Psychology - Topic 2 - Memory

• Multi-Store Model of Memory

  Atkinson and Shiffrin

  Sensory register, STM, LTM
• AO3 - Multi Store

  + Provides good understanding

  + Lots of evidence

  - Over simplistic

  - Ignores other factors like motivation
• Capacity of STM


  Jacobs, 7 plus or minus 2
• Duration of STM


  Peterson and Peterson, 18-30 seconds
• Coding of STM

  Baddeley, Acoustic
• Types of LTM


  Semantic, Episodic and Procedural
• Capacity of LTM

  Unlimited
• Duration of LTM

  Bahrick, as long as the persons lifetime
• Coding of LTM


  Baddeley, semantic
• What two processes are needed in the multi store?

  Attention and rehersal
• What is chunking

  Organizing items into familiar, manageable units
• The Working Memory Model

  Baddeley and Hitch, More detailed STM
• Central Executive


  Controls the WMM, all information passes through it, and then the CE decides which components should process it
• Phonological Loop

  Holds information in the form of speech/sound. Split into the Acoustic store and the Articulatory loop
• Visuo - Spatial Sketchpad


  Concerned with the visual and spatial information it organises into separate components.
• Episodic Buffer

  Temporary storage device used to integrate information from the VSS and PL
• Research for WMM

  Dual tasks - Baddeley and Hitch

  Patient KF
• AO3 - WMM

  + Research support

  + Explains STM in more detail

  - CE is too vague
• Retroactive interference


  When a new memory interferes with an old memory
• Proactive interference


  When an old memory interferes with a new memory
• What are cues?


  Cues are prompts that help us retrieve memories.
• Encoding Specificity Principle

  Cues must be present when a memory is encoded
• Context - dependent forgetting


  Accurate recall is reduced when the environment or context is different from that of when the information was learnt
• State - dependent forgetting


  Accurate recall is reduced when the state of the person is different from that of when the information was learnt
• Research - Godden and Baddeley


  Context dependent - sucba divers learn material on land or in water. Most accurate recall was when the environments were matching
• Research - Carter


  State dependent - participants learnt material with either anti-histamines or not. Most accurate recall was when the states matched.
• AO3 - Forgetting

  + Standardised

  + Good application

  - Ethical issues (Carter)
• Eyewitness Testimony and Leading Questions


  A question that suggests or leads to a desired response.
• Research into EWT


  Loftus and Palmer - car crash

  Yuille and Cutshall - real life shooting
• Anxiety


  Yerkes - Dodson Law

  Johnson and Scott - lab study with two conditions
• AO3 - anxiety

  + Ecological validity

  + Reliable

  - Difficult to generalise

  - Low mundane realism
• Cognitive Interview


  Recall everything

  Recall the events in reverse order

  Reinstate the context

  Change the perspective
• Research support for CI

  Fisher - CI produces 46% more detail and was 90% more accurate that standard police interviews
• AO3 - CI


  + Research support

  - Needs training (expensive)

  - Time consuming
• Multi-Store Model of Memory

  Atkinson and Shiffrin

  Sensory register, STM, LTM
• AO3 - Multi Store

  + Provides good understanding

  + Lots of evidence

  - Over simplistic

  - Ignores other factors like motivation
• Capacity of STM


  Jacobs, 7 plus or minus 2
• Duration of STM


  Peterson and Peterson, 18-30 seconds
• Coding of STM


  Baddeley, Acoustic
• Types of LTM


  Semantic, Episodic and Procedural