1. Memory revision PSYA1

2. Memory case studies Case studies of people who have suffered memory loss are invaluable to psychologists because they give us a unique insight into how memory works. Clive Wearing – Memory impaired by a form of the Herpes virus. STM intact but unable to form new LTMs. Can remember pre-infection skills (procedural memory) in LTM but not facts/events (declarative memory). H.M. – Memory impaired after surgery to treat epilepsy. STM intact but no ability to form new LTMs. Pre-surgery LTM intact. K.F. – Memory impaired after a motorcycle accident. STM severely affected but better for visual than verbal stimuli. Can make new LTMs and remember pre-accident LTMs.

3. The nature of memory STMLTM DURATION Peterson and Peterson (1959) Bahrick et al (1975) CAPACITYMiller (1956)Linton (1976) ENCODINGBaddeley (1966) These studies can be used as support for the various parts of the MSM or you could be asked to outline one study that has investigated the duration of LTM, etc.

4. Duration of STM Peterson & Peterson (1959) AIM: To test how long STM lasts when rehearsal is prevented (thereby preventing information in STM from being passed into LTM). PROCEDURE: The participants were briefly shown a consonant trigram (i.e. 3 letters such as CPW or NGV). Participants were asked to count backwards in threes from a specified number to stop them thinking about the letters. After intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds, participants were asked to recall the original trigram. The procedure was repeated several times using different trigrams. RESULTS: They found that participants were able to recall 80% of trigrams after a 3-second interval. Progressively fewer trigrams were recalled as the time intervals lengthened. After 18 seconds, fewer than 10% of the trigrams were recalled correctly. CONCLUSIONS: The duration of STM is very short; a maximum of 30 seconds. KHZ

5. Duration of LTM Bahrick et al (1975) PROCEDURE: The investigators tracked down the graduates from a particular high school in America over a 50-year period. 392 graduates were shown photographs from their high-school yearbook. For each photo, participants were given a group of names and asked to select the name that matched the person in the photo (recognition group). Another group of participants were simply asked to name the people in the photos without being given a list of possible names (recall group). RESULTS: Bahrick found that in the name matching condition, participants were 90% correct even 14 years after graduation. After 25 years, these participants were 80% accurate; after 34 years, 75% accurate and, even after 47 years, 60% accurate. The 2 nd group who had to identify the photos without any name cues were not quite as successful. They were 60% accurate after 7 years, but the level of accuracy had dropped to less than 20% after 47 years. CONCLUSIONS: Bahrick concluded that people can remember certain types of information for almost a lifetime.

6. Capacity of STM Miller (1956) Miller claimed the magic number is 7±2 (i.e. in STM you can hold 5-9 ‘chunks’ of information) and that the size of the chunk doesn’t matter.

7. Capacity of LTM Linton (1975) Marigold Linton conducted a long term investigation of her own memory by keeping a daily record of events in her life and assigning a key word to each day. When questioned up to 7 years later, she was able to recall the events of any one day with an average accuracy of 70%, using just the minimal cue of the keyword. It was estimated that around 11, 000 events were recorded in the diary, which illustrates the vast capacity of LTM.

8. Encoding in STM and LTM Baddeley (1966) AIM: To investigate how information is encoded in STM and LTM. PROCEDURE: In the STM study, participants were asked, immediately after presentation, to recall a list of five words taken from the following categories:  Acoustically similar words (e.g. man, mad, map)  Acoustically dissimilar words (e.g. pen, day,few)  Semantically similar words (e.g. great, big, large)  Semantically dissimilar words (e.g. hot, old, late) In the LTM study, each list of words was extended to ten and recall was tested after an interval of 20 minutes. RESULTS: In the STM study (immediate recall), participants had the most difficulty remembering the acoustically similar words. In the LTM (delayed recall), semantically similar words were the most difficult to recall. CONCLUSIONS: Information in STM is encoded acoustically (by sound), whereas information in LTM is encoded semantically (by meaning).

9. Models of memory The multi-store model The working memory model

10. The multi store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968) Sensory memory store Capacity: Very large All sensory information Duration: Very limited Up to half a second Encoding: Sense specific (separate stores for each sense) Sensory memory store Capacity: Very large All sensory information Duration: Very limited Up to half a second Encoding: Sense specific (separate stores for each sense) Short term memory store Capacity: Limited 7 chunks +/- 2 Duration: Limited Less than 30 seconds Encoding: Usually auditory Short term memory store Capacity: Limited 7 chunks +/- 2 Duration: Limited Less than 30 seconds Encoding: Usually auditory Long term memory store Capacity: Unlimited Duration: Unlimited Potentially a lifetime Encoding: Usually semantic Long term memory store Capacity: Unlimited Duration: Unlimited Potentially a lifetime Encoding: Usually semantic rehearsal attention Information lost through decay Information lost through decay or displacement Information lost through decay/retrieval failure/interference

11. Main assumptions of the multi store model 1.Different – STM and LTM are different in terms of capacity, duration and encoding. 2.Unitary – Both STM and LTM are unitary – there is only one store for each. 3.Linear – All information must pass through each stage in a set order – SM-SMT-LTM. So, according to this model, information can not enter LTM directly. Remember it’s DUL!

12. Strengths of the MSM The MSM was the first model of memory so has been very influential, generating further research, including the WMM. Research into the primacy/recency effect (Glanzer and Cunitz, 1966) supports the idea that STM and LTM are separate – we remember items at the start of a list because they have passed to LTM and those at the end because they are still in STM. Items in the middle are most likely to be forgotten. Brains scans show separate areas of the brain are active when doing tasks involving STM and LTM. Supports the idea that STM and LTM are separate. The case studies of Clive Wearing and H.M. support the idea of separate STM and LTM stores because they both had intact STM but were unable to form new long term memories.

13. Limitations of the MSM x The case of K.F. does not support the idea that STM is unitary because he had a better STM for visual than verbal information. x The case study of Clive Wearing does not support the idea that LTM is unitary. He could recall skills from before his illness, but not facts/events. This suggests at least two different types of STM. x K.F. does not support the idea that information flows through memory in a linear fashion (SM>STM>LTM). He could make new long term memories, even though his STM was severely limited. x Flashbulb memories are vivid memories of particularly interesting or emotionally important events. They are remembered without repetition in STM, contradictory to the MSMs suggestion that information must be processed in sensory and short term memory first (linear).

14. Working Memory Model Baddeley and Hitch (1974) oCentral executive – controls attention and coordinates the slave systems. oPhonological loop –processes auditory information. It is made up of two parts: oPhonological store (inner ear) – auditory information enters memory here but can only be stored for around 2 seconds if not passed through the articulatory loop. oArticulatory loop (inner voice) – Auditory information is rehearsed here sub vocally (silently) in order to be remembered.. oVisuo-spatial sketchpad (inner eye) – processes visual information. Central Executive Phonologic al Loop Visuo- Spatial Sketchpad

15. Main assumptions of the WMM Short term memory is more dynamic and complex than suggested by the MSM. Visual and auditory information is processed in separate areas of memory. Both the phonological loop and the visuo- spatial sketchpad have a very limited capacity.

16. Strengths of the WMM  The case study of K.F – after brain damage from a motorbike accident his STM for verbal information was impaired, but his memory of visual information was mostly unaffected. This supports the idea that verbal and visual memories are processed separately.  Brain scans (PET scans) have shown that a different area of the brain is active when carrying out verbal tasks than when carrying out visual tasks. This supports the idea that there are different parts of memory for visual and verbal tasks.  This model sees memory as an active process and not merely a passive store (like the MSM). This is in keeping with more modern views of memory that don’t see it as a ‘thing’ but a function or process (like a computer).

17. Limitations of the WMM The role of the central executive is unclear; although Baddeley and Hitch said it was the most important part of the model.  This model really only explains short term memory and so tells us very little about the processes involved in long term memory. This means that it does not provide such a complete model of memory as the multi store model.

18. Eyewitness testimony Reconstructive memory (schemas) Misleading information Age Anxiety The Cognitive Interview

19. Reconstructive memory Bartlett (1932) One of the earliest studies relevant to eyewitness testimony was carried out by Frederick Bartlett in 1932. He asked English students to read the following story – The War of the Ghosts – and then re-tell it in their own words. In Bartlett’s original study, participants were asked to tell the story to each other and then re-tell it after a number of weeks. He found that:  The story was shortened and detail was omitted  The language used in the story was Westernised – e.g. canoe was changed to boat  Items that did not make sense were rationalised  Bartlett and others have suggest that we tend to try and reconstruct memories on the basis of what we think probably happened, what usually happens, what must have happened, and so on. Bartlett referred to these complete mental pictures of how things are expected to be as schemas.

20. Misleading information Loftus & Palmer (1974) Aim: To investigate the accuracy of memory after witnessing a car accident. In particular it was to see if leading questions distort the accuracy of an eyewitness’s immediate recall. Procedure: 45 students were shown 7 films of different traffic accidents. After each film the participants were given a questionnaire which asked them to describe the accident and then answer a series of specific questions about it. There was one critical question: “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” One group of participants was given this question. The other four groups were given the verbs ‘smashed’, ‘collided’, ‘bumped’ or ‘contacted’ in place of the word ‘hit’. Results: The mean speed estimate was calculated for each group. Conclusions: The way a question is phrased can have a significant effect on a witness’s answer. In other words, leading questions can affect the accuracy of memory.

21. In a similar experiment, Loftus and Zanni (1975) showed participants a film of a car accident, then asked them either: 1.Did you see the broken headlight? 2.Did you see a broken headlight? There was no broken headlight, but 7% of those asked about ‘a’ broken headlight claimed they saw one, compared to 17% in the group asked about ‘the’ broken headlight. So, the simple use of the word ‘the’ is enough to affect the accuracy of people’s memories of an event. However, these findings have not been supported by real life eyewitnesses. For example, Yuille and Cutshall (1986) interviewed 13 people who had witnessed an armed robbery in Canada. The interviews took place more than 4 months after the crime and included two misleading questions. Despite these questions, the witnesses provided accurate recall that matched their initial detailed reports. This suggests that misleading post-event information may not affect memory in real life. Misleading information Loftus & Zanni (1975), Yuille & Cuttshall (1986)

22. Evaluation of misleading information research The research has real life benefits - the findings have helped develop more effective police interview techniques. Lab setting means cause and effect relationships can be established between the misleading information and the answers given. x Lab setting means that ecological validity may be low – meaning that results may not generalise to real life situations. This is supported by Yuille & Cuttshall – real life witnesses not influenced by misleading info. x Not everyone is influenced by misleading information – in the Loftus and Zanni study, only 17% were affected. x Most research has been carried out on American undergraduate students, meaning that results lack population validity.

23. The effects of anxiety on EWT The Yerkes-Dodson law This law suggests that performance is related to arousal level. At low levels of arousal, for example when you are sleep, performance is poor. As arousal increases, performance improves. However, as it increases still further, so that it becomes stress and is experienced as anxiety, performance falls off. In the case of EWT it would therefore be expected that witnessing an anxiety provoking event could reduce the accuracy of recall.

24. Evaluation of the Yerkes- Dodson law The Yerkes Dodson law is supported Peters (1998) - tested people who were attending their local health clinic for an inoculation. During the visit, they met the nurse (who gave them the injection) and a researcher for equal amounts of time. Up to a week later, participants were asked to identify the nurse and the researcher from a set of photos. More participants were able to correctly identify the researcher than the nurse, suggesting that the increase in anxiety due to the injection had a negative impact on witness recall. However, evidence from real life crimes does not fully support the Yerkes Dodson law. Yuille and Cuttshall (1986) interviewed witnesses to real life crimes and found that: o Witnesses reporting higher levels of arousal recalled fewer facts correctly. o But those with very high arousal levels were better than those with moderate levels (whereas the YD law suggests that very high arousal would lead to less accurate recall). One limitation of the Yuille and Cuttshall study is that those who experienced the highest levels of stress were also closer to the event, so their superior recall may have just been due to the fact that they had a better view of what was happening.

25. The effects of anxiety on EWT Weapon effect (Loftus, 1979) Aim: To find out if anxiety during a witnessed incident affects the accuracy of later identification Procedure: There were two conditions in this experiment. In both conditions participants heard a discussion in an adjoining room. In condition 1 a man emerged holding a pen and with grease on his hands. In condition 2 the discussion was rather more heated and a man emerged holding a paper knife covered in blood. Results: When asked to identify the man from 50 photos, participants in condition 1 were 49% accurate compared with 33% accuracy in condition 2. Conclusions: The accuracy of eyewitness testimony decreases when a person is highly anxious.

26. Evaluation of research into weapon effect Lab experiment so variables can be controlled and cause and effect can be established. XArtificial situation – lacks ecological validity so results may not apply to real life. In fact, real life research such as Yuille and Cuttshall does not show a decrease in accuracy of EWT when anxious. XThere are ethical issues involved – is it fair to subject participants to anxiety provoking situations? Participants were also deceived about the purpose of the study, so issues around deception, informed consent and right to withdraw should be considered.

27. The effects of age on EWT Children as eyewitnesses Poole and Lindsay (2001) engaged children aged 3 to 8 in a science demonstration. The parents of the children then read them a story, which contained some of the elements of the science demonstration but also included new information. The children were then questioned about the science demonstration and it was found that they had incorporated much of the new information (i.e. from the parents’ story) into their original memory. They were then asked to think very carefully about where they had got their information from (this is called source monitoring) and some of the older children then revised their account of the science demonstration and extracted the post-event information. However, the younger children did not seem able to do this. This has important implications for measuring the accuracy of small children’s testimony since they seem very poor at source monitoring.

28. The effects of age on EWT Children as eyewitnesses Lewis et al (1995) investigated the effect of leading questions on young witnesses. Children aged three to four years were shown photographs of adult males arranged like a line up. One of these was labelled ‘Daddy’ (none was actually their father). When the children were subsequently asked, ‘is this man your father?’ in a sequence of pictures, 29 % misidentified the previously labelled individual as ‘Daddy’, Carter et al (1996) investigated language style & age & found that children aged 5-7 years old were more likely to make errors if the interviewer used legalese. For example, they were more likely to answer incorrectly when asked ‘to the best of your knowledge, X in fact kissed you, didn’t she? than if they were asked a simpler question such as ‘X kissed you didn’t she?’ It should be noted that both of these questions contain ‘tags’, which make the question ‘leading’, a factor which Carter et al also found increased the amount of incorrect answers given. In addition, Samuel and Bryant (1984) discovered that most children change their answer when asked the same question twice.

29. The effects of age on EWT Older adults as eyewitnesses Loftus et al (1991) found that elderly people are more likely to make false identifications, are poorer at recalling specific details, and elderly men in particular are more prone to distortions through misleading post event information. Anastasi and Rhodes (2006) showed individuals from three different age groups (18-25, 35-45, and 55-78) 48 photographs, 24 of which had been seen previously and 24 that acted as “distracters”. Recognition rates showed that the young and middle-aged participants were significantly more accurate than the older participants, but the most interesting finding was that all age groups were more accurate in identifying photographs from their own age group.

30. Evaluation of research into the effects of age on EWT Laboratory experiments mean that cause and effect can be established, but lack ecological validity and may be more prone to demand characteristics. Most research has been carried out in America, so results may not generalise to other countries (low population validity). There may be methodological issues with using older adults e.g. poor eyesight, hearing or comprehension of what they are being asked to do. There are ethical issues with using both children and older adults in research – protection of participants, deception, right to withdraw and informed consent.

31. The Cognitive Interview Fisher and Geiselman (1992) Findings concerning the unreliability of eye- witness accounts have led researchers to attempt to devise methods for improving retrieval. One of these methods is the cognitive interview (proposed by Fisher and Geiselman, 1992). The Cognitive Interview technique is a questioning technique used by the police to enhance retrieval of information from the witnesses memory. It is believed that the techniques used, such as change of narrative order and change of perspective, aid recall because they reduce witness’ use of prior knowledge, expectations or schema.

32. The Cognitive Interview Fisher and Geiselman (1992) Report every detail Reinstate the context Change the order Change the perspective The cognitive interview involves a number of techniques: The interviewer tries to mentally reinstate the environmental and personal context of the crime for the witnesses, perhaps by asking them about their general activities and feelings on the day. This could include sights, sounds, feelings and emotions, the weather etc.. Recounting the incident in a different narrative order. Geiselman & Fisher proposed that due to the recency effect, people tend to recall more recent events more clearly than others. Witnesses should be encouraged to work backwards from the end to the beginning. Witnesses are asked to report the incident from different perspective, describing what they think other witnesses (or even the criminals themselves) might have seen. Witnesses are asked to report every detail, even if they think that detail is trivial. In this way, apparently unimportant detail might act as a trigger for key information about the event.

33. The effectiveness of the C.I. Geiselman (1985) Aim: Geiselman (1985) set out to investigate the effectiveness of the cognitive interview. Method: Participants viewed a film of a violent crime and, after 48 hours, were interviewed by a policeman using one of three methods: the cognitive interview; a standard interview used by the Los Angeles Police; or an interview using hypnosis. The number of facts accurately recalled and the number of errors made were recorded. Results: The average number of correctly recalled facts for the cognitive interview was 41.2, for hypnosis it was 38.0 and for the standard interview it was 29.4. There was no significant difference in the number of errors in each condition. Conclusion: The cognitive interview leads to better memory for events, with witnesses able to recall more relevant information compared with a traditional interview method.

34. Evaluation of the C.I.  Research support: Other research has supported the effectiveness of the cognitive interview.  Mixed research findings on effectiveness: Memon et al (1994) found no benefits of using C.I. compared to a standard police interviewing technique. However, the police participants had only 4 hours training so this could explain the results.  Lengthy training: Police officers must receive substantial training in how to use the C.I. This can be expensive, and not all officers may be able to fully apply the techniques.  May not be suitable for use with children: Memon and Bull (1991) found that the instructions to ‘change the order’ and ‘change perspective’ may confuse young children.

35. Memory improvement Verbal mnemonics Visual imagery techniques

36. Principles of memory improvement Meaning – We already know that rehearsal is necessary to transfer information into LTM, but psychologists have suggested that simple maintenance rehearsal – repeating the information over and over – only allows information to be remembered at a superficial level, which will soon be forgotten. Craik and Watkins (1973) recommend what they call ‘elaborative rehearsal’ – whereby the information to be learned is made meaningful, perhaps by making notes or linking it to existing knowledge. In this way, they suggest that a deeper level of encoding occurs, meaning that information is remembered more easily. Organisation – It is believed that organising the material to be learned into meaningful patterns helps with retrieval. This could be either verbal organisation, such as clustering certain psychologist’s names together, or visual organisation such as a mind map. Imagery – There is a lot of evidence that verbal material can be better remembered if it is associated in some way with a visual image. It is believed that visual and verbal information is stored separately in LTM so linking the two means that the information is encoded twice, and so is more easily recalled.

37. Verbal mnemonics Acronyms First letter from each word is taken to make a word e.g. ROYBGIV Acrostics A sentence is made where the first letter from each word matches the first letter from the words to be remembered e.g. My Very Easy Method Just Set Up Nine Planets Chunking Dividing a large section of information into smaller, more memorable chunks e.g. telephone numbers

38. Visual imagery techniques Method of loci Involves associating points to remember with familiar places e.g. rooms in your house Spider diagrams and mind maps These are used to organise a set of notes into a colourful and distinctive pattern