Memory

Paper 1

Specification

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The Multi-Store Model of memory: Sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration

Revision material

Exam questions

Types of Long-Term memory: Episodic, semantic, procedural

The Working Memory Model: Central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity

Explanations for Forgetting: Proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues

Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Eyewitness

Improving the Accuracy of EWT: The use of the cognitive interview

Track my learning

4 = I understand and I can teach someone else.

3 = I understand.

2 = I am not sure I understand this yet.

1 = I will need some further support before I understand this topic.

Topic

Understanding

(1-4)

Understanding after test

Understanding before A level

The Multi-Store Model of memory:

Types of Long-Term memory:

The Working Memory Model:

Explanations for Forgetting

Factors Affecting the Accuracy of EWT

Improving the Accuracy of EWT

Exam questions

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MSM

1. Explain what is meant by duration of short-term memory (2 marks)

2. Explain what is meant by coding in long-term memory (2 marks)

3. Outline ONE research study into the duration of long-term memory. In your answer include what the researchers did and what they found out. (4 marks)

4. Outline and evaluate research related to the features of the short-term memory (coding, capacity and duration) (16 marks)

5. Outline the multi-store model of memory (6 marks)

6. Outline TWO limitations of the multi-store model of memory (4 marks)

7. Outline what psychological research has shown about short-term memory according to the multi-store model of memory (4 marks)

8. Discuss the multi-store model of memory (16 marks)

LTM

1. Explain what is meant by the terms episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory (6 marks)

2. Explain ONE difference between semantic memory and procedural memory (2 marks)

3. Outline ONE study that has investigated the different types of long-term memory (4 marks)

4. Describe and evaluate different types of long-term memory (16 marks)

WMM

1. In relation to the working memory model, explain what is meant by the terms central executive and episodic buffer (2+2 marks)

2. Briefly outline the working memory model (4 marks)

3. Outline ONE limitation of the working memory model (2 marks)

4. Describe and evaluate the working memory model (16 marks)

Theories of forgetting

1. Explain proactive interference as an explanation for forgetting (2 marks)

2. Explain retroactive interference as an explanation for forgetting (2 marks)

3. Outline interference theory as an explanation for forgetting (4 marks)

4. Describe ONE study in which interference as an explanation of forgetting was investigated. Indicate in your answer the method used and the results obtained (6 marks)

5. Describe and evaluate interference as an explanation of forgetting (16 marks)

6. Explain retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting (2 marks)

7. In the context of forgetting, what is meant by a cue? You should use an example in your answer (2 marks)

8. Describe ONE study in which retrieval failure was investigated. Indicate in your chosen study the method used and the results obtained. (4 marks)

9. Describe and evaluate retrieval failure as an explanation of forgetting (16 marks)

Factors affecting EWT

1. Explain what is meant by the term post-event discussion (2 marks)

2. Briefly outline ONE study that has investigated the influence of misleading information on eyewitness testimony. (4 marks)

3. Give an example of a leading question and explain how this might affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (3 marks)

4. Explain how post-event discussion may affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (3 marks)

5. Describe and evaluate research into the influence of misleading information on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (16 marks)

6. In the context of eyewitness testimony, explain what is meant by anxiety (2 marks)

7. Briefly outline ONE study that has investigated the influence of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Indicate in your chosen study the method used and the results obtained. (4 marks)

8. Describe the effect of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (4marks)

9. Describe and evaluate research that has investigated the influence of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (16 marks)

Improving EWT

1. Explain what is meant by the term cognitive interview (2 marks)

2. Outline how the cognitive interview can improve the accuracy of EWT (4 marks)

3. Cognitive interviews have been developed to improve EWT. Identify and explain TWO techniques used in the cognitive interview (6 marks)

4. Describe and evaluate the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of EWT (16 marks)

The Multi-Store Model of Memory

Sensory register, Short term memory and Long term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration

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Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration

The Sensory Register (SR)

Sensory register, also called sensory memory, refers to the first and most immediate form of memory you have. The sensory register is your ultra-short-term memory that takes in sensory information through your five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) and holds it for no more than a few seconds. Our senses are engaged when we are exposed to a stimulus or something that causes a sensory response, such as a strong odour. It is the sensory register that enables you to remember sensory stimuli after your exposure to the stimuli has ended.

Feature

Research

Coding

SR holds huge amounts of unprocessed/raw sensory information received by sensory organs (meaning that the data stays in its raw form). There are different registers of each sense making the SR sense modality:

Iconic register: memory for visual information

Echoic register: memory for auditory information

Haptic register: memory for touch

Crowder (1993) found that memories in the SR only retain information in the iconic store for a few milliseconds, but retain information for up to 3 seconds within the echoic store. This supports the idea that sensory information is coded into different stores, while additionally suggesting that sensory memories have different durations

Capacity

Very large

Information contained being in an unprocessed, highly detailed and ever-changing format.

Sperling (1960) flashed grids of letters in 3 x 4 format on screens for 1/20th of a second. Participants had to recall the letters from a specified row as indicated by a high pitch (top row) medium pitch (middle row) or low pitched (bottom row) tone. Recall of the specified row was high, suggesting that all the letters in the grid had been available in the participants’ sensory register.

Duration

½ - 3 seconds

Iconic memory has a very short frequency, maybe up to ½ a second (500 milliseconds). It is a little longer in echoic memory, with information remaining for about 3 seconds

Evidence:

The Short-Term Memory (STM)

Short-term memory refers to the information that we are currently aware of or thinking about. The information found in short term memory comes from paying attention to sensory memories.

Feature

Research

Evaluation

Coding

It is widely accepted that the coding is mainly acoustic.  When a person is presented with a list of numbers and letters, they will try to hold them in STM by rehearsing them (verbally).  Rehearsal is a verbal process regardless of whether the list of items is presented acoustically (someone reads them out), or visually (on a sheet of paper). However, it is also recognised that visual coding does occur in STM, as does some semantic coding.

Baddeley (1966) found that lists of words that sounded the same were harder to immediately recall in order than words that sounded dissimilar. The greater confusion shows that words tend to be coded acoustically,

Examples of similar sounding words: man ban can fan pan

Examples of dissimilar sounding words: pit few cow pen day

Artificial stimuli

The ecological validity of Baddeley study is not good. Recalling lists of words is quite artificial but you sometimes have to do it (a shopping list, for example). Recalling the order of words is completely artificial and doesn’t resemble anything you would use memory to do in the real world.

Capacity

Limited.

7 Letters / 9 digits

7 (+/-2)

Notwithstanding that there are differences in capacity depending on the type of information, it is universally agreed that people can hold about seven things in STM.

Jacobs (1887) presented participants with random sequences of letters or digits and recorded their memory span (he decided that for his research, a person’s memory span was the longest sequence of items recalled 50% of the time). He found that on average, 9.3 digits were correctly recalled in order, and 7.3 letters were recalled in correct order. In further research, Miller found that not only could people recall about 7 individual items, but could also recall 7 chunk of information.

Miller suggested that the capacity for STM is 7 ± 2 chunks (in other words, nearly all people can recall between 5 and 9 small chunks of information). However, more recent research that managed to eliminate the possibility of letters being passed to LTM, and has found that on average, only 3.87 items could be correctly recalled (Cowan et al, 2005; Mathy and Feldman, 2012) suggesting that in Jacobs’ and Miller’s research, some of the information had been rehearsed and passed to LTM, thus over exaggerating the capacity of STM.

Miller’s (1956) theory is supported by psychological research. For example, Jacobs (1887). Although Miller’s (1956) theory is supported by psychological research, he did not specify how large each ‘chunk’ of information could be and therefore we are unable to conclude the exact capacity of short-term memory. Consequently, further research is required to determine the each size of information ‘chunks’ to understand the exact capacity of short-term memory.

Finally, Miller’s (1956) research into short-term memory did not take into account other factors that affect capacity. For example, age could also affect short-term memory and Jacobs (1887) research acknowledged that short-term memory gradually improved with age.

Duration

How long information can stay in short-term memory ranges from 15 - 30 seconds or 18 seconds, (but this can be extended due to rehearsal).

Peterson and Peterson 1959 presented three consonants (trigrams) (example. VGH, JSK), to participants for varying short-periods of time (3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 seconds). The researchers also asked participants to count backwards in threes from a random three digit number to supress rehearsal (interference task). It was found that correct recall diminished quickly the longer the delay. After just 3 seconds, 80% of trigrams were recalled; after 6 seconds, 50%; after 18 seconds, fewer than 10% of the trigrams were recalled. This demonstrates that without rehearsal, information is rapidly lost from STM.

Individual differences:

P: The capacity of STM may not be the same for everyone..

E: Jacobs found…

E: This shows that the age increase might be due to…

Extension: L: Therefore….

Extension: Ecological validity issues: STM and LTM capacity studies may lack ecological validity because……

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

LTM refers to the potentially permanent memory store which has a vast capacity and where memories can last for many years. People can store information about childhood, information about the world, and memory of how to do things. It is often said that you never forget to ride a bike once learned.

Feature

Research

Evaluation

Coding

Semantically

This means that information is stored in LTM when it has meaning or in other words, some relevance or importance to us. However, there is some evidence for both visual and acoustic encoding in LTM.

Baddeley (1966) presented participants with a list of words that were either semantically similar or semantically dissimilar to each other. He found that 20 minutes after presentation, participants were better able to recall the semantically dissimilar words in order compared with the semantically similar words. This confusion with words that have similar meaning led Baddeley to conclude that we store information semantically in LTM.

Examples of similar semantic words: great, large, big, huge

Examples of dissimilar semantic words: good, hot, salt, small

Capacity

Unlimited.

No matter how much information is stored long-term, the store never becomes full.

Standing et al, (1970) gave participants a single presentation of a sequence of 2560 photographs for 5 or 10 seconds per picture. Even after 36 hours, participants could identify the correct photo when paired with a new scene approximately 90% of the time. This shows that a vast amount of material can be stored in LTM, at least in picture form, and gives support for the argument that LTM is probably an unlimited store.

Duration

This is dependent of the person’s life span, as memories can last up to a life-time. Information that is processed at a deep level is likely to be remembered for longer, and memories based on skills rather than facts tend to be remembered better.

Bahrick et al. (1975) found that after 48 years of leaving school, participants could put names to faces from their yearbook with 70% accuracy. This was in contrast to only 30% accuracy when asked to free-recall the names of their ex classmates. This shows that some memories can remain persistent for a very long time, and will be recalled if the right cues exist.

Exam consolidation: Answer the following questions to test your learning of the features of each store.

Q1.  Research has suggested that the encoding and capacity of short-term memory are different from the encoding and capacity of long-term memory.

Explain what is meant by coding. (Total 2 marks)____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q2. 

Describe one way in which psychologists have investigated the duration of short-term memory. In your answer, you should include details of stimulus materials used, what participants were asked to do and how duration was measured. (Total 4 marks)

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Q3. 

(a)   Read the item and then answer the questions that follow.

 

 

A researcher investigating the multi-store model of memory tested short-term memory by reading out loud sequences of numbers that participants then had to repeat aloud immediately after presentation. The first sequence was made up of three numbers: for example, 8, 5, 2. Each participant was tested several times, and each time the length of the sequence was increased by adding another number.

Use your knowledge of memory to explain the purpose of this research and the likely outcome (4)

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(b)  After the study was completed, the researcher decided to modify the study by using sequences of letters rather than numbers.

Suggest one 4-letter sequence and one 5-letter sequence that the researcher could use. In the case of each sequence, give a justification for your choice. Use a different justification for each sequence. (Total 4 marks)

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Plenary activity: Fill in the grid, without looking at the information in your booklet

(main) CODING

DURATION

CAPACITY

Sensory register

Short term memory

Long term memory

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) proposed one of the earliest models of memory – the multi-store model. They suggested that memory is made up of three components: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. According to the model, memories are formed sequentially and information passes from one component to the next, in a linear fashion.

Each of the three components has a specific type of coding, capacity and duration. Coding refers to the way in which information is changed and stored in memory. Duration refers to the length of time information is held for and capacity refers to the amount, or quantity of information that can be stored.

Outline the multi-store store model of memory (A01) word fill task:

The Multi-Store model of memory is a ______ model of memory. It is comprised of ___ unitary stores, all of which vary in terms of encoding, duration and capacity. Research suggests that STM (short term memory) codes _________, has a duration of about __ seconds and a capacity of around __ items. LTM (long term memory) codes _________, has a duration of many years and has a potentially ________ capacity. Information passes from store to store in a ______ way. __________ information (e.g. via your ears) arrives at your _________ register (SR). If Attention is not paid, then information will _________ rapidly. Paying ________ causes transference of information to _____. The original model suggests _________ information in STM causes it to _________ to your _____. Insufficient rehearsal causes __________ in STM. Information that is to be recalled at a later date is accessed via __________ from your LTM to your STM. Forgetting in LTM is often due to _________from competing memories or retrieval __________.

semantically; decay; interference linear; acoustically; 18; 7; unlimited; forgetting; retrieval; Environmental; Sensory; failure; attention; STM; 3; rehearsing; transfer; LTM; structural;

Now use the paragraph to briefly outline up to 5 key features of the MSM below:

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Task 1: Decide whether the below research is supporting or refuting the MSM.

1. Beardsley (1997) found that that the pre-frontal cortex is active when individuals are involved with tasks involving short-term memory. Squire et al, (1992) found that the hippocampus is active when long-term memory is engaged. ________________

2. In a case study, after a virus caused damage to the hippocampus, Clive wearing had very little long term memory for events that had happened in his life, but could still remember skills such as playing piano, reading music and writing in a diary ______________

3. There is plenty of evidence from everyday life that information passes from STM to LTM without the need of maintenance rehearsal _____________

4. The model informs students that to pass information into a permanent store, they need to repeat the rehearsal of the information required. Just reading it once would not be considered effective rehearsal, according to the model ______________

Task 2: Evaluation: Write a PEEL paragraph for the case study of HM

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Evaluation of the Multi-Store Model of Memory

Highlight PEEL structure in each of the below evaluation paragraphs

Supporting Evidence:

In biological evidence into brain localisation using MRI scans, different areas of the brain appear to be active when tasks requiring either STM or LTM are required. Beardsley (1997) found that that the pre-frontal cortex is active when individuals are involved with tasks involving short-term memory. Squire et al, (1992) found that the hippocampus is active when long-term memory is engaged. The different brain localisation when using either the STM or LTM shows that the parts of memory are in different parts of the brain, thus supporting the concept of distinct memory stores as proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin.

Other (Challenging) Research:

(P) Other researchers demonstrated that memory is a product of processing information, and not maintenance rehearsal. Participants were asked questions about stimulus words at different processing ‘levels’. The words with questions that required a ‘shallow level’ of processing, for example, “is the word printed in capital letters” were less likely to be recalled that words with questions that required a ‘deep level’ of processing, for example, “Is the word a type of fruit. This demonstrates that how the information is processed is important to memory, and contradicts the original claim that for memories to be transferred into LTM, maintenance rehearsal (verbal repeating) is required. Thus giving doubt to some of the assumptions of the multi-store model.

Fails to Explain:

The MSM suggests that both STM and LTM are unitary stores, but later evidence pointed to a need to rework the simple unitary concepts Shallice and Warrington (1970) found that in one patient with amnesia, he found recall of digits very difficult when they were read to him, but much better when he read them to himself (the case study of KF). In another case study, after a virus caused damage to the hippocampus, Clive wearing had very little long term memory for events that had happened in his life, but could still remember skills such as playing piano, reading music and writing in a diary. Evidence such as this lead theorists to rework the MSM, showing that it is too simplistic to think of both STM and LTM as single stores. Instead, each should be considered as consisting of a number of different stores which specialise in processing and storing different types of information. (see the working memory model as a replacement for STM and the tripartite approach to describing LTM)

Applications:

The Multi-store model of memory can be used to give a greater understanding of how memory works, this can be helpful to people who rely heavily on their memories, such as students. The model informs students that to pass information into a permanent store, they need to repeat the rehearsal of the information required. Just reading it once would not be considered effective rehearsal, according to the model. The model confirms the importance of effective revision if students want to do well in exams, and is therefore a useful model

Class experiment: We can use the primacy and recency effect to support the MSM. Write a short PEEL paragraph to explain how it supports the MSM.

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Homework activity

Outline and evaluate the multi-store model of memory. Refer to evidence in your answer (16 marks)

Your task is to plan an essay for this essay question. Use the extended writing plan worksheet and class notes you have on this topic to help you to plan.

AO1- description

Identify below what the question wants you to describe:

Consider how the marks will be split for AO1?

How much do you need to write for each part of the AO1? How many points will you make?

Use the space below to write your plan for AO1:

AO3- Evaluation

Paragraph 1

What research could you describe that supports the MSM? You must explain why it supports. Use the technique below:

Point: A study that supports the MSM is …………..

Evidence: Describe the findings of a relevant study.

Explain and Link: This supports the MSM because……

Paragraph 2

What research could you describe that challenges the MSM? Use the burger technique to construct this paragraph.

Remember to structure each point using this format:

· Identify

· Justify

· Elaborate

Paragraph 3

Does the MSM fail to explain anything?

Paragraph 4

Do these explanations offer any practical applications? How are they useful to us?

The Working Memory Model

Central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity

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After the development of the multi-store model, research questioned the existence of a single STM store. Because we actively process information in STM, it is far too complex to suggest that STM is just a temporary store for transferring information into LTM. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) devised the ‘working memory model’ in an attempt to demonstrate what is happening to information when we are consciously thinking about it. Cohen described the WMM as the explanation of conscious thought happening ‘now’.

The working memory model is made up from four components. At the head of the model is the central executive, which attends and monitors incoming information, and allocates slave systems to tasks. The slave systems are the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial Sketchpad and the episodic buffer. Their roles are described below.

Complete the following tasks:

1.

2.

WMM essentially refers to the bit of memory that you are using when you are working on a complex task which requires you to store information as you go along,

The working memory model was proposed by ______________ and looks specifically at the part of memory you use when you are working on something in STM.

This model came about as an attempt to consider the possibility of there being ______than one part to STM.

If you carry out two __________ or two _________ tasks at the same time you do them less well than if you did them alone, however if you carry out one verbal and one visual task you do them as well as when you do them _____. This suggests that STM contains _____________ for _____ and _______information.

The working memory model contains four main parts

Component

Main purpose

Capacity

Coding

Activity 3: how does the Working Memory Model explain these behaviours?

a) Watching a film with moving pictures and sound, and perceiving them as one thing

b) Being able to repeat the word ‘the’ over and over again whilst drawing a picture of your house 

c) Being able to repeat sentences in your head for a few seconds

d) Being able to repeat a short melody that someone sings to you 

e) Not being able to recall seven long words (such as photosynthesis, exacerbation, serendipity etc) but being able to recall seven short words (such as car, house, dog etc.)

f) Participants not being able to follow a moving point of light on a screen whilst describing the angles of a hollow F

Task: Match the description with the component:

Component

Action

Central executive

Deals with visual and spatial information and is involved in pattern recognition and perception of movement (inner eye)

Phonological loop

Acts like attention it is modality free and co-ordinates the slave systems

Visuo-spatial scratchpad

A general storage facility integrating information from the LTM to the other components of the WMM.

Episodic buffer

Holds speech based information (inner ear) and processes inner speech (inner voice)

Evaluation of the Working memory model

Task: Use one of the case studies to support the WMM. Use the PEEL format

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We are going to complete an experiment based on Baddeley work known as the dual task study. Write up the dual task study, using the peel format, explaining how it supports the WMM.

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Task: Highlight Point, Evidence, Elaboration, Link (PEEL)

There is evidence to suggest that the notion of a single central executive is incorrect. Eslinger and Demasio (1985) reported on the case study of EVR who had a cerebral tumour removed. He performed well on tests of reasoning, which suggests that his central executive is intact; however he had poor decision-making skills, which suggests that his central executive was not wholly intact. This suggests that the original concept of the central executive is unsatisfactory. Something that Baddeley acknowledges when he stated in 2003 “The central executive is the most important but the least understood component of working memory.”

The multi-store model of memory only describes the structure of memory, but the WMM attempts to explain how memory functions. This has led to a greater understanding of cognitive dysfunction, for example, knowledge of the phonological loop and its role in the development of reading in children has led to a better understanding of dyslexia, The development of the working memory model has led to tangible benefits for dyslexic students, which the multi-store model did not, Furthermore, the WMM suggests practical applications; one example is with children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is thought to be linked with impairments with working memory. The development of the working memory model has clear practical applications that help children, showing the value of the model, so Alloway (2006) suggested a number of methods to help children focus on tasks: 1) Use brief and simple instructions so they don’t forget what they are doing; 2) Break instructions down into individual steps; 3) Frequently repeat instructions; 4) Ask the child to periodically repeat instructions

Exam focus: Outline the working memory model. (6 marks)

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Extension: Correct the outline of the MSM

The WMM suggests that there are three separate stores: The sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). Information first passes through the sensory register, where it can be stored for between 15 and 30 seconds. If the information is not attended to, it is likely to be forgotten. There are a number of different types of sensory register depending on the sense from which the information is received. Visual information is stored in echoic memory, and auditory information is stored in iconic memory. If information is attended to, it is passed into STM where it will last for up to 5 minutes without rehearsal. In STM, it is believed that an average of 8 (plus or minus 3) items can be stored, although much is lost through displacement. It is also believed that information is mainly coded acoustically. After maintenance rehearsal, information is transferred into LTM, where it has an unlimited duration, a limited capacity and information is mainly encoded visually. Forgetting is thought to occur through the decay of information if it is not used or retrieval failure. To retrieve information from LTM, it must be sent back into STM, and these decisions are governed by the central executive.

Long Term Memory – episodic, semantic and procedural

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One of the major limitations of the MSM is that its description of LTM as a single unitary store is now seen as outdated. Many research studies have shown that there are at least three different types of long-term store

Episodic Memory: First suggested by Tulving (1972), it is the type of long-term memory that gives individuals an autobiographical record of things that have happened to them (our memories of our experiences). In other words, it is the storage of episodes that happen throughout our lives. Examples of episodic memories are your school leaving party, your last holiday, what you did last night, your first kiss etc. Think of episodic memories in terms of 3Ws, containing information about what happened, where it happened, and when it happened. Individuals tend to see themselves as actors in these events, and the emotional charge and the entire context surrounding an event is usually part of the memory, not just the bare facts of the event itself. Furthermore, having episodic memory allows us to make predictions about what will happen to us in the future. Episodic memory is time-stamped

That is not to suggest that episodic memories contain exact reproductions of what happened. It is suggested that episodic memories are constructed, rather than reproductive, and is prone to errors and illusions. The section on eye-witness testimony will explore this further, but our episodic memories are subject to stereotyping, subjective interpretation, missing out information or adding in missing parts.

Semantic Memory: This is a structured record of facts, meanings, concepts and knowledge about the external world that we have acquired. It refers to general factual knowledge, shared with others and independent of personal experience and of the time and place in which it was acquired. Semantic memories may once have had a personal context, but now stand alone as simple knowledge. It therefore includes such things as types of food, capital cities, social customs, historical dates, functions of objects, vocabulary, understanding of mathematics, etc. There is an enormous amount of information available in semantic memory, and is continually being added to.

Procedural Memory: This differs from the other two types of long-term memory, as it tends to be unconscious, whereas the other two are conscious. Procedural memory (“knowing how”) is the unconscious memory of skills and how to do things, particularly the use of objects or movements of the body, such as tying a shoelace, playing a guitar or riding a bike. These memories are typically acquired through repetition and practice, and are composed of automatic sensorimotor behaviours that are so deeply embedded that we are no longer aware of them. Once learned, these "body memories" allow us to carry out ordinary motor actions more or less automatically. A good example of this is learning how to drive a car. Initially it is very difficult, but with repeated practice it becomes ‘second nature’.

This information can act as very important evaluation as it offers strong scientific evidence that there are (at least) three separate types of LTM.

If you have a smart phone, then download ‘3D brain’ from your app store (get the free version)

1) Find out where these areas of the brain are, and what they do.

a) Cerebellum: _________________________________________________________________

b) Temporal lobe: _______________________________________________________________

c) Hippocampus: ________________________________________________________________

d) Premotor cortex: ______________________________________________________________

Task: Highlight where the different types of long-term memory are in the brain. Tip: remember the hippocampus is deep in the brain

Read the text then answer the subsequent questions

(taken from “Psychology A level Year 1 and AS; The Complete Companion Student Book.” Cardwell and Flanagan, 2015, p 51)

The distinction made between the three kinds of memory is supported by research using brain scanning techniques. Such research shows that different areas of the brain are active when the different kinds of memory are active. Episodic memory is associated with the hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe where the hippocampus is located. Episodic memory also associated with activity in the frontal lobe. The memories of the different elements of a particular event may be distributed in other areas of the brain but they are all connected together by the hippocampus to form an episode. Semantic memory is thought to rely on temporal lobe activity. Procedural memory activation is associated with the cerebellum, which involved with in the control of fine motor (movement) skills as well as the motor cortex.

1) Where are episodic memories initially stored? ______________________________________

2) Which two areas are associated with procedural memories? ___________________________

3) Where in the brain are semantic memories processed? ______________________________

Activity 2. Highlight the terms in different colours depending on whether they are linked to episodic, semantic or procedural memory

Personal Knowledge

Knowing how

Knowing that Paris is the capital of France

Your friend’s address

Acquired through practice

Concrete facts

Hippocampus

An important event that happened on holiday

Temporal Lobe

Frontal Lobe

How to juggle

Time stamped

Personal

Cerebellum

Knowing how to drive

Motor Cortex

Implicit

conscious

Explicit

Your first day at college

Task: fill in the diagram with the different types of LTM

Evaluation of the different types of Long-term memory

There is evidence to suggest that when a person uses episodic memory, they use a different region in the brain compared with when they use semantic memory. Tulving (1989) injected himself, his wife and 4 others with particles of radioactive gold that he could use to track brain blood flow in a scanner. He scanned each person’s brain whilst they thought about historical facts or childhood experiences. He found in three of the six participants (including himself), that when they were thinking about historical facts blood flow increased at the back of his brain, whereas when he thought about childhood experiences blood flow increased at the front of his brain. The activation of the different areas of the brain when recalling facts or episodes suggests a biological basis to the different types of memory in LTM

Many studies using people with amnesia have demonstrated that there are different long-term memory stores. In the case of Clive Wearing, as illness caused the near total destruction of his hippocampus. This left him with an inability to store new episodic or semantic information for any more than a few seconds. However, he was perfectly able to read, write, speak and play piano. Corkin (1968) studied a brain-damage patient known as HM. HM had severe anterograde amnesia as a result of an operation to treat epileptic seizures. Like Clive Wearing, he appeared unable to store new long-term memories. HM was taught a new motor skill (tracing lines on a moving disk). Initially his performance was very poor, but he gradually improved. Several days later, HM was tested again. He was able to perform the task as well as he previously could, although he had no recollection of having done the task before. Other researchers investigated learning in people with Huntingdon’s Disease, a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain. They found that HD patients had no problems learning new facts and knowledge, but had severe problems learning new motor skills. These findings give a strong indication that damage to specific areas of the brain leave the patients with deficits in one or more types of long term memory, whilst leaving other long-term memory stores intact, this offers support for the biological basis of separate long-term stores

Other researchers disagree with Tulving’s three distinctions of long term memory. Cohen and Squire suggest that semantic and episodic memory should be understood as the same type of memory, called ‘declarative memory’, and research by Kan et al (2009) found that there was interdependence between episodic and semantic memory. Whether there are two or three types (or more) of LTM may be important when attempting to help people recover their cognitive functions after illnesses such as stokes.

Being able to identify different aspects of LTM 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. This shows that the tripartite division of long-term memory has had tangible benefits for people with cognitive impairment, making it a useful theory.

Exam focus: answer the following exam questions individually

 

Psychologists conducted a case study of Patient X, an individual who developed severe amnesia following a car accident. Patient X has difficulty storing new long-term memories, though his short-term memory and his memory for events that happened before the accident are unaffected.

(a)  Evaluate the use of case studies, like that of Patient X, in psychological research.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (5)

(b)  Briefly explain how the experiences of Patient X could be interpreted as supporting the multi-store model of memory.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (2)

The same psychologists conducted an experiment with Patient X where he was given the task of tracking a rotating disc every day for a week. It was found that Patient X’s performance on the task improved with practice, though he had no recollection of ever having done the task, and could not remember the names of the psychologists who conducted the experiment.

With reference to the experiment involving Patient X, outline two types of long-term memory.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (4)

(b)  Discuss two differences between the types of long-term memory you have outlined in your answer to part (c).

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (4)

(Total 15 marks)

Explanations for Forgetting:

Proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues

_________________________________

Explanation 1: Proactive and retroactive interference

Forgetting can be defined as a failure to retrieve memories (retrieval failure). Explanations vary between how other information interferes with memories, and how the absence of cues can lead to information not being retrieved.

Interference theory: Interference theory suggests that forgetting is due to information in LTM becoming confused with or disrupted by other information during coding, leading to inaccurate recall. It usually occurs when there is a similarity between the two memories.

There are two types of interference: proactive and retroactive (acronym to help you remember: PORN)

Proactive Interference: (Old information interfering with new information)

This is when old information prevents the recall of newer information. This could, for example, occur with telephone numbers. When trying to recall a new phone number, the old phone number you have previously had for years could proactively interfere with the recall, to the point when it is very difficult to remember the new number.

Jacoby et al (2001) argued that proactive interference occurs because of competition between the strength of the old learning and the weakness of the new learning. If you try to use a new password for an online transaction, the strength of an old password will interfere, and you lose the ability to recall the new one. Perhaps a more damaging example is calling your new partner by your old partner’s name!

Retroactive interference: (New information interfering with old information)

This is when more recent information gets in the way of trying to recall older information. An example would be calling your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend by your new boyfriend/girlfriend’s name. The new name retroactively interferes with the old one, which is clearly problematic for recall.

Task 1: Read the information in your pack and answer the following questions

1) With interference theory, what is the general idea of why we forget information in LTM?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2) What is it called when old information interferes with the accurate recall of new information?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3) What it the main cause of this type of forgetting

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4) Give an example of this type of forgetting

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5) What is the term used to identify when we cannot accurately recall older information because of interference of more recently learned information?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6) Give an example of this type of forgetting

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Task 2 – Explain why we forget in the below situations and identify whether it is an example of proactive or retroactive interference in forgetting

a) You are watching the TV in the sitting room. You want to get a coffee from the kitchen. You walk in, put the kettle on. But subsequently, your phone rings and it’s your best mate. You go into your bedroom for a chat which lasts more than 20 minutes. After the phone call ends, you return to the sitting room and continue watching the TV, you forget all about the coffee.

b) You are in a new relationship and you take your partner to a café for some lunch. As you ask them what they would like to eat, you accidently call them by your ex-partner’s name. Your new partner gets angry and leaves the restaurant

c) You are in your French exam, trying to remember the past participle of a particular verb, but all you can recall is the equivalent verb in Spanish, which you learned as a child when your family lived in Costa Rica for a year.

d) You have a facebook password and a gmail password, but they are different. You had your gmail account first and your facebook account a little later. Last night, when trying to remember your gmail password, all you can remember is the facebook password.

Task 3 – Supporting evidence 1: replication of study by Underwood (1957) demonstrating proactive interference

Write down as many words as you can remember from each list. Make sure you cover your answers before the next trial

list 1 list 2 list 3 list 4 list 5 list 6 list 7 list 8

Total number of correctly recalled items from each list

List 1

List 2

List 3

List 4

List 5

List 6

List 7

List 8

a) Is there anything in your findings that support the findings by Underwood (1957)?

Evaluation 1: In an early demonstration of proactive 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 increased compared with when they first began the study. As the participants made more errors as the more lists they had to remember, this shows that the old information was interfering with the newly learned information, which is what proactive interference would predict.

Task 4. Supporting evidence 2: Retroactive influence and forgetting. Answer to the exam question below

Researchers collected a sample of 211 former students of a Dutch elementary school and sent them a map of the surrounding area of the school. The map had the street names removed and replaced with numbers from 1 – 48. Participants were asked to name as many as they could. The researchers found that there was a positive association with how many times the participants had moved outside the area, and the number of names forgotten.

Explain how this study would support the role of retroactive interference in forgetting (3 marks)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evaluation 2:Schmidt et al, 2000 collected a sample of 211 former students of a Dutch elementary school and sent them a map of the surrounding area of the school. The map had the street names removed and replaced with numbers from 1 – 48. Participants were asked to name as many as they could. The researchers found that there was a positive association with how many times the participants had moved outside the area, and the number of names forgotten. The researchers concluded that learning new street names made recalling the old street names more difficult. This shows that interference plays a role in forgetting and not time passed. This demonstrates that retroactive interference plays a role in forgetting because the new information interferes with the old information

Evaluation 3: Baddeley and Hitch. Research what Baddeley and Hitch found about interference and forgetting. Write up as a PEEL paragraph

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Outline and evaluate the role of proactive and retroactive interference in forgetting (16 marks)

Outline – Proactive interference Outline - Retroactive interference

Evaluation – supporting evidence Evaluation – supporting evidence

Underwood 1957 Schmidt et al (200)

Evaluation - Further supporting evidence for the role of interference over time – Baddeley and Hitch (1977)

Evaluation - The explanations fails to explain

Evaluation – Practical applications for students – including finding from McGeoch and McDonald (1931) on the role of similarity and interference

Exam focus

Task 5: Read the student responses to the below exam question. Identify what went well and how the answer could be improved. Use the mark scheme on the board to grade the answer.

With reference to research, describe interference as an explanation of forgetting (6)

Student response A

Interference can be proactive or retroactive. Proactive is when old memories interfere with new memories and retroactive is when new memories interfere with old. An example is moving house and learning a new postcode but forgetting your old postcode. This is an example of retroactive interference. A good thing about this explanation is that there is research to support the explanation, such as Baddeley and Hitch. This type of interference can also explain why when you are revising two similar subjects such as sociology and psychology you may get information mixed up.

WWW:

EBI:

Student response B

Interference is when information in the LTM is disrupted by other information. Proactive interference is where old information disrupts new information and retroactive is when new information disrupts old information. An example of this could be moving house and learning a new postcode but then being asked for your old postcode and forgetting it. This is an example of retroactive interference. Research in this area has found that if participants are asked to learn a list of word pairs they can recall it well. However, when they are given two lists to learn and then asked to recall the first list they will get the two lists mixed up. This shows that the later list disrupts the recall for the earlier list and is an example of retroactive interference.

WWW:

EBI:

Extension: Read the item and then answer the question that follows.

 

Martin is studying for his modern language exams. He revises French followed by Spanish on the same night and then gets confused between the two: for example, he remembers the French word for ‘chair’ instead of the Spanish word for ‘chair’. Sometimes, his mum helps to test Martin’s vocabulary. When he is unable to remember a word, his mum tells him the first letter, then he can often recall it correctly.

Discuss two explanations for forgetting. Refer to Martin’s experiences in your answer. (Total 12 marks)

A01: Describe

A02: Apply

A03: Evaluate

Additional evaluation of interference theories of forgetting

Fails to explain

Although the interference theory is intuitively correct: Most people can think of times when interference in both directions have occurred. This means that the theory makes sense and there are plenty of everyday examples of it occurring.The interference explanations tend to focus on what happens when we forget information that is similar meaning that it has limited scope. It fails to explain how forgetting information, skills or other information happens in the majority of real life settings, where we are not juggling with similar material but still manage to forget a lot of what we experience. Furthermore, the explanations may be able to tell us how interference affects our memories in artificial situations, but they do not explain most cases of forgetting in real-life. The fact that most of the research is predominantly laboratory based and therefore does not test everyday recall, means that there is a problem with the validity of the research that supports the theory.

Applications:

Theories of forgetting have a number of important applications. These explanations can inform educators about the best way for students to learn information. It may be prudent when revising for exams, that students do not revise similar topics next to each other, as this is likely to interfere with recall of the information. McGeoch and McDonald (1931) showed that people would make far more errors if they had to recall an original list after learning a new list of synonyms than if they had only the original list to learn.

This make the explanations valuable to society as they help with educational methods, revision techniques and therefore aid learning

Explanation 2: retrieval failure due to absence of cues

Starter:

Retrieval failure occurs due to an absence of cues. The reason that people forget information is because there are insufficient cues. When information is placed in memory, their associated cues are stored at the same time. If these cues are not available at the time of recall, then there is an appearance that the information has been forgotten. This theory suggests that the information is still available for recall, but it cannot be accessed until the correct cues are in place.

Tulving (1983) referred to what he called the Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP). This states that a cue is going to help us remember information, it has to be present during encoding (when we learn the information) and at retrieval (recall). If the cues at encoding and retrieval are different then some forgetting will occur. For example, if you revise at college, you are more likely to retrieve the information than you are if you revise at home, as the college will act as a cue for retrieval because the surroundings were there during encoding.

The suggestion is that internal (such as mood state) and external (such as temperature and smell) cues can help facilitate recall of a long term memory. This theory works on the idea that forgetting in long term memory is due to a lack of access to a memory rather than the availability of a memory. If the context and feelings of the individual are similar for recall to the situation where the memory was originally processed then the chances of recalling the memory will be increased. We forget because the recall is out of content.

Context dependent forgetting: This refers to external cues that are different when encoding information and when retrieving it. This is illustrated in to example above (college vs home revision)

State-dependent forgetting: This refers to internal cues (states of awareness) that are different during encoding information and retrieving it. An example is encoding information while under the influence of alcohol, only to forget it the next day.

This idea is used in a practical way by police when conducting interviews with eyewitnesses. They often use a technique called the cognitive interview which asks eye witnesses to recall every detail and think about the context of the crime (e.g. the weather). The idea is to increase recall by recreating the situation it was witnessed in. They have also asked witnesses to revisit the scene of a crime to prompt recall.

Task 1: answer the questions below on retrieval failure

1) When people forget, what is thought to be insufficient?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

2) What is thought to be stored at the same time when information is placed in memory?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

3) Imagine that you were at a party and you met someone you liked who was wearing a distinct fragrance. What would happen next time you were in Boots and someone sprayed a tester next to you which was the same fragrance.

_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________

4) Tulving (1983) refers to this phenomenon as the Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP) define exactly what this is

_______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________

5) Go back to question 3. Now explain what would happen using psychological terminology in your answer.

_______________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________

6) What is meant by context dependent memory?

_______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________

7) Give an example of context dependent memory.

_______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________

8) What is meant by state-dependent memory?

_______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________

9) Give an example of state-dependent memory.

_______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________

Evaluation of Retrieval Failure theory

Evidence 1: Godden and Baddeley (1975): context dependent forgetting

There are numerous studies supporting the role retrieval failure in forgetting. Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied deep water divers and the effects of context dependent memory. There were four conditions Participants had to learn lists of 36 words (two or three syllables) and recall them in the different conditions, the finding of percentage recall are shown below. The higher percentage recall in the matched environments support the prediction that if the cues at encoding are the same as the cues at retrieval, recall is more likely, and if they are different, recall is less likely. This supports the concept of context dependent forgetting

Learn on land – recall on land (same context)

Learn underwater – recall on land (different context)

Learn on land – recall underwater (different context)

Learn underwater – recall underwater (same context)

Learn on land – recall on land (same context)

Recall accuracy = 37%

Learn underwater – recall on land (different context)

Recall accuracy = 23%

Learn on land – recall underwater (different context)

Recall accuracy = 24%

Learn underwater – recall underwater (same context)

Recall accuracy = 32%

Dissecting Godden and Baddeley (1975)

1) What is the IV in this study – warning: it is not whether they learned the material on land or underwater

2) What is the DV in this study?

3) What is the experimental design of this study?

4) Can you develop an operationalised non-directional hypothesis for this study?

5) What were the findings in this study?

6) How does these findings support the role of retrieval failure in forgetting in LTM? (grounding the evidence)

7) Now think of one positive and one negative evaluation

Evidence 2: State dependent forgetting: Carter and Cassaday (1998)

Take a highlighter and highlight all the text that you wouldn’t want to include if you were using this study to support the theory.

In a study in the United Kingdom on students at Nottingham University in 1998, Carter and Cassaday gave anti-histamine drugs or a placebo (vitamin pills) to participants. Anti-histamines are drugs used to treat allergies, but they have a mild side-effect of causing drowsiness and therefore altering the state of awareness for the participants. A placebo is a pill, tablet or other intervention in which participants think they are receiving active medical treatment. It is only that the participants think that they are receiving treatment, that makes them feel better. In this case, the placebo was a simple vitamin pill, so it would have been highly unlikely that its use would have any cognitive effect. Why this happens is still largely unknown, although it is thought that headache pills, anti-depressants, acupuncture, homeopathy all show signs of success largely due to the placebo effect. Participants were asked to learn and recall information in four different conditions: Learn on drug – recall on drug (same state); learn on placebo – recall on drug (different state); learn on drug – recall on placebo (different state) and learn on placebo – recall on placebo (same state). The researchers found 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 (for example, learn on placebo, recall on drug), and an increased performance when the internal states did match. This is in line with the predictions made by the explanation of forgetting due to being in a different internal state, as more items were recalled when the participants were in the same state when coding and retrieving the information, and they recalled fewer items when their internal state did not match during coding and retrieval.294 words – far too many

When you are satisfied that you have cut the parts that do not receive credit, write a paragraph using the information to get the best supporting paragraph for the theory.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Additional evaluation of cue dependant forgetting

Baddeley (1997) argued that these studies do not reflect real-life, and therefore the strength of the 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, that tend to be the norm, 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. Furthermore, much of the research on this theory is laboratory based and therefore lacks ecological validity. The studies do not test ‘everyday memory’ and therefore it could be argued the evidence lacks validity.

Applications:

If the explanations are valid, there are very important applications. In places where getting instructions correct is absolutely vital, such as soldiers in novel environments, it is important to recognise that instructions maybe more likely to be forgotten if issued back in the safety of the camp. This would be true for many different people, such as deep water divers repairing oilrigs, astronauts, medics etc. therefore care must be taken to recognise this, and much practice in different scenarios required. Furthermore, the theory has been helpful to forensic and police work as it helps facilitate recall from eye witnesses. This means the theory has a real world practical applications, such as to save the lives of people in threatening and novel situations making it useful outside of the psychology laboratory.

The levels of processing theory which states that the deeper you think about information the more likely it is to be recalled supports this theory of forgetting as the cues provide a richer level of detail and thus the chance of recall is increased.

Task 3: Applying your psychological knowledge. With these examples, state which is context-dependent forgetting, state-dependent forgetting, proactive interference, retroactive interference or none of these. Justify your answer

a) Helena was really tired yesterday when revising for a test, and although she feels wide awake today, she couldn’t remember most of the information that she had revised.

b) Richard found an old ‘O’ level physics question which he had answered from 1984 whilst clearing out the loft. He wondered why even though he received an A grade, he wouldn’t be able to answer it now.

c) Clive had lost most of his hippocampus through illness. He had kept the ability to play piano, talk, walk and read, but he had lost the ability to form new memories that lasted for any more than just a few seconds

d) Why is it that Izzy keeps putting her old PIN in when she wants to use the cashpoint, even though she’s had a new card and PIN for the last 9 days?

e) Granny Lockyer keeps calling her oldest great-granddaughter by the wrong name. Erin is one and Eva is four, but she keeps calling Eva by Erin’s name by mistake.

f) Peter ran from the classroom to the library to get a book. When he got there, he couldn’t remember what book it was that he needed and left without it. He returned to the classroom and immediately remembered the title and author of the book.

Outline and evaluate one psychological explanation for forgetting (16 marks)

The reason that people forget information is because there are insufficient cues during recall. When information is placed in memory, their associated cues are stored at the same time. If these cues are not available at the time of recall, then there is an appearance that the information has been forgotten. This theory suggests that the information is still available for recall, but it cannot be accessed until the correct cues are in place.

Tulving (1983) referred to what he called the Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP). This states that a cue is going to help us remember information, it has to be present during encoding (when we learn the information) and at retrieval (recall). If the cues at encoding and retrieval are different then some forgetting will occur. For example, if you revise at college, you are more likely to retrieve the information than you are if you revise at home, as the college will act as a cue for retrieval because the surroundings were there during encoding.

Cue-dependent forgetting can occur due to a lack of the same external or internal cues during recall. Context dependent forgetting refers to external cues that are different when encoding information and when retrieving it. This is illustrated above (college vs home revision). State-dependent forgetting refers to internal cues (states of awareness) that are different during encoding information and retrieving it. An example is encoding information while under the influence of alcohol, only to forget it the next day.

There are numerous studies supporting the role retrieval failure in forgetting. Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied deep water divers and the effects of context dependent memory. Participants had to learn lists of 36 words (two or three syllables) and recall them either in the same or different context. When Ps learned the words on land and recalled on land, there was a 37% accuracy rate. This is compare to when they learned the words on land but recalled them underwater, which only produced a 24% accuracy rate. When learning and recall were both underwater, accuracy stood at 32%, but was lower again when learning was underwater but recall was on land, at 23%. The higher percentage recall in the matched environments support the prediction that if the cues at encoding are the same as the cues at retrieval, recall is more likely, and if they are different, recall is less likely. This supports the concept of context dependent forgetting. Additionally, there are a number of studies supporting the concept of state-dependent forgetting. Carter and Cassaday (1998) found that there was less accuracy of recall of information when participants were in different internal states to when they learned the material compared with when they were in the same internal states. Internal state before learning was manipulated using an independent groups design, with one condition receiving a drug which induced drowsiness and the other receiving a placebo. It can be strongly argued that these findings support the theory that people forget if they recall in different internal states to when they learn information, showing the power of not just external context but internal states as cues.

One concern is the lack of mundane realism in research such as these, for example, Baddeley (1997) argued that these studies do not reflect real-life, and therefore the strength of the 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, that tend to be the norm, will not have a strong effect. Therefore, there must be caution not to make exaggerated claims about cue dependent forgetting based on evidence that alters both context and state in a dramatic way. Notwithstanding this criticism, If the explanations are valid, there are very important applications. For example, In places where getting instructions correct is absolutely vital, such as soldiers in novel environments, it is important to recognise that instructions maybe more likely to be forgotten if issued back in the safety of the camp. This would also be an issue in other scenarios, such as deep water divers repairing oilrigs, astronauts, medics etc. therefore care must be taken by those involved to recognise this, and practice in as many different scenarios as may arise. Therefore,the value of these explanations maybe that they are used to save the lives of people in threatening and novel situations

731 – about the maximum word length that could be written under exam conditions

Factors affecting the accuracy of Eyewitness

Testimony (EWT):

Misleading information, including leading

Questions and post-event discussion; anxiety

____________________________________________

Eye witness testimony is defined as an account or evidence provided by people who witnessed an event, such as a crime, reported from their memory.

Eyewitness testimony frequently plays a key role in criminal investigations. This was highlighted in 1976 when a report found EWT was the only piece of evidence in a criminal case and 75% of these cases were found guilty.

In appeals against conviction in the United States, DNA evidence has overturned over 200 cases and in 75% of these, eye-witness testimony was the main evidence against them. In a famous case, Cornelius Dupree had spent 30 years in prison for rape because the victim incorrectly identified him as the perpetrator. DNA evidence proved that he was innocent, and the conviction was quashed. Many variables can influence the accuracy of eye-witness testimony. These include being presented with misleading questions during police interviews, post-event discussion with other witnesses, and the anxiety that people feel if they witness or are a victim of the crime.

Eyewitness memory goes through three stages:

1. Witness encodes information from the event. Encoding may be partial and distorted.

2. Witness retains information for a period of time. (most forgetting occurs in first few minutes)

3. Witness retrieves memory from storage.

The accuracy of EWT may be effected by:

1. Misleading information in the form of questions that encourage the answer wanted (leading questions) as well as;

2. Post-event discussion (with other witnesses).

3. Their emotions at the time of the incident (anxiety).

1. Misleading information: Loftus and palmer & Loftus and Pickerell

Most cognitive psychologists agree that our memories for events are not precise copies of what happened, as you might see if you were filming it. Instead, we only accurately retain fragments of the information, and fill in the gaps. This reconstruction of events leads to inaccuracies in recall, which can be compounded if we receive information after the event which distorts our original memory. For eye-witnesses to an incident, a subtle change in the wording of a question can have dramatic effects on what they recall, as is demonstrated by the findings of the study below

Loftus and Palmer 1974 – misleading questions

Two experiments are reported in which subjects viewed films of automobile accidents and then answered questions about events occurring in the films. In experiment 1, 45 university students were divided into 5 conditions. The question “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” elicited higher estimates of speed than questions which used the verbs collided, bumped, contacted, or hit in place of smashed. (see table 1 below). In experiment 2, 150 students were split into three conditions, one condition were asked the question with ‘smashed’, the other condition were asked the question with ‘hit’ and the other condition had no question (control). On a retest one week later, those subjects who received the verb smashed were more likely to say “yes” to the question, “Did you see any broken glass?”, even though broken glass was not present in the film (see table 2 below).

Table 1: results for Loftus and Palmer (1974) leading question experiment:

Word

Average speed estimates

Smashed

40.5 mph

Collided

39.3 mph

Bumped

38.1 mph

Hit

34.0 mph

Contacted

31.8 mph

Table 2: results for Loftus and Palmer (1974) broken glass experiment

Response

Smashed

Hit

Control

Yes

16

7

6

No

34

43

44

In both these experiments, it can be seen the memory