Quizlet flashcards Memory

• Study notes on memory, covering capacity, duration, encoding, models of memory, forgetting, eyewitness testimony (EWT), and cognitive interviews (CI).

Study of STM Capacity

• Miller's Immediate Digit Span Test and Jacobs' research supports the idea of limited STM capacity.

Study of STM Duration

• Peterson and Peterson used trigrams to show STM duration is short.
• Participants recalled consonant syllables after intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 seconds while counting backwards from a 3-digit number.
• Recall accuracy dropped from 90% at 3 seconds to 2% at 18 seconds, suggesting STM duration is less than 18 seconds.

Study of LTM Duration

• Bahrick's study tested memory of high school classmates.
• Participants completed free recall, photo recognition, and name recognition tasks.
• Photo recognition accuracy was 90% after 15 years and 70% after 48 years.
• Free recall accuracy was 60% after 15 years and 30% after 48 years.
• Results suggest LTM has a potentially unlimited duration

Study of Encoding

• Baddeley used semantically/acoustically similar/dissimilar words.
• Participants struggled with acoustically similar words in STM and semantically similar words in LTM.
• STM is primarily encoded acoustically, while LTM is encoded semantically as a result.

Capacity of STM

• STM has a capacity of 7 +/- 2 units.

Capacity of LTM

• LTM has a potentially unlimited capacity.

Duration of STM

• STM has a duration of approximately 30 seconds.

Duration of LTM

• LTM has a potentially unlimited duration.

Encoding in STM

• STM is mainly encoded acoustically.

Encoding in LTM

• LTM is mainly encoded semantically.

Multi-Store Model (MSM)

• MSM suggests memory flows from sensory memory to STM via attention, then to LTM via elaborative rehearsal.
• Maintenance rehearsal in STM can keep information there, forgetting occurs through retrieval failure, interference, or decay.

What the MSM Model Suggests

• Memory consists of multiple stores, involving a sequence between these stores to explain memory.

Evidence to Support the MSM

• Glanzer and Cunnitz's primacy and recency effect, HM (impaired LTM), Beardsley (prefrontal cortex for STM, hippocampus for LTM).
• Bahrick, Peterson and Peterson, Miller, Baddeley all provide supporting evidence for the MSM model.

Evaluation of the MSM

• The model's simplicity is both a strength (easy to understand) and a weakness (oversimplified).
• There is supporting evidence for the MSM Model.

Working Memory Model (WMM)

• WMM proposes that STM consists of multiple stores, suggesting MSM is too simple

Central Executive

• The central executive directs attention to tasks and controls the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Phonological Loop

• The phonological loop processes and retains the order of heard information.
• It is divided into the phonological store (inner ear) and the articulatory process (inner voice).

Phonological Loop Subdivisions

• Phonological store (stores heard information, inner ear).
• Articulatory process (subvocal repetition, inner voice)

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

• The visuo-spatial sketchpad plans spatial tasks and stores visual or spatial information.

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad Subdivisions

• Visual cache (visual information).
• Inner scribe (processes spatial relations).

Episodic Buffer

• The episodic buffer integrates information from all other STM stores.

Evidence for the WMM

• Hitch and Baddeley's dual-task experiments and KF's case (verbal impaired, visual fine).

Evaluation of the WMM

• The model lacks evidence for the central executive.
• There is supporting evidence for separate STM stores (Hitch and Baddeley).
• Lieberman suggests dividing the visuo-spatial sketchpad into separate visual and spatial components, as spatial awareness isn't always visual

Types of LTM

• Episodic memories: personal experiences/events.
• Procedural memories: how to do things, acquired through repetition.
• Semantic memories: facts and knowledge, often transitioning from episodic memories.

Interference Theory

• Proactive interference: old information interferes with new information.
• Retroactive interference: new information interferes with old information.

Evidence for Interference Theory

• Proactive interference: Underwood's meta-analysis showed later word lists are harder to learn due to earlier lists. After memorizing 10+ lists, recall after 24 hours was low.
• Retroactive interference: Muller's study gave participants a list of nonsense syllables to learn and recall, intervening tasks decreased recall.
• Rugby players forgetting earlier games due to new games.

Retrieval Failure

• Retrieval failure occurs due to the absence of cues, suggesting cues are needed to recall information.
• Cues act as reminders by having a meaningful link or environmental cue to a memory.

Encoding Specificity Principle

• Cues should be close to the original encoded information to aid retrieval.
• A study involving word category recall found that providing category cues at recall (60%) improved recall compared to free recall (40%).

Context-Dependent Forgetting

• The context during learning acts as a cue, and its absence hinders retrieval.
• Godden and Baddeley's scuba diver study found recall was better when the learning and recall environments matched (land or underwater).

State-Dependent Forgetting

• The mental state during learning acts as a cue.
• Goodwin's study found recall was better when participants were in the same state (drunk or sober) during learning and recall.

Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony (EWT) Accuracy

• Age, anxiety, leading questions, post-event discussion.

Leading Questions and EWT

• Loftus and Palmer's car crash study used different verbs (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted) in questions about speed.
• The verb "smashed" led to higher speed estimates.
• Participants in the "smashed" condition were more likely to falsely remember seeing broken glass.

Post-Event Discussion

• Memory can be altered by discussing events with others.
• Gabbert's study found that witnesses who discussed the event made more mistakes in recall.

Anxiety and EWT Study

• Johnson & Scott's weapon focus effect: participants saw a man with either a pen (low anxiety) or a knife (high anxiety).
• Identification accuracy was lower in the knife condition (high anxiety).

Positive Effect of Anxiety on Accuracy

• Evolutionary explanation: remembering emotionally important events is adaptive.
• A study of bank robbery witnesses found that those with higher anxiety (victims) recalled more than those with lower anxiety (bystanders).

Resolution of Anxiety Effect on EWT

• A psychologist reviewed 21 studies and found contradictory evidence, which led to developing the Yerkes-Dodson effect.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

• EWT accuracy increases with anxiety to an optimal point, then declines.

Limitations for Weapon Focus Being Caused by Anxiety

• Weapon focus may be caused by surprise, not anxiety.
• A study found that identification of a suspect was lowest in high-surprise conditions (raw chicken).

Cognitive Interview (CI) Techniques

• MRCC: mental reinstatement of original context, report everything, change order, change perspective.
• Mental reinstatement allows for emotional and contextual cues.
• Reporting everything triggers bigger memories and pieces smaller things together.
• Changing order/perspective removes schemas.

Evaluation of CI

• A meta-analysis of 53 studies found a 34% increase in correct information with CI.
• Kohnken's study found CI increased correct information (81%) and incorrect information (61%); police must handle information carefully.
• CI requires time, which police officers may lack

Limitations of a Standard Interview

• Standard interviews use close-ended questions.
• Standard Interviews do not maximize recall.
• Brief questions elicit facts.
• Witness concentration broken by interruptions as a result.