memory

• Multi-store model of memory by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968):

  • First store: Sensory register receives raw sense impressions
  • Attention passes to short-term memory
  • Coding in short-term memory is modality specific
  • Capacity is very large
  • Duration is very short, about 250 milliseconds
  • Second store: Short-term memory receives info from sensory register or long-term memory
  • Keeps information in short-term memory by maintenance rehearsal or passes it on to long-term memory
  • Coding in short-term memory is acoustic
  • Duration is approximately 18 seconds
• • Capacity is 7 plus or minus two items
  • Third store: Long-term memory has very long duration, theoretically unlimited capacity
  • Long-term memory is coded semantically
  • Retrieval involves passing information back to short-term memory
  • STM and LTM are separate
• Types of long-term memory:

  • Declarative (explicit): consciously recalled and expressed in words
  • Episodic: experiences and events, time-stamped, autobiographical
  • Semantic: facts, meanings, knowledge, not time-stamped
  • Non-declarative: not consciously recalled, implicit, difficult to explain in words
  • Procedural: unconscious memories of skills, not recalled consciously
• Evaluations:

  • Bagara Kadim found that children with damage to the hippocampus had episodic amnesia but could recall semantic information
  • Clive Wearing has retrograde amnesia for episodic memories but remembers facts about his life
  • Wagner's diary study showed long-term memory has a very large capacity
  • Tovin's fMRI studies identified brain areas associated with different types of long-term memory
• Working Memory Model by Baddeley and Hitch (1974):

  • Central executive: controls attention, limited capacity, deals with one strand of information at a time
  • Phonological loop: processes sound information, acoustic coding, capacity of about two seconds
  • Visual spatial sketch pad: processes visual and spatial information, contains visual cache and inner scribe
  • Episodic buffer: integrates information from other stores
• Evaluations:

  • Chalice and Warrington's study on brain-injured patient KF showed selective impairment to verbal short-term memory
  • Baddeley's study on integrated vs separate spatial and verbal information tasks showed activation in different brain regions
  • Baddeley found participants could recall more monosyllabic words than polysyllabic words, known as the word length effect
• Explanations for forgetting:

  • Interference theory: forgetting occurs when old or new information disrupts memory recall
  • Proactive interference: old information disrupts new memory
  • Retroactive interference: new information disrupts old memory
• Interference:

  • New interference works forward in time when old information already stored interferes with recalling something new
  • Retroactive interference: new information disrupts old information
  • Proactive interference: old information interferes with the recall of new information
• Similarity interference:

  • More likely to occur when two pieces of information are similar due to response competition
• Time sensitivity:

  • Interference is less likely to occur when there's a large gap between learning
• Retrieval failure:

  • Due to the absence of cues
  • Cue-dependent forgetting: information in long-term memory is forgotten due to the absence of appropriate cues or prompts
• Encoding specificity principle:

  • Context-dependent cues: aspects of the external environment work as cues to memory (sight, sound, smells)
  • State-dependent cues: aspects of the internal environment work as cues to memory (emotions, drugs, arousal)
• Category or organizational cues:

  • Providing cues that relate to the organization or category of memories
• Age recall:

  • The most effective cues have fewer things associated with them
  • The lack of organizational cues inhibits memory
• Research into forgetting:

  • Practical applications: students can develop effective revision strategies
  • Context cues improve recall and have been used in the development of the cognitive interview technique
• Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony:

  • Memory is reconstructed in recalling (reconstructive memory) and may produce errors (confabulations)
  • Schemas influence leading questions and can influence memory recall
  • Response bias: post-event contamination discussion can alter the accuracy of recollection
• Memory conformity:

  • Witnesses go along with others' accounts for social approval
• Anxiety:

  • A mental state of arousal that includes extreme concern and tension
  • High anxiety levels may decrease recall due to the weapons effect
  • High anxiety levels may increase recall as it improves alertness and awareness of the situation and surroundings
• Yerkes-Dodson law of arousal:

  • Eyewitness testimony accuracy increases as anxiety rises until a point where too much anxiety results in lower accuracy
• Misleading information:

  • Leading questions can influence recall
  • Post-event discussion can lead to changes in eyewitness testimony
• Cognitive interview:

  • Context reinstatement: mentally returning to the crime scene triggers environmental, emotional, and contextual cues
  • Report everything: all details, even if seemingly irrelevant, should be mentioned
  • Recall from a changed perspective: consider the perspective of other witnesses and disrupt schema recall
• Effectiveness of the cognitive interview:

  • Detectives trained in the cognitive interview produce more information in real interviews
  • Meta-analysis found a significant increase in correct information recalled with the cognitive interview, but also an increase in incorrect information
  • Different aspects of the cognitive interview produce similar levels of recall, with context reinstatement and report everything conditions leading to more correct recall
• Limitations of the cognitive interview:

  • Time-consuming and requires significant training and investment
  • May not be adopted due to limited financial resources
  • Not effective in improving the recognition of suspects in identity parades and from photographs