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~psychology~ MEMORY paper 2 (THE WORKING MEMORY MODEL designed by…
~psychology~
MEMORY
paper 2
THE MULTI STORE MODEL OF MEMORY
designed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968
SENSORY REGISTER
takes in sensory information from our 5 senses
SR enables you to remember sensory stimuli after your exposure to the stimuli has ended
Coding in the SR
little coding and remains in its raw form
iconic register: memory for visual information
echoic register: memory for auditory information
haptic register: memory for touch
crowder 1993
-information is coded according to its sense modality
Duration in the SR
up to 0.5 seconds
up to 3 seconds for echoic memory
treisman 1964
-presented identical info through both ears with a delay
-at 2 secs or less they could state that the messages were identical however after 2 secs it became difficult and errors were made
-suggesting the echoic memory in SR is around 2 secs
Capacity in the SR
very large
sperling 1960
-flashed grid of letters 3x4 for 1/20 of a second, they had to recall letters from a specific row as indicated by pitch of a noise
-the recall was highly accurate suggesting all the letters have been available in their SR
SHORT TERM MEMORY
comes from paying attention to info from the SR
Coding in the STM
acoustic from rehearsal
can possibly be visual or semantic
Baddeley 1966
-found that lists of words that sounded the same were harder to recall than dissimilar words
-showing words tend to be coded acoustically
Baddeley 1966
+could help students revise effectively
-used artificial stimuli in uncommon situations
-lacks ecological validity so is not applicable to every day life
Duration in the STM
15 to 30 seconds, but cam be extended
Peterson and Peterson 1959
-presented trigrams for duration of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 seconds and asked them to count backwards in threes from a random three digit number to supress rehearsal
-correct recall diminished the longer the delay
-3 seconds 80% trigrams recalled
-6 seconds 50% trigrams recalled
-18 seconds less than 10% trigrams recalled
Peterson and Peterson 1959
+is a possibility to use more realistic stimuli
-meaningless stimuli
-low external validity
Capacity in the STM
around 5-9 chunks (7+-2)
differences in capacity depending on the type of information
Jacobs 1887
-presented them with a sequence of letters/digits and recorded their memory span deciding that, for his research, a person's memory span was the longest sequence of items recalled 50% of the time
-on average 9.3 digits were correctly recalled in any order and 7.3 were recalled in correct order
Miller
-found that people could not only recall 7 individual items but also 7 chunks of information
Jacobs 1887
-conducted a long time ago
-may not have been strictly controlled so may have not been very accurate
-Cowan et al 2005, Mathy and Feldman 2012 both found that only 3.87 items could be correctly recalled so Jacob's over exaggerated the capacity
LONG TERM MEMORY
potentially permanent memory store
Duration in LTM
a lifetime
Bahrick et al 1975
-found that 48 years after leaving school they could put names to faces in their year book with 70% accuracy
-when asked to free recall the names there was only a 30% accuracy
-shows things can be remembered for a long time and can be recalled with the right cues
Bahrick et al 1975
+high external validity
+high ecological validity because of the natural setting
Capacity in LTM
unlimited
Standing et al
-gave them 2560 photos for 5 or 10 seconds per picture
-even 36 hours later they could identify the correct photo when paired with a new scene around 90% of the time
-can be unlimited at least in picture form
Coding in LTM
semantically, meaning it has importance to us
also possibly visual and acoustic
Baddeley 1966
-presented them with a group semantically similar or dissimilar
-he found that they were better able to recall the semantically dissimilar words
Baddeley 1966
+could help students revise effectively
-used artificial stimuli in uncommon situations
-lacks ecological validity so is not applicable to every day life
EVALUATION
supporting
studies showing scientific evidence
Glanzer and Cunitz
-prevented from rehearsing a list of words by counting backwards
-remembered the words at the beginning of the list, LTM and the end of the list, STM best
these findings support the distinction between STM and LTM and the role of rehearsal
MRI scans show different areas of the brain are active when doing tasks requiring either LTM or STM
Beardsley 1997
-found that the pre-frontal cortex is active when individuals are involved with STM
Squire et al 1992
-found that the hippocampus is active when LTM is engaged
supports that they're unitary stored
challenging
other research has shown memory is a product of processing info, not rehearsal
participants were asked stimulus words at different processing levels
-words requiring a shallow level of processing were less likely to be recalled
-words requiring a deep level of processing were more likely to be recalled
demonstrates that how information is processed is important to memory contradicting that rehearsal is required therefore giving doubts about the multi store model
fails to explain
MSM suggests STM and LTM are unitary stores but later evidence suggested that was too simple
Clive Wearing
-had a virus that caused damage to the hippocampus, he had no STM and his LTM was affected, he could remember how to play piano but couldn't remember events from a long time ago
STM and LTM as their own stores was too simple so they should be considered to have multiple stores, led to the development of the working memory model
suggests that to transfer between STM and LTM there must be rehearsal
plenty of evidence from everyday life that it can pass with out rehearsal by accident
doesn't indicate how many LTMs are formed during our day to day existence
applications
can be used to give greater understanding of how memory works which can be helpful to people who rely heavily on their memories like students
the model shows students to pass info to LTM they need to repeat the info required
confirms the importance of effective revision if students want to do well in exams
TYPES OF LONG TERM MEMORY
episodic memory
first suggested by Tulving 1972
gives individuals an autobiographical record of things that have happened to them
what happened, where it happened and when it happened
they are constructed rather than being reproductions of what happened so they can be prone to errors and illusions
conscious effort to recall (explicit)
temporal lobe and frontal lobe
semantic memory
facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge about the external world
may have once had a personal context but now stand alone as simple knowledge
includes things such as types of food, capital cities. historical dates and functions of objects
-conscious effort to recall (explicit)
hippocampus, temporal lobe and frontal lobe
procedural memory
the memory of how to do things acquired through repetition and practice composed of automatic sensorimotor behaviours
unconscious (implicit)
cerebellum, basal ganglia and motor cortex
EVALUATION
challenging
other researchers disagree with Tulving's three distinctions of LTM
cohen and squire
-semantic and episodic memory should be understood as the same type of memory, called 'declarative memory'
kan et al 2009
-found that there was interdependence between episodic and semantic memory
the difference between there being two stores or three stores when attempting to help people recover their cognitive functions after illness such as strokes
applications
has led to psychologists targeting specific kinds of memory to make people's lives better
Belleville et al 2006
-demonstrated that episodic memories could be improved with training in older patients with mild cognitive impairment
the shows the tripartite division of LTM has ha tangible benefits to people with cognitive impairment making it a useful theory
supporting
evidence suggests when a person uses episodic memory they use a different part of the brain to when they use semantic memory
Tulving 1989
-injected himself, his wife and 4 other people with radioactive gold to track brain blood flow, he scanned them while they thought about historical facts or childhood experiences
-3/6 participants had increased blood flow at the back of the brain when they thought about historical facts
-where as when he thought about childhood experiences the blood flow increased at the front of the brain
activation of the different areas between the brain when recalling facts or episodes suggests they are separate
many studies using people with amnesia have demonstrated that there are different long term memory stores
Clive Wearing
-virus which damaged his hippocampus which left him with the inability to store episodic or semantic info for any more than a few seconds but his procedural memory was still in tact so he could play piano and write etc.
these findings give strong indication that damage to the specific areas of the brain leave the patients with deficits in one or more type of memory, also supporting that the types of memory are seperate
THE WORKING MEMORY MODEL
designed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974
CENTRAL EXECUTIVE
directs attention to particular tasks and determine how the brain is resources are allocated to tasks
info goes to the CE from the senses or the LTM
has very little capacity
-can't deal with too many things at once
-can't store any data
THE PHONOLOGICAL LOOP
(inner ear and inner voice)
stores a limited amount of speech based sounds
the phonological store
the inner ear
allows acoustically coded items to be briefly stored
the articulatory control system
the inner voice
allows sub vocal repetition
THE VISUO-SPATIAL SKETCH PAD
the inner eye
processes and stores mental images
helps us plan a special task including how to understand space
limited capacity
EVALUATION
explains better
the WMM attempts to explain how memory functions not only describe the structure of it like the MSM
led to greater understanding of cognitive dysfunction
-for example knowledge of the phonological loop with in reading has led to better understanding of dyslexia
led to tangible benefits for dyslexic students
applications
has a lot of practical applications like with children who have ADHD
Alloway 2006
-suggested methods to help children focus on tasks
-use brief and simple instructions so they don't forget what they're doing-break instructions down into steps-frequently repeat instructions-ask child to repeat instructions
development of WMM has clear practical applications to help children sowing how valuable it is
challenging
evidence suggests there isn't just a single CE
Eslinger and Demasio 1985
-EVR had a cerebral tumour removed, when doing tests of reasoning, he performed well which suggested his CE was intact
-but he had poor decision making skills which suggested it wasn't wholly intact
suggests the concept of the CE is unsatisfactory
Baddeley even acknowledged this in 2003 "the CE is the most important but the least understood component of the WMM"
supporting
numerous studies that support the existence of each store
D'Esposito et al 1995
-found using fMRI that the prefrontal cortex was activated when verbal and spatial tasks we performed together but not when performed separately
-suggesting that the brain area is associated with the CE functioning
Trojani and Grossi 1995
-a brain damaged patient had impaired functioning of the phonological loop but had a perfectly functioning visuo spatial sketch pad
-suggesting they're two different stores
Gathercole and Baddeley 1993
-found participants had difficulty simultaneously tracking a mocing point of light and describing the angles of a hollow letter F because they both require VSSP functioning
-other participants had little difficulty tracking the light when doing a verbal task indicating the VSSP and the PL are separate systems
confirms the existence of separate systems
THE EPISODIC BUFFER
was added in 2000
general store
takes info from LTM, the viuo-spatial sketch pad and the phonological loop to bind an 'episode'
provides a sense of time sequencing
records events and sends them to the LTM
EXPLANATIONS OF FORGETTING
INTERFERENCE THEORY
suggests that forgetting is due to information in the LTM getting confused with other information during coding
Proactive interference
old information interferes with new information
such as, if you've already learnt Spanish and are trying to learn French the Spanish may interfere with your ability to learn French
Jacoby et al 2001
-argued proactive interference happens because there's competition between the old information and the new information, the old information is stronger than the weak new information
Retroactive interference
new information interferes with old information
for example, the learning of a new registration number plate disrupts the recall of the old one
EVALUATION
applications
have a number of important applications
can inform educators about the best way for students to revise
-not revising similar things together as that is likely to interfere
Mcgeoch and Mcdonald 1931
-showed that people would make far more errors if they had to recall an original list after learning new list of synonyms than if they had only the original list to learn
this makes the explanations valuable to society
supporting
number of studies that support interference
Underwood 1957
-showed that participants who were repeatedly asked to learn series' of word lists made far more errors as the number of lists increases compared to at the beginning of the study
this shows the old information was interfering with new information, like proactive interference would predict
number of studies that support interference
Schmidt et al 2000
-collected 211 former students a map of the surrounding area of their old school and were asked to name the streets
-there was a positive association with how many times the participants had moved out side of the area and the number of names forgotten
concluded that learning new street names made recalling the old street names more difficult, which demonstrates retroactive interference
fails to explain
only focus' on what happens when we forget information that is similar
doesn't explain how forgetting info happens in the majority of real life setting, where things aren't similar but are still forgotten
doesn't explain most cases of forgetting in real life
RETRIEVAL FAILURE DUE TO ABSENCE OF CUES
when information is placed in memory their associated cues are stored at the same time
this theory suggests that the info is still available for recall but it cannot be accessed until the correct cues are in place
context dependent forgetting
refers to external cues that are different when encoding info and when retrieving it
supporting evidence
Godden and Baddeley 1875
-participants had to learn lists of 36 word (of 2 or 3 syllables) and recall them either in water or on land
-learn on land and recall on land-37%
-learn underwater and recall underwater-32%
-learn underwater and recall on land-23%
-learn on land and recall underwater-24%
the higher percentage recall in the matched environments support the prediction that if the external cues are the same when encoding and recalling
state dependent forgetting
refers to internal cues (states of awareness) that are different when encoding info and when retrieving it
supporting evidence
Carter and Cassaday 1998
-he gave them anti histamine or a placebo and were asked to learn and recall info in 4 different conditions surrounding their state at the time
the results showed a marked decrease in accuracy of recall in a memory test when the participants' internal state did not match at the time of encoding and retrieval
EVALUATION
applications
if the explanations are valid they have very important applications
in places where getting instructions is vital(like soldiers)it is important to recognise that instructions may be more likely to be forgotten if issued back in the safety of camp
the value of these explanations may be that they are use to save the lives of people in threatening situations
challenging
Baddeley 1997 argued that these studies do not reflect real life situations so the strength of their explanations should be questioned
he claimed that the contexts or states have to be very different to have an effect and subtle changes of environment or internal states will not have a strong effect
we must not make exaggerated claims about cue dependent forgetting based on evidence that alters both context and state in a dramatic way
IMPROVING THE ACCURACY OF EWT
-COGNITIVE INTERVIEW
Fisher et al 1987
added elements to the cognitive interview taking in to account social dynamics called enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)
brought in ideas of when to give eye contact, ways to reduce anxiety, to minimise distractions and asking the witness to speak slowly whilst asking open ended questions
EVALUATION
supporting
numerous supporting studies for cognitive interview
Kohnken et al 1999
-carried out meta analysis looking in to ECI and found that on average there was a 34% increase in the accuracy compared to standard police interviews
-however this study was conducted in a lab so may not have much validity
Geislemann et al 1985
-students were interviewed by policemen who either knew the cognitive interview or the standard interview technique
-cognitive interview-Correct items reported 41.5-Incorrect items reported 7.3-Made up items 0.7
-standard interview-Correct items reported 29.4-Incorrect items reported 6.1-Made up items 0.4
EWT accuracy is heightened with cognitive interview
limitation
the cognitive interview tends to take longer and use more resources than the traditional interview and some critics suggest that some of the procedures are more valuable than others, also it requires more training
Milne and Bull 2002
-found that using the report everything and context reinstatement techniques are the most effective report techniques
in times when police funding is being cut, it may be more viable to only use some aspects of CI so that time and resources are not being used without good reason to do so
Geisleman et al 1985
memories are complex and made up of different types of memory
retrieval cues are important
misleading info can distort recall
report every detail
tell witnesses that some people withhold info because they feel it's irrelevant but they should try and tell the whole story and not leave anything out
the interviewer must be very patient and allow the witness to recall without interruptions
police interviews use the repetition technique meaning they ask the same few important questions frequently, they also tend to be impatient and want answers quickly
recall the event in reverse order
get witnesses to start at the end of the event and finish before the event happened
this should help stop witnesses recreating the even in relation to expectations and stereotypes about what normally happens in specific criminal events
the police would ask for free recall which would usually end in a chronological order of what happened
recreate the context of the original incident
ask the witness to try and picture the circumstance and get them to visualise the scene
ask a lot about what was happening around them, what people were there, where the furniture was, how the witness was feeling at the time and how they reacted to the event
police usually ask witnesses to free recall events and then answer questions
change perspectives
instruct the witness to recall the event from a different physical perspective, from another location than where they actually were during the event
-this is to help disrupt their expectations of what usually happens in crimes
a police interview is more likely to focus on the witnesses perspective by only asking what the witness saw from where they were
FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACCURACY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONIES
Weapon Focus
Yuille and Cutshall 1986
(contrasts with loftus)
-13 people who witnessed a shop keeper shooting a thief dead were interviewed 5 months after the event, these statements were then compared with the original police interviews
-they were asked to rate how much anxiety they felt during the incident
-those who reported high anxiety reported the highest level of accuracy 5 months later-88%
-those who reported low level anxiety had lower level of accuracy-75%
EVALUATION
reliability
there's a lack of consistency between real life setting and the lab experiments
Valentine and Mesout 2009
-took two groups, one with high anxiety and one with low anxiety, to London dungeons where they met an actor, who they were then asked to identify
-High anxiety-17% accuracy
-Low anxiety-75%accuracy
-which was different to yuille and cutshall 1986
Loftus 1979 and Yuille and Cutshall 1986 had completely different outcomes
-possibly unreliable
applications
it is important to recognise the role of anxiety in EWT and take caution when convicting someone from EWT alone
it might be that other evidence such as DNA sampling or CCTV could be used along with EWT to make sure it is an accurate conviction
internal validity
critics suggested that loftus was testing surprise and not anxiety
Johnson and Scott
-showed an incident in a hairdresser's, in one condition the suspect was carrying a handgun and in the other a raw chicken
-in both conditions there were as many inaccuracies
suggesting it was more surprise than anxiety
Loftus 1979
-two conditions were one group heard a hostile argument followed by one emerging holding a letter opener with blood on it, the other was a harmless conversation followed by one emerging with a pen with grease all over his hand
-they were asked to identify the culprit from photos, only 33% correctly identified them with the letter opener, with 49% correctly identified them with the pen condition
Misleading Information
Loftus and Palmer 1974 broken glass experiment*
-150 students were split in to 3 conditions, one condition were asked the question with 'smashed', another with 'hit' and the other had no previous question
-Smashed-Yes 16-No 34
-Hit-Yes 7-No 43
-No question-Yes 6-No 44
-there wasn't actually any broken glass but the leading questions made people think there was
EVALUATION
validity
issue with showing films of car crashes compared with witnessing real life crashes
witnessing a real life crash is more likely to cause an emotional response, than watching a film, which is more likely to affect the memory of the witness
-participants may have worked out the aims of the study
finding of these experiments could tell us little about real life eye witness testimonies
reliability
although many studies have found the same thing with leading questions but one experiment found that leading questions did not change their eye witness testimonies
Loftus 1979
-showed them slides of a theft of a large purse from a handbag
-98% of the participants stated the right colour of the purse
-they then read an inaccurate account and only 2 participants changed their answer to suit the account
applications
if reliable this information could have useful applications
could be used to train people not to use leading questions when interviewing witnesses
psychologists, with legal representatives, developed the cognitive interview
Loftus and Palmer 1974 crash test
-45 students were divided in to 5 conditions and were asked to estimate how fast the cars where going after witnessing a crash
using 5 different verbs
-Smashed-40.5mph
-Collided-29.3mph
-Bumped-38.1mph
-Hit-34mph
-Contacted-21.8mph
-the more aggressive the verb the higher the estimated speed was
Post Event Discussion
EVALUATION
reliability
many studies that have found similar outcomes
such as wright, self and justice 2000
therefore his findings are consistent
so we can suggest, with confidence, that EWT can be distorted by post event discussion
applications
important applications in line with EWT
inform the police to interview witnesses as soon as possible and ask them not to discuss what happened, even though it may be hard to enforce that
validity
the controlled nature of the research questions the realism of the findings
the outcome of their answers has no social impact so there's no pressure and they may conform to answers
as there are no consequences they may answer differently
**
Gabbert et al 2003
-they witnessed a simulated crime event at 2 different angles which allowed different features of the event to be observed by each person
-after watching the video they were asked to recall the event either alone or in pairs
-71% of the witnesses who had PED reported at least one erroneous detail they acquired during the discussion, this was 0% for those in the control group
-60% of participants believed the suspect was guilty even though they didn't see a crime take place because of the angle
