Multi-Store Model of Memory

• Examiners seek accurate and detailed knowledge, clear and coherent answers, and effective use of terminology.
• Application questions require clear links between theory and scenario, mentioning all individuals involved for optimal marks.
• A-level answers need effective integration and explanation of issues and debates within the answer's context.

Multi-Store Model (MSM) of Memory

• Proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin, it's a structural model with three stores: sensory register, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM).
• Information flows linearly between these unitary stores.
• Sensory memory gathers information from senses.
• Attention converts sensory input into STM.
• Information moves from STM to LTM through rehearsal.
• Maintenance rehearsal (repetition) keeps data in STM, potentially creating LTMs.
• Without maintenance rehearsal, information is lost from STM via displacement or decay.
• Encoding is how information is changed to be stored in memory.
  • Encoding includes visual (picture), acoustic (sound), and semantic (meaning) methods.
• Capacity is the amount of information that can be stored.
• Duration is the length of time information can be stored in memory.

Characteristics of Each Memory Store:

• Sensory Register:
  • Duration: ¼ to ½ second.
  • Capacity: Very large, holds all sensory experiences.
  • Encoding: Sense-specific (different stores for each sense).
• Short Term Memory (STM):
  • Duration: 0-18 seconds.
  • Capacity: 7 +/- 2 items.
  • Encoding: Primarily acoustic.
• Long Term Memory (LTM):
  • Duration: Unlimited.
  • Capacity: Unlimited.
  • Encoding: Mainly semantic, but can be visual or acoustic.

Criticism of MSM:

• The model's focus on rehearsal depth overlooks how different material types create varying memory traces, even with similar rehearsal time.
• The model neglects the impact of attention, meaningfulness and interest on memory trace depth and recall.

Strengths of MSM

• It offers a foundational understanding of STM structure and processes
• It allows researchers to build upon and refine the model.

Limitations of MSM

• Oversimplification of STM and LTM
  • For example, the Working Memory Model offers a more complex view of STM.
• The model suggests rehearsal is essential for LTM transfer and struggles to explain recall of unrehearsed information or failure to recall rehearsed information.

Research on MSM

• Glanzer and Cunitz:
  • Participants remember the first and last words on a list (serial position effect).
  • Supports separate LTM (primacy effect) and STM (recency effect) stores.
• Case of KF:
  • Motorcycle crash patient had impaired STM but intact LTM, supporting the STM and LTM distinction.

Types of Long-Term Memory

• Proposed by Tulving and later refined by Cohen and Squire
  • Includes episodic, semantic, and procedural memory types.

Procedural Memory

• Implicit LTM for knowing how to do things (motor skills).
• Unconscious and non-declarative.
• Example: Riding a bicycle.

Semantic Memory

• LTM for storing world information, word meanings, and general knowledge.
• Conscious and declarative.
• Example: Knowing London is the capital of England.

Episodic Memory

• LTM for storing personal event experiences.
• Conscious and declarative.
• Example: Remembering your first day at school.

Declarative vs. Procedural Knowledge

• Cohen and Squire distinguished between declarative ("knowing that") and procedural ("knowing how") knowledge.
• Amnesia research supports this distinction, affecting declarative memory but often leaving procedural memory intact.

Working Memory Model (WMM)

• Baddeley and Hitch's model replaces the unitary STM idea with a system for active processing and short-term storage.
• Includes the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad.
• The central executive is a supervisory system that filters and directs information, has limited capacity, and processes one piece of information at a time.
• Phonological Loop:
  • Storage system for auditory information in a speech-based form.
  • Consists of the phonological store (inner ear) and the articulatory process (inner voice).
• Visuospatial Sketchpad (VSS):
  • Temporary memory system for visual and spatial information.
  • Contains the visual cache (form and color storage) and the inner scribe (records object arrangements).
• Episodic Buffer:
  • Acts as a backup store communicating with LTM and working memory components, integrating LTM into STM when required.

Strengths of WMM

• Supported by dual-task studies
  • Easier to perform two tasks using different processing systems (e.g., verbal and visual) simultaneously.
• KF Case Study supports the WMM
  • KF had impaired verbal STM but largely unaffected visual memory, suggesting separate components.

Limitations of WMM

• Limited understanding of central executive function.
• Doesn't explain the link between working memory and LTM.

Research on WMM

• Baddeley and Hitch (dual-task experiment):
  • Participants performed digit span and verbal reasoning tasks concurrently.
  • Increased digits slowed reasoning but didn't significantly increase errors.
  • Conclusion: Verbal reasoning uses the central executive, and the digit span uses the phonological loop.

Explanations for Forgetting: Interference

• Interference:
  • LTM explanation where two sets of information become confused.
• Proactive interference:
  • Old learning interferes with the recall of new information.
  • Retroactive interference:
  • New learning interferes with the recall of old information.
• Interference is more likely when memories are similar.
• Semantic memory is more resistant to interference than other memory types.

Research on Interference

• Postman (1960):
  • Experimental group learned two word lists; control group learned one.
  • Control group recalled the first list more accurately, showing retroactive interference.
• Limitations:
  • The theory tells little about cognitive processes.
  • Primarily lab-based, limiting ecological validity.
  • Tasks may be too close together compared to real-life events.

Explanations for Forgetting: Retrieval Failure

• Retrieval failure
  • Information is available in LTM but inaccessible without appropriate cues
• Retrieval cues
  • Stored information about the situation
• Types of cues:
  • Context: External cues (e.g., smell, place).
    • Retrieval is better when the encoding context matches the retrieval context.
  • State: Internal bodily cues (e.g., physical, emotional, mood).
    • Memory is best when a person's state is similar at encoding and retrieval.
  • Organization: Using structure and categories as triggers

Evaluation of Retrieval Failure Theory

• Forgetting is greatest when context and state differ significantly between encoding and retrieval.

Research on Retrieval Failure

• Baddeley (1975)
  • Deep-sea divers recalled words better in the environment where they learned them (beach or underwater).
  • Demonstrates the importance of context for retrieval.
• Goodwin (alcohol and state-dependent retrieval):
  • People recalled information better when in the same state (sober or drunk) as when they encoded it.

Limitations of Retrieval Failure

• Ecological validity of experiments can be questioned
  • Findings are supported by real-world examples like childhood memories triggered by returning to familiar places.

Eyewitness Testimony: Misleading Information

• Loftus and Palmer researched how misleading information can distort eyewitness accounts.
• Participants viewed a car accident video and described what happened.
• They answered a question about the cars' speed using different verbs (e.g., "hit," "smashed").
• The verb used affected the estimated speed
  • "Smashed" led to higher speed estimates than "hit".

Evaluation of Misleading Information

• Lacks mundane realism and ecological validity because video clips don't replicate the emotional impact of real accidents.
• Students are not representative because students may estimate speeds less accurately
• Replicable - laboratory experiments followed standardized procedures.

Eyewitness Testimony: Anxiety

• Yerkes-Dodson effect
  • EWT accuracy is lower when anxiety is very low or very high but more accurate at a moderate level.
• High anxiety causes focus on the anxiety source (e.g., a weapon), reducing attention to other details.
• Clifford and Scott found that participants who saw a violent film recalled fewer details than those who saw a less stressful version.

Research on Eyewitness Testimony

• Yuille and Cutshall studied real-life shooting witnesses and found their accounts accurate even after months. Stress levels didn't affect memory negatively.

Limitations of Eyewitness Testimony

• Witnesses who reported higher stress were closer to the event
• Accuracy may be due to surprise rather than anxiety, lacking internal validity.
• Real-world application: Stressful events can lead to inaccurate memories.

The Cognitive Interview

• A police technique to interview witnesses involving recreating the original context to improve information accessibility.
• Involves:
  • Context Reinstatement: Mentally recreating the environment and emotions of the event.
  • Recall from a Changed Perspective: Describing the event from different viewpoints.
  • Recall in Reverse Order: Recalling events in a non-chronological order.
  • Report Everything: Reporting all details, even seemingly unimportant ones.

The Enhanced Cognitive Interview includes:

• Encouraging relaxation, slow speech, clarifying questions, and adapting to individual understanding.

Evaluation of cognitive interviews

• Time-consuming and requires extensive training.
• Some elements may be more valuable than others.
• Geiselman (1985) found that the cognitive interview elicited more accurate facts than standard or hypnosis-based interviews.

Attachment

• An emotional bond between two people seeking closeness and security.

Caregiver-Infant Interactions

• Baby-led interactions where adults respond to infant behavior.

Reciprocity

• Infant and caregiver mutually respond to each other's signals.
• An infant smiles, triggering a smile in the caregiver, and vice versa.
• Influences the child's physical, social, and cognitive development

Interactional Synchrony

• Interaction where two people mirror each other's movements, emotions, and behaviors.
• Infants coordinate actions with caregivers, creating a 'conversation'.
• Caregivers respond to the infant's state with playful stimulation.

Evaluation of Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony

• Infants who imitate from birth have better relationships at 3 months.
• Observations capture fine behavioral details.
• Babies don't know they are being observed (good validity)
• However, it's hard to determine an infant's perspective.

Stages of Attachment

• Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
  • Longitudinal study observed 60 babies for 18 months in their homes.
  • Monitored separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, and social referencing.

Stages of Attachment development in sequence:

• Asocial (0-6 weeks):
• Social and non-social stimuli yield favorable reactions.
• Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks to 7 months):
• Enjoy human company; respond to any caregiver.
• Specific Attachment (7-9 months):
  • Preference for a single attachment figure. Demonstrates stranger fear and separation anxiety.
• Multiple Attachments (10 months onwards):
• Forms multiple attachments, becomes more independent.
• Attachments form with those responsive to the baby's signals (sensitive responsiveness).
• Intensely attached infants had responsive mothers.

Evaluation of Stages of Attachment

• Low population validity (Glasgow working-class families).
• A small sample size of 60 families reduces the strength of the conclusion.
• Data collection reliant on parental diaries.
• Study doesn't consider historical validity.

Multiple Attachments

• Most babies in Schaffer and Emerson's study had multiple attachments by 10 months.
• By 18 months, 31% had five or more attachments (mother was primary for half).
• Attachments are structured in a hierarchy.

The Role of the Father

• Fathers adopt a play-mate role, encouraging risk-taking
• Infants prefer fathers for play when in a positive state and mothers for comfort when distressed.

Factors Affecting the Father's Role

• Fathers affected his child’s emotional development
  • Factors include culture, father's age, and time spent away from home.
• Men may lack the emotional sensitivity for intense attachment.
  • Field found that fathers as primary caregivers adopt more maternal behaviors.

Limitation of studies on the Role of the Father

• Limited by economic factors

Harlow's Monkey Studies

• Harlow studied attachment mechanisms in rhesus monkeys using wire monkeys (one cloth-covered).
• Monkeys preferred the cloth-covered monkey for comfort, regardless of which provided milk.

Ethical Concerns of Harlow's Monkey Studies

• The monkeys suffered emotional harm and social problems due to isolation.

Justifications of Harlow's Monkey Studies

• It provided valuable insight into attachment and social behavior
• It influenced Bowlby's attachment theory
• It showed the importance of emotional care.

Limitations of Harlow's Monkey Studies

• Significant differences in the heads of the two wired monkeys which then acted as a confounding variable within the study
• Findings lack internal validity.

Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz's Imprinting Theory

• Lorenz studied imprinting in goslings, who followed the first moving object they saw (Lorenz) during a critical period.
• Suggests attachment is innate and genetically programmed.

Limitations of Lorenz's Imprinting Theory

• Hoffman suggests imprinting is not irreversible.
• Guiton found that chicks could engage in normal behavior after spending time with their species.

Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

• Dollard & Miller (1950)
  • Attachment is learned through classical and operant conditioning (nurture).
  • Food (UCS) creates pleasure (UCR);
  • the mother becomes the conditioned stimulus.
  • Operant conditioning: Caregiver is reinforcing for the infant, and infant behavior reinforces the caregiver.
  • Secondary drive hypothesis: Primary drives (e.g., hunger) become associated with secondary drives (emotional closeness).

Problems with the Learning Theory of Attachment

• Schaffer and Emerson: Less than half of infants had primary attachment to feeder.
• Harlow: Monkeys preferred soft surrogate mothers over feeding ones.
• Lorenz: Goslings imprinted on the first moving object, not food.
• Overly simplistic explanation.
• Food is not the main factor in the formation of all attachments.

Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby's Monotropic Theory

• Bowlby proposed attachment is crucial for a child's survival, evolved through natural selection.
• Infants are biologically programmed with innate behaviors.
• 0 - 2.5 years is a critical period for attachment.
• Monotropy is the innate need to attach to one main figure (usually the mother). Other attachments form a hierarchy below this.
• The relationship with the primary caregiver provides an internal working model, influencing later relationships.
• Internal working model features a model of trustworthiness, self-value, and effectiveness.

Limitation of Bowlby's Monotropic Theory

• Konard Lorenz's and Rutter's research conflict

Van Ijzendoorn suggests:

• A stable network of adults could provide better care than one mother

Ainsworth's Strange Situation

• Controlled observation to assess attachment between a child and caregiver, involving a series of episodes with entries/exits.
• Secure: Distressed when the mother leaves, happy on return, avoids strangers alone, the mother is a safe base to explore - 70%.
• Resistant: Intense distress when the mother leaves, avoids strangers, approaches the mother but resists contact, explores less - 15%.
• Avoidant: No sign of distress when the mother leaves, okay with strangers, shows little interest when the mother returns - 15%.

Limitations of Ainsworth's Strange Situation

• The sample used was American, not generalisable.
• The environment may be too contrived

Cultural Variations in Attachment

• Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
  • Meta-analysis of 32 studies across 8 countries to examine universal vs. culturally specific attachment styles.
• Secure attachment was the most frequent in all cultures (70%). Germany showed high insecure-avoidant; Japan had high insecure-resistant.
• Variations within cultures were larger than between cultures.

Limitations of cultural variations in attachment

• Biased samples and cross-cultural application of the strange situation which was created in the USA

Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation

• Continual disruption of infant attachment results in long-term emotional and cognitive difficulties
• Effects were originally theought to be permanent
• Aggression, Delinquency, Dwarfism, Intellectual retardation, Depression, Dependency, Affectionless Psychopathy, and Social maladjustment can all occur.
• Affectionless psychopathy is the inability to show affection/concern, lack of shame, acting on impulse.

Bowlby's 44 Juvenile Thieves Aim

• To investigate the long-term effects of maternal deprivation The study
• Children and their parents were interviewed focusing on early life experiences.
• Findings: 14 children were identified as affectionless psychopaths
• They'd experienced prolonged separation

Evaluation of Theories of Maternal Deprivation

• Bolwby's theory is supported by Harlow's work
• The theory can be used for the improvement of facilities taking care of young children like orphanages and maternity units.
• The influence of socila factors must be taken into account like privation and good emotional care.