Memory AO3

Short duration of sensory register is supported by evolutionary theory, as in the wild quick reactions are vital for survival, so only important information would be retained and processed. Too much information would lead to slower reactions

There is a large base of research supporting the idea of STM and LTM systems. For example, Shallice and Warrington (1974) studied KF, a brain damaged patient whose STM was damaged after an accident, but his LTM was intact. This provides evidence for the existence of separate stores

Some research into the duration of short term memory has low mundane realism as the stimulu participants were asked to recall had little resemblance to real life. For example, Peterson and Peterson (1959) used nonsense trigrams such as XQF to investigate duration. Similarly, the ecological validity of many experiments is low as they were carried out in laboratories so behaviour of participants may be different outside of the laboratory leading to low external validity

The model is oversimplified as it sees each store as a single unit but evidence suggests there are multiple STM and LTM stores. For example, the LTM can be split into episodic, procedural and semantic memory

The capacity of the STM can be altered by factors such as age and practice. For example, the capacity may be less for older people and it may be more for people who practice memory techniques; some people can remember 100 digits of pi. This means the view of a fixed STM capacity lacks validity

Research in this area is generally lab-based therefore it is highly controlled with strong internal validity. Confounding variables controlled to produce reliable results

There is considerable brain imagaing research showing that different brain areas are more active when performing different kinds of tasks. For example, Braver (1997) found biological evidence for the central executive via brain scans. He found an area of the prefrontal cortex that became more active the more demanding a task was; this was where the central executive waas thought to be located

Supporting research from Shallice and Warrington (1974) who reported that KF could recall visual but not verbal information. This supports the WMM in that there are separate stores for different information, increasing the validity for the concept of a phonological loop and visuospatical sketchpad

Fisher, Geiselman and Adador (1989) did field research where 16 detectives were divided into 2 matched pairs groups based on their previous performance at interviewing. 1 group received CI training and the other had no additional training. The CI group gained 63% more information in subsequent interviews than the other group. This suggests that CI is an effective method for improving information gained in real life

It is supported by research from Memon (2010) who reviewed 57 studies comparing the cognitive interview, the enhanced cognitive interview and the modified cognitive interview to control groups. He found that CI interviews produced more accurate recall, especially in older people

A practical application has been the development of the modified cognitive interview which can be used so that people with learning difficulties can be interviewed more effectively

Conducting a cognitive interview is time-consuming and expensive. This is problematic if information is needed quickly for a fast-moving case and the CI requires more time than officers have available, thus limiting its use. It is also expensive to train detectives to use the CI and most forces do not have the funds to do so

The cognitive interview has not been shown to be effective at improving the recognition of suspects in identity parades and photos. This means its usefulness is reduced and interviewers may use other techniques instead