MEMORY

• What is memory?

  Memory: system of retaining information from daily experiences

  Schemas: mental template for processing information based on personal experiences
• Multi-Store Model - Sensory Register

  Stores are unitary, info flows through them in a fixed, linear order

  Sensory Register: gathers information from sense organs and codes info accordingly. (sense specific)

  1/4 - 2s duration, large capacity.

  Attention passes info to STM, otherwise forgetting occurs due to decay
• Multi-Store Model - Short Term Memory

  Capacity: 5-9 items

  Duration: 30s

  Coding: accoustically

  Information is held in the STM through maintenance rehearsal, and transferred from the STM to the LTM through elaborative rehearsal (info is processed semantically)

  Forgetting occurs due to displacement and decay
• Multi-Store Model - Long Term Memory

  Unlimited capacity

  Duration: few mins - lifetime

  Codes information semantically

  Forgetting occurs due to pro/retroactive interference or retrieval failure (cue-dependent)
• Evaluation for Multi-Store Model

  LTM and STM not unitary: LTM is likely made up of multiple components as Clive Wearing lost his episodic memory but retained procedural memory. MSM too simplistic but evidence for them being separate as primary and recency effects study proves

  Too much emphasis on rehearsal: STM -> LTM doesn't always happen due to rehearsal, lacks face validity as sometimes we remember things that are funny/weird despite not rehearsing
• Types of LTM (Tulving, 1985)

  LTM likely to be a multi-part system:

  Episodic:personal events/experiences e.g birthday party, easy to verbalise, require conscious effort to retrieve, time stamped and emotion based with lots of people involved

  Semantic: facts about the world, knowledge base, requires conscious effort to retrieve, not personal, not time stamped

  Procedural: how to do certain actions, difficult to verbalise, do not require conscious effort to recall
• Evaluation for Long Term Memory research

  Neuro-imaging research evidence: participants were asked to perform diff types of tasks during PET scans which found that episodic mems recalled from pre frontal cortex and semantic mems recalled from posterior region (empirical proof)

  Low Population Validity: small samples used in research e.g. Clive Wearing case study of one unique person, cannot be generalised
• Working Memory Model - Central Executive

  WMM is a model of STM which believes the STM can complete >1 task at a time

  Central executive controls other components and delegates tasks to them, involved in planning, problem solving, decision making, decides what the WMM pays attention to

  Limited - no capacity, each sense is coded differently
• Working Memory Model - Phonological Loop


  Primary Acoustic Store: speech perception, receives auditory info and remembers the order of the sounds

  Articulatory Process: speech production, used to prepare speech using rehearsal

  2s capacity, codes acoustically
• Working Memory Model - VisuoSpatial Sketchpad

  Visual Cache: stores info about form and colour

  Inner Scribe: handles spatial relationships

  3 - 4 objects capacity, codes visually
• Working Memory Model - Episodic Buffer

  Controlled by Central Executive

  Brings together info from VSSP and PL

  Temporary storage of info

  4 chunks of capacity
• Evaluation for Working Memory Model

  CE oversimplified: EVR had a tumour removed and consequently found it very difficult to make decisions but performed well on tests requiring problem solving skills. Suggests the CE is not unitary

  PET scans: brain activity higher in Broca's area when completing verbal tasks and occipital lobe when completing tasks using VSSP. Neurocognitive evidence to prove STM not unitary
• What is forgetting?

  Failure to retrieve memories, memory is 'lost', may be due to lack of accessibility
• Explanations for Forgetting - Interference Theory

  Interference: sets of information compete with each other and they become confused, more likely when info is similar and learnt within a short time gap

  Proactive Interference: PRevious info competes with new info, NEW info forgotten (prev wins)

  Retroactive Interference: REcent info competes with old info, OLD info forgotten (recent wins)
• Evaluation for Interference Theory

  Research Support: nonsense trigrams, 3 times with letters and the 4th with numbers, performance declined 1-3 but recall ~100% for numbers, proves interference HOWEVER this may not reflect real life as experiments lack mundane realism

  Real life application: people who study similar subjects at the same time more likely to forget/confuse info -> helps students in real world as they can structure their studies efficiently to prevent this issue
• Explanations for Forgetting - Retrieval Failure

  Retrieval failure: forgetting due to insufficient cues

  Context Dependent Forgetting: absence of external cues e.g. smells

  State Dependent Forgetting: absence of internal cues e.g. emotional state
• Godden and Baddeley 1975

  Procedure: 18 divers learn 36 unrelated words underwater or on land, and then asked to recall either underwater or on land. 4 different conditions, repeated measures design

  Findings: same context for L&R avg of 11-13 words recalled, diff context avg of 8.5 words recalled

  Conclusion: memory worse when context differs, causes retrieval failure as cues present when learning are not present when recalling
• Goodwin Et Al 1969

  Procedure: male volunteers required to learn words either drunk or sober, then asked to recall either drunk or sober

  Findings: info learned when drunk is more available when in the same state

  Conclusions: memory is better when internal state is consistent during learning and recall, otherwise retrieval failure may occur
• Evaluation of Retrieval Failure

  Research support: Godden and Baddeley, Goodwin et Al

  Application to real life: led to development of the cognitive interview which attempts to provide cues for witnesses to properly recall crimes, same for revision etc and exams -> improves real life
• What is an eyewitness testimony?


  EWT: evidence provided in court by a person who has witnessed the crime to identify the criminal

  Leading Question: suggests a desired answer by form/content

  Post Event Discussion: info discussed after the event which could influence the person's memory causing it to be altered
• Loftus and Palmer 1974

  Procedure: lab experiment, independent groups design, 45 students shown 7 films of different car accidents. “Asked how fast were the cars going when they _ into each other?” Smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted

  Findings: smashed: 40.8mph, contacted: 31.8mph

  Conclusion: leading questions distort EWT leading to inaccurate testimony
• Gabbert Et Al 2003


  Procedure: lab experiment, matched pairs, participants watched the same crime from different angles and saw things the other did not, then discussed what they had seen and took a test on recall

  Findings: 71% recalled aspects they did not see, 60% said she was guilty when they didn’t see her commit a crime

  Conclusion: witnesses go along with each other either due to NSI or ISI, so they should be interviewed ASAP
• Evaluation of Research on Misleading Information


  Real life application: led to practical use on when/how to interview witnesses -> improves how the legal system works and ensures justice

  Lab experiments: watching clips of accidents etc doesn’t hold the same stress as seeing a real crime and stress may affect recall, but EVs easily controlled and standardised
• Johnson and Scott 1976

  Procedure: participants asked to sit outside a room and heard a discussion between two people: peaceful convo and the man emerged with a pen and grease on his hands or heated convo, breaking glass and a man emerged with a knife covered in blood

  Findings: low anxiety condition: 49% accurately identified the man, high anxiety: 33%

  Conclusion: weapon -> anxiety -> poor recall
• Evaluation of Research into Anxiety


  Ethical issues: purposely causing someone anxiety and stress for science is questionable

  Other research shows that emotional arousal may enhance accuracy of EWT. In a bank robbery, witnesses who had been threatened were more likely to correctly recall.
• What is a Cognitive Interview?


  Police technique for interviewing witnesses to a crime. Encourages Them to recreate the original context which increases accessibility of stored memories.
• Cognitive Interview - Context Reinstatement

  Interviewee is returned to the situation in their mind, interviewer encourages interviewer to mentally recreate the environment with cues such as lighting, smells, mood and then ask them to think about before, after, and during the crime

  Leads to mental consistency between the contexts which leads to accurate recall due to presence of cues
• Cognitive Interview - Report Everything

  Report every detail about the situation, even trivial things that do not seem relevant

  Witnesses may not understand what is relevant and helpful, and small details may trigger other memories
• Cognitive Interview - Recall from Changed Perspective


  Mentally recreate the scene from another person's perspective e.g a different angle

  Disrupts the effect of schemas and make the witness think about what actually happened
• Cognitive Interview - Recall in Reverse Order


  Begin describing the scene from when the crime happened and work backwards

  Prevents the use of schemas and also prevents lying as it is difficult to lie in reverse
• Evaluation of the Cognitive Interview

  Supporting Evidence: Ps shown videos of a crime and interviewed 48 hours later and found that CI gave most accurate responses, then hypnosis, then a standard interview -> CI enhances recall

  Cost: CI costs a lot of time and money as they take time and often require special training to carry out, but it is considered worth it as it helps get accurate testimony