Memory

• What is anxiety?

  A state of emotional and physical arousal that can have a strong effect on the body.
• What is the cognitive interview?

  A method of interviewing eyewitnesses about what they can recall from a crime scene or event. Developed as a way of improving EWT, by enhancing recall.
• What is a cue?

  A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory.
• Two types of cues

  External/Context = in the environment, e.g. smell or place

  Internal/State = inside of us, e.g. drunk or mood
• What is dual task performance?

  When an individual performs two tasks simultaneously. The performance can be degraded if attentional demand brought by these tasks are high.
• What is eyewitness testimony?

  When someone is asked to testify about a crime that they witnessed. They may be the victim or the observer of a crime.
• What is forgetting?

  When we can no longer retrieve information that we have learnt. Psychologists say forgetting is due to availability, accessibility and interference problems.
• What is maintenance rehearsal?

  Repetition of information that keeps it in the Short Term Memory.
• What is misleading information?

  Incorrect information given to an eye-witness following an event. Could be considered as post event discussion or in the form of leading questions.
• What is post-event discussion?

  A potential source of misleading information where witnesses discuss what they saw after an event. It can affect the accuracy of their accounts during EWT.
• What is prolonged rehearsal?

  It enables information to pass into the long term memory.
• What is retrieval failure?

  We may forget information because there are insufficient cues in the environment to trigger the memory.

  The information (memory) IS in the Long Term Memory but cannot be accessed due to a lack of retrieval cues in the environment.
• Coding of STM

  Acoustic

  Research: Baddeley (4 lists of words, acoustically similar)
• Capacity of STM

  7 +/- 2

  Research: Jacobs (Digit Span Test)

  Can be increased by chunking (Miller)
• Duration of STM

  18-30 seconds

  Research: Peterson & Peterson (consonant syllable and 3 digit number)
• Coding of LTM

  Semantic

  Research: Baddeley (4 lists of words, semantically similar)
• Capacity of LTM

  Unlimited
• Duration of LTM

  Lifetime

  Research: Bahrick (yearbook study)
• Baddeley (1966)

  Research on coding:

  Gave different word lists to 4 groups of participants.

  List 1: Acoustically similar (cat, bat)

  List 2: Acoustically dissimilar (pit, cow)

  List 3: Similar meaning- semantic (large, big)

  List 4: Dissimilar meaning- semantic (good, hot)

  When recalling from STM, P's did worse with acoustically similar.

  When recalling from LTM (after interruption and an interval), P's did worse with semantically similar.

  Suggests coding for STM is acoustic and LTM is semantic.
• Evaluation of coding research (Baddeley)

  Strength: Clearly shows two different memory stores. The ideas of STM being acoustically coded and LTM being semantically coded, has a lot of supporting evidence.

  Limitation: Use of artificial stimuli- word lists had no relevance to participants, cannot tell us about coding of everyday memories. Limited application to real world memory.

  Limitation: Independent groups design- participant variables.
• Jacobs (1887)

  Research on capacity of STM:

  Digit span test.

  Gives participants 4 digits, then 5 etc until participant can no longer recall correct order. This determines an individuals digit span.

  Mean digit span = 9.3 items

  Mean letter span = 7.3 items

  5-9 items or 7 +/-2 capacity
• Miller

  Research into chunking for capacity of STM:

  Made observations of everyday practice, he noted things came in sevens (days of the week etc)

  E.g. when a card number is split into chunks it is easier to remember.

  Miller thought the capacity of the STM was 7+/-2 but this can be increased by chunking information.
• Components of the Working Memory Model

  • Central Executive
  • Visio-spatial sketchpad
  • Phonological Loop
  • Episodic buffer
• Episodic Buffer

  Integrates/synthesises information from other stores; links to LTM; modality free.
• Visio-spatial sketchpad

  Temporary storage of visual and spatial information; inner eye; visual coding; can hold 3-4 items; visual cache; visual scribe.
• Phonological loop

  Limited capacity temporary storage system; holds acoustic information according to tone, volume, pitch etc; inner ear; verbal rehearsal loop, sub vocal speech; inner voice; duration is 1.5-2 secs
• Evaluation of the central executive

  • Vague and untestable (despite being the component in overall charge)
  • CE may be divided into separate sub-components
  • Links with attention research- allocation of resources/divided attention/dual-tasking- Hunt (1980): Unable to maintain performance on a spatial intelligence test and psychomotor test proving limited capacity.
• What is retrieval failure?

  • Forgetting due to the absence of cues.
  • Lack of external contextual cues- where environment for learning and recall is different (e.g. different room)
  • Lack of internal contextual cues- where physical state for learning and recall is different (e.g. mood)
  • Encoding specificity principle - Tulving and Thomson: memory retrieval is most effective when the cues present at the time of retrieval match the cues present at the time of encoding. 
  • Godden and Baddeley- support study of context dependent forgetting divers recalled words better when the recall condition matched the original learning environment, i.e. underwater or on land.
• What is interference?

  • When two memories conflict and it is more likely when material is similar (creates response competition).
• Proactive Interference

  When old memories interfere with new memories.
• Retroactive Interference

  When new memories interfere with old memories.
• AO3 Retrieval failure

  • Godden and Baddeley suggest retrieval failure/absence of cues is a valid explanation of forgetting
  • However task is artificial as not usually required to learn list of meaningless words.
  • However was controlled experiment so can be replicated so reliability can be tested.
  • Application of explanation e.g. improving memory using mnemonics, category headings.
  • Context has to be very different in real-life to have any effect.
  • Context effect only occurs when memory is tested in particular ways- free recall vs recognition.
• AO3 Interference

  • Evidence from lab studies e.g. McGeoch and McDonald (explored retroactive interference, also showing that forgetting is more likely when new information is similar to old information. They found that participants struggled to recall a list of words when the second list they learned was similar in meaning)
  • Application explanation, e.g. avoiding similar material when revising for exams
  • Artificial materials in lab studies, e.g. recall of word lists
  • Deliberate attempts to induce interference in lab studies, e.g. by limiting time between learning and recall.
  • Evidence suggests interference can be overcome using cued recall.
  • Interference tends not to occur with experts.