Memory

• (Types of LTM) Episodic

  Personal autobiographical memories which are time stamped, includes info and links to emotional responses (Explicit - has to be consciously retrieved with effort)
• (Types of LTM) Semantic 


  Knowledge and facts (e.g capital of Argentina), not time stamped and origin unknown (Explicit - typically requires deliberate recall
• (Types of LTM) Procedural 


  Memory for action and skills, typically learned in early life and can be recalled without effort (Implicit - automatically occurs outside of our awareness, without making a conscious deliberate effort to remember, performed learn task with little conscious thought)
• (Explanations for forgetting) Interference Theory


  One memory disrupting the ability to recall another
• (Explanations for forgetting) Proactive Interference


  Older memories interfering with new
• (Explanations for forgetting) Retroactive Interference


  Newer memories interfering with old
• (Explanations for forgetting) Competitive Interference


  The more similar memories are, the more likely forgetting is. Baddeley and Hitch - Got PP's to remember as many rugby team names that they had played against, the more games played - the more teams forgotten

  Supported by McGeouch and McDonald gave PP's 10 adjectives, then rested, then learned another list - if the second list were synonyms, recall was poor (CP - lab experiment)
• (Explanations for forgetting) Retrieval Failure Theory

  Cannot access our memories even though they’re available due to a lack of cues
• (Explanations for forgetting) State/Context Dependent Forgetting

  Forgetting occurring because internal/external cues aren’t available

  Context (Godden and Badeley - Deep sea divers had to learn a list of words either under water or on land then had to recall, highest recall occurred when the learning environment matched recall environment)

  State (Overton -Got PP's to learn material when either drunk or sober. Found that recall was worse when PP's were in a different internal state at recall than their internal state at coding)
• ESP

  Memory is most effective if information that was present at encoding is also present at the time of retrieval
• Features of the cognitive interview (Geiselman et al)

  -Reinstate the context

  -Change the order

  -Change the perspective

  -Report everything
• Sensory Register


  (MSM) Unlimited capacity, Duration 250ms

  Iconic (vision), echoic (hearing), haptic (touch), gustatory (taste), olfactory (smell)

  Acoustic
• Short Term Memory


  (MSM) Capacity of 7 +/- 2 duration of 18 - 30 seconds

  Acoustic

• Long Term Memory


  (MSM) Potentially unlimited Potentially a lifetime

  Semantically coded
• Loftus and Palmer


  PP’s were shown footage of car accidents and asked to estimate at what speed the cars “smashed, hit, contacted, collided, or bumped“ in to each-other. More severe verb = higher estimated speed (Response Bias). Second experiment found that those in the "smashed" condition were more likely to report broken glass when there wasn't any. (Substitution)

  Smashed - 40mph

  Contacted - 32mph
• Multi Store Memory (MSM - Atkinson and Shiffrin)


  LTM - Elaborative rehearsal takes info from STM to LTM. To recall info, it must go back to the STM before we can remember it

  STM - Info transferred to STM if we pay attention to it. 

  Maintenance rehearsal keeps info in the STM.

  SR - Input info from the environment
• MSM Evaluation 


  S:

  Supported by some evidence (Clive Wearing / HM) CP - Case studies so low generalisability

  W:

  Doesn't distinguish between types of LTM - His hippocampus was removed from both sides of his brain. HM was unable to transfer info from his STM to his LTM following the surgery. Supports MSM, more than one memory store

  Oversimplification (machine reductionism)

  A lot of the supporting evidence is based on artificial tasks of remembering random letters and numbers - low ecological validity
• Evidence of Coding


   PP's given 1 of 4 word lists to learn (semantically/acoustically similar/dissimilar). More confusion with acoustically similar in STM recall, more confusion with semantically similar in LTM recall. STM- coded acoustically, LTM- coded semantically. 

  S - Standardised procedures

  W -  Artificial stimuli  which therefore have limited application - word lists had no meaning to PP's.

  Low ecological validity - Not an everyday task, lacks mundane realism
• Evidence of Capacity


  (SR) Sperling -  Tones sounded for PP's to indicate which row of letters to recall. Suggests all info was there & capacity of iconic store in SR is quite large.

  (STM) Jacobs - PP's given a no. of letters/digits and asked to recall. 9 3-digit-span, recalled & 7 3-letter-span recalled. 

  (LTM) Anokhin -  Neuronal connections in the human brain is 1 followed by 10.5 million km of noughts.

  W: Jacobs lacks validity, due to processing limitations. Other factors like age & practice also influence STM. 

  Miller overestimated STM capacity. 
• Case Studies


  HM - Hippocampus was removed from both sides of his brain. HM was unable to transfer info from his STM to his LTM following the surgery.

  Clive Wearing - Following a brain infection, his procedural memory was intact (he could play the piano) but his episodic memory was very damaged

  KF - KF struggled to process verbal information but his visual memory  was unaffected. This shows that visual information (VSSP) is processed separately from verbal information (phonological loop).
• Evaluation of the types of LTM


  Strength:

  Supported by neuroimaging studies (Tulving used a PET Scanner to identify how PP's different parts of the brain performed when completing a variety of memory tasks. Found that episodic and semantic LTM were both recalled from the prefrontal cortex in the brain. Left prefrontal cortex - Semantic, Right prefrontal cortex - Episodic. Shows that there are multiple types of LTM)

  Weakness:

  Largely supported by case studies which are low in internal validity and generalisability (Clive Wearing / HM)
• Working Memory Model, Baddeley and Hitch (1974)


  Proposed to address issues with the single STM store in the MSM. The WMM views the STM as being made up of multiple different parts, which is more probable. Four parts:

  Central Executive

  Phonological Loop

  Visuo - Spatial Sketchpad

  Episodic Buffer
• Components of the STM (WMM)


  Central Executive - Attentional process, allocates tasks to slave systems

  Phonological Loop - Auditory info (Phonological Store - inner ear listening to the words that we hear / Articulatory Process - inner voice, keeping words in a loop, so that we can speak them and read in our head)

  Visuo Spatial Sketchpad - Visual Cache - form and colour + visual data/Inner scribe - Records current spatial awareness

  Episodic Buffer - Offers a sense of time, integrates and mixes auditory and visual info as well as other senses, to record an event for the LTM
• Evaluation of the WMM

  S:

  Supported by research evidence (KF had good VSS but poor PL) CP - case study

  Supported by dual task performance - Baddeley found that PP's have more trouble doing two auditory/visual tasks simultaneously rather than one visual and one auditory at the same time

  W:

  Ambiguity around the CE as it's hard to test (Baddeley - "CE is the most important but least understood part")

  Machine reductionism / abstract representation

  Doesn't explain how we can do two acoustic tasks at the same time e.g listen to music and sound words out - WMM says that we can't
• Why do Leading Questions Affect EWT


  Response Bias Explanation - Suggests the wording of the question has no real effect on the participants’ memories, but just influences how   they decide to answer. When a PP hears the word ‘smashed’ in a leading question, this encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate.

  Substitution Explanation - The wording of the leading question actually changes the PP’s memory of the film clip. Those who heard smashed were more likely to report seeing broken glass than those who heard hit.
• Evaluation of Loftus and Palmer


  Strength:

  Real life applications - can be applied to real crimes to get more reliable information, lead to development of the cognitive interview

  Weaknesses:

  Lacks ecological validity - Emotional levels differ between watching a video and witnessing a crime in real life. Lacks mundane realism

  Contradicted by Yuille and Cutshall - Witnesses to a real life robbery in Canada gave very accurate reports four months after even if given leading questions
• Factors Affecting EWT


  Yuille and Cutshall interviewed witnesses of real life gun shooting in Vancouver, Canada. Follow- up interviews were held 4-5 months post incident. Those who rated themselves as highly anxious at the time recalled more info from the event. Accuracy was measured by the number of details remembered and PP's ranked their anxiety on a scale of 1-7
• Factors Affecting EWT pt.2


  Loftus - PP's split into two conditions: Condition 1,  PP's in a waiting room heard a commotion in a lab and a confederate emerged holding a ‘greasy pen’; condition 2, PP's heard a heated discussion and confederate emerged holding a knife with blood; PP's asked to identify the confederate from 50 photos – condition 1 – 49% accurate recall 

  Condition 2 – 33% accurate recall.

  Weapon focus effect did occur and decreased accuracy of EWT
• Evaluation of Factors Affecting EWT


  Strength: Loftus supports the idea that anxiety affects EWT

  Weaknesses:

  Field Studies lack control - Can’t control what PP's have done since the event, e.g. post-event discussion (Yuille and Cutshall)

  Weapon focus may not be relevant - used a video of a salon, recall equally bad when there was a gun & when there was a raw chicken. Unusualness rather than anxiety/threat. (Palmer)

  Too high levels of anxiety may actually decrease recollection (Deffenbacher MA)
• Cognitive Interview (Fisher and Geiselmann)


  Report Everything - Witnesses may mention important detail which they had perceived to be irrelevant

  Reinstate the Context - Witnesses should "revisit" the scene in their mind. Based on context - dependent forgetting

  Reverse the Order - Ensures the truth as its much harder to lie telling the story backwards, also prevents interference from the schema

  Change the Perspective - Witnesses should imagine the scene from a different perspective, prevents interference from the schema
• Enhanced Cognitive Interview 


  Focuses on social dynamics, and reducing witness anxiety.

  Seeks to build a trusting relationship between interviewer and witness and improve the quality of communication between the two.
• Evaluation of the Cognitive Interview


  Strength:

  Real life applications - Highlights that CI techniques gain more information from the witness, shows how more police officers should be trained in the technique

  Weakness:

  Not applicable for all crimes - A traumatic crime to have witnessed such as rape may cause extreme distress to the witness if asked to recall everything
• Multi Store Model


  Diagram

  
• Working Memory Model


  Diagram