Memory

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering memory models (MSM, WMM), storage dimensions (duration, capacity, coding), theories of forgetting (retrieval failure, interference), factors affecting eyewitness testimony (leading questions, post-event discussion, anxiety), and the cognitive interview.

Cognitive Psychology

The scientific study of mental processes such as perception, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving, focusing on how people think and learn.

Memory

Learning that has persisted over time; the capacity of the mind to input, store, and retrieve information.

Duration

The length of time information can be held in a memory store before it decays or is lost.

Duration

A laboratory study investigating STM duration using psychology students who recalled meaningless consonant trigrams after intervals of $3$, $6$, $9$, $12$, $15$, $18$, $21$, and $24$ seconds while counting backwards in threes or fours to prevent rehearsal; recall fell from $80\%$ at $3$ seconds to approximately $3\%$ at $18$ seconds.

Trigram

A set of three meaningless consonants (such as THG or XWV) used in memory experiments to prevent semantic associations and verbal rehearsal.

Repeated Measures Design

An experimental design where the exact same participants take part in every experimental condition, introducing potential order effects such as practice or fatigue.

Capacity

The amount of information that can be stored and held in a memory store at any one time.

Capacity

An investigation into STM capacity using a sample of female students aged $8$ to $19$ from the North London Collegiate School; participants recalled an average of $9.3$ digits and $7.3$ letters.

Chunking

The process of grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful units or chunks, which extends the operational capacity of STM to roughly $5$ chunks.

Encoding

The process of transforming incoming sensory information into a code or format that the memory system can process, represent, and store.

Acoustic Encoding

Representing and processing information primarily by sound; the predominant encoding format of short-term memory.

Semantic Encoding

Representing and storing information according to its meaning; the predominant encoding format of long-term memory.

Encoding

An experiment testing immediate and delayed recall across four word lists (acoustically similar/dissimilar and semantically similar/dissimilar); acoustic similarity disrupted immediate recall ($55\%$ vs. $75\%$), whereas semantic similarity disrupted recall after $20$ minutes.

Standardization

A research control procedure ensuring that all participants experience identical instructions, timing, materials, and testing environments to allow replication.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

A permanent or semi-permanent, potentially limitless memory store that holds information for durations longer than short-term memory.

Very Long-Term Memory (vLTM)

A term describing information that remains accurately preserved in long-term storage over a span of many decades.

vLTM study

An investigation of vLTM assessing American participants aged $17$ to $74$ on former high school classmates using yearbooks; face and name recognition remained $90\%$ accurate after $34$ years and $80\%$ after $48$ years.

Free Recall

A memory retrieval task where individuals reproduce stored items from memory without the help of external cues or contextual aids.

Recognition Task

A memory retrieval task where participants identify previously encountered stimuli from an array of options or photographs; typically yields higher accuracy than free recall.

Multi-Store Model of Memory (MSM)

Atkinson and Shiffrin's ($1968$) structural model describing memory as three distinct, permanent unitary stores (Sensory Register, STM, and LTM) through which information flows in a linear progression.

Sensory Register

The initial entry point of memory that receives environmental stimuli directly from sensory organs, featuring very brief duration, unlimited capacity, and modality-specific encoding.

Iconic Memory

The visual sensory register that stores visual information for a duration of approximately $0.5$ seconds.

Echoic Memory

The auditory sensory register that holds sound information for a duration of approximately $3$ to $4$ seconds.

Haptic Memory

The tactile sensory register that stores sensations of physical touch for approximately $1$ second.

Maintenance Rehearsal

The continuous mental repetition of information to hold it temporarily in short-term memory without processing its deeper meaning.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A deeper form of rehearsal involving meaningful processing and cognitive linkage of information, facilitating its transfer into long-term memory.

Case of HM (Henry Molaison)

A prominent neurological case study of a patient who suffered dense anterograde amnesia after surgical bilateral removal of his hippocampi; his intact short-term memory alongside inability to form new long-term memories provided evidence for separate memory stores.

Procedural Memory

A non-declarative long-term memory system responsible for learned physical actions, motor skills, and habits, anatomically linked to the cerebellum and motor cortex.

Episodic Memory

A declarative long-term memory system that records personal experiences and specific time-stamped autobiographical events, associated with the hippocampus.

Semantic Memory

A declarative long-term memory store containing general knowledge, facts, language rules, and concepts, functioning like a mental encyclopedia and dictionary associated with the temporal lobe.

Working Memory Model (WMM)

Baddeley and Hitch's ($1974$) multi-component model of short-term memory depicting it as an active workspace with a central executive and three specialized sub-systems.

Central Executive

The supervisory component of working memory that directs attention, coordinates slave systems, allocates cognitive resources, and makes decisions; has very limited capacity and flexible coding.

Phonological Loop

A slave system of working memory responsible for processing and temporarily holding auditory and verbal material, with acoustic coding and a capacity of roughly $2$ seconds.

Phonological Store

The passive sub-component of the phonological loop (the 'inner ear') that holds speech-based traces for $1$ to $2$ seconds before rapid decay.

Articulatory Process

The active sub-vocal rehearsal mechanism of the phonological loop (the 'inner voice') that refreshes expiring auditory traces through silent repetition.

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (VSS)

The slave system of working memory (the 'inner eye') dedicated to holding and manipulating visual and spatial information, possessing a capacity of $3$ to $4$ objects.

Visual Cache

A passive sub-component of the visuo-spatial sketchpad that stores static visual data regarding color, size, shape, and form.

Inner Scribe

An active sub-component of the visuo-spatial sketchpad that tracks spatial relationships, movement pathways, and plans motor actions.

Episodic Buffer

A component added to the WMM by Baddeley in $2000$ that serves as a general multi-modal storage facility, integrating auditory, visual, spatial, and long-term memory into coherent episodic representations with a capacity of approximately $4$ chunks.

Dual-Task Technique

An experimental procedure requiring participants to execute two tasks simultaneously to test whether two tasks sharing the same slave system cause performance impairment compared to tasks utilizing separate modalities.

Case of KF

A clinical patient who sustained brain damage resulting in an auditory digit span of only $2$, but whose visual short-term memory and ability to transfer information to LTM remained intact, demonstrating that short-term memory is non-unitary.

Retrieval Failure

An explanation of forgetting in long-term memory asserting that information remains available in storage but cannot be accessed because necessary retrieval cues are absent.

Cue

A stimulus or piece of information that is encoded alongside a target memory and subsequently acts as a trigger to facilitate its retrieval.

Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP)

Endel Tulving's principle asserting that a cue can only trigger retrieval if the same cue was present during initial encoding; the greater the similarity between encoding and retrieval cues, the more successful recall is.

Context-Dependent Forgetting

Forgetting that takes place when the external, physical environment during retrieval differs from the environment present during initial encoding.

Context-dependent forgetting study

An investigation of context-dependent forgetting where deep-sea scuba divers learned word lists either on land or underwater; recall was $40\%$ lower when tested in mismatched environments compared to matching environments.

State-Dependent Forgetting

Forgetting that occurs when an individual's internal physiological or psychological state (e.g., mood, sobriety, anxiety) during retrieval differs from their internal state at encoding.

State-dependant forgetting study

A study into state-dependent forgetting demonstrating that participants who encoded information while intoxicated showed superior recall when tested in an intoxicated state rather than sober.

Interference Theory

An explanation of forgetting in long-term memory where two pieces of information conflict, compete, or disrupt one another, making target memories inaccessible.

Proactive Interference (PI)

A type of interference where older, previously established memories disrupt and impede the learning or retrieval of newly acquired information.

Retroactive Interference (RI)

A type of interference where recently learned information interferes with, displaces, or corrupts the recall of older memories.

Competition of Response Theory

A hypothesis proposing that interference does not cause permanent memory loss, but rather creates retrieval competition where access to the correct memory is temporarily blocked by competing responses.

Unlearning Theory

A hypothesis suggesting that interference causes forgetting because newly acquired material actively replaces, overwrites, or destroys previous memory traces.

Retroactive interference

A real-world rugby study demonstrating retroactive interference by showing that players' forgetting of opponent team names depended on the number of matches played in between rather than elapsed chronological time.

Eyewitness Testimony (EWT)

The formal verbal or written account given by a bystander describing what they directly perceived and remembered regarding a crime or incident under investigation.

Leading Question

A question whose specific phrasing, wording, or content subtly guides an eyewitness toward delivering a desired, biased, or predetermined answer.

Leading qs st

A laboratory study where $45$ students watched traffic accident clips and were asked speed questions using varying critical verbs; estimated speeds differed significantly ('smashed' $= 40.8\,\text{mph}$, 'collided' $= 39.3\,\text{mph}$, 'bumped' $= 38.1\,\text{mph}$, 'hit' $= 34.0\,\text{mph}$, 'contacted' $= 31.8\,\text{mph}$).

Leading qs study pt2

A study where $150$ students watched a car accident video; one week later, $32\%$ ($16/50$) of those asked with the verb 'smashed' falsely claimed to have seen broken glass, compared to $14\%$ ($7/50$) with 'hit' and $12\%$ ($6/50$) of controls.

Own-Age Bias

The psychological tendency for eyewitnesses of all age groups to demonstrate superior identification and descriptive accuracy when evaluating individuals belonging to their own age category.

Demand Characteristics

Subtle cues within an experimental setting that reveal the hypothesis to participants, prompting them to alter their behavior or responses to conform to perceived investigator expectations.

Post-Event Discussion

Conversations that occur between eyewitnesses after witnessing an incident, which can contaminate original memory records through shared misinformation.

Memory Contamination

The unintentional incorporation and integration of false or foreign details received from co-witnesses into an eyewitness's genuine recollection of an event.

Memory Conformity

The phenomenon where eyewitnesses align their statements with other witnesses' accounts to obtain social validation or because they believe the other person is more accurate.

Post-event discussion study

A study where participant pairs watched videos of a theft filmed from different angles; after discussing the event, $71\%$ of participants erroneously reported details they had never seen on their own video, and $60\%$ declared the girl guilty without having seen the act.

Weapon Focus Effect

The tendency of an eyewitness to direct their visual attention disproportionately toward a weapon, reducing their capacity to encode and later recall facial or peripheral details.

Weapon focus study

A study investigating weapon focus; participants who saw a man exit a room holding a blood-stained knife (high anxiety) achieved only $33\%$ identification accuracy, compared to $49\%$ for a man holding a pen with greasy hands (low anxiety).

Tunnel Theory of Memory

A cognitive theory proposing that heightened anxiety causes an eyewitness's selective attention to narrow exclusively onto the primary threat source (such as a weapon), impairing peripheral crime scene recall.

Anxiety or surprise study

Research evaluating weapon focus by introducing unusual items (e.g., raw chicken, handgun, wallet, scissors) in a salon setting, demonstrating that reduced eyewitness accuracy is often driven by surprise or unusualness rather than threat-induced anxiety alone.

Real life robbery study

A field study of $13$ real-life eyewitnesses to a fatal gun shop shooting in Vancouver; interviews $4$ to $5$ months later revealed remarkably accurate recall, with the highest-stressed participants exhibiting the highest accuracy ($88\%$ vs. $75\%$).

Yerkes-Dodson Law

A psychological law stating that cognitive and memory performance improves with increasing emotional or physiological arousal up to an optimal peak, beyond which further arousal causes a sharp decline in performance.

Cognitive Interview (CI)

A standardized police interview protocol developed by Fisher and Geiselman designed to maximize accurate eyewitness retrieval without using leading or distorting techniques.

Report Everything

A cognitive interview technique instructing the witness to describe every detail of an event in their own words, regardless of how trivial or irrelevant it seems, to help trigger associated memories.

Context Reinstatement

A cognitive interview technique where the witness mentally recreates the physical environment, sights, sounds, weather, and internal emotional state present during the incident to activate cue-dependent retrieval.

Recall in Reverse Order

A cognitive interview technique where the witness recalls events in reverse chronological sequence to disrupt schematic expectations and prevent dishonesty.

Recall from Changed Perspective

A cognitive interview technique directing the witness to mentally view and describe the incident from different spatial vantage points or from the perspective of another bystander to bypass individual schema bias.

Enhanced Cognitive Interview (ECI)

An evolved version of the cognitive interview incorporating social dynamics such as building rapport, minimizing distractions, speaking slowly, pausing, and utilizing open-ended questioning.