1. Cognitive Psychology
PSYA1 Revision

2. Models of Memory

3. Nature of Memory
STM
LTM
DURATION
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Nairne et al (1999)
Bahrick et al (1975)
CAPACITY
Miller (1956)
Simon (1974)
ENCODING
Baddeley (1966)
Peterson and Peterson presented their 24 participants with nonsense trigrams followed by three numbers (e.g. WRT 303). Ppts were then asked to count back in 3s from a chosen number. This was to prevent rehearsal. They then recalled the nonsense trigram and % recall rates were recorded on a graph. Results showed duration of STM to be about 18 seconds.
Bahrick et al asked ppts to put names to the faces in their school yearbook, 48 years after leaving school. Ppts were 70% accurate
Nairne et al repeated the study by Peterson and Peterson and found STM could have a duration of 96 seconds if the nonsense trigram was the same across trials.
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
Simon criticised Miller and said that the size of the chunk does matter and that the larger the chunk, the less chunks you remember
Baddeley gave ppts lists of words that were semantically or acoustically similar or dissimilar. The ppts did a task for 20 minutes. He found that ppts had difficulty with semantically similar words in LTM (so LTM encodes semantically)
Baddeley gave ppts lists of words that were semantically or acoustically similar or dissimilar. He found that ppts had difficulty with acoustically similar words in STM (so STM encodes acoustically)
STM is sometimes semantic
LTM can be semantic and visual

4. Multi-Store Model Atkinson and Shiffren (1968)
AO1
AO2
Strengths
It is the first model and can then be tested
It gives an account of structure and process
3 stores and attention & rehearsal
Lots of research evidence:
Sensory memory – Sperling (1960)
STM & LTM – Serial Position Effect
Clive Wearing shows that STM and LTM are separate stores
Weaknesses
Oversimplified
There is too much reliance on rehearsal
Focuses too much on structure and too little on process
KF – brain damage due to car accident and had problems with verbal, but normal visual…is there more than one STM?
Environmental Stimuli
Attention
Retrieval
Elaborative Rehearsal
Maintenance
Rehearsal
Information Retrieval
Sensory Memory
Short-term Memory
Long-term Memory
Maintenance
Rehearsal
Retrieval
Environmental Stimuli
Sensory Memory
Attention
Short-term Memory
Long-term Memory
Elaborative Rehearsal
Information Retrieval
What is the difference between elaborative and maintenance rehearsal?
What is the importance of attention?

5. Working Memory Model Baddeley and Hitch
AO1
AO2
Strengths
Lots of research evidence:
CE – Bunge et al
PL – Baddeley (word-length effect)
VSS – Baddeley (dot of light)
EB – Baddeley (unrelated words vs. sentences)
KF – supports that there is more than one store for STM
Does not rely on rehearsal
Emphasises process more than MSM
Weaknesses
The knowledge of the central executive is too vague (what is it?!)
Maybe there is more than one CE
Difficult to make before and after comparisons with brain damaged patients
Central Executive
Phonological Loop
Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
Episodic Buffer
LTM

6. Memory in Everyday Life

7. EWT The role of misleading information
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
45 ppts watched a video of a car crash. They were then asked “About how fast were the cars going when they ______ each other?” The IV was the verb used (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted). The DV was the estimate of speed. Results showed that the leading question influenced memory for the event, with ‘smashed’ giving the highest speed estimates.
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) EWT in real life
13 people witnessed an armed robbery in Canada. They were interviewed 4 months after the crash and this included 2 misleading questions. Ppts were able to give an accurate recall of the event compared to initial reports. This suggests that post-event information may not effect memory in real-life EWT.
Problems with EWT studies
Most research into EWT has been conducted in a lab so has low ecological validity.
By watching a video people do not become as emotionally aroused in the way they would for a real life accident.
EW reports can often be inaccurate and contributes to conviction of innocent people
Small, ethnocentric samples have been used.
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
150 ppts were used to investigate whether post-event information could alter a ppts memory of an event before it was stored. 3 groups watched a video of a car crash.
Group 1 was asked “about how fast were the cars going when they smashed”.
Group 2 was asked the same question, but “hit”.
Group 3 (control group) was asked nothing.
The ppts came back a week later and were asked if they saw any broken glass (misleading question). Those who thought the cars were travelling faster were more likely to report seeing broken glass.

8. EWT The role of misleading information
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
45 ppts watched a video of a car crash. They were then asked “About how fast were the cars going when they ______ each other?” The IV was the verb used (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted). The DV was the estimate of speed. Results showed that the leading question influenced memory for the event, with ‘smashed’ giving the highest speed estimates.
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) EWT in real life
13 people witnessed an armed robbery in Canada. They were interviewed 4 months after the crash and this included 2 misleading questions. Ppts were able to give an accurate recall of the event compared to initial reports. This suggests that post-event information may not effect memory in real-life EWT.
Problems with EWT studies
Most research into EWT has been conducted in a lab so has low ecological validity.
By watching a video people do not become as emotionally aroused in the way they would for a real life accident.
EW reports can often be inaccurate and contributes to conviction of innocent people
Small, ethnocentric samples have been used.
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
150 ppts were used to investigate whether post-event information could alter a ppts memory of an event before it was stored. 3 groups watched a video of a car crash.
Group 1 was asked “about how fast were the cars going when they smashed”.
Group 2 was asked the same question, but “hit”.
Group 3 (control group) was asked nothing.
The ppts came back a week later and were asked if they saw any broken glass (misleading question). Those who thought the cars were travelling faster were more likely to report seeing broken glass.

9. EWT The role of misleading information
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
45 ppts watched a video of a car crash. They were then asked “About how fast were the cars going when they ______ each other?” The IV was the verb used (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted). The DV was the estimate of speed. Results showed that the leading question influenced memory for the event, with ‘smashed’ giving the highest speed estimates.
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) EWT in real life
13 people witnessed an armed robbery in Canada. They were interviewed 4 months after the crash and this included 2 misleading questions. Ppts were able to give an accurate recall of the event compared to initial reports. This suggests that post-event information may not effect memory in real-life EWT.
Problems with EWT studies
Most research into EWT has been conducted in a lab so has low ecological validity.
By watching a video people do not become as emotionally aroused in the way they would for a real life accident.
EW reports can often be inaccurate and contributes to conviction of innocent people
Small, ethnocentric samples have been used.
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
150 ppts were used to investigate whether post-event information could alter a ppts memory of an event before it was stored. 3 groups watched a video of a car crash.
Group 1 was asked “about how fast were the cars going when they smashed”.
Group 2 was asked the same question, but “hit”.
Group 3 (control group) was asked nothing.
The ppts came back a week later and were asked if they saw any broken glass (misleading question). Those who thought the cars were travelling faster were more likely to report seeing broken glass.

10. EWT The role of misleading information
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
45 ppts watched a video of a car crash. They were then asked “About how fast were the cars going when they ______ each other?” The IV was the verb used (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted). The DV was the estimate of speed. Results showed that the leading question influenced memory for the event, with ‘smashed’ giving the highest speed estimates.
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) EWT in real life
13 people witnessed an armed robbery in Canada. They were interviewed 4 months after the crash and this included 2 misleading questions. Ppts were able to give an accurate recall of the event compared to initial reports. This suggests that post-event information may not effect memory in real-life EWT.
Problems with EWT studies
Most research into EWT has been conducted in a lab so has low ecological validity.
By watching a video people do not become as emotionally aroused in the way they would for a real life accident.
EW reports can often be inaccurate and contributes to conviction of innocent people
Small, ethnocentric samples have been used.
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
150 ppts were used to investigate whether post-event information could alter a ppts memory of an event before it was stored. 3 groups watched a video of a car crash.
Group 1 was asked “about how fast were the cars going when they smashed”.
Group 2 was asked the same question, but “hit”.
Group 3 (control group) was asked nothing.
The ppts came back a week later and were asked if they saw any broken glass (misleading question). Those who thought the cars were travelling faster were more likely to report seeing broken glass.

11. Factors that influence EWT Age
Age differences
Evaluation
Own-age bias has also been investigated as part of EWT research. Most research has shown that older adults are poorer on tests of eyewitness memory. But this could be due to the images shown to these adults; often the pictures are of college-aged students, which is easier for students of this age group to identify.
Own-age bias
Anastasi and Rhodes (2006)
18-25; 35-45; and year olds were shown 24 photos of all three age groups. They were asked to rate the photos for attractiveness.
There was a short filler task and then ppts were then shown 48 photos.
Recognition rates showed that young and middle aged ppts were more accurate than older ppts. But all ages were better at recognising their own age group.
The differential experience hypothesis (Brigham and Malpass, 1985) explains own-age and own-race bias. It suggests that as you have more contact with members of these groups our memory is better for these individuals.
Yarmey (1993)
651 adults were asked to recall the physical characteristics of a woman that they had spoken to for 15 seconds, 2 minutes earlier.
Young (18-29) and middle-aged (30-44) ppts were more confident than older (45-65), and there were significant differences in accuracy of recall (the oldest were inferior).
Parker and Carranza
Showed 48 schools children and 48 college students a slide sequence of a mock crime.
This was followed by a target-present or target- absent photo identification with a no-choice option, central and peripheral questions related to the crime, and a second photo identification.
RESULTS showed that child witnesses were more likely to choose a photo than adult eyewitnesses (so children are more likely to respond).
In the questioning task, adults were more likely to say 'I don't know'.
Child witnesses were less accurate in line-ups where the 'target' was absent, but there was no differences between age groups when the 'target' was present.

12. Factors that influence EWT Anxiety
Research
Evaluation
There is no simple relationship explaining anxiety and EWT. Accuracy is poor at high and low levels of anxiety, and is best at moderate levels.
Deffenbacher et al (2004) studied anxiety through a meta-analysis and said the graph should look like this:
Christianson and Hubinette (1993) questioned 58 witnesses of real-life bank robberies in Sweden and found that those threatened in some way had improved recall and remembered more details. This was also true 15 months later. This means that in real-life anxiety may increase accuracy of EWT.
Weapon-focus effect
Johnson and Scott (1976)
Ppts heard a discussion in an adjoining room. Condition 1: a man exited with a pen and greasy hands. Condition 2: a man exited with a paperknife and bloody hands. When asked to recall the man from photos, condition 1 were 49% accurate. Condition 2 were 33% accurate. The weapon distracted the witness away from the person holding it.
Loftus et al (1987) found by following eye movements that the eyewitness’s eyes are physically drawn towards the weapon and away from the face.
Peters (1988) found that participants attending a routine inoculation were able to identify a researcher easier than a nurse from photographs. This supports the weapon focus effect.
An alternative graph has been suggested to show the relationship between anxiety and EWT. This is called the Yerkes-Dodson Law.

13. Change the Perspective
Cognitive Interview
AO1
AO2
Fisher et al (1987) studied standard interviews conducted by real officers in Florida and found that they were aimed at revealing facts, and were characterised by:
Brief questions, which yield brief responses, lacking in detail
Closed questions, yielding brief responses
Questions being out of sequence with how witnesses remember events
Interruptions & distractions, which break concentration
Not allowing witnesses to talk freely, yielding information which lacks detail
Report Everything
Strengths
Köhnken et al (1999) carried out a meta-analysis of 53 studies and found that the CI gained 34% more information than the SI.
Stein and Memon (2006) used female cleaners in Brazil to test the accuracy of the CI. They watched a video of an abduction and it was found that more correct information was obtained from witnesses through the CI.
Mello and Fisher (1996) found that when CI and normal interview techniques were tested on both older adults’ (72 years) and younger adults’ (22 years) memory, CI was better for both. But the advantage was more significant for the elderly.
Weaknesses
No longer just one procedure, but many.
Police do not use all of the components.
Kebbell and Wagstaff (1996) found that using the CI takes more time and police use strategies to limit EW’s reports to only what they feel is necessary.
Detectives receive only 4 hours of training in the CI.
Fisher and Geiselman reviewed research an found that people make better EW’s when given cues.
Components 1 & 2 check for consistency of recall
Components 3 & 4 retreives information through different routes in memory and is a more productive form of questioning
Mental Reinstatement
Change the Order
Change the Perspective

14. Strategies for Memory Improvement
Verbal mnemonics
Visual imagery mnemonics
Acronyms
ROYGBIV (rainbow colours)
Acrostics
My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets
Rhymes
Alphabet to the tune of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’
Chunking
To remember phone numbers/postcodes
Method of loci
Peg words
Narrative Chaining
EVALUATION
Gruneberg (1973) found 30% of psychology students use mnemonics to revise for final exams. 
Glidden et al (1983) found verbal mnemonics were effective with children with learning disabilities.
Most research has been conducted in labs. Studies in real-life settings (e.g. classrooms) show mixed results, for example, mnemonics are useful for teaching foreign language vocabulary, but may not be so effective at actually speaking in a foreign language.
Mnemonics work through rehearsal and organisation.
Organisation is also important, this helps the brain find the information more quickly.
Elaborative rehearsal is the process of giving something a meaning, and strategies such as mind maps work well for this.