that effect EWT? (3)

• Misleading information

  • Leading questions

  • Post-event discussion 

• Anxiety

What is a leading question?

A leading question is one that by its form or content, suggests to the witness what answer is desired or leads them to a desired answer

Explain the research done by Loftus & Palmer in support of Leading Questions

• Aim

• Procedure

• Findings

• Conclusion

• To investigate the effect of leading questions in distorting the accuracy of EWT

• They carried out a laboratory experiment using independent groups design, 45 American students were shown seven films of different car accidents. After each film the participants were given a questionnaire asking them to describe the accident, they were also asked a series of specific questions including one critical question. ‘About how fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?’ The participants were divided into five groups and each group was asked the critical question with one of the following five verbs:  hit, smashed, collided, bumped, contacted. The IV = Wording of the Question and the DV = Speed Reported by the Participants in MPH

• The estimated speed was affected by the verb used, The group given the word ‘smashed’ estimated the highest speed (40.8 mph) and the group given the word ‘contacted’ estimated the lowest speed (31.8 mph).

• The questions asked can be termed ‘Leading’ because they have affected the participant’s memory for the event  

  It can be concluded that language can have a distorting effect on EWT. This can lead to inaccurate accounts of the witnessed event. The original memory may have been reconstructed, but this is impossible to conclude with confidence as the original memory may have been replaced or experienced interference. This has important implications for the questions used in police interviews of eyewitnesses

What is a post-event discussion?

Refers to any information discussed after the event has happened which could influence a person’s memory of the event

What can post-event discussions possibly lead to? (2)

• EWT becoming contaminated

  • memory conformity; when witnesses combine misinformation from other witnesses with their memories

• Source-monitoring; alternative accounts are heard by individuals distorting memory, resulting in confusion

Explain the research done by Gabbert in support of Post-event discussions

• Aim

• Procedure

• Findings

• Conclusion

• To investigating the effects of post-event information in distorting the accuracy of EWT

• Laboratory experiment

  Experimental group - paired participants watched a video of the same simulated robbery but from different angles so that each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not. Both participants discussed what they had seen on the video (post-event discussion) before individually completing a test of recall Control group - participants watched the simulated robbery but did not take part in a post-event discussion. DV – The research measured the number of incorrect items recalled by the participants as a result of the post-event discussion.

• 71% of the participants in the experimental group mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the post-event discussion.

  60% said that the girl was guilty, despite the fact they had not seen her commit a crime from the angle they had watched the video

  0% of the control group made errors

• Gabbert et al. concluded that witnesses often go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right and they are wrong. This finding also has implications both for applied (forensic) psychology, such as ensuring that the police gather information from witnesses immediately after a crime has been witnessed to avoid post-event discussions from distorting the eye-witness memory

What are the strengths & limitations of misleading information?

• Strengths

  • Real-life application

  • Reliability

• Limitations

  • The tasks are artificial

  • Contradictory real-life research

Evaluate ‘Real-life application’ as a strength of misleading information (4)

• One strength of research into leading questions and post-event discussion is that it has real-life applications. The research has led to important practical uses for police officers’ and investigators real-life

• For example, it highlights the importance of ensuring that the police gather information from witnesses immediately after a crime has been witnessed and to take care in how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses to avoid leading questions and post-event discussion from distorting the eyewitnesses’ memory

• This is a strength as the consequences of inaccurate EWT due to postevent discussion can be very serious therefore the research has important implications for forensic psychology

• It can make a difference to real people by improving how the legal system works and improving the quality of expert eyewitnesses during the court process

Evaluate ‘Reliability’ as a strength of misleading information (3)

• One strength of research into the effect of misleading information on EWT is that many studies have been conducted and have regularly found similar results

• For example, Loftus tended to use a range of controlled experiments illustrating different examples of EWT i.e. in her ‘car crash experiment’, all of the participants watched the same video and received the same standardised instructions. Due to much of her work being carried out in a laboratory, she could control many extraneous variables, meaning her research was easy to replicate

• This means that researchers using identical procedures should produce similar results. Indeed, Loftus has conducted many studies into EWT and invariably found the same outcome that misleading information negatively affects EWT

Evaluate ‘The tasks are artificial’ as a limitation of misleading information (4)

• One limitation of research into misleading information is the methodology used

• Laboratory experiments, such as those carried out by Loftus, may not represent real life because people are not emotionally aroused watching clips in the way they would be during witnessing an unexpected real incident, mainly because such clips lack the stress of a real accident

• There is some evidence that emotions can influence memory. Furthermore, in an artificial setting, participants are aware that there is a lack of consequences for providing inaccurate EWT, unlike in the real-world setting of a courtroom

• This is a limitation because studies that use such artificial tasks may tell us very little about how leading questions or post-event discussion affect EWT in cases of real-life crimes or incidents

Evaluate ‘Contradictory real-life research’ as a limitation of misleading information (3)

• One limitation of research into the effect of misleading information on EWT is that Yuille & Cutshall (1986) contradict Loftus’ findings as they found leading questions did not reduce the accuracy of recall

• Witnesses to a real armed robbery of a gun shop in Canada gave very accurate reports of the crime four months after the event even though they had initially been given two misleading questions

• This suggests that misleading information may have less influence on the accuracy of real-life eyewitness testimony

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is an emotion that brings on feelings of tension, worry and physical changes such as raised blood pressure

How does anxiety affect EWT recall? (2)

• EWT recall may be affected during the initial coding of the information.

• This means the emotional state caused by high anxiety may negatively affect how we store and encode the information therefore affecting how accurately we can recall the correct information

Draw the Yerkes-Dodson Curve & state what it shows

• High Anxiety = Poor Recall 

• Medium Anxiety = Optimal Recall  

• Low Anxiety = Poor Recall

What is another account as to why anxiety might reduce the accuracy of EWT?

Weapon focus effect - the view that a weapon in a criminal’s hands distracts attention (because of the anxiety it creates) from other features negatively affecting the ability to recall important details

Explain the research done by Johnson & Scott (1976) in support of Anxiety as a factor affecting EWT

• Aim

• Procedure

• Findings

• Conclusion

• To investigate whether high levels of anxiety will affect the accuracy of recall

• - Johnson & Scott (1976) used two experimental conditions, one with a weapon and one without. The participants were asked to sit outside a room where they thought they heard a genuine discussion between two people

  - Low Anxiety (no weapon) – The conversation was peaceful about some office equipment. When they were finished a man emerged holding a pen and with grease on his hands

  - High Anxiety (with weapon) – The conversation was more heated, participants heard breaking glass and a man emerged holding a knife covered in blood.

  - DV – the number of correct identifications made of the man from 50 photographs

• Johnson & Scott (1976) found that in the low anxiety (no weapon) condition, 49% of participants were able to accurately identify the man holding a pen from the photographs. In the high anxiety (with weapon) condition, memory recall was much less as there was only 33% accuracy from participants

• This suggests the weapon may have distracted attention from the person holding it. This therefore might explain why eyewitnesses sometimes have poor recall for certain details of violent crimes involving weapons where anxiety may be heightened

Explain the research done by Loftus & Burns (1982) in support of Anxiety as a factor affecting EWT

• Aim

• Procedure

• Findings

• Conclusion

• To investigate whether high levels of anxiety will affect accuracy of recall

• In another controlled study by Loftus and Burns (1982), participants watched a film of a simulated robbery. Some watched a non-violent version of the robbery and some watched a violent version (where a boy was shot in the face)

• When questioned afterwards those who watched the non-violent condition recalled significantly more details of the crime than those who watched the violent condition

• It seems that the shock of the event had heightened arousal and therefore disrupted memory storage of the details before and after the violent scene

What are the strengths and limitations of Anxiety as a factor affecting EWT?

• Limitation

  • Lacks validity

  • Surprise not anxiety

  • Contradictory evidence

  • Ethical issues

Explain ‘Lacks validity’ as a limitation of research into anxiety as a factor affecting EWT (4)

• One limitation of research into the effect of anxiety on EWT is that it has often been criticised for being artificial i.e. using a video of a robbery is not the same as a real incident

• We cannot reliably create real levels of anxiety experienced by a real eyewitness during an actual crime in a laboratory for various practical and ethical reasons i.e. it is not as unexpected or emotional as it would be in real life. Real-life events often take place unexpectedly and in an atmosphere of high tension

• They may therefore be recalled significantly differently in laboratory settings. Furthermore Foster et al. (1994) found that if participants thought they were watching a real-life robbery important to a real trial their identification of the robber was much more accurate than if they did not

• Therefore, findings from controlled research settings such as these may lack ecological validity, which in turn may undermine the findings that anxiety leads to inaccurate memory recall

Explain ‘Surprise not anxiety’ as a limitation of research into anxiety as a factor affecting EWT (4)

• Pickel (1998) criticises research into anxiety and eyewitness testimony suggesting that the reduced accuracy of recall caused by the weapon focus effect could actually be due to surprise and not anxiety

• Eyewitnesses may focus on a weapon because they are surprised at what they see, rather than because they are scared. Participants were asked to watch a thief enter a hairdressing salon carrying scissors (high threat, low surprise), a handgun (high threat, high surprise), wallet (low threat, low surprise) or a whole raw chicken (low threat, high surprise)

• It was found that eyewitness testimony accuracy was poorer in the high surprise conditions rather than the high threat conditions

• This suggests that the weapon focus effect may be due to surprise and unusualness rather than anxiety and therefore leads us to question the internal validity of research such as Johnson and Scott’s (1976) as such studies may not be measuring the effect of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony at all

Explain ‘Contradictory evidence’ as a limitation of research into anxiety as a factor affecting EWT (3)

• Research has been criticised as it does not reflect real life EWT

• Christianson and Hubinette conducted a natural experiment which found that emotional arousal may actually enhance the accuracy of memory. They questioned 110 real witnesses to 22 real bank robberies. They found that witnesses who had been threatened in some way and experienced very high anxiety were much more accurate in their recall of details, than those who had been onlookers and less emotionally aroused. They concluded that people (especially victims of violent crimes) are good at remembering highly stressful events in real life rather than artificial surroundings

• This is a limitation as it casts doubt on the Yerkes-Dodson curve hypothesis, as those with very high anxiety should have shown less accurate recall.

Explain ‘Ethical issues’ as a limitation of research into anxiety as a factor affecting EWT (4)

• One major issue for psychologists studying anxiety and EWT is they cannot induce unnecessary psychological harm in their research and must gain informed consent from participants to take part

• However, with EWT one important variable is ANXIETY, unless this occurs naturally it is likely that the methods used to do this (such as using a violent film) may still cause mild harm, especially to children

• This means that ethically, much research into this area may be questionable. However, if psychologists do not create anxiety in the laboratory the findings are unlikely to be valid

• This demonstrates that such research must be subjected to a cost-benefit analysis

What is cognitive interview?

A police technique for interviewing witnesses to a crime, which encourages them to recreate the original context using four structured stages. This increases the accessibility of stored information

What are the 4 types of cognitive interview techniques?

• Context reinstatement

• Report everything

• Recall from changed perspective

• Recall in reverse order

During context reinstatement, explain the instructions given to the witness & why they work

• Instructions

  • The interviewee needs to return, in their mind, to the situation (the context) in which the event occurred

  • The interviewer encourages the interviewee to mentally recreate the environment (e.g. weather, lighting, distinctive smells, any people nearby), and how they were feeling, by asking the interviewee to think back to before, during and after the event

• Why does it work

  • It is believed if there is mental consistency between the actual incident and the recreated situation, there is an increased likeliness that witnesses will recall more details, and be more accurate in their recall.

  • Appropriate contextual and emotional cues help them retrieve the memories

During Report everything, explain the instructions given to the witness & why they work

• Instructions

  • Report every detail about the event that you can recall even if it seems trivial or irrelevant. Do not edit anything out

  • Information about the event should be reported on, even if it does not seem to have a bearing on the crime

• Why does it work

  • Seemingly trivial details may be important and they may trigger other important memories. It is the interviewer’s responsibility to decide what is important

During Recall from a changed perspective, explain the instructions given to the witness & why they work

• Instructions

  • You are asked to mentally recreate the situation from other people’s perspectives for example; describe the incident from the viewpoint of other witnesses who were present at the time

• Why does it work

  • This disrupts the effect that schemas have on our recall. Mental shortcuts as to what should happen in a particular situation, and instead make the witness think about what did happen

During Recall in reverse order, explain the instructions given to the witness & why they work

• Instructions

  • The interviewer encourages the interviewee to describe the event in reverse order or to start with an aspect of the scene which seems most memorable and work backwards from that point

• Why does it work

  • This again prevents the use of schemas. It also prevents dishonesty as it is much harder for people to provide an untruthful account if they have to reverse it

What are the 6 differences between standard & cognitive interviews?

Standard interview	Cognitive interview
Witnesses are asked to report specific details of a crime	Witnesses are asked to include every detail of an event, even if it seems trivial or irrelevant
Witnesses recall the incident from their perspective	Witnesses recall the incident from other people’s perspectives, such as another witness or the perpetrator
Witnesses are typically asked to recall the crime in chronological order	Witnesses are asked to recall the crime in a non-chronological order, often in reverse order
There is an absence of retrieval cues used	Based on the psychological understanding of memory, as many retrieval cues as possible should be used
Schemas can affect the accuracy of information provided	Disrupts the effect of expectations and schema on recall
More susceptible to dishonest accounts of the event	Less likely that witnesses will be able to provide dishonest and untruthful accounts of events

What are the strengths and limitations of research into cognitive interviews?

• Strength

  • Research to support the effectiveness of the cognitive interview

  • A combination of techniques is valuable

• Limitations

  • The Cognitive Interview is not always appropriate

  • Quantity rather than quality

Evaluate ‘Research to support the effectiveness of the cognitive interview’ as a strength of research into cognitive interviews (4)

• Evidence has found the cognitive interview to be effective in improving eyewitness accounts

• Geiselman et al (1985) showed participants police training videos of simulated violent crimes. 48 hours later they were interviewed about the films by an experienced Los Angeles police officer using a cognitive interview, a standard police interview, or an interview using hypnosis

• Geiselman et al. found that the cognitive interview elicited the most accurate recall, followed by hypnosis and then the standard interview

• This is a strength because it clearly shows how CI can be used to enhance recall and demonstrates that it is more effective than other techniques including the standard interview