memory

• the three components of the multistore memory model are : the sensory register , short term memory , long term memory
• the multistore memory model was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin
• sensory register

  • codes according to sensory source
  • brief duration , less than half a second
  • large storage for each of the senses
• short term memory

  • coding thought to be mainly acoustic
  • limited capacity , about 7 chunks of information
  • short duration 15-30 seconds
• long term memory

  • unlimited capacity
  • duration potentially lasts a life time
  • coding thought to be semantic
• Clive Wearing - suffered brain damage as a result of a virus.

  He’s unable to lay down new long term memories but can hold a

  conversation and has a working short term memory. This

  suggests there are separate stores. However, some of Clive’s

  long term memories were intact (procedural) but others

  weren’t (episodic) suggesting LTM is more complicated than

  the MSMM suggests
• evaluation of MSMM

  HM had his hippocampus removed , he was unable to form long term memories but coud learn procedural memories. suggesting long term memory is more complex than one store
• evaluation of MSMM

  KF was brain damaged , short term memory was reduced but could form long term memories . MSMM can't explain how he can make long term memories without a normal short term memory
• evaluation of MSMM

  one strength of MSMM is support from studies showing long term memory and short term memory are different stores
• evaluation of the MSMM

  it puts too much emphasis on rehersal and ignores the role of incidental learning . Incidental learning suggests that some information can pass straight to LTM, whilst other information can be rehearsed but not enter LTM. Therefore, the nature of the material is important in memory, yet this is ignored in this model. So it may actually be that rehearsal is one way, but not the only way, for information to pass to LTM, showing a limitation of the WMM.
• the working memory model consists of the : central executive , the visiospacial sketch pad , the phonological loop , the episodic buffer and the long term memory
• the visiospacial sketch pad

  • capacity limited to 4 objects
  • split further into the visual cache and the inner scribe
  • visual coding
• the episodic buffer

  • capacity limited to about 4 chunks
  • coding id modality free
  • intergrated information from other slave systems with information in the long term memory
• phonological loop

  • stores a limited number of speech based sounds
  • acoustic coding
  • subdivided into the phonological store and the articulatory process
• the central executive

  • directs attention to particular tasks
  • codes information from any source
  • limited capacity
  • allocates tasks to the slave systems
• WMM evaluation

  brain scans support this , when central executive was in use there was activity in the frontal lobe , when the visiospacial sketch pad was in use there was activity in the occipital lobe , supporting the idea that differnt tasks use different areas of the brain
• evaluation of WMM

  support comes from Baddley's dual task research . if we do two tasks at the same time and both tasks need the same slave system our performance will suffer
• WMM evaluation

  more information is needed for the central executive and how it allocates tasks , it is too vague
• evaluation of WMM

  EVR had brain damage , had good reasoning but bad decision making skills this suggests there is more than one central executive
• there are three types of long term memory : semantic , procedural and episodic
• evaluation of different types of long term memory

  • Clive Wearing retained procedural but only some semantic
  • brain scans showed episodic memory involved the right side of the prefrontal cortex but semantic memory involved the left side of the prefrontal cortex
  • some suggest episodic and semantic memories are part of one store called declarative memory
• there are two types of interference : retroactive and proactive
• proactive interference is when the old interferes with the new
• retroactive is when the new interferes with the old
• evaluation of interference

  • Baddley and Hitch found recall was better if rugby players missed one or more games
  • McGeoch and McDonald found that when participants were given synonyms to remember they did worse recalling the word list they had before
• retrieval failure

  • context dependent forgetting is when you can't recall information in a different environment
  • information may have been forgotten due to insufficient cues - these may be internal like your mood or external like your environment
  • the encoding specific principle - the cues must be present at the time of encoding and the time of retrieval
• evaluation of MSMM


  Baddley found we mix up words that sound similar with short term memory , but in long term memory we mix up words that have the same meaning
• evaluation of retrieval failure

  • Godden and Baddley asked diver to learn words under water and on land. when tested in the same environment , they remembered 40% more words than those who were tested in different environments
• ways of improving the eyewitness testimony - developed by Fisher and Geiselman

  • report everything
  • mental reinstatement of original context
  • changing order when recalling
  • changing perspective
• enhanced cognitive interview - developed by Fisher

  • use of eye contact
  • reducing eyewitness anxiety
  • minimising distractions
  • using open ended questions
• evaluation of improving Eye witness testimony

  meta analysis found 34% increase of correct information in the cognitive interview compared to standard techniques
• evaluation for improving the eye witness testimony

  • implications for the economy , it takes longer than a standard interview and requires training
  • but it is more successful at getting information
• evaluation of improving the eye witness testimony

  • it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness as different people use different parts of the interview , so its hard to draw conclusions
• factors that affect the eye witness testimony are : anxiety , post event discussion and leading questions
• evaluation of leading questions

  • Loftus and Palmer asked participants using different verbs when they used when asking how fast cars were going when they crashed . the more dramatic the verb used , the faster the participants guessed the cars were going
  • but , this is a lab experiment so not externally valid
• evaluation of post event discussion

  • Gabert et al gave participants videos to watch with different point of views . he then asked them to discuss . 71% of participants recalled events they had not seen , but picked up from the discussion
• evaluation of anxiety

  • johnson and Scott - investigated the weapon focus effect. with two conditions , the first one they heard a normal conversation and then a man walked in with a pen and grease on his shirt . the second condition , participants heard a heated conversation , then a loud noise and a man walks in with a ( paper knife) and blood on his shirt
  • when asked to identify the man , those in the high anxiety condition could only identify him 33% of the time , compared to others who could 49% of the time
• evaluation of anxiety affecting eye witness testimony

  • witnesses who saw a man get shot , causing high anxiety were still accurate in identifying him 4 months later . those who reported high anxiety were the most accurate
  • in another study , they asked participants to wear heart monitors , those whose heart rate was higher were only 17% accurate , compared to lower heart rates with 75% accuracy