Changing the way you learn

Memory: AS Psychology

Working Memory Model
1. AO1
  1. Central executive has a supervisory function and it works like a filter. Directs information to other slave master systems. Also has a limited capacity and processes one piece of info at a time.
  2. Phonological Loop is a temporary storage system for holding auditory information. It has the INNER EAR (stores words you hear), and the INNER VOICE (allows maintenance rehearsal).
  3. Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad holds visual and spatial information. Split into the visual cache (form and colour) and the inner scribe (remembers where things are).
  4. Episodic buffer is a temporary store system for info which communicates with both long term memory and the slave system components of working memory
2. AO2
  1. Dual task studies show it's easier to do tasks that use different slave systems at the same time than task that use one slave system.
    1. Baddley and Hitch: Asked participants to repeat a list of numbers and a task that asked them whether statements were true or false. As the number of digits increased in the digit span tasks, participants took longer to answer the statement questions, but not much longer - only fractions of a second. And, they didn't make any more errors in the verbal reasoning tasks as the number of digits increased.
      1. The verbal reasoning task made use of the central executive and the digit span task made use of the phonological loop.
  2. KF case study: Motorbike accident damaged his STM. His impairment was mainly for verbal info, but his memory for visual info was unaffected. Shows that different types of info are stored in different places.
    1. However we can't generalise these findings as it's a one off.
  3. We know very little about the central executive. It says it's important but it's very unclear as to what it's exact role is.
  4. Doesn't expain the link between the LTM and the working memory.
Multi-Store Model
1. AO1
  1. Shiffrin and Atkinson proposed that memory is made up of 3 stores. Sensory memory, STM and LTM.
    1. Sensory memory from your senses: eyes, ears, mouth etc. When attention is paid to something in the environment it goes to the STM, if not it decays.
      1. Once info is in the STM it can be rehearsed and then passed onto the LTM.
    2. Encoding: it's the way info can be stored. (1)Visual, (2)Semantic, (3)Acoustic.
      1. LTM: Mainly semantic. STM: Mainly acoustically.
    3. Capacity: How much info can be stored.
      1. LTM: Unlimited STM: 7 +/- items of info
    4. Duration:The period of time info can be stored for.
      1. LTM: Up to a lifetime. STM: 18-30 seconds
2. AO2
  1. Gives us good understanding on the structure/process of STM. Researchers can expand on this model.
  2. The model is reductionist. Theres more to the LTM and STM than this making this model too simplistic.
  3. Rehearsal may not be that essential to remember this in our LTM. But sometimes can't remember things we have rehearsed.
  4. Glanzer and Cuntiz found that participants were able to recall the first few and last few words on a list. First words were most likely put into the LTM and the last ones in the STM. Supporst the fact that there are separate stores.
Eyewitness Testimony
1. Misleading Questions
  1. AO1
    1. Loftus and Palmer: 45 participants shown slides of a car crash. Were asked 'about how fast was the cars going when it 'hit/bumped/smashed/contacted/collided' each other?' Found that the verb affect the speed recorded. 'Smashed' reported the highest speed and 'contacted' reported the lowest.
  2. AO2
    1. Lacks mundane realism. A clip means they didn't actually experience the emotions etc of really witnessing a crash, so it also has low eco validity.
    2. Unrepresentative to the wider population. Pps may not be experienced drivers and may have guessed their estimated speed.
    3. Easy study to replicate due to the fact that is a lab experiment with set procedures.
2. Age
  1. A01
    1. Young children are more likely to conform. They are also behind in their cognitive development so they are more likely to believe their distorted info.
    2. Research shows 6 to 15 failed to understand 1/3 of questions asked in court. Formal Qs make it harder for them to understand and therefore their accounts are less likely to be valid.
    3. Dodson and Krueger: asked college students and older participants (60 - 80 years) to watch a 5 minute video of a burglary and police chase, and answer 24 yes/no questions about what they saw in the video. Eight of the questions referred to details not in the video (i.e. misleading information). Both young and older participants made a similar rate of errors, i.e. they claimed to have seen events not shown in the video. However, the older participants were more confident that their answers were correct (when in fact they were not).
  2. AO2
    1. Real life application: Juries are more convinced by EWTs when the person is more confident meaning they're most likely to believe an adult over a child (they will most likely be more accurate but not always)
3. Anxiety
  1. AO1
    1. When anxious/afraid we are more likely to focus on whats making us anxious, e.g. If a weapon is used to threaten a victim, their attention is likely to focus on it. Consequently, their recall of other information is likely to be poor.
    2. Yuille and Cutshall (1986) found that people who witnessed a shooting in Canada were very accurate in their accounts. High anxiety was linked to high accuracy.
  2. Weapon Focus Effect: Witnesses my focus on a weapon more than the person holding it.
    1. Loftus: Participants watched versions of the same slides. One version had a customer with a checkbook, the other with a knife. Found that people were more likely to recall the appearance of a customer holding a checkbook than when they were holding a knife.
    2. Loftus: Participants were placed under two conditions. (1) overheard a discussion on equipment failure on a lab experiment. Someone emerged with a pen in their hands covered in grease. (2) heated discussion with the sound of glass breaking and a chair crashing. Someone emerged with a paper knife in their hand covered in blood. asked to identify the man from 50 pictures. 49% successfully identified correctly in condition one. 33% in condition two.
    3. A02
      1. A lot of experiments are lab based so they lack ecological validity.
      2. In the 2nd Loftus experiments pps were lead to beleive it was real. There is ethical reason here and possible psychological harm. Also they never had the right to withdraw.
4. Cognitive Interview
  1. AO1
    1. Context reinstatement: mentally recreating the situation, including the weather, participants mental state/emotions at the time
    2. Change perspective: changing the point of view, describing what another witness present at the scene would have seen.
    3. Change order: The witness is asked to describe the scene in a different chronological order e.g. from the end to the beginning.
    4. Report everything: The interviewer encourages the witness to report all details about the event, even though these details may seem unimportant.
  2. AO2
    1. Time consuming process. Takes longer than a standard police interview.
    2. Some elements may be more effective than others. e.g it was found that context reinstatement and report everything were more effective when used together.
  3. Real life application: Has increased accuracy in eyewitness testimonies.
Memory Improvement
1. Elaborative Rehearsal
  1. AO1
    1. Elaborative rehearsal: making info more meaningful (semantic). More effective than maintenance rehearsal. Examples of how to elaborate on information include using a mind map to create meaningful links; and/or answer questions that make you think about what you have just read, and by making notes then reconstructing the notes so they are organised differently (making new links).
  2. AO2
    1. Research by Craik and Tulving (1975) shows how elaborative rehearsal improves memory. Participants were more likely to remember words that had been deeply / semantically processed (e.g. does the word fit in a sentence) than shallow processed (e.g. is a word in capital letters).
  3. Acrostics and acronyms
    1. AO1
      1. Acronyms involve forming a word from the initial letters of the words to be remembered.
      2. An acrostic involves forming a sentence using the initial letters of the words to be remembered - the new sentence should memorable.
    2. AO2
      1. Acrostics poems/Acronyms are usually more amusing therefore easier to remember. The sillier they are, the more likely you are to remember it.
    3. My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets. (Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto)

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Memory: AS Psychology

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	Created by rae_olamide_xo over 9 years ago