memory

who came up with the multistore model of memory

Atkinson and Shiffrin

what is the sensory register

-the first store that holds the sensory information which is received from all the senses for a brief period

what is the coding of the sensory register

echoic, haptic or iconic (modality specific)

what is the capacity and duration of the sensory register

-large capacity
-brief duration (0.5 secs)

what is the short term memory store

temporary store for holding small amounts of information for brief periods of time and disappears unless rehearsed.

coding of STM

acoustic

what is the capacity and duration of the STM

-capcity - limited - 7+-2 items
-duration - 18-30 secs

what is the long term memory store

memory for past events that can last the lifetime of a person

coding of LTM

semantic

what is the capacity and duration of the LTM

-capcity - unlimited
-duration - a lifetime

what is maintenance rehearsal

-type of rehearsal that involves repeating information again and again to keep it in the STM
-not effective at transferring to LTM

what is prolonged rehearsal

-deeper form of rehearsal that involves giving something more meaning and linking it with prior knowledge
-faciliates the transfer of information from STM to LTM

what did Murdock investigate

-found if particpants were allowed to immediately recall a list of one syllable words they been asked to remember, they could remember the words at the beginning and the end of the list
-known as primary recency effect

why does Murdocks reaserch support MSM

-supports the notion of the separate stores identified in the MSM
-words at the beginning of the list are rehearsed and transferred into LTM. words at the end of the list remain in STM. words in the middle are displaced and not reheased enough to enter LTM
-supports distinction of STM and LTM and the notion of passing information

what did craik and tulving reaserch

-gave particpants a list of nouns
-asked a question that involved shallow processing or asked a question that involved deeper processing
-participants remembered more words that involved deeper processing

how craik and tulving reaserch be seen as a criticism of MSM

-fails to explain how everyday information can be transferred to LTM without prolonged rehearsal
-suggest that depth of processing rather than amount of rehearsal plays a significant role
-challneges the notion of prolonged rehearsal and casts doubt over MSM

what was the Clive weaving study by Blakemore

-had a virus that caused damage to hippocampus
-he had very little LTM for events that has happened in his life
-he could still remember skills like playing the piano
-suggests that LTM is not unitary

what was the KF study by shallice and warrington

-KF damaged his STM for information spoken to him
-could retain information visually presented to him

how does the Clive weaving and KF study critise MSM

-suggests that LTM and STM should not be considered unitary stores
-blakemores study suggests that LTM stores episodic and procedural memories differently
-KF case study suggests STM has separate visual and acoustic components

who did an investigation on the capcity and duration of the sensory register

sperling

what was sperlings investigation aim and method

-he aimed to investigate the capacity and duration of the sensory register
-he showed particpants a Grid of 12 letters for 50 milliseconds
-in the whole report condition the participant were asked to recall as many letters as they could
-in the partial report participants heard a specific tone immediately after the grid disappeared corresponding to a specific row and were asked only to recall that row

what was sperlings findings and conclusions

-in the whole report the participants could recall about 4-5 letters
-in the partial report they could recall about 3 out of 4 letters from the cued rows suggesting they had access to all of them
-therefore the sensory register gas a large capacity but a short duration and it decays rapidly

who investigated STM coding

baddeley

what was baddleys aim and method when investigating STM coding

-to investigate how information is coded in STM. whether it is coded semantically or acoustically
-particpants were divided into 4 groups and were asked to remember lists of different words that were acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar,semantically similar and semantically dissimilar.
-they were asked to recall the words immediately

what was baddleys findings and conclusions when investigating STM coding

-particpants had more difficulty recalling acoustically similar words than acoustically dissimilar words
-there was no significant difference in recall for semantically similar and semantically dissimilar words
-STM is primarily coded acoustically, as similar sounding words caused confusion. this means acoustic coding is the preferred way of storing info in STM

who investigated STM capacity

Jacobs

what was Jacobs aim and method when investigating STM capacity

-he aimed to investigate the capacity of STM and specifically how many digits or letters people can hold in STM
-partcipants were presented with a sequence of digits and letters increasing with one each time.
-they were asked to recall the items in the correct order immediately. the pace was controlled using a metrome
-the digit span was determined by the longest list the particpants could recall correctly

what was Jacobs findings and conclusions when investigating STM capacity

-digits were recalled more than letters
-the average digit span was 9.3
-the average letter span was 7.3
-this was because there are fewer digits than letters
-therefore the STM has a limited capacity typically around 7 +-2 items

what did miller hypothesise for STM capacity

-magial number 7
-noted the frequent use for the number 7
-condluded, as Jacobs did, that STM has a capcity of 7
-we also use chunking through grouping pieces of information to reduce number of individual items down to 7

who investigated STM duration

peterson and peterson

what was peterson and Petersons aim and method when investigating STM duration

-aimed to investigate the duration of STM when rehearsal is prevented
-participants were given trigrams
-immediately after seeing the trigram they were asked to count backwards in threes from a random number (interference task)
-this was done for set intervals of time (3,6,9…18) to prevent maintenance rehearsal

what was peterson and Petersons findings and conclusions when investigating STM duration

-the longer the time of delay the worse the recall
-after 3 seconds about 90% were recalled correctly
-after 18 it dropped to less than 10%
-STM has a very limited duration of about 18-30 secs and without rehearsal information quickly decays

who investigated LTM coding

Baddeley

what was baddeleys aim and method when investigating LTM coding

-aimed to investigate how information is coded in LTM. whether it is coded semantically or acoustically
-particpants were divided into 4 groups and were asked to remember lists of different words that were acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar,semantically similar and semantically dissimilar.
-they were asked to recall the words after 20 mins

what was baddeleys findings and conclusions when investigating LTM coding

-particpants had more difficulty recalling semantically similar words than semantically dissimilar words
-there was no significant difference in recall for acoustically similar and acoustically dissimilar words

• this means semantic coding is the preferred way of storing info in LTM

who investigated LTM capcity

Konkle

what was konkles aim and method when investigating LTM capcity

-she aimed to investigate the capacity of visual LTM
-showed particpants around 2900 images from carious objects of different categories
-images were shown for 3 seconds
-particpants were given a short break
-after viewing the images partipcants compiled a forced choice recognition tests where they had to identify the image they had previously seen

what was konkles findings and conclusions when investigating LTM capcity

-particpants had a high accuracy for recognising images they had seen before (96%)
-there does not seem to be a limit to the volume of information our LTM can retain making the capacity unlimited

who investigated during of LTM

Bahrick

what was bahricks aim and method when investigating LTM duration

-aimed to investigate the duration of LTM particularly how well people can remember information from many years ago, such as names and faces of classmates
-392 American particpants aged 17-74
-tested on memory of old classmates using 4 methods
1.free recall test
2.photo recognition test
3.name recognition test
4.name and photo matching test

what was bahricks findings and conclusion when investigating LTM duration

-Participants could recall names/faces of people from their high-school yearbooks even decades later.
-Photo recognition: ~90% accuracy after 15 years; ~70-80% accuracy after 48 years.
Free recall : much lower, dropping to around 60% after 15 years 30% after 48 years.
-Long-term memory can last a very long time, potentially a lifetime, especially for meaningful or well-rehearsed information. Cues significantly improve recall accuracy.

what is a strength of the features of each store - reliability and validity

-uses experimental methods and therefore extraneous variables are controlled
-eg. in Petersons and Petersons experiment distractions ask meant the particpants were prevented from rehearing the trigram. variable could be manipulated in order to establish cause and effect
-standerised and can be replicated for reliability
-good internal validity due to the isolation of extrenous variable

what is a weakness of the features of each store - validity

-highly artificial tasks, know very little about how memory operates irl
-trying to remember strings of digits in Jacobs or trigrams in peterson and peterson does not reflect memory in everyday life
-march et el found if people were expected to recall info STM had a max of 4 sec
-poor mundane realism, low ecological validity, difficulty generalising to real life setting of the complex notion of memory

strenght of features of each store - application

-has postive real world benefits
-useful for teachers and students in educational settings
-eg. teachers can reduce the amount of new information that needs to be held in STM and use task that support transfer of information from STM to LTM e.g chunking
-led to techniques to improve the limits of memory

who came up with the WMM

baddeley and hitch

what is the central executive

-directs attention to particular task determining how the brains resources are allocated.
-it attends and monitors information from senses or LTM and then it is sent to subsystems

what is the capacity of central executive

-very limited capacity
-uses episodic buffer as a storage system

what is the phonological loop

-has two components
-the phonological store allows for 2 seconds of acoustically coded items to be stored
-the articulatory control process allows sub vocal repetitions of items in phonological store similar to maintenance rehearsal.

what is the duration of phonological loop

2 seconds of speech based sounds

what is the visuo spacial sketchpad

-processes and stores mental images and spacial information in terms of what they look like and their place in the visual field.

what is the capacity of the visuo spacial sketchpad

3-4 objects

what is the episodic buffer

-general store
-allows for both sound and visual information to be bound together
-intergrates information from other systems and offers a sense of time sequencing

what is the capcity

4 chunks of information for central executive

what is a strength of the WMM

-evidence to support the limited capcity and separate nature of the subsystems demonstrated by dual task performance
-gathercole and baddeley
-evidence indicates that the VSS and PL are separate sub systems with limited capacity

what did gathercole and badly find

found that particpants had difficulty doing two visual tasks (tracking a moving point and describing the angles in the letter F) than doing a visual and verbal task at the same time. to simultaneous visual taks must compete for the same subsystem which has a limited capcity, whereas a visual and verbal do not compete

what is a weakness of the WMM

-lack of clarity over the central executive and exact role it plays
-baddley acknowledges this flaw when he says, 'the central executive is the most important but least understood component of the WMM'
-Eslinger and demasio

what did eslinger and demasio research

-case study on EVR
-cerebral tumour removed
-performed well on tests of reasoning but not decision making
-suggests the central executive was not fully intact
-needs to be more clear than just 'attention' could have speperate components

strength of WMM

-compares favourably to WMM. explains how memory functions instead of just describing structure
-greater understanding of cognitive dysfunctions like ADHD
-led to methods developed to help kids with ADHD like not overwhelming phonological loop
-has measurable benefits that demonstrates the value of the model, but practical applications of MSM are limited

what is the interference theory

forgetting occurs due to information in LTM becoming confused or disrupted by other information during coding leading to inaccurate recall. there are two types proactive and retroactive.

what is proactive interference

old information interferes with new information

what is retroactive interference

new information interferes with old information

what is a strength of interference theory

-reaserch to support the notion of proactive interference
-underwoods reasearch

what did underwood reasearch

-showed thats particpants who were repeatedly asked to learn series of words lists made far more errors as the number of lists increased
-as they made more errors in the words shown at the end of the study
-demondstartes the notion of proactive interefercne

what did mcgeoch and macdonald reaserch

-retroactive interference
-gave participants an original set of words to recall and then a second list which varied in similarity from the original list
-the more smiliest the later list the harder the original list was to recall

what is a disadvantage of interference theory

-priamrly collected in lab studies
-despite the good control of extraneous variables it is an artificial setting which lacks context of real life memory use
-learning a list of unconnected words is not relefective of memory use in real life
-we dont know much about the nature of interference outside lab conditions
-low ecological validity

what is a field study supporting interference theory

-baddeley and hitch
-asked rugby players to remember the name of teammates they played over the season
-their recall was not affected by how much time had passed by how many other teams they had played in the interviening time
-shows retroactive interference in real life and corroborates lab findinfs with a notion of high ecological validity

what is retrieval failure

-A form of forgetting.
-It occurs when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory.
-The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

what is ESP

-encoding specific principle
-cues present at coding must be also present at recall
-tulving

what are the two types of retrival failure forgetting

-context dependant forgetting
-state dependant forgetting

what did godden and baddeley reasearch

-studied deep water divers and the effect of context dependant forgetting
-participants had to learn words on land or on water and then recall them in land or under water

what was the results of godden and baddeley experiment

-land and land - 37%
-underwater and underwater - 32%
-land and underwater- 24%
-underwater and land - 23%

what did Carter and cassady reaserch

-internal state forgetting
-gave an antihistamine or placebo
-antihistamine had mild sedative effect inducing drowsiness and altering state of awareness
-participants were asked to lean and recall information

what were Carter and casadays results

-decrecae in accuracy of recall when the internal state of particpants were not consistent and the time of coding and retrival
-increaced performance when internal states were consistent
-supports the notion of state dependent forgetting

what is a criticism of godden and baddley and Carter and Cassady

-baddeley argued that they do not reledect real life scenarios
-contexts must be very different to have an effect
-whereas in everyday life there are only subtle fluctuations/chnages of the environment or ones internal state
-exacgerated claims that have low ecological validity

what is an advantage of retrival failure theory

-useful applications
-military application of scenario based strategies where training soldiers in camps.
-applications to giving accurate eyewitness accounts through revisiting the scene
-saving lives or in treating situation or prevent false convictions

what are the factors that influence eyewitness testimony

leading questions, anxiety, post event discussion

why are memories said to be reconstructive

memory is a cognitive process and individuals instinctively fills gaps, however it can be filled with false information

what is a leading question

a question phrased a certain way to suggest a particular answer or evoke a certain thought process among the recipient

who investigated leading questions

loftus and plamer

what was Loftus and palmers aim and method when investigating leading questions

-they aimed to investigate whether the wording of a question -specifically the verb used- could influence a person's memory of an event through their estimated speed of a car crash
-45 participant watched a video clip of a car accident
-divided into 5 conditions; how fast was the cars going when they… into eachtoher?
-smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted

what were loftus and palmers findings and conclusions

-smashed led to the highest speed estimates
-contacted led to the lowest
-this supports the notion that EWT is reconstructive and memories can be influenced by leading questions

what was loftus and palmers second experiment aim and method

-investigate whether leading questions could contract a false memory through the notion of remembering something that was not there
-150 students were split into three conditions. smashed, hit and a control group
-a week later the participants were asked did you see any broken glass

what was loftus and palmers second experiment findings and conclusions

-32% of smashed reported seeing broken glass
-14% of hit reported seeing broken glass
-12% of control did
-conclused that a leading question can actively fabricate a false memory showing the reconstructive nature of memory and the potential distortion of EWT

what was loftus second study on leading questions when the information is obviously incorrect

-showed particpants theft of a purse from the bag
-98% remembered the correct colour of the pose
-they read an account of the incident written by a 'professor of psychology' which stated that the purse was the wrong color
-only 2 particpnas changed their answer after reading this

what did loftuses purse experiment show about leading questions

-cananot reliably conclude that all leading questions will have the same effect in all circumstances if the testimony is unlikely to changed when the information received is obviously different

what is an issue with loftus and palmers experiment

-issues with validity
-a witness to a real life car crash is likely to have experience a greater emotional repose compared to one watching a film
-risk of demand characteristics
-tell us little about real life effect of leading questions, lacks ecological validity

what is a stenght into the reaserch of leading questions

-has important practical applications
-used to train professionals eg. police and psychologists not to ask leading questions. from this the cognitive interview was developed
-lead to positive economic implications. conserving police reassures and reducing false incarcerations.
-real world befit and importance

what can post event discussion lead to

further distortion of EWT through exposure to misleading information following an event

what did Fiona gabbert aim to investigate and what was her method

-to investigate whether post event discussion between witnesses can lead to influencing another persons recall of events
-60 students and 60 adults. watched a video of a girl stealing money from a wallet. either tested individually or in a co witness group
-infromed they had seen the same video but had actually seen different persepctives and only one person had witnessed the girl stealing
-discussed the video together and then completed a questionnaire testing memory of event

what were gabbers findings and conlusions

-71% of the co witness group had recalled information they had not actually seen
-60% said the girl was guilty without actually seeing the crime
-0% said the girl was guilty in the control group
-highlights the issues associated with PED and the effect on the accuracy of EWT

strenght on reaseerch into PED

-strong consistency of findings
-gabbert collected more data that corroborated her initial findings into PED though the notion of information from social and non social source s
-hjigh reliability, credibility in claim

weakness of reserve into PED

-unclear whether the would occur in real life EWT
-may not act the same way as the particpants under the laboratory conditions as the outcome of their answer had to tangible social impact through consequences of their final testimony
-bodner found that simply watering particpants of the lack of accuracy of second hand info removes the effect
-low ecological validity

stenght of reaserch into PED

-practical applications
-police officers should seperate eye witnesses and tell them not to discuss the case with cowitnesses
-may be difficult to do this so police officers are advised to take this into consideration when later questioning events

what is anxiety effects on EWT

-eye witness are often in an anxious or distressed state when witnessing a crime due to the perceived danger
-anxiety is thought to distort EWT

draw the yerkes Dodson inverted u and describe what it says

-memory is less accurate when anxiety is either very high or very low
-moderate levels are beneficial for recall
-high state of arousal caused impaired performance due to lack of attention placed on periferal details

what is the weapon focus effect

-loftus argued that anxiety is most problematic for later recall when the crime involves a weapon
-this is because all attention is focused on central details (weapon) so less is going on preriferal details

what did Johnson and Scott aim and method when investigating the weapon focus effect

-aimed to investigate the accuracy of recall through the weapon focus effect where attention is drawn to the weapon due to the perceived danger of the participant
-volunteers who believed to be taking part in a study on human memory were seated in the waiting room and overhead a staged argument
-in the high anxiety condition a man emerged holding a bloody knife
-in the low anxiety condition he emerged holding a pen and grease
-he stood in front of participant for 4 seconds and said a single line of speech

what was Johnson and Scotts findings and conclusions

-low anxiety 49% identified the man
-high anxiety 33% identified the man
-supports the notion of the weapon focus effect through he idea that th present of the weapon draws attention and decreases ability to remember peripheral details

what did yullie and catshall reaserch

-conducted investigation into real life crimes
-13 people who had witnessed a shop shooting in Canada were interviewed 5 months after the event
-these were compared to original police footage of interviews
-those who reported high levels of anxiety reported with the highest levels of accuracy (88%)
-those who reported lower levels of anxiety reported with lower levels of accuracy (75%)
-contrats with loftuses lab findinfs

what is an advantage of reasearch into anxiety for EWT

-has real world application
-recognising the role of anxiety in EWT and the low reliability associated with it
-rarely rely on EWT alone and instead look for alternate evidence like CCTW to collaborate the EWT
-positivebenefits for the criminal justice system