THE WHOLE OF MEMORY

Process of memory

This is how information flows through the memory system. Information is encoded and changed into a form where it can be stored and later recalled. Cognitive psychologists describe how information flows through mental systems.

Encoding can be either visual, acoustic or semantic.

Storage is how we hold memories in the physical neural structures of the brain.

Retrieval is bringing it back from storage so we can use it.

There are 3 types of long term memory.

Episodic is events.

Semantic is facts.

Procedural is skills.

Tulving demonstrates separate brain regions are associated with episodic and semantic memory recall. Using a PET scanner and a radioactive gold isotope, he shows activation in the temporal and frontal lobes for episodic memories and more activation in the parietal and occipital lobes for semantic memories.

Some people say that saying memory being 3 distinct types is overly simplistic. Most memories contain a complex combination of memories.

Multistore model of memory evaluation

One strength of the model is that there is lots of research and case studies to support it demonstrating that the stores are separate and the differences in encoding, capacity and duration of each store. The model is based off scientific research and therefore has a high validity.

One weakness is that the model is too simplistic. There are multiple types of long term memory, which are not featured in the model. Short term memory is also more complex. This means that the model may not accurately represent how our memory works in real life, meaning it lacks real word application.

Murdock’s serial position curve study

AIM

To investigate if the position of a word in a list affects the likeliness/accuracy of its recall

METHOD

  • 20 word lists, 10-40 words in each.

  • 103 participants

  • In each session, participants listened to the lists and were asked to recall the words they heard

RESULTS

The likelihood of recall was related to words on the list.

High recall for first words - primacy effect.

High recall for last words - recency effect.

CONCLUSIONS

Demonstrate a serial position effect and support the multistore model as it fits the predictions of the model.

First words were commonly remembered as they had been rehearsed the longest and therefore can become long-term memories. Last words are remembered as they are still in the short term memory store.

One weakness of his study is that remembering words on a list is only a small part of what we do with our memories. This way of studying memory is an artificial task and doesn’t relate to many aspects of everyday life.

One strength of his study is that research with amnesiacs support the conclusion. People who have amnesia and cannot store long-term memories have proven to not show a primacy effect but do show a recency effect. This suggests that the conclusions of the study are valid in saying that the primacy effect is related to long term memory.

Bartlett’s War of the ghosts’ study

AIM

To investigate how memory is reconstructed and gather evidence to support his theory

METHOD

  • Serial reproductions technique

  • Bartlett told the story to one participants then asked them to reproduce to another 15 minutes after, then showed the new version to another participant and repeated the process again and again.

  • The study belonged to a culture that was very different to that of the participants’.

  • None of the participants knew the purpose of the study

RESULTS

Participants frequently remembered parts of the story differently and interpreted the story with their own frame of cultural reference e.g. the word “canoe” was changed to “boat”.

CONCLUSIONS

Memory is an active process. We store fragments of information and then, when we recall, we use our own knowledge to reconstruct it based on things such as past experiences, culture and expectation.

One weakness of the study is that the results may be biased. Bartlett had to himself deduce what was and wasn’t accurate recall, and since he believed that the story would be recalled incorrectly at times, his deductions may be biased that way. This means that the study may not be very reliable.

Another weakness of the study is that the story was very unusual and therefore may not reflect how we use our memory to reconstruct information in day to day life. This means that the study may lack real word application.

Bartlett’s theory of reconstructive memory

Memory is inaccurate - Bartlett denounced other psychologists who said that memory is an act of reproduction.

Memory is an active process - We remember fragments of information that we piece back together when recalling.

Social and cultural influences - The way we store and recall information can be influenced by our social and cultural expectations (results of his War of the Ghosts study.) He called this the psychology of remembering.

Effort after meaning - We remember the meaning of events and then make an effort to interpret the meaning in familiar terms a.k.a making sense of the fragments we have remembered.

One strength of this theory is that it has strong real world application and has changed the world’s view on eyewitness testimony completely. Barlett’s research showing that memory isn’t always accurate has subsequently shown that eyewitness testimony isn’t always 100% reliable, demonstrating how his research has had important consequences.

One weakness of this theory is that some memories are accurate. Other studies have shown that memory can be precisely accurate when recalling something personally important or distinctive. In the War of the Ghosts study, participants very often recalled that something black came out of the character’s mouth as it was a very distinctive moment in the tale. This shows that people do not always actively reconstruct memories in the way that Bartlett suggested.

Interference study

AIM

To investigate the effect of doing multiple activities on memory

METHOD

  • Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could recall it with 100% accuracy before being shown a new list.

  • There were five lists, all with different types of words or numbers

RESULTS

The accuracy of recall on the original list was dependant on the nature of the following lists. E.g. The list of synonyms was not remembered well as the next list was a list of antonyms

CONCLUSIONS

Interference is strongest when an intervening activity is quite similar. Forgetting is more likely to happen if you try do something quite similar afterwards.

Context study

AIM

To investigate the effect of context on the accuracy of memory

METHOD

  • Four different groups with four different conditions:

1: Learned on beach, tested on land

2: Learned on beach, tested in water

3: Learned in water, tested on beach

4: Learned in water, tested in water

RESULTS

Learning and recalling in the same area has a higher accuracy of recall

CONCLUSIONS

Context acts as a trigger/cue when trying to remember new information. Context enhances accuracy of memory.

False memories study

AIM

To investigate if false memories could be created in participants through implication

METHOD

  • Each participants had a relative contacted

  • Participants were given 4 short stories about their childhood (given by the relatives) and asked to recall them as much as they could. One of the stories was fake and realistically crafted by their relative about getting lost in a mall.

RESULTS

25% of participants fully or partially recalled the false memory.

CONCLUSIONS

The act of imagining an event has the potential of creating a false memory in a person.