memory - ao3

• capacity of stm

  P research support

  E simon (1974)

  E found that people with had a shorter memory span for larger chunks, such as 8 word phrases

  L continues to support the view that stm has limited capacity
• capacity of stm

  P individual differences

  E jacobs

  E found that recall increased steadily with age. 8 year olds could remember an average of 6.6 words, meanwhile 19 year olds could remember 8.6

  L suggests that the capacity of STM is not fixed and differs
• duration of stm

  P research support for short duration

  E peterson and peterson (1959)

  E recall decreased as the seconds went by, only 2% correct after 18 seconds

  L continues to suggest that stm has a short duration
• duration of stm

  P testing on duration was artificial

  E participants were asked to remember consonant syllables

  E this does not reflect everyday memory tasks with meaningful information

  L therefore, results may not apply to real life

  C however, we do sometimes try to remember groups of number and letters (phone numbers, postcode)
• coding for stm

  P research suggests that stm is coded acoustically

  E baddeley (1966)

  E participants had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words when using stm

  L implies stm is largely coded acoustically
• coding for stm

  P may not be exclusively acoustic

  E brandimonte et al. (1992)

  E participants used visual coding in stm if they were given a visual task

  L this suggests that other types of coding may be used for stm
• coding for ltm

  P research suggests that it is coded semantically

  E baddeley

  E semantically similar words led to muddled ltms

  L implies ltm is mainly coded semantically
• coding for ltm

  P ltm is not always coded semantically

  E nelson (1972)

  E found evidence for acoustic coding in ltm

  L coding may vary according to circumstance
• coding for LTM

  P baddeley may not have tested LTM

  E he waited 20 minutes

  E it is questionable whether this is really LTM

  L casts doubt on the validity of his research
• multi store model of memory

  P research support

  E squire et al. (1992)

  E used controlled lab studies of brain scanning and found that the hippocampus is active when LTM is engaged

  L provides support for separate 'stores' of memory
• multi store model of memory

  P support from case studies

  E HM (milner et al. 1957)

  E his hippocampus was removed, and despite his personality and intellect remaining the same, he was unable to form new LTMS

  L provides support for MSM's notion of separate stores
• multi store model of memory

  P emphasis on maintenance rehearsal

  E craik and tulving (1975)

  E found evidence of 'deep' processing to forming memories compared to 'shallow' processing

  L this suggests that the process of rehearsal does not fully explain the process of creating LTMs
• working memory model


  P evidence from case studies

  E KF - warrington et al. (1970)
• working memory model

  P the central executive is too vague

  E it only appears to allocate resources

  E it is therefore essentially the same as attention. There may also be separate components

  L therefore, it is too vague and lacks explanatory power
• types of LTM

  P evidence from brain scans

  E brain scan research

  E episodic is associated with the hippocampus, semantic with the temporal lobe and procedural with the cerebellum

  L provides support for three different types of memory
• types of LTM

  P possibility of a fourth type

  E spiers et al. (2001)

  E priming describes how implicit memories influence the response a person makes. for example, if they are given a list of words including the word 'yellow' they are more likely to answer 'banana'

  L suggests a fourth kind of LTM, the perceptual representation system, and the original theory of three types is too simplistic
• interference

  P real life applications

  E danaker et al. (2008)

  E round that recall of an advert's message was impaired when exposed to two adverts from competing brands in a week

  L demonstrates how interference research can help advertisers maximise the effectiveness of their campaign
• interference

  P individual differences

  E kane and engle (2000)

  E found that individuals with greater working memory were less susceptible to proactive interference

  L highlights the role that individual differences play in how people are affected by interference
• retrieval failure

  P lots of research support

  E pearlstone et al. (1996)

  E conducted a lab experiment that demonstrated the power of retrieval cues, which had relevance to everyday memory

  L the study had ecological validity
• retrieval failure

  P real world application

  E smith (1976)

  E claimed just thinking of the room in which you did your original learning improves recall in exams. this can also be applied to the cognitive interview

  L shows how it can be used to improve recall in real life situations

  C Smith and Vela (2001) argued that context effects are largely eliminated when learning meaningful material
• accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading info

  P research support

  E loftus et al. (2002)

  E college students who visited disneyland as children were shown misleading information including bugs bunny (not a disney character) and ariel (not there at the time of their childhood). many subsequently reported having seen these characters

  L shows the power of misleading information in creating false memories
• accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading info

  P real world application

  E wells et al. (2003)

  E warnings like this have been confirmed by this research, which showed it was the largest single factor contributing to the conviction of innocent people

  L psychological investigations can be used to warn the justice system of problems with eyewitness identification evidence, demonstrating the importance of this research
• accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading info

  P loftus' study lacked ecological validity

  E foster et al. (1994)

  E found that if participants thought they were watching a real life robbery, and if they thought their responses would influence the trial, identification improved. the participants may not have been emotionally aroused enough in this lab experiment.

  L suggests that misleading info may have less effect than loftus concluded
• christianson and hubinette's study (anxiety as a positive)

  P real life study

  E christianson and hubinette (1995)

  E lab studies do not create real levels of anxiety felt in real crimes

  L therefore, this is a strong study because it studied eyewitness testimonies in the context of a real crime
• accuracy of eyewitness testimonies: anxiety (as a positive)

  P individual differences

  E bothwell et al. (1987)

  E participants showing to be emotionally sensitive recalled less accurately when stressed

  L this would suggest that individual differences play a role, and anxiety is not always positive
• accuracy of eyewitness testimony: anxiety (as a negative)

  P research support for the weapon focus effect

  E steblay

  E meta analysis of studies of the weapon focus effect shows that it reduces the chance of accurately identifying the person holding it

  L supports the theory of the weapon focus effect
• accuracy of eyewitness testimony: anxiety (as a negative)

  P weapon focus effect may not be caused by anxiety

  E pickel (1998)

  E proposed that it could instead be caused by surprise. participants watched a thief in a hairdressers with both high and low threats and high and low surprise. identification was least accurate around high surprise rather than threat

  L weapon focus effect is linked to surprise rather than anxiety
• cognitive interview

  P research support

  E kohnken et al. (1999)

  E meta analysis found an increase of 34% in the amount of correct information gathered from cognitive interviews compared to standard interview techniques

  L therefore, it is effective for increasing the accessibility of stored information
• cognitive interview

  P time and training needed to implement it

  E kebal and wagstaff (1996)

  E requires special training and it takes up more time than often available to the interview witness

  L the use of cognitive interview has therefore not been widespread