Psychology - Memory

What is memory?

Memory often takes form as a reconstruction of events based on schemas, memory is an internal process so it is impossible to observe it. Memory therefore is often observed and understood through tests

What is a ‘thing’ and process?

A ‘thing’ is information that has been stored in the brain. A process is a mental activity which stores information and allows it to be shared when needed

What are the two types of remembering?

The two types of remembering are recall and recognition. Recall involves retrieving information by accessing your mental filing system, while recognition involves identifying previously learned information when presented with it. Recognition happens when a stimulus is presented like someones face or name

What are two types of memory experiments?

Recall experiments

• presentation phase, give ppts information like words or objects that we are going to test them on

• Distraction phase, (optional phase) this prevents participants to recall information with distractions

• recall phase, ppts are required to recall information from the presentation stage

Recognition experiments

• presentation phase, ppts will be presented with an image or other information

• distraction phase (optional)

• recognition phase, ppts will be presented with part of an image or information which they can recognise and recall the whole image

What are models of memory?

As memory is an internal mental process, we need to create abstract representations of memories and how they work, we test these models using experiments

What was the key idea of Atkinson and Shiftin’s Multi-store model?

Developed in 1968, the key belief based on the multi-store model is that information stored in the long term memory can be used to make sense of newly added short term memory

How does the Multi-store memory work?

• We take in experiences, events, and objects we encounter by registering sensory information that can be visual, tactile, or olfactory for example. The capacity in which we take in information in our sensory register is very large but we keep this information within a quarter of a second. Also there is no coding when taking this information in.

• By paying attention we transfer this information into our short-term memory which can store information at a limited capacity of 5-9 items within 18-30 seconds, short term memory can be coded as an acoustic inner voice in order to process information.

• Short term memory goes through a rehersal loop, if we intend to keep this memory in our long term memory

• If this memory becomes long term, information enters with an unlimited capacity and a long duration. it has semantic coding which means memory can be meaningful and important

What is the working memory model?

Otherwise known as the WMM, the model was developed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. The model focuses on short term memory and how it is able to split up sensory information. Although it is a different model, they agreed with Atkinson and shiffin’s argument that the short term memory has a quick duration and a low capacity

How does the working memory model function?

• Central executive

• The branches of the phonological loop and the Visuo-spatial sketch pad

• information coming from the sensory register is believed to enter the central executive which is known as the ‘manager’ decides what information to pay attention to and how to process information.

• The Phonological loop (P.L) and the Visuo-spatial sketch pad (V.S.S) are both independent sub-stores that can work simultaneously without effecting each other.

• The P.L processes acoustic information, it is our “inner voice” and splits off into the articulatory control process which is otherwise known as the rehearsal loop. Capacity in this is limited and is based on how much information you can repeat to yourself in 2 seconds

• The V.S.S processes visual information, it has two separate stores, one being spatial and one focusing on colour and shape

How does the working memory model extend to the episodic buffer?

The episodic buffer (E.B) combines the information from the P.L and the V.S.S and creates a temporary memory. If this is successful memory is transferred to the long term memory and is exchanged back and forth in order to make sense of new information

What are the similarities between the multi-store model and the working memory model?

• Memory involves a number of separate stores, the STM and the LTM are separate stores

• Information from the senses flows from one store to the next within each process

• Both have a rehearsal loop, in the working memory model they use the A.C.P which is their inner voice rehearsing information

• STM has limited capacity and duration in both models

What are the differences between the multi-store model and the working memory model?

• MSM views the STM as a unitary store of information however the VSS is split into two stores

• Working memory model has added a manager of our memory that makes decisions about how to process information

What are the three types of long term memory?

• Episodic memory

• Semantic memory

• Procedural memory

Different types of long term memory are stored in different areas of the brain. The rate of decay for different types of memory differs especially between procedural and episodic

What is episodic memory? What are the characteristics of them?

• they are memories for personal events e.g what did I do at Christmas

• One characteristic is that they are time-stamped so we can have a sense of when this event occurred. Episodic memory is often associated with a point in time

• Another characteristic is that they are declarative memories, in order to be able to recall the memory you have to consciously “call it to mind” the only way you can remember this type of memory is if you know you have it stored

• They are personal in nature, you are involved in the event in some way

• An example of an episodic memory is an eye witness testimony

What is semantic memory? What are its characteristics?

• they are memories about facts and knowledge

• They are also declarative, we are consciously aware about these memories

• They are no time stamped, there is no association with when the information was learnt

what are procedural memories? What what are their characteristics?

• they are memories of how to do things for skills e.g tying shoelaces

• They are non-declarative as we don’t have to consciously recall how to tie shoes for instance

• Use of this memory can be automatic and habitual where there is no conscious recollection

• They are not time stamped

• They can be personal although many aren’t

How can the three types of LTM be affected by old age?

Conditions like dementia could have a long term effect on memory

• firstly, episodic memory may be lost

• Then semantic memory

• Finally procedural memory is lost

This is because procedural memory has survival value so they are argue to be stored in a different way throughout the brain rather than in one location

What is retrieval failure? What did Tulving propose?

• this is where forgetting occurs because we cannot access information stored in the long term memory

• A computer analogy would explain that it’s like when we have a document stored in our filing system and we cannot find it

Tulving provided the encoding specificity hypothesis which proposed that each piece of information has a cue that can be used to access the memory. For instance a cue is like a file name to allow us to easily find a document

What is an internal cue?

These are cues where they involve the internal body store e.g our emotional state. With our emotional state for example people who suffer from depression may find it difficult to access happy childhood memories as the mood they are currently in doesn’t match the mood from their childhood. Therefore the emotional cues are not available to access

What is state dependant forgetting?

This is where the state we learn something in is different to the state we need to recall this learnt information. There is an absence of internal cues to help us recall info therefore leading to retrieval failure

What are external cues, what is context dependant forgetting?

External cues are anything in a persons environment that may help them recall information e.g the physical setting of a classroom can help someone recall information

• context dependant forgetting is where external cues present when learning like who you are sitting with or where you sit are absent in a different situation like an exam hall.

• Context dependant forgetting has useful applications as they can improve eye-witness testimonies, we can reinstate context by taking the witness to the scene of the crime.

What is the tip of the tongue phenomenon?

This is a good example of retrieval failure.

• we know we know a piece of information but can’t recall it to mind. A cue usually allows us to call this info to mind

What is interference theory?

Existing information that is already stored in long term memory is confused with new information that arrives. Forgetting occurs because we have either overlaid existing info with new info or existing info is easier to call to mind than new info. Interference typically when new and old information are similar in nature like phone numbers or emails.

What are the two types of interference?

• Proactive interference, existing info already stored in long term memory makes it difficult to recall new info

• Retroactive interference, new info arriving overlaps existing info making old info harder to recall

What was Jacob’s study into short term memory and its capacity and duration?

Aim and method

In 1887 he illustrated the limited capacity of STM through the Digit span experiment

• The aim was to investigate the capacity of STM

• The method consists of reading strings of digits and letters to ppts which then they would have to recall in the same order. This typically starter at 3 digits/letters up to a maximum

• The IV of the experiment was the length of the digit/letter span, the DV was the maximum number of digits/letters. This was a repeated measures design in laboratory conditions

What did Jacob’s find in 1887 and what conclusions did he make?

• on average digit span was found to be approximately 9 digits recalled and around 7 letters were recalled

• He concluded capacity for STM was limited as most people could only recall 5-9 items. This can be increased by “chunking” which is grouping times together into units that mean something

What are the strengths and limitations of Jacob’s experiment into STM?

Strengths

• very reliable experiment due to highly controlled conditions, can be used to compare data between different groups.

• Good internal validity, it measures what it sets out to measure which is the capacity of STM

• Findings about “chunking” have had practical applications like helping us remember passwords and phone numbers

Limitations

• the experiments lacks ecological validity so it’s not relevant to everyday life. When we learn phone numbers we will write down the numbers as it is being said not after

What was Peterson and Peterson’s study into the duration of short term memory?

Method

They had 24 undergraduate students take part in this experiment, they were shown consonant trigrams e.g the letters NGT and distracted them by counting down from 3. The length of the distraction task was manipulated from 3 seconds to 30 seconds. Following this the pots were asked to recall the trigrams. The number of correctly recalled trigrams for each distraction condition was recorded

What did Peterson and Peterson find and conclude from their consonant trigram experiment?

They found if the distraction was for 3 seconds an average of 80% of trigrams were recalled. After 18 seconds only 10% were recalled

They concluded that their is a limited duration of Short term memory if rehearsal is prevented

What are the strengths and limitations of Peterson and Peterson’s trigram experiment?

Strengths

• Highly reliable experiment

Limitations

• lacks ecological validity

• Probably measures capacity so not just duration

What was Bahrick et al’s yearbook study into long term memory duration?

Method, findings and conclusion

Method

• They studied 392 high school graduates from Ohio, they were aged between 18 to 74. They were asked to recall names and if they recognised faces from yearbooks.

Findings

• ppts who had graduated within 15 years had a 90% photo recognition and 60% name recall accuracy

• Ppts who had graduated within 48 years had a 70% photo recognition and 30% name recall accuracy

Conclusion

• compared to short term memory, long term memory has a very long duration

What are the strengths and limitations of Bahricks yearbook study?

Strengths

• really good ecological validity, is a natural experiment

Limitations

• Many extraneous variables decreasing reliability. E.g how we they knew their classmates, if they kept contact, if they attended reunions

Baddeley et al’s 1966 word list experiment

What was the aim and method?

What did he find and what conclusions were made?

The aim was to investigate the difference between STM coding and LTM coding

Ppts learnt lists of worlds and then recalled them either immediately (STM) or after 20 minutes (LTM). Words in lists either sounded the same, sounded different, meant the same or something different. It was independent groups and Baddeley recorded the number of errors made when recalling the words.

Baddeley focused on errors which meant remembering a word that wasn’t on the list. This would potentially suggest the type of coding used. In the STM condition, words that sounded similar were confused rather than words that meant the same thing. In the LTM condition, words that meant the same is where the most errors were made.

Baddeley concluded that STM and LTM coding was different. STM was coded acoustically so ppts substituted similar sounding words, LTM was coded semantically so lots substituted words that meant the same

How can we evaluate Baddeley et al’s word list experiment of 1966?

strengths

• highly controlled experiment where the IV is able to influence the DV.

• High internal validity

Limitations

• lacks ecological validity

What was Murdocks 1962 experiment into serial position curve and the primacy and recency effect?

Aim, method, findings

The aim was to find understand the difference between the duration and capacity of STM and LTM and the effect primacy and recency has

The method has 103 ppts who were presented with lists read out to them around one second per word, then ppts would have to recall these words, Murdock measured the % recall of each word in relation to its position on the list

He found the likelihood of the word being recalled depended on its serial position, words presented earlier had the primacy effect where these words were transported to LTM, words in the middle were likely to be forgotten due to displacement caused by new words entering on the last stage, these words experienced a recency effect so they were still in the STM

What was concluded from Murdock’s study? How can we evaluate this?

Shows that the LTM is able to store a certain amount of information during the primacy effect, displacement occurs when information is left out of STM and other info replaces it. Finally STM can be impacted by the recency effect, so info can be stored for a short period

Evaluation

• Strengths, Reliable, high internal validity

• Limitations, lacks ecological validity

What is amnesia? What is anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia?

Amnesia is memory loss caused by head injury, virus, bacterial infection, drugs, and heavy metal poisoning (lead).

Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form new memories

Retrograde amnesia is the loss of memories from the past

What happened to Clive wearing (CW)?

He was a concert pianist, composer and musician, he sadly developed amnesia from viral encephalitis which affected his STM but kept his LTM somewhat intact (anterograde amnesia). He could only recognise his wife Deborah and remember the fact he had children. He also kept his procedural memory of playing the piano although he didn’t remember he could play the piano

What does the case study about Clive wearing tell us about the accuracy of the MSM?

• supports MSM model as there is a distinction between the STM and the LTM as they are separate stores

• However it challenges the MSM model as the LTM is clearly not a single store, there is probably different types of LTM in separate stores, for instance because wearing can still play the piano it shows his procedural long term memory is intact but because he can’t remember learning it indicates his episodic LTM has been damaged

what happened to Henry Molaison (H.M)?

Henry had developed epilepsy and it became very severe when he was 27, he was offered a neurosurgery by Dr Scoville which removed the Hippocampi in both sides of the brain.

This cut the connection between the STM and the LTM meaning he could no longer form new memories however all of his memories that were already long term kept in tact as well as his IQ and personality. He was able to learn new skills e.g mirror drawing by using his procedural memory but he could not remember learning

What does the case study of HM tell us about the accuracy of the MSM

• supports the STM, LTM distinction as well as the proposal that info in the STM isn’t immediately transferred to LTM but it needs to be consolidated

• However it challenges the MSM as LTM isn’t a single store with procedural memory still developing unconsciously for skills and actions

Strengths of the Multi-store model

• There is strong supporting evidence from lab experiments

  • For example, Baddeley et al’s 1966 investigation into STM and LTM coding shows that they are two seperate stores, with one being semantic and one being acoustic

  • This experiment was highly reliable, Baddeley et used a standardised method of imediate recall and LTM recall after 20 mins, he was able to establish a cause and effect relationship

• There is also supporting evidence from case studies likr Clive wearing (CW), he has anterograde amnesia where he cant form new memories, or anything that happens in the present, sometimes his STM can only hold info for 7 seconds

What are the weakenesses of the multi-store model?

• Although there are many lab experiments which support the MSM, we know that most will lack ecological validity as people often don’t use their memory in this way

• With the case studies, they have a very small sample size so we need to be careful when generalising findings

• For the case study of CW,he was still able to play the piano well, however, he had no recollection of learning to play or that he could. this shows that clearly hism procedural LTM is intact but episodic could be impaired

• Also, some flaws in the theory are present, for example, Rehersal isn’t neccecerilly always needed for info to be passed to LTM, we remeber many events from the past that we don’t neccecerilly need to be conscious of

• When we do want to remember info purposefully we need to conduct “elaborate rehersal” meaning we make it meaningful e.g chunking a phone number

What are the strengths of the working memory model?

• There is also strong supporting evidence from lab experiments

  • For example in Baddeley’s 1975 dual task experiment, he measured the processng of auditory information and visual information simultaneosly, he found that this can happen but not with more than one process for each store as this would make the memory overloaded. Overall this test supports the working memory model as it shows the difference between PL and the VSS

What are the limitations of the WMM?

• The CE and the EB are poorly described, it’s not clear how the CE actually makes the decision of what sensory info to process, it also raises the question of how the EB can create a rich temporary memory

  • it may be the hippocampus that plays this role but this is unclear

How does case study evidence support different types of LTM?

• Clive wearing’s case illustrated the difference between episodic, semantic, and procedural memory. his episodic memory was lost however he kept some semantic and most procedural memory

• Henry molaison’s case shows different types of LTM as well. He was still able to learn skills which add to his procedural memory like mirror drawing. However his episodic memory of learning this skill was lost

What laboratory evidence is there to support the idea of different types of LTM?

• Tulving et al’s 1989 radioactive gold experiment aimed to understand the localisation of different types of LTM, they used 6 pptd including tulving and his wife. They used PET scans using radioactive gold as a tracer of glucose metabolism in the brain.

• Ppts had to recall 4 semantic and episodic memories. For 50% of ppts they found greater glucose metabolism in the anterior cortex for episodic memory recall whilst they found higher glucose metabolism in the posterior cortex for semantic memory recall.

• Tulving et al concluded that these different types of memories are stored in different parts of the brain

How can we evaluate evidence for the idea there are different types of LTM?

+ For single individuals in case studies we attain a lot of qualitative data that have depth and give us idiographic insight

- there are single individuals in case studies meaning researchers need to be careful when generalising findings

- small sample size in tulving et al’s lab experiments, only 6 ppts meaning we can’t conclude that episodic memories are stored in a different location from semantic as only 50% showed a difference

What conclusions can we make about the different types of LTM?

• LTM isn’t a single store like the MSM suggests, case study evidence suggests that episodic memories are different from procedural memories

• Cohen and squire argued that dividing LTM into 3 stores was unnecessary and that it’s more likely it’s split based on declarative memories that are episodic and semantic and non-declarative that are procedural

Evidence of interference theory - McGeoch and Macdonald 1931 (The synonyms study)

• Their aim was the understand the impact of retroactive interference on memory for ppts memorising word lists

• They used independant groups for each condition where ppts were expected to memorise word lists till they had 100% accuracy, then they were asked to memorise a second list that was either;

  • Synonyms

  • Antonyms

  • unrelated adjectives

  or no new list at all

• They asked ppts to recall the first list of words afterwards, they found ppts in the synonym group had the worst recall

• This allowed them to conclude that interference has a negative impact on recall and backs up the idea that words that were similar had the worst levels of interference

How can we evaluate M+M’s study into interference?

Strengths

• Has high reliablilty allowing others to check and verify findings

Limitations

• Lacks ecological validity, people won’t need to remember information this way

Evidence of Intereference theory - Baddeley and Hitch 1974 rugby player study

• The aim of this study was to investiagate whether or not retroactive interference has a greater influence on forgetting than the passage of time

• They created a methodology based on Rugby players being asked to remeber the names of the teams they had played that season. Some players did miss games so they were asked to remeber games from 2-3 weeks before

• They found players that had missed games had better recall of the earlier weeks than the players that hadn’t

• They concluded thatnew similar information like the names of teams interferes with info already laid down in LTM and results in forgettubg previous info

How can we evaluate B+H’s study into interference

strengths

• Has really good ecological validity as it is a natural experiment, provides valid evidence for intereference

Limitations

• Lacks reliability and would make it impossible to carry out the experiment again and attain the same results, different players, some may be in more than other experiments

How can we conclude M+M and B+H’s study into interference?

Interference can clearly be explained showing how memories can be forgotton. There is evidence of a reliable lab experiment and a ecologically valid natural experiment

What is an eye-witness testimony? EWT

A witnesses recollection of a criminal event, it occurs post event

What is misleading info, leading questions, post-event discussions?

Misleading info is incorrect information “recalled”

Leading questions are a question that is phrased in a way that suggests a certain answer

Post-event discussions are discussions between witnesses

What was Loftus and Palmers 1974 research into the effect of leading questions on EWT? Aim and method

• Aim: to investigate the effect of leading questions on the accuracy of EWT

• Method: This was a lab study where ppts were placed in independent groups. Ppts watched film clips of car accidents and then were asked questions. One question was a leading question and related to the speed the car was travelling at the time of the accident

• The IV was a verb used to describe the speed in leading questions

• The DV was the estimated speed of the car in Mph

• There were 5 different groups asking similar questions but focusing on different elements of the crash. The main question used was “how fast was the car travelling when it ____ the other car” the words they used were; contacted, hit, collided, bumped, and smashed

What did Loftus and Palmer find in their experiment into leading questions? Findings and conclusion

• Findings: mean speed estimated were affected by the leading question. For instance when the leading question included the word “contacted” pptd estimated the car was travelling 31.8-32mph. Whereas, “smashed” resulted in an estimate of 40.5mph to 41mph

• Conclusion: people’s memory for events can be changed by leading questions. The verb activates a schema for speed

What are the explanations of the effect of leading questions?

The leading question changes the memory of the event and the new inaccurate information overlays the original memory meaning it is no longer available (retroactive interference)

• Evidence for this theory comes from Loftus who said if ppts were to hear “smashed” it was likely they would mistakenly recall there being broken glass In a follow up interview compared to those who heard “hit”

However another argument is response bias, the leading question doesn’t change the memories, it caused social desirability. Witnesses unconsciously respond in a way that matches the implication in the question

How can we evaluate Loftus and Palmers study into the effect of leading questions on EWT?

Strengths

• reliable, standardised, well controlled lab study giving us high internal validity

Weaknesses

• low ecological validity, most eye witnesses see the crime take place in real life whereas ppts watched a video

• The ppts were unlikely to be asstressed/nervous as if they were actually being interviewed by the police

What was Gabbert et al’s 2003 study into the effect of post event discussion on EWT?

• Aim: to investigate the effect of post-event discussions on accuracy of EWT

• Method, lab study which ppts were placed into independent groups

  • pairs of ppts watched a video of the same crime from different angles

  • Condition A, post event discussion. Condition B, no discussion

  • Then all ppts completed an individual recall test

• Findings: they found in condition A, the ppts reconstructed a memory of the event based on a combo of both the ppts recollection. 71% were influenced by partners recall

• Conclusions: post event discussions reduces the accuracy of EWT due to memory conformity. We go along with other peoples recollection to gain social approval

How can we evaluate Gabbert et al’s study into post event discussion’s effect on EWT?

Strengths

• reliable, standardised, well controlled lab experiment

• Has important practical applications

Limitations

• lacks ecological validity in a real life setting, witnesses are going to try harder to be accurate because of the consequences of giving testimony

How can anxiety make EWT worse?

Stress gives us tunnel vision

• we focus on the threat

• Ignoring other important details

• The fight or flight response diverts blood to the muscles away from the brain so we “can’t think straight”

How can anxiety improve EWT?

• anxiety can be used in a good way

• Anxiety increases our general state of arousal (alertness) and makes us aware of our surroundings.

What evidence is there of anxiety making EWT less accurate? Johnson and Scott’s 1976 the pen vs paper knife experiment

• Aim

• Method

• Aim: to investigate the effect of anxiety on recollection of the perpetrator (face recognition memory)

• Method: lab study involving deception,

  • ppts believed the were going to take part in a lab study and were left for a few minutes in a waiting room

  • Whilst they are waiting they hear a staged argument in another room which after a man came out

  • The IV was the level of anxiety low/high, in the low anxiety condition the man came out holding a pen whilst in the high anxiety condition there was a sound of breaking glass and the man walked out with a paper knife covered in blood

  • The DV was the recognition of the man

Johnson and Scott’s experiment

Findings

Conclusion

They found ppts later asked to identify a man from the line up. In the low anxiety condition recognition was 49% whilst in the high anxiety condition recognition was 33%

They concluded that when a potential weapon (paper knife) is involved we tend to focus on the object threatening us and not the person holding it. This is called weapon focus