COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AS AQA

DURATION:

LTM IS UNLIMITED

STM IS FEW SECONDS (without rehearsal)

EVALUATION :

MARSH ET AL - Duration of STM is only 2 seconds when there is NO EXPECTATION OF RECALL like in P&P.

NAIRNE ET AL - 96 seconds for recalling SAME items across trials i.e. NO DISPLACEMENT. This means there is NO INTERFERENCE between items, which would in turn DECREASE RECALL.

STM - MEMORY FOR IMMEDIATE EVENTS THAT HAVE LIMITED DURATION & DISAPPEAR UNLESS REHEARSED. HAVE LIMITED CAPACITY ALSO.

Used in working memory to comprehend language, solve problems etc. Related to LTM through verbal rehearsal.

DURATION - A MEASURE OF HOW LONG A MEMORY LASTS BEFORE IT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

CAPACITY:

STM IS LESS THAN 7 CHUNKS

LTM IS UNLIMITED CAPACITY

CAPACITY EVALUATION

Cowan - Reviewed a variety of studies on the STM capacity & suggested STM is likely to be limited to 4 chunks.

Vogal et al - Research shows STM capacity for visual info (rather than verbal stimuli) is 4 items.

Suggests that STM may not be as extensive as first thought.

REAL-WORLD APPLICATIONS

Postcode system i.e. when initial letters of a postcode were MEANINGFUL, it was easier to remember. Made with BENEFIT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH.

ENCODING

Acoustic coding : Coding info by the way it SOUNDS.

Semantic coding : Coding info by its meaning.

MULTI-STORE MEMORY MODEL (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968)

SENSORY MODEL - Data is transferred through eyes, nose, ears, fingers, tongues etc. to CORRESPONDING AREAS OF BRAIN. When ATTENTION IS PAID TO the SENSORY STORE, sensory data is transferred to STM.

EVIDENCE
Sperling - Shows info DECAYS RAPIDLY and SUPPORTS LIMITED DURATION of sensory store.
12 items (digits and letters) recalled showed poorer results - 42% recall.
When one row was recalled after a tone, 75% recall shown.

STRENGTHS

STRONG EVIDENCE SUPPORTS DURATION, ENCODING & CAPACITY.

Serial position effect evidence

List of 20 words shown one at a time: Shows DISTINCTION BETWEEN STM AND LTM

PRIMACY EFFECT - FIRST WORDS on a list are BEST REHEARSED & TRANSFERRED TO LTM

RECENCY EFFECT - Recollection of words in the STM

DETAILS OF STRUCTURE AND PROCESS I.E. MAINTENANCE REHEARSAL & RETRIEVAL

PET scans and fMRI take images of the ACTIVE brain and enable us to see WHICH REGION is active during A PARTICULAR TASK

HM CASE STUDY: HIPPOCAMPUS REMOVED TO REDUCE SEVERE EPLIEPSY. PERSONALITY AND INTELLECT INTACT. REMEMBERED THINGS FROM BEFORE SURGERY.

MSM STRENGTHS:
1. EVIDENCE FOR 3 QUALITATIVELY DIFFERENT STORES.

2. PROVIDES ACCOUNT OF MEMORY IN STRUCTURE AND PROCESS. I.e. Structure = SENSORY STORE, STM AND LTM.
Process = ATTENTION & VERBAL REHEARSAL.

3. CLEAR PREDICTIONS ON MEMORY. EASY TO CONDUCT TESTS TO STUDY IT.

4. GUIDES REHABILITATION OF HIPPOCAMPAL DAMAGE DUE TO HM.

WORKING MEMORY MODEL:

STM IS A PLACE WHERE INFO IS HELD UNTIL PUT TO USE UNLIKE THE HOLDING CONCEPT OF MSM TO BE MOVED TO LTM.

WORKING MEMORY MODEL

Info held until put to USE - used when working out complex tasks e.g. maths problem where you need to STORE INFO AS YOU GO ALONG. E.g. 12 + 21 + 52, first you add 12 + 21 and keep the answer of 32 in working memory before adding 52.
OR holding individual words in WM while determining sentence's meaning.

3 SLAVE SYSTEMS

PHONOLOGICAL LOOP : Deals with & preserves auditory info & order of info.
Divided into PHONOLOGICAL STORE (inner ear) to hold the words you hear - & - ARTICULATORY PROCESS (inner voice) words that are seen/heard repeatedly LOOPED i.e. MAINTENANCE REHEARSAL.

VISUO-SPATIAL SKETCHPAD :
Used to plan on spatial tasks e.g. counting windows in a house. TEMPORARY STORAGE. Visual information of what things look like is processed. Spatial information is the relationship between things. Divided into visual cache (store & inner scribe.

VISUO-SPATIAL SKETCHPAD - INNER SCRIBE & VISUAL CACHE

Deals with visual info and spatial relationships between them i.e. getting from one room to another. TEMPORARY STORAGE.

EVIDENCE FOR PL AND AP

EXPLAINS WORD-LENGTH EFFECT. People cope better with short words than long. PL rehearses short words easily but not long as they don't fit.

AP proved by articulatory suppression i.e. by doing a repetitive task saying 'the the the' - the AP is tied so shorter words can't be rehearsed quicker than longer & word-length effect disappears.

EVIDENCE FROM BRAIN-DAMAGED PATIENTS

Explains KF's ST memory deficit as he had no problem with LTM but elements of immediate STM memory impaired. Brain damage restricted to PL as he forgot auditory information quickly but his visual stimuli was not that problematic.

STRENGTHS

1. EXPLAINS WORD-LENGTH EFFECT.

2. DIRECT LINKS BETWEEN CERTAIN TASKS AND ACTIVATION OF CERTAIN BRAIN AREAS = PHYSICAL DEMONSTRATIONS OF COMPONENTS OF WMM.

3.RECOGNISES DIFFERENT AREAS OF MEMORY.

4.ABUNDANT EVIDENCE FOR BRIEF MEMORY STORE: MANY SUB-COMPONENTS.

5. SHOWS MAINTENANCE REHEARSAL AS OPTIONAL.

6. EMPHASISES PROCESS OVER STRUCTURE.

7. EXPLANATORY POWER - HIGHLIGHTS IMMEDIATE MEMORY HOLDS MOST RECENTLY ACTIVATED POORTION OF LTM RATHER THAN WAY-STATION TO AND FROM LTM. MOVES ACTIVATED ELEMENTS IN & OUT OF BRIEF TEMPORARY STORAGE

ACCURACY OF EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY: IMPORTANCE OF MISLEADING INFO.

LOFTUS AND PALMER (1974)

1. 45 STUDENTS SHOWN 7 FILMS OF DIFFERENT TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS.

2. PARTICIPANTS GIVEN QUESTIONNAIRES TO DESCRIBE ACCIDENT WITH SPECIFIC SERIES OF QUESTIONS.

3. ONE CRITICAL QUESTION : ABOUT HOW FAST WERE THE CARS GOING WHEN THEY HIT EACH OTHER? OTHER 5 GROUPS HAD THE WORD 'HIT' REPLACED WITH 'smashed, collided, bumped, contacted.'

4. VERB IMPLICATION LED TO INACCURATE RECALL - HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF MISLEADING INFO

EXPERIMENT 2

1. NEW SET OF PARTICIPANTS WATCHED CAR ACCIDENT LASTING 1 MINUTE.

2. 3 GROUPS: 2 GROUPS WERE GIVEN 10 QUESTIONS, ONE OF WHICH USED THE VERB 'SMASHED' THE OTHER 'HIT'

3. ASKED TO RETURN 1 WEEK LATER & ASKED 'DID YOU SEE BROKEN GLASS?' (NO BROKEN GLASS IN FILM SO IT WAS MISLEADING INFO)

4. ONE CONTROL GROUP DID NOT HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT SPEED OF CARS

EVALUATION: LOFTUS ET AL

CAR STOPPED AT 'STOP' SIGN

1. 'Did another car pass the red at STOP sign?'
'Did another car pass the red at YIELD sign?'

HAD TO IDENTIFY SLIDE IN ORIGINAL SEQUENCE.

75% OF PARTICIPANTS WHO HAD CONSISTENT QUESTIONS PICKED CORRECT SLIDE OF STOP.

41% OF THOSE WITH MISLEADING QUESTION PICKED CORRECT.

CLEARLY MISLEADING QUESTIONS AFFECTED RECALL.

BEKERIAN AND BOWERS REPLICATED STUDY & PUT PICS IN NORMAL ORDER: BOTH GROUPS' RECOLLECTION WERE THE SAME.

SUGGESTS POST EVENT INFO AFFECTS RETRIEVAL NOT STORAGE.

DNA EXONERATION SHOWS EYE-WITNESS IDENTIFICATION IS NOT ALWAYS CREDIBLE AND WHEN USED AS LARGEST SINGLE FACTOR CAN LEAD TO CONVICTION OF INNOCENT PEOPLE. WARNING FOR JUSTICE SYSTEM.

ANXIETY:

DEFFENBACHER: META-ANALYSIS OF 18 STUDIES SHOWED HIGH LEVELS OF STRESS NEGATIVELY IMPACT ACCURACY OF EWT.

CHRISTIANSON & HUBBINETT : 58 REAL WITNESSES OF REAL ROBBERIES WERE INTERVIEWED. THOSE WHO'D BEEN THREATENED BY THE ROBBER GAVE MORE ACCURATE DETAILS WHEREAS ONLOOKERS - LESS EMOTIONALLY AROUSED - REMEMBERED LESS DETAILS. ANXIETY INCREASES RECALL ACCURACY IN REAL LIFE EVENTS

WEAPON FOCUS EFFECT:

WEAPON FOCUS EFFECT - JOHNSON AND SCOTT : PARTICIPANTS HEARD ARGUMENT &
MAN WITH GREASE AND PEN IN HAND EMERGED: WHEN ASKED TO IDENTIFY HIM FROM 50 PHOTOS: 49% ACCURATE.

WHEN MAN WITH PAPERKNIFE AND BLOOD EMERGED IN CONDITION 2: 33% ACCURACY SUGGESTED WEAPON DISTRACTED ATTENTION LED TO POOR RECALL OF CERTAIN DETAILS.

AGE

PARKER AND CARRANZA:
Children have higher rate of choosing identification pics & higher rates of error than college students & adults.

Yarmey: 651 adults in public place stopped, asked to identify woman who'd spoken to them for 15 seconds 2 mins earlier. Showed though younger & middle aged are more confident in recall, there's no significant difference in accuracy between them and elder people.

Delay of 35 minutes between identification and recall showed no difference in accuracy between young and old. However when delayed by one week, accuracy of elders significantly decreased!

COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

(FISHER AND GEISELMANN)

- Police technique for interviewing witnesses & encourages recreation of context to increase accessibility of stored information i.e. a sequence of events in a crime.

First 2 components based on principle that there is consistency between actual event and recreated situations - increased likeness between the 2 lead to increase recall of more events that are high in accuracy.

EVALUATION

STRENGTHS

Combination of first 2 components i.e. report everything & mental reinstatement led to significantly increased recall than other 'try again' conditions. However recall using the components alone was broadly similar & no different to that of the control group

Useful for older people due to the negative stereotypes that with age comes less memory etc. CI gives them confidence as it reinforces that every single detail, no matter how invaluable may appear, is important. CI more useful for older people in general.

Useful in developing countries like Brazil where torture & extreme interrogation occur which sometimes lead to miscarriages of justice. CI was seen to be more superior in producing FORENSICALLY RICH INFORMATION which led to a detailed description of armed offenders & therefore better police determination of the status of the crime & the criminals. CI is potentially a new approach for such countries to more effective convictions & less miscarriages of justice.

META-ANALYSIS 34% INCREASE IN CORRECT RECALL

STRATEGIES FOR MEMORY IMPROVEMENT

VERBAL MNEMONICS

1. ACRONYM - ROYGBIV - Red, orange, yellow etc. Initial letter relates to word.

2. ACROSTIC - My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets - Mercury Venus Earth Mars ... First letter in each word leads to remembrance of meaningful item

3. RHYMES - Words with identity and rhythm

4. CHUNKING - long memorable strings of info put into memorable chunks e.g. postcodes

EVALUATION

STRENGTHS
VERBAL MNEMONICS (ACRONYMS & ACROSTICS) WERE MOST POPULAR FOR 30% OF PSYCH STUDENTS DOING REVISION.

EFFECTIVE WITH CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES (Memory deficits) - Effectiveness evident up to 12 months

EFFECTIVE FOR THOSE WITH Down Syndrome - STM Memory deficits - 63 people 4 - 18 years assessed with tests.

PHASE 2 - Divided into experimental and control group - experimental received training in memory improvement techniques.

PHASE 3 was a repeat of phase 1 and showed a significantly improve memory skills among exp. group.

TRAINING IN VIS. IMAGERY MNEMONICS E.G.
METHOD OF LOCI IMPROVES MEMORY - LTM BENEFITS FOR OLDER ADULTS - ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO CONTINUALLY USE THE TECHNIQUE AFTER TRAINING

KEYWORD METHOD TRAINING MEANT IMPROVES MEMORY OF REMEMBERING RUSSIAN VOCAB AS OPPOSED TO CONTROL GROUPS

HOW MNEMONICS WORK

Organisation - By organising data we establish links that help recall; creating memory hooks through association and organising materials by putting them in conceptual order or a hierarchy. Studies show recall is 2 - 3 times better when words are put into conceptual orders than when in random order.