Cognitive Psychology - Memory
Mind Map of the first module (Memory) of the Unit 1 exam
- Created by: Harry Jones
- Created on: 26-12-12 12:04
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- Cognitive Psychology - Memory
- Multi-store Model of Memory
- Stores
- Short-Term Store - Limited capacity (Jacobs/Miller) and duration (Peterson and Peterson). Encoding is mostly acoustic (Baddeley)
- Sensory Store - Very limited capacity and duration (Sperling)
- Long-Term Store - Unlimited capacity and duration (Bahrick et al). Encoding is mostly semantic (Baddeley)
- Concepts
- Attention - Required for information to transfer from SM to STM
- Rehearsal - Required for information to transfer from STM to LTM
- Evidence
- Neuropsychological Evidence - Patients suffering brain damage can often form new long-term memories but not short-term (Milner et al's study of HM)
- The Primacy-Recency Effect - showed that participants could recall items at the beginning (primacy - LTM through rehearsal) and end (recency - still in STM) of a word list best (Glanzer and Cunitz)
- Korsakoff's Syndrome - Amnesia affects LTM but not STM
- Evaluation
- Strengths
- A lot of evidence to support findings (see below "Evidence")
- The First model and enabled psychologists to conduct further research
- Limitations
- Disregards the nature of the information (certain things may enter long-term memory without rehearsal if they're meaningful)
- Too simplistic and does not account for many things (such as how different information is dealt with in STM)
- Strengths
- Stores
- Working Memory Model
- Components
- Central Executive - controls the flow of information to and from the salve systems (Baddeley)
- Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad - Limited capacity and duration storage of visual and spatial domain (Baddeley, Grant, Wight and Thomson)
- Phonological Loop - Limited capacity and duration storage of verbal and auditary content (Baddeley, Thomson and Buchanan)
- Episodic Buffer - added later and filters out irrelevant information
- Concepts
- Dual Task Method - devised by Baddeley and Hitch to test participants' ability to complete two tasks
- Dynamic Store - Short-term memory is not a passive store of just one type of memory
- Evidence
- Neuropsychological Evidence - Patients show a recall of visual information but struggle with auditary - suggests separate components to deal with each type of memory (Shallice and Warrington's study of KF)
- Evidence for individual components (See "Components")
- Evaluation
- Limitations
- Central Executive - too vague and poorly explained
- Only looks at STM
- Artificial Evidence - low ecological validity (things like music not considered)
- Strengths
- Accounts for individual differences better as it is a more flexible model. Also provides explanation for more things than the MSM
- A lot of evidence to support findings (See "Evidence")
- Limitations
- Components
- Eyewitness Testimony
- Factors Affecting Memory Recall
- Schemas (Bartlett) - When we recall an event we reconstruct our memory and fill in the gaps with schemas which are pockets of information from previous experience. (List's shoplifting study found that htypical shoplifting behaviour was recalled better)
- Leading Questions - are phrased in a way which prompts a particular answer ("Did you see the broken glass?"). Can affect recall (Loftus)
- Language - certain words can encourage a particular type of response ("smashed" recieves higher speed estimates than "touched") (Loftus and Palmer)
- Age - children found to incorporate similar information into their recall of an event (Poole and Lindsay) and children/elderly have less accurate recall and children are more easily misled by leading questions (Valentine and Coxon)
- Anxiety - recall is best when the event had the right amount of anxiety. Too much can lead to weapon focus (Loftus) and not enough leads to less attention
- Cognitive Interview
- Developed by Gieselman et al on the basis of research into eyewitness testimony interviews (Fisher et al)
- Techniques Used
- Changed Perspective - interviewee recalls as if they were someone else at the event (from different viewpoints)
- Report Everything - interviewee recalls everything they remember, even trivial information
- Temporal Orders - Report the episode in different orders (forwards and backwards)
- Context Reinstatement - interviewee is asked to recall the scene, weather and what they were thinking and feeling at the time of the event
- Evaluation
- Strength: Supported by evidence, many studies show that it collects more correct recall (Gieselman et al)
- Limitation: Also collects a lot of useless information - generates more correct information at the cost of a more confabulated recall
- Factors Affecting Memory Recall
- Strategies for Memory Improvement
- Organisation: we naturally try to organise information (Jenkins and Russel) and pre-organised information is recalled better (Tulving et al). Use of headings also improves recall (Tulving and Pearlstone)
- Verbal mnemonics: acronyms, rhymes and chunking (Miller)
- Visual imagery: Method of Loci
- Narrative Stories: Word lists are recalled better when a story is made up (Bower and Clark)
- Attention and Practice: Spaced practice is more effective than massed practice (Ericsson and Chase's study of SF)
- Multi-store Model of Memory
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