Psychology

• Stages of information processing

  1. Many psychologists compare human memory to a computer's memory

  2. Like a computer we process info through a number of stages
• Types of forgetting


  • Decay - When info hasn't been rehearsed or used enough in memory so fades away over time
  • Displacement - When older info is pushed out by newer info as there isn't enough space in storage
  • Retrieval failure - When info is still in memory yet cannot be easily accessed due to lack of cues
• How the brain works in the formation of memories

  1. Different parts of brain associated with different types of memory

  2. When certain parts of brain damaged (neurological damage), change in structure affects memory function
• Cerebellum


  • Part of the brain associated with procedural memory
  • Very deep in brain so rarely damaged – means that those with severe memory loss rarely forget how to do this (e.g. walk, talk) as procedural memory is part of memory that holds motor skills
• Anterograde amnesia


  • Severe memory loss for experiences and info received after neurological damage
  • Linked to hippocampus – area where new memories are formed
  • People with this are very poor at learning new facts or remembering recent events, but can be taught new skills if procedural memory in tact
• Retrograde amnesia


  • Severe memory loss for experienced and info learnt before neurological damage
  • Linked to frontal lobe – area that holds memories to allow for planning & making judgements
• The multi-store model of memory (MSM)

  1. Inputs come from the environment through the senses into sensory store

  2. It'll move to short term memory store if we pay attention to it, otherwise it'll decay

  3. Short term store has a limited capacity

  4. Older data is displaced by newer data

  5. If data is rehearsed, it'll stay in short term store longer & eventually transfer to long term memory

  6. Data can potentially stay in long term forever & it has an infinite capacity

  7. Data needed to be retrieved back into short term for usage, but sometimes retrieval failure may occur
• Chunk


  An item/set of items related by meaning
• Modality specific coding


  Data is coded in the same format as it enters memory
• Auditory coding


  Data is formatted acoustically (as sound)
• Semantic coding


  Data is stored in an abstract way based on its meaning
• The multi-store model of memory research study (Wilson et al) AKA Clive Wearing study


  1. Aim: Record the neuropsychological assessments & experiences of CW, who suffered from anterograde & retrograde amnesia

  2. Design/method: Longitudinal case study (21 years), Quantitative and qualitative data

  3. Sample: Clive Wearing – born in 1938, was a musician

  4. Materials: Neuropsychological tests - verbal fluency & IQ tests, a digit span test (tested STM & LTM), MRI scans of brain (in 1991 & 2006 – rated by 3 independent experts)

  5. Study outline: March 1985 – CW diagnosed w/ herpes simplex viral encephalitis & given life-saving medication, Oct 1985 – CW referred to Wilson, Nov 1985 – IQ test, 1991 – 1st MRI, 2006 – 2nd MRI

  6. Results: IQ scores declines, Short term memory normal, long term severely affected, Scans showed hippocampal formations, amygdala, mammillary bodies & temporal lobes were different from normal, Always scored 0 on tests of delayed recall (long-term memory), Episodic memory (personal experiences) severely affected & issues w/ semantic memory (facts), Couldn't create new memories/recall old ones – anterograde & retrograde amnesia, Could still talk, read, write, conduct & sight-read music, For many years, didn't accept memory problems & said he wasn't conscious since he became ill
• CW's STM works & LTM didn't = supports MSM (stores are separate)
• Supports idea of different types of LTM – procedural (intact for CW), episodic & semantic – MSM would suggest CW is unable to use elaborative rehearsal or maintenance rehearsal for info to pass to LTM
• CW's sense of self was disrupted by his memory disorder – viral infection herpes simplex encephalitis can – brain damage
• Brain damage can lead to both retrograde & anterograde amnesia
• Criticisms of the Clive Wearing study

  • Small sample - Hard to make generalisations about effects of brain damage from studying one person, others make be affected differently
  • Very rare case = unreliable to draw conclusions on how memory works
  • Researcher bias –relied on researchers' interpretations (interpretations= subjective) of CW's behaviour
  • Didn't know CW before, relied on family accounts of his life before illness (subjective = unreliable)
  • Ethical concerns – Confidentiality (participant was named), Psychological distress (repeatedly tested over 21 years), Welfare not considered (tests weren't to help hum but to understand amnesia), Couldn't consent (extend of brain damage = possibly unable to truly understand what he was consenting to)
• Theory of reconstructive memory

  1. Focuses on the process involved w/ remembering and forgetting

  2. Suggest are recall is rarely accurate, we don't remember things exactly

  3. 'Reconstructive' – theory that we build a version of events/ideas to store

  4. Schemas are important; they're a mental framework for an object/situation we've experienced & we use them to build a 'picture of the world' to make sense of new, incoming information

  5. Experience plays significant role in memory; you need experience to remember

  6. You may misremember (unusual) things as you attempt to make them fit w/ schemas

  7. Schemas also effect expectations; may go into situations knowing what is going to happen rather than relying on direct experience

  8. This means you may not notice changes in proceedings

  9. Schemas are also part of confabulation

  10. Confabulation – relying on past memories to 'fill gaps' to give a more detailed account or understand an event/situation. This is not a conscious process.

  11. Others can influence memories, making them distorted as you heard/seen something elsewhere

  12. The way questions are phrased may also impact memory
• Criticisms of the theory of reconstructive memory

  • Not as reductionist as the multi-store model as it fails to provide a simple & predictable explanation of how memory works, it's takes a more holistic approach and explains memory as a product of may different processes working together
  • Too abstract – concept of schemas difficult to test as it cannot be observed through scanning brain
  • Does not explain how process
• Reconstructive memory

  Relying on past memories to 'fill gaps' to give a more detailed account or understand an event/situation. This is not a conscious process.
• Others can influence memories, making them distorted as you heard/seen something elsewhere
• The way questions are phrased may also impact memory
• As memory is reconstructive, the witness may incorporate this into information into their own memory and can now recall a weapon
• Autobiographical-focused advertising

  Advertising that uses images & themes from the past so audience associates it with their own experiences
• Autobiographical advertising aims to trigger positive memories, so audience associates that with product = wants to buy it
• Reconstructive memory research study – Braun, Ellis and Loftus (2002)

  1. Aim: To see whether autobiographical-focused advertising could directly affect how consumers recall a childhood experience

  2. Hypothesis: If adverts become part how of a consumer's memory is reconstructed, then elements of the images of the advert will appear as part of the memory regardless of whether or not they actually occurred

  3. Hypothesis: If advert causes the consumer to visualise a childhood memory, then the process of imagining the memory will lead consumers to believe they actually shook hands w/ Mickey (as shown in advert)
• Experiment 1

  • Independent measures design
  • IV: Whether participants were shown a Disney advert or a control advert
  • DV: Difference on the Life Event Inventory (LEI) target item; met & shook hands w/ favourite TV character between week one and week two
• Experiment 1 sample

  • 107 undergraduates
  • 64 Female, 43 male
  • American university
  • All randomly assigned to experimental or control group
• Experiment 1 procedure

  1. Week one – Participants giving the LEI plus other experimental tasks

  2. Week two – Participants giving the Disney or control ad & asked to visualise themselves in it, then wrote how the ad made them feel and think for 5 minutes

  3. Asked to rate the advert using attitude and empathy measures

  4. 5 minute distractor task

  5. Researcher returns 'panicked' saying results from previous week LEI 'lost'

  6. Participants completed LEI again

  7. Distractor task 15 mins

  8. Different researcher gives participants questionnaire on memories of visiting Disney resort

  9. Participants asked what the aim of experiment was to test for demand characteristics
• Experiment 2

  • Independent measures design
  • Adverts suggested participants had shaken hands with Bugs Bunny (not a Disney character) or Ariel (a later Disney character)
  • LEI modified so that critical question was "shaking hands with a cartoon character in a theme park" (10 pt scale- definitely did not/definitely did happen)
• Cues

  Triggers information that is hard to retrieve from long-term memory
• Cues

  • Celebrities, situations, feelings
• Avoiding overload

  Short-term memory has limited capacity (& gets overloaded easily) = recently processed info gets displaced quickly
• Avoiding overload

  • TV adverts often present info in small chunks so there's time to process
  • Slogans are short & snappy, so audience isn't overloaded & understands what product is about w/o needing to remember too much info
• Repetition

  Allows information to be stored in long-term memory
• Repetition

  • More we see adverts = more likely to remember details of product
  • Within ads, repetition is also used – product may be shown multiple times & voiceover may repeat key info (such as a phone number)
• Development of neuropsychology for measuring different memory functions

  • Neuropsychologist research has linked between different parts of brain & different memory functions
  • Means test have been developed which assesses these different functions