Memory

What is memory?

The process by which we retain information about events that have happened in the past

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What is meant by 'duration'?

Refers to how long a memory lasts before it is no longer available

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Key study for duration of STM

Peterson's: Landmark study; 24 students; 90% remembered 3s interval & 2% remembered 18s interval. Suggests that when rehearsal is prevented, STM lasts about 20s

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Key study for duration of LTM

Shepard: Shown 612 memorable pictures one at a time; an hour later shown same pics with new ones; showed almost perfect recognition; only 50% recall after 4 months

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What is meant by 'capacity'?

A measure of how much can be held in memory

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Key study for capacity of STM

Miller's "Magic number 7 +/- 2"

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What is meant by 'chunking'?

Miller proposed that the capacity of STM can be enhanced by grouping sets of digits/letters into meaningful 'chunks'

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Key study for chunking

Simon: people have shorter memory span for larger chunks

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What is meant by 'encoding'?

The way information is changed so that it can be stored in the memory. These various forms include: visual (pictures), acoustic (sounds) and semantic (meaning)

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Key study for encoding

Baddeley: Given words either acoustically or semantically similar/dissimilar; Difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in STM by not in LTM & difficulty recalling semantically similar words in LTM but not STM

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Name the three components of the multi-store model

Sensory memory, STM and LTM

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What is the sensory memory?

Sensory stores that constantly receive information; If a person's attention is focused on one of the stores, that data is transferred to STM

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What is STM?

Information held in 'fragile' state (will decay if not rehearsed); new info. entering STM will displace (push out) original data because of limited capacity

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What is LTM?

Atkinson&Shriffrin said moving info. from STM to LTM happens through rehearsal; initial rehearsal holds info. in STM, but the more something is rehearsed, the more lasting the memory will be (maintenance rehearsal)

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Key study for sensory store

Sperling: Participants saw grid of digits/letters for 50ms: either asked to write down all 12 or just a row: 42% recall if asked to recall all & 75% recall for just a row: suggests info. decays rapidly in the sensory store

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Key study for distinction between STM & LTM

Glanzer&Cunitz: Given list of 20 words one at a time & asked to recall all: words from start of list recalled more (primary effect) & from end (recency effect) but less recalled middle words

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What is the 'primary effect'?

Occurs because something has had time to rehearse and so is transferred into LTM

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What is the 'recency effect'?

Occurs because words are in STM

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Research into areas of the brain associated with STM & LTM

Beardsley found that the prefrontal cortex is active when working on STM tasks & Squire found that the hippocampus is active with LTM is

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HM

Underwent operation to remove hippocampus to control epileptic fits: personality & intellect the same but couldn't form new LTM: Suggests hippocampus is a 'gateway' to LTM

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Clive W

Suffered viral infection which damaged his hippocampus: remembered aspects of before infection but couldn't transfer memories from STM to LTM

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Strengths of the Multi-store model

Strong evidence supporting three different stores; provides account for memory in terms of structure & process; clear predictions (psychologists can conduct studies to test it)

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Limitation of the Mutli-store model: Oversimplifies structure and process

KF suffered brain damage -> difficulty with verbal info but normal ability for visual (STM is not a single store); Schachter suggested LTM has 4 stores (semantic, episodic, procedural, perceptual)

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Limitation of the Mutli-store model: Maintenance rehearsal is not the only way of transferring to LTM

Craik&Lockhart: suggested enduring memories are created by processing what you do and things deeply processed are more memorable

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Limitation of the Mutli-store model: STM relies on LTM

Logie suggested STM relies on LTM (cannot come first); Ruchkin asked participant to recall set of words&pseudo-words: more brain activity when real words were processed (involvement of other areas of the brain)->STM is a part of LTM

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What is the Working memory model?

Baddeley&Hitch: used 'working memory' to refer to the memory you use for complex tasks

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Name the 4 components of the working memory model

Central executive; Phonological loop; Visuo-spatial sketchpad; Episodic buffer

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What is the 'central executive'?

Directs attention to particular tasks

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What is the 'Phonological loop'?

Deals with auditory info. & preserves order of info.

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Key study for Phonological loop

Baddeley: subdivided this loop into Phonological store (holds words you hear) and articulatory process (loops words heard or seen)

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What is the 'Visuo-spatial sketchpad'?

Used to plan spatial tasks; visual/spatial information is temporally stored here

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Key study for Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Logie: Visuo-spatial sketchpad can be divided into visual cache (a store) & inner scribe (deals with spatial relations)

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What is the 'Episodic Buffer'?

A general store

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Key study for the Episodic Buffer

Baddeley: added this extra storage system that has limited capacity; integrates info. from central executive, Phonological loop, Visuo-spatial sketchpad & LTM

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Name the 5 supporting studies for the Working memory model

Hitch&Baddeley; Baddeley x 3; KF

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Evidence supporting Working memory model: Hitch&Baddeley

Gave participants two tasks to do simultaneously: one occupied central executive and the other the articulatory loop; task one was slower when involving both (suggests doing 2 tasks that involve same component causes difficulty

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Evidence supporting Working memory model: Baddeley (1975)

Phonological loop explains word-length effect (people cope with short words better than long in STM)

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Evidence supporting Working memory model: Baddeley (1975)

Demonstrated visuo-spatial sketchpad existence; participants given visual tracking7 describing tasks; 2 visual talks proved difficult; visual+verbal used 2 components so less difficult

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Evidence supporting Working memory model: Baddeley (1987)

When participants shown words& asked for immediate recall, performance much better for related words than unrelated; provides evidence for episodic buffer

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Evidence supporting Working memory model: KF

Showed that STM works independently from LTM

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Strengths of the Working memory model

Explanatory power (exaplains many psychological observations); Supporting evidence; Offers direction in identifying sub-components of memory&linking those to areas of the brain; Offers better account for STM

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Limitations of the Working memory model

Central executive same as attention?; Too vague; Use of case studies from brain damaged patients doesnt allow you to do 'before&after' comparisons & injuries are traumatic which may change behaviour

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Key study for limitations of the Working memory model

Damasio: EVR had cerebral tumor removed; performed well on tests that required reasoning (central executive in tact) but had poor decision making skills (central executive not wholly in tact)

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What is an 'Eyewitness Testimony'?

evidence provided in court by a person who witnessed a crime, with a view to identify perpetrator of crime

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Name and explain the three stages of eyewitness memory

Witness encodes into LTM details of event (encoding may only be partial); witness retains info. for period of time (memories may be lost or modified during retention&activities may interfere); witness retrieves memory from storage

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Key study for accuracy of EWT & misleading questions: Loftus and Palmer (Experiment one)

45 students shown 7 traffic accidents & given questionnaire including critical question 'About how fast were the cars going when they...each other?'; each group given different verb (Smashed;contacted;bumped;collided); 'smashed' estimated ^speed

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Key study for accuracy of EWT & misleading questions: Loftus and Palmer (Experiment 2)

150 students (3groups) shown 1min car accident; G1-Smashed; G2-Hit; G3-Control; Asked to return week later to answer question 'did you see any broken glass?; G1 said yes more: suggests misleading post-event info. changes the way info. is stored

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Key study for accuracy of EWT & misleading questions: Loftus et al

Participants shown slides of events leading to car accident; G1-red Datsun stopping at junction with 'STOP' sigh; G2- shown 'YIELD' sign; 75% with consistent &4% with inconsistent questions identified correctly; misleading questions affect recall

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Key study for accuracy of EWT & misleading questions: Bekerian&Bowers

Replicated stop/yield sign study; showed slides in order; recall now the same for consistent/nonconsistent -> misleading questions affect retrieval rather than storage

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Key study for accuracy of EWT & misleading questions: Yuille&Cutshall

Interviewed 13 witnesses to robberies in Canada 4 months after event (included 2 misleading questions); witnesses recalled accurately -> post-event info. may not affect memory in real-life EWT

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Key study for anxiety negatively effecting EWT

Deffenbacher: meta-analysis of 18 studies published between 1974-1997; support for anxiety negatively effecting EWT accuracy

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Key study for anxiety positively effective EWT

Christianson&Hibinette: Questioned 58 real witnesses to bank robberies; those who were personally threatened were more accurate in recall

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Key study for anxiety & central details of crime

The Weapon focus effect (Johnson&Scott):Loftus used 2 conditions: C1- man emerged holding a pen with grease on hands; C2-heated discussion & man emerged holding knife and covered in blood;asked to identify man out of 50 pics; C1-49% & C2-33% accurate

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Explanation for the weapon focus effect

Steblay: meta-analysis found presence of weapon reduced EWT accuracy; Loftus: monitored eye movements on eyewitnesses-found attention goes to weapon more than person holding it

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Key study for age and EWT: Parker&Carranza

Compared primary school children and college students; slide sequence of mock crime & asked to identify target; children had higher rate of choosing but were more likely to get errors

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Key study for age and EWT: Yarmey

Stopped 651 adults in public place&asked them to recall physical characteristics of young woman they spoke to for 15s, 2 mins earlier; young(18-29)&middle aged (30-44) more confident in answering but no difference in accuracy

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Key study for age and EWT: Memon et al

Compare young (16-33)&older (60-82) EW; when delay between incident&recall short =no difference; when long delay = young more confident

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Key study for age and EWT: Anastasi&Khodes

18-25:35-45:55-78 age groups; shown 24 pics& asked to rank in 'attractiveness';given short 'filler'activity then presented with 48 pics; young&middle aged more accurate at identifying; all age groups identified own age group more accurately

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Key study for age and EWT: Brigham&Malpass

Differential experience hypothesis: suggests the more contact we have with members from own age group/ethnic group, the better our memory is for those individuals (identification)

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What is the 'Cognitive interview'?

Fisher&Geiselman: A police technique for interviewing witnesses

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Name the four components of the Cognitive interview

1) Report everything-report every detail; 2)Mental reinstatement of original context-encouraged to recreate environment/contacts; 3) Changing order- alternative timeline; 4) Changing the perspective- recall incident from multiple perspectives

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Key study into the effectiveness of the Cognitive interview: Kohnken

Meta-analysis of 53 studies; found more than 34% accuracy compared to standard interviews

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Key study into the effectiveness of the Cognitive interview: milne&Bull

Examined effectiveness of each 4 components; compared undergraduates&children against control group; recall across 4 components = no difference; combination of 2 components = more accurate recall

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Limitations of the Cognitive interview

Collection of related techniques = difficulty establishing which one works; takes a long time; enhanced version = greater demand on interviewer

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What are 'mnemonics'?

Any structured technique that is used to help people remember and recall information

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Verbal mnemonics: Acronym

A word/sentence formed from initial letters of other word

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Verbal mnemonics: Acrostic

Poem or sentence where the first letter in each line/word forms the item to be remembered

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Verbal mnemonics: Rhymes

Groups of words with an identity and rhythm

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Verbal mnemonics: Chunking

Dividing a long string of information into memorable chunks

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Visual imagery mnemonics: Method of Loci

Mental techniques to help remember points by associating them with places

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Visual imagery mnemonics: Keyword technique

Associating two pieces of information

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Visual imagery mnemonics: Spider diagrams& mindmaps

Involves making notes in a form of drawing with main topic in centre

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Key study for mnemonics: Gruneberg

Survey of psychology students revising for exams; 30% used mnemonics in revision

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Key study for mnemonics: Gudden et al

Verbal mnemonics = effective for children with disabilities

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Key study for mnemonics: O'Hara

Visual techniques has long-term benefits for adults

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Key study for mnemonics: Atkinson

Those trained in use of keywords learned significantly more

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Limitation of mnemonics

Research taken place in artificial/lab conditions

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Explanation of how mnemonic techniques work: Role of organisation

By organising data we establish links that help recall. Word associations&visual images create links in the brain

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Key study for role of organisation

Bower et al: participants given 112 words to learn; organised words = recall 2/3x bettwe

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Explanation of how mnemonic techniques work: The role of elaborative rehearsal

Enduring memories are created through the process of elaboration. Mnemonic techniques make us elaborate information

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Explanation of how mnemonic techniques work: Dual hypothesis

Paivio: Words&images process separately; concrete words that can be made into images are double encoded in memory which increases likelihood of remembering

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Memory

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