Memory

What is coding?

How information is converted and stored in our memory (eg. Semantically, acoustically, visually etc.)

What is capcity in memory?

The no. of items that can be stored

What is duration in memory?

The amount of time for which info can be stored

What is the first model of memory?

The multistore model

Who devised the MSM and when?

Atkinson and Schiffrin (1969)

What are the 3 components (stores) in the MSM?

The sensory register, Short term memory (STM) and Long term memory (LTM)

What is the sensory register?

The first part of the MSM. This is where info comes in from the senses. There is a seperate one for each sense

How is info coded in the sensory register?

Each piece of information is coded in the way it enters, eg, sound is coded as sound, images as images etc.

What is the capacity of the sensory register

4-10 items

What is the duration of the Sensory register?

Less than a second

What researcher looked into the SR (Coding, capacity, duration)

Sperling (1960)

What is the STM?

Short term memory. It's more of a temporary store. Recent info is stored till it is either decayed (forgotten) or transferred to the LTM

How is information coded in the STM?

Acoustically

What is the capacity of the STM?

7±2

What is the duration of the STM?

Approx 18 seconds

Who did the research for the coding of the STM?

Conrad (1964)- Similar sounding letters (E, P, B) were harder to recall (so coded by sound)

Who did the research for the capacity of the STM?

Miller (1956)- Miller’s magic number 7

Who did the research for the duration of information in the STM?

Peterson and Peterson (1959)- Trigrams (SPL) and count backwards in threes to prevent rehearsal.

How is info coded in the LTM?

Semantically

What is the capacity of the LTM?

Unlimited

What is the duration of the LTM?

Upto a lifetime

Who did the research for coding in the LTM?

Baddeley (1996)- Similar meaning words (Hot, warm, fire) were recalled less than rhyming words (so coding by sound)

What is the research for capacity of the LTM?

The case study of Solomon Schereshevsky (remembered everything from the age of 1)

Who did the research for the duration of the LTM?

Bahrick (1975)- High school study, 90% accuracy in photo recognition after 15 years, and ~65% after 50 years

What's are the strengths of the MSM?

✔Prac apps- Revision methods

✔Brain scan evidence

✔ HM- Could remember thing in his STM, but couldn’t transfer info to LTM

What is a weakness of the MSM?

❌It is too reductionist. Reduces complex cognitive processes to three unitary stores.

❌Clive wearing, KF, go against it. Have bits of STM and LTM, which makes no sense if it’s one store

Who was the researcher who criticised the MSMs explanation of the LTM?

Tulving (1985). Said it was too simplistic and inflexible

What are the two components Tulving divided LTM into?

• Explicit/Declarative- Easy to put into words

• Implicit/ Non-declarative- Difficult to put into words

What are the types of long term memory?

• Episodic (time stamped)

• Semantic (Facts)

• Procedural (Physical)

Divide the three types of LTM into explicit/implicit

• Explicit: Episodic and semantic

• Implicit: Procedural

Who is the key case study for the types of LTM?

Clive Wearing. He had no episodic memory and almost no semantic memory (remembered he had kids and a wife), but had an excellent procedural memory (Piano)

What are the strengths of the theory of types of LTM

✔Case study evidence- Clive wearing (can play piano, but not remember wedding)

✔Allows to develop targeted rehab programmes for participants who struggle with diff. ascpects

What are the weaknesses of LTM

❌Reduces Complex cognitive processes to simple store models

❌Conflicting research- Inconclusive neuroimaging. Semantic and episodic, left and right prefrontal cortex (either/or)

What are the 2 models of memory?

• The Multistore model of memory (MSM)

• The working model of memory (WMM)

What is the working model of memory?

A less reductionist explanation of the STM of MSM. A multi-component STM system, with slave systems, that views it as a dynamic processor of info, rather than a single store.

Who devised the WMM?

Baddeley and Hitch (1975)

What is the main part of the WMM?

The central executive

What are the slave systems in the WMM?

• Phonological loop

• Visuospatial sketchpad

What is a temporary holdall in the WMM?

The episodic buffer

When was the episodic buffer added?

2000

What are the sub-components of the Visuospatial sketchpad?

• Inner scribe

• Visual Cache

What are the sub-components of the Phonological loop?

• Phonological store

• Articulatory loop

What are the strengths of the WMM?

✔KF- Can recall visual but not auditory info (but car accident and brain damage, so cannot generalise)

✔Hollow F (Gathercole and Baddeley)- Track light, and trace angles in 3D F (but lab)

What are the weaknesses of WMM

❌People multitask all the time. Women better, but brain not different. Why?

❌”Role of CE isn’t clear” -Baddeley

What is forgetting

Failure to retrieve memories

What are the theories of forgetting?

1. Interference theory

2. Retrieval failure theory

What is interference theory?

When one memory blocks another, causing one or both to be distorted or forgotten

What are the two types of interference?

1. Proactive- Old info. affects new

2. Retroactive- New info. affects old

What are the two Acronyms for Interference theory?

NOIRA- New affects Old Is RetroActive

PORN- Proactive Old, Retroactive New

What are the strengths of Interference theory?

✔Postman and Underwood (1960)- grp A given two lists and asked to recall 1st, grp B only given 1st list. Grp B has higher recall, so new interferes with old (but lab)

✔Can be used to make study strategies (study seperately)

What is the weakness of interference theory?

❌People don’t actually forget, info is just inaccessible- Tulving.Cued recall improves scores.

What is retrieval failure theory?

The memory is available, but inaccessible. We don’t have the right cues to recall it.

What is the encoding specificity principle?

Tulving (1983)- A cue present at encoding aids retrieval

What are the two types of cues for Retrieval failure theory?

• External cues- Context dependent forgetting

• Internal cues- State dependent forgetting

Outline Carter et al.s study on retrieval faliure theory

1998- Antihistamines to participants (mild sedative effect)

Grp 1: Learn and recall on drug

Grp 2: Learn on drug, recall w/o drug

Grp 3: Learn w/o drug, recall on drug

Grp 4: Learn and recall w/o drug

• Grp 1&4 had the highest recall

Outline Godden and Baddeley’s Deep sea study

1975- 18 ppl. Learning/recall on land/underwater. Land/land and Water/water had highest recall- 13.5 to 8.6 between land/land, and land/water

What are the strengths of retrieval failure theory?

✔Prac apps- studying advice. Similar conditions to exams

✔Supporting research (Carter, Godden and Baddeley) (but context isn’t always that severe)

What are the weaknesses of Retrieval Failure theory?

❌May only be for recall not recognition (ps scored same for that), so reduced validity

❌How to test if cue has been encoded (falsifiable? Valid?)

What is a schema?

A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processes and develop from experience

What are reconstructive memories?

Memories that are changed so that they make more sense to us. Gaps are filled by our expectations. We do this unknowingly.

What are factors that affect EWT?

1. Misleading Information

2. Anxiety

What are the two components of misleading information?

• Leading questions

• Post-event discussion

What are leading questions?

Questions that are asked in such a way that they suggest an answer. They make it likely for someone’s schema to influence them to give the desired answer.

What is an example of a leading question?

“Did you see the knife?” (tells you there was a knife there) rather than “Did you see a knife?” (Asks if a knife was there are not)

What is the key study for the effects of leading questions on EWT?

Loftus and Palmer- 1974. Video of car crash. Interviewed after. “Bumped”, “crashed”, “Collided”, “Hit”. Reported speed was different for different owrds for same video. One week later- “Did you see any broken glass?” (no glass). Ps with smashed said yes more.

What is post event discussion?

When a witneses discuss what they saw after an event. EWT can be contaminated as info from other witnesses combines with their own memory.

What are the 2 things that can happen due to post event discussion?

• Memory contamination

• Memory conformity

What is memory contamination?

When co-witnesses discuss an event, their own memory of it becomes distorted or altered

What is memory conformity?

Witnesses go along with each other to win social approval, or because they think the other witnesses are right. Their original memory remains unchanged.

What is the research behind the effect of post event discussion?

Gabbert et al. (2003). Ps in pairs. Watched videos from different POVs, then discussed. 71% mistakenly recalled things from the other video.

What are the strengths of research into misleading information?

✔Prac apps. Can be used for criminal investigations etc.

What are the weaknesses of research into misleading info.?

❌Loftus and palmer- Lab

❌Memory substitution may only be a thing for less central details

How does anxiety affect EWT?

It causes fluctuations within the body, that changes our ability to pay attention to cues

How do we explain the effect of anxiety on EWT?

Yerkes-Dodson law: Inverted U hypothesis.

What does the Inverted U hypothesis state?

That there is an optimum level of anxiety for max recall. Too litle means we don’t pay attention, and too much means we’re too busy worrying to pay attention

What is the research to support anxiety’s positive effect on recall?

Yuille and Cutshall (1986). Actual shooting. Interviewed for details, and rated anxiety on 7 point scale. People with highest anxiety were most accurate

What are the strengths of the anxiety hypothesis on EWT?

✔ Research support (Yuille and Cutshall- Canadian shooting)

What are the weaknesses of the anxiety hypothesis on EWT?

❌Ignores that anxiety can be of various types, and only focuses on physical, but others may be important

❌Weapon focus may be due to unusualness not anxiety

❌Y+C Small and non-replicable

What is a cognitive interview?

A specialized, memory-enhancing questioning technique used by police etc. to improve the accuracy and amount of information recalled by witnesses and victims of crimes

What are the 4 main techniques used in the cognitive interview?

1. Report everything

2. Reinstate the context

3. Reverse the order

4. Change the perspective (Not used with U18s anymore)

What does it mean by “report everything” in CI?

Witnessses are asked to recall everything they can from the incident, regardless of whether they think it is important/relevant or not. Trivial details may be relevant, or may trigger other memories.

What does it mean to “reinstate the context” in CI?

Witnesses are asked to imagine the environment (weather, emotions etc.). They may act as cues.

What does it mean to “reverse the order” in CI?

Witnesses are asked to recall info in a different order to the original cotext. Prevents dishonesty, and people reporting what they think could have happened.

What does it mean to “Change the perspective” in CI?

Witnesses are asked to recall things from someone else’s POV. Reduces the effect of schema on recall.

What is the enhanced cognitive interview?

Fisher et al. (1987). Adding things to improve CI eg. Eye contact. Reduces distractions, asks open questions.

What are the strengths of the CI?

✔ Meta-analysis (55) shows that it works better than regular (but inaccurate info also increased)

What are the weaknesses of CI?

❌Time consuming

❌Too much info

❌Some parts may be more useful than others

❌Police combine it with others, so cannot tell effectiveness

Why is change the persepective no longer used with Under 18s?

Because they may find it harder to do so, and then get more confused.