Memory
Without it, you’d be constantly living in one moment to the next. You wouldn’t know who you are, where you came from or where you are going. But what is it? And how does it work? To answer these questions, early memory researchers decided to break memory down into simple structures. The mysterious power of our mind to store images, words and sounds, was reduced into several components. All of these components were then thought to interact through simple processes. Simplifying memory in this way was a necessary step in developing our understanding of how memory functions. From this structured view of memory, two important models of memory were developed: the Multi-store Model and the Working-Memory Model.

Section 1: Multi-store model of memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) Do you think you have a good memory? What is your earliest memory? The multi-store model is a structural model which states that memory is made up of 3 distinct, separate stores: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). Each of the stores can be analysed based on three factors: 1) Capacity: how much information can be stored 2) Duration: the amount of time the information can be stored 3) Encoding: how the information is represented by the memory system

Sensory memory
The first store in the multi-store model is the sensory memory store. This store provides an account of the environment as experienced by our senses. A copy of the stimulus is kept here until we determine whether it should be processed further. Capacity Sensory memory holds sensory information. Individual images and sounds are stored here in an unprocessed (raw) form. Encoding Visual images received into the sensory memory store are stored in the form of iconic memory. Sounds are stored in echoic memory. Duration Information is held in its unprocessed form for fractions of a second after the physical stimulus is no longer visible. This storage allows a continuity of the images of the world that we see with our eyes. This is like how, while watching a movie, it feels like it is continuous, yet it is actually made up of many individual images displayed rapidly, one after another. Without iconic memory, it’d be like looking at the world through a stream of photographs. Without echoic memory, instead of hearing speech, you’d only hear unrelated sounds coming from a person’s mouth. To transfer information out of the sensory memory store, attention is required. When attention is given to the information it is transferred into the short-term memory store. If attention isn’t given, the information decays rapidly and is forgotten.

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Section 2: Short-term memory (STM)
This next part of the multi-store model is a memory system for storing small amounts of visual or acoustic (sound) information for a few seconds. Capacity Short-term memory has a limited capacity. The capacity of a person’s short-term memory can be measured by their immediate digit span. This is their ability to remember and repeat a list of random numbers that has been read to them. Most people have a digit span of 7 plus/minus 2. George Miller (1956) claimed that this limit of 7 plus or minus 2 was true for numbers, but more importantly, the limit was also true for ‘chunks’ of information. Each number could be considered a chunk of information. A single letter would also be seen as one chunk. However, what is considered a ‘chunk’ depends on the meaning of the letters or numbers and how they are grouped together. For example, HIWTFLOL would be processed as 3 chunks, but LLHTWFOI would be processed as 9 chunks because the letters can’t be separated as easily. The chunking process here reduces the larger amount of information into a smaller amount. However, there is evidence that the short-term memory store is not limited just by the number of items, but also by how much time it takes to pronounce each item.

Baddeley et al. (1975) This was a study to determine if the capacity of short-term memory is determined by the number of items to be remembered or how long it takes a person to pronounce the items. Before the task, participants were assessed for their reading speeds. They were then presented with five words on a screen. The words were either monosyllabic (short words) e.g. fun, hug, love or polysyllabic (long words) e.g. antidisestablishmentarianism. Immediately after seeing the words, the participants had to write them down in the order they were presented. Participants recalled more short words than long words. They could recall as many words as they could say in 2 seconds. This study suggests that the immediate memory span is a measure of how many items (of any length) can be articulated in around 2 seconds. This indicates that short-term memory is limited more by the amount of time it takes to pronounce an item than by the number of the items there are. 4 Duration As a temporary store, STM only stores information briefly. If information needs to be remembered for longer, it has to be transferred into the long-term memory (LTM). This transfer can occur through the repetition of the information, which is called maintenance rehearsal. By repeating information it is constantly re-inserted into STM, where it is maintained until it is transferred to long-term memory. Therefore maintenance rehearsal is necessary for information to be transferred from the STM to the LTM. If information in STM isn’t rehearsed, it decays rapidly and is forgotten. The following study provides evidence demonstrating the duration of short-term memory and the importance of rehearsal. Peterson and Peterson (1959)        The aim of this study was to discover how the duration of STM can be affected by rehearsal. Participants were shown a trigram (a diagram of three letters e.g. ZLV) on each trial. They were instructed to count backwards in threes. This was a distractor task to prevent them from rehearsing. After intervals of 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds they were asked to recall the letters from the trigram. At 3 seconds, they could remember 80% of the 3-letter trigrams. After 18 seconds, less than 10% could be remembered. This demonstrates that the STM duration is short, but it is even shorter if we are unable to rehearse information. If rehearsal is prevented then the information rapidly decays.

Encoding When information reaches STM from sensory memory it is still in its raw, unprocessed form. There are 3 ways that such raw information can be encoded in short-term memory: visually, acoustically (sound) or semantically (by meaning). For example, after reading the word ‘fire’ you can visually represent what a fire looks like by imagining a fire. You could acoustically represent the word by saying the word ‘fire’ out loud (might not want to shout it though). Finally you could semantically represent it, by thinking about a campfire, dragons or anything else meaningfully related to fires. Evidence for encoding in STM comes from studies of substitution errors. These are types of errors where somebody confuses one item for another, which demonstrates the processes used for encoding the information. For example, if a person confuses letters which sound similar, then this would indicate that they are using acoustic (sound) encoding to remember the letters. If instead they confuse letters which look similar, they are using visual encoding. The following study demonstrates the importance of acoustic encoding for short-term memory.

5 Conrad (1964)        The study aimed to determine if acoustic encoding is used even when information is presented visually. Participants were presented with images of random sequences of 6 consonants. The sequences of letters were either acoustically (sounded) similar e.g. D, G, T or acoustically dissimilar e.g. Z, K, W if read aloud. Participants wrote down the letters in the sequence they appeared. Most of the errors participants showed were related to substitutions of similar sounding letters e.g. writing D even though T was displayed. Even though the letters were displayed visually, it was more difficult for them to recall words that sounded similar compared to words that sounded different. The study showed that acoustic encoding was used even when the information was presented visually. This is evidence of the importance of acoustic encoding for information entering the short-term memory.
If information isn’t rehearsed in the short-term memory store, it decays rapidly.

Section 3: Long-term memory (LTM)
The long-term memory store is the final structure of the multi-store model. This is a store of an infinite amount of information for a long period of time. Such information includes our personal memories, general knowledge, plans for the future and knowledge of skills. It is not a passive store of information, but is an active system which continuously modifies stored knowledge when new information is presented to it. The LTM is much larger and more complex than STM. Capacity LTM is recognised as having an unlimited capacity. This is indicated by the way that we are always capable of learning more information. To account for such unlimited capacity it is assumed that LTM has a highly organized structure to allow retrieval of information within its enormous size.

Duration LTM lasts a lot longer than STM. Forgetting for the long-term memory store tends to involve a failure of retrieving the information that a person is seeking in their memory. The following study demonstrates that long-term memory is long-lasting and that memories stored in it can often last for an entire lifetime. Bahrick et al. (1975)        50 years after finishing high school, graduates were shown photographs from their highschool yearbook Recognition group: provided with names and asked to select name that matched photo Recall group: asked to name person in photo In the recognition group, after 47 years, 60% of the people were still remembered. In the recall group 20% were still remembered. The study shows how individuals can remember information for a lifetime. Also, information is easier to remember when tested by recognition rather than recall. Evidently, a lot was still forgotten. However, it is difficult to determine whether the drop in memory over the years is based on a duration limit of long-term memory or due to a general decline in memory ability with age.

Encoding in long-term memory Semantic encoding is primarily used for long-term memory. This means that information is stored according to the meaning that it has. For example, you remember the word ‘banana’ in LTM based on what the word means and what a banana is, rather than what the word ‘banana’ sounds like. Evidence has been provided by Baddeley to demonstrate the importance of semantic encoding for long-term memory:

7 Baddeley (1966) The aim of this study was to determine how long-term memory is affected by semantic and acoustic encoding Participants were shown 10 words from 4 lists. The words shown depended on which of 4 groups they were in: Acoustically similar (the words sound similar) e.g. hat, cat, fat Acoustically dissimilar e.g. keyboard, tree, giraffe Semantically similar (the words have similar meanings) e.g. big, huge, large Semantically dissimilar e.g. moon, octopus, paper After 20 minutes they had to recall the words in the correct order Long-term recall was a lot worse for semantically similar words compared to semantically dissimilar words. For example, you’d find it more difficult to remember the words ‘happy, joyful, excited’ compared to the words ‘tree, bed, zebra’. The meanings of the words ‘tree, bed, zebra’ are unrelated and aren’t likely to be mixed up when trying to recall the words. There was no difference in the long-term recall of acoustically similar or dissimilar words. This indicates that the LTM primarily uses semantic encoding. This is noticeable by the difficulties the participants had in recalling the correct order of words that had similar meanings. Though semantic encoding is mainly used, visual and acoustic encoding are still accepted as functioning in LTM e.g. in picturing a place that you have visited or remembering a song in your head (if music or lyrics from a song are stuck in your head, the term for this is ‘earworm’). Attention
Environmental stimulus Sensory memory Short-term memory

Rehearsal
Long-term memory
Retrieval Decay Decay Retrieval failure
Rehearsal of information transfers it from the short-term to long-term store. Information tends not to decay from the long-term memory, but instead it is a failure to retrieve the memory that prevents recall.
Comparing the stores of the multi-store model Sensory memory Fractions of a second 1 unprocessed image/sound Iconic memory (visual) and echoic memory (auditory) Short-term memory Seconds Limited 7±2 items Pronounced in 2 secs Acoustic (sounds) Long-term memory Hours to years Unlimited Mainly semantic (meaning)
Duration Capacity Encoding

Section 4: Further evidence supporting the multi-store model
Additional studies that support the multi-store model involve evidence that the short-term and longterm memory stores are separate. This can be shown where brain damage only affects one store and not the other. It can also be demonstrated by using a task to prevent the transfer of information from STM to LTM. Milner (1966)  A young man named H.M. had brain surgery to remove his epilepsy (a disorder in which he kept having fits/seizures). As an unfortunate consequence of the surgery, memory-related parts of his brain were removed. After the surgery he was unable to form any new memories. He could read the same magazine twice without realizing it. He also forgot people minutes after he had met them. Despite such long-term memory problems, his short-term memory capacity was at a normal level. According to the multi-store model, he was unable to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory, preventing the formation of long-term memories. This demonstrates a distinction between functions of the short-term and long-term memory, therefore supporting the multi-store model .

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)   This study aimed to demonstrate that the short-term and long-term memory stores existed separately. Participants were presented one word at a time. They were then asked to recall the words in any order, either immediately (immediate recall group) or after counting backwards for 30 seconds (delayed recall group). (Memory of the first words is called the primacy effect. Memory for the last words is called the recency effect. ) The immediate recall group were most able to remember the first and last words (experiencing both the primacy effect and recency effect). This is called the serial position effect, where the first and last words are the easiest to recall. The delayed recall group were only able to remember the first words (they only experienced the primacy effect). Both groups had difficulty remembering words from the middle of the list Both groups could recall words from the beginning of the list. This is because it was possible for both groups to rehearse such first words for long enough so they could be transferred into their long-term memories. The words at the end of the list were still being rehearsed and maintained in the STM. Therefore, when recall was delayed by the distraction task, the participants in the delayed recall group couldn’t rehearse the words in STM. So for the delayed group, these words were not maintained for recall. This demonstrates the existence of STM and LTM and that they are separate stores.

Weaknesses of the multi-store model (MSM)
Craik and Watkins (1973)   Craik and Watkins found that participants who were allowed to rehearse certain words were not more likely to remember those words. They argued that elaborative rehearsal may be more important than maintenance rehearsal. Elaborative rehearsal is where the information is elaborated in some way, usually by giving it meaning or by connecting it with knowledge already stored in long-term memory. The MSM model emphasises the effectiveness of maintenance rehearsal, but Craik and Watkins suggest that other methods are more important for transferring information from short-term to long-term memory.

Brown and Kulik (1982)   Where were you when you found out that Osama Bin Laden had been killed? What about when Amy Winehouse or Michael Jackson died? Memory for major public events and incidents are called ‘flashbulb memories’. These types of memories are when people have a detailed memory of what they were doing and where they were when the event occurred. It is argued that there is a brain mechanism that is activated when such emotional events occur, where the scene of learning about the event is printed into memory because of its emotional significance. This is evidence against the importance of maintenance rehearsal for memory, where flashbulb memories involve information being transferred straight into long-term memory without rehearsal.

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Section 5: Working memory model
Baddeley and Hitch (1974) The Working memory model focuses on short-term memory. But unlike the single short-term memory of the Multi-store model, this short-term memory is made up of multiple components, each with its own function. The working-memory is an active store which is used to manipulate information. It allows us to keep track of what we are doing and to hold information for long enough to make decisions. The central executive component controls the three other components: the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer.

Central executive
Central control system Most important component of the working memory model Involved in problem-solving and decision-making Controls attention, planning and synthesising (combining) information Can process information from any modality (e.g. visual or audio modality) Limited storage capacity. Can only attend to limited activities at a time

Phonological loop Briefly stores a limited number of speech-based sounds Contains two components o Phonological store(inner ear): stores acoustically encoded items briefly o Articulatory control process (inner voice): allows subvocal repetition (mentally repeated) of the items in the phonological store. For example, saying words in your head before saying them out loud. Articulatory suppression can occur for the articulatory control process. This prevents the subvocal repetition. This can happen with the participant repeating out loud a sound that is irrelevant to the memory task, which prevents the phonological loop from repeating and retaining information. It is tested by verbal tasks e.g. reading, speaking, learning or repeating words.

Visuospatial sketch pad
(the inner eye) Stores visual and spatial information (information related to where something is located in a certain space) Manipulates mental images Limited capacity Is used for visual tasks e.g. imagining the layout of a building or imagining a shape

Episodic buffer
Integrates information from different sources into ‘episodes’ Integrates material from LTM to meet the demands of working memory It allows us to go beyond what is in LTM and to combine it in different ways using working memory. For example, imagine your teacher performing a karate kick to the head of any student who is late for class. You’d be integrating the long-term memories of a karate kick, your teacher, and the late student.

Comparing the components of working memory model Central executive Information type Function Any Control other components. Synthesises information. Planning. Problem-solving Problem-solving/ generating random information Phonological loop Sound Stores and repeats sounds Visuospatial sketch pad Images/ Spaces Manipulates images Episodic buffer Any Integrates information from different sources

Testing tasks

Verbal reasoning

Visual imagery

Evidence in support of the working memory model
Support has been provided by studies in which participants complete 2 tasks at the same time. The 2 tasks each require the use of a separate component of working memory. If each component is capable of performing well independently of the other, then this demonstrates that the different components are separate.

Robbins et al. (1996)    This study aimed to demonstrate the role of the central executive. Chess players had to memorize the positions of chess pieces. One group of participants engaged their central executive by using their attention to generate random letter sequences while trying to memorize the positions of pieces. Importantly, such letter generation task involved a lot of their attention and functioning of the central executive. Another group carried out an articulatory suppression task e.g. saying ‘blah, blah, blah’ while trying to remember the positions. After 10 seconds their memory was tested. Participants in the articulatory suppression group performed well. Those in the group in which their central executive was engaged performed poorly. This suggests that the central executive was important for remembering the positions of the chess pieces. The phonological loop was not involved in remembering the positions as performance was not impaired when the loop was disrupted. This demonstrates that the central executive and phonological loop are separate components and also that the central executive is important for attention and planning.

Pearson et al. (1999)   The purpose of this study was to show how the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop are used. Participants had to form mental images e.g. of the capital letters J and D. They then had to mentally rotate the letter D 90 degrees to the left (anticlockwise) and place it on top of J. They were asked what the image looked like and it should have been the shape of an umbrella (as shown in figure 2 below). This was a task in which they had to visually manipulate images to form new images Along with that task, they also had to complete a task in which the phonological loop was disrupted by articulatory suppression. Alternatively, another group was given an additional task in which the visuospatial sketchpad was disrupted by them having to move their finger to a particular spatial location on a sheet of paper (spatial tapping), by choosing a square from a display of many squares. Participants who were completing the additional spatial tapping task had difficulties with the image forming task. Those who were experiencing articulatory suppression had no difficulties with the image forming task. This shows that the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop are separate, supporting the working memory model. It also provides evidence that the visuospatial sketchpad is used for visual and spatial tasks.

The visuospatial sketchpad is used for mental imagery (Pearson et al., 1999)

Try the working memory model for yourself  Imagine waking up one morning in your neighbour’s bed. You look under the sheets and it turns out they’re a transsexual. And you’re not really into that kind of stuff (even though you were the night before). So you have to think of a way to escape from their house without waking them up. You can’t go through the front door because your parents are outside. You lay there and form a mental image of the inside of the house. This mental image is manipulated by your visuo-spatial sketchpad. While forming that image, you have to think about the different places you can escape from, imagining where the doors and windows are. While thinking about those places, you need to say the number of seconds it would take to reach each place, so you can make a fast escape. This is said in your head using the phonological loop. All of this is controlled by the central executive which forms the plan you will take and is involved in which route you choose.

Memory in everyday life
Do you remember where you were exactly 1 week ago at 2pm? Do you think your memory is an exact copy of your experiences? Overall, research concerning the multi-store and working memory models indicate the structure of memory through a necessary simplification of what memory is. The following section on memory in everyday life involves research that follows a different view of memory. Less simplified, it is analysed within a bigger picture of how memory can be affected by many influences. The new image is that memory is liquid and changeable; it is influenced and interacts in various complex ways. In a sense, each memory is never a complete story. A memory is constantly redrafted in light of new experiences and information. Memory then is recognised as a constant process. It is not made up of passive components. The exact ways in which memory can be affected and changed is a topic of much research. A field of research which effectively illustrates these influences is that of eyewitness testimonies.

Section 6: Eyewitness testimony
This is evidence given in court, by a witness of a serious accident or crime. Such testimonies are often inaccurate and are affected by many factors, including the witness’ level of anxiety, their age and the influence of misleading information.

The influence of anxiety on eye-witness accuracy
Anxiety may impair a witness’s recall of an event. An important way in which anxiety affects recall is through the weapon focus phenomenon. A witness may experience anxiety from seeing a weapon, which would cause them to focus their attention on it. They will then be unable to identify the suspect accurately because their attention and memory was focused on the weapon. Loftus (1979)    This study aimed to find out what effects anxiety has on eye-witness testimony Group 1: participants overheard a discussion in the lab next door about a machine breaking. A person came out holding only a pen. Group 2: participants overheard an angered argument between people in the laboratory. They heard sounds of breaking glass and chairs. A man came out holding a paper knife which was covered in what looked like blood. Participants had to identify the man from the lab out of a selection of 50 photos 49% of the pen participants provided an accurate identification compared to the paper knife participants who had a 33% success rate. The group who saw the paper knife experienced anxiety from seeing the weapon, which caused them to focus their attention on it. This is evidence of the weapon focus phenomenon which supports how anxiety can impair witness recall. X The laboratory environment of this study lacks emotional intensity and the real-life consequences of offering a testimony. The study therefore lacks ecological validity and it is difficult to apply the findings to other situations.

However, the evidence that follows demonstrates that anxiety doesn’t impair witness accuracy, but instead it actually often improves their accuracy, particularly of real-life events. Yuille and Cutshall (1986)       The aim of this study was to discover how eye-witness memory was influenced by anxiety experienced during the witnessing of real-life events. 13 witnesses of a shooting were interviewed. They had witnessed the owner of a gun-shop being wounded by a robber, and then in return the owner shooting and killing the robber. Witnesses provided accurate testimonies several months after the shooting. Those who were most anxious at the shooting were most accurate five months later In this study, anxiety was found to enhance the accuracy of the testimony.

Christianson and Hubinette (1993)     This study also aimed to discover the influence of anxiety on the eyewitness memory of reallife events. 110 witnesses of different bank robberies were interviewed. The witnesses were either bystanders or employees that were threatened. Compared to the bystanders, those who were threatened (and experienced more anxiety) remembered more about what the robbers were wearing, their behaviour and the weapons used. Their improvement in accuracy was maintained even after 15 months. This study demonstrates that when individuals are anxious (during real life events) they can remember more.

Overall, the evidence for the influence of anxiety on eyewitness testimony indicates that anxiety can improve recall. It is possible that this was not found in the laboratory study by Loftus due to the methodological issues involved, particularly concerning the realism.

Section 7: influence of a witness’ age on eye-witness accuracy
The age of a witness may also have an important influence on their ability to accurately remember an incident, where young children are recognised as having poorer eyewitness accuracy. Gross and Hayne (1996)    If children had to identify a target from a photo line-up, they would accurately choose them even after 2 days. Children were found to still select a photo (any photo really) even if the target person wasn’t in the photo line-up, despite them interacting a few days earlier for a long time. This suggests that sometimes children may inaccurately identify a person as a suspect, just so that they have an answer to provide.

Leichtman and Ceci (1995)   This was a study concerning the effects of misleading questions during the questioning of children A misleading question wrongly implies that something has happened e.g. asking a child “How many bottles of vodka did you steal from Tesco’s?” implies that they actually stole something in the first place. It was found that when 3 and 6-year old children were repeatedly asked such misleading questions, they gradually remembered experiencing what was implied by the question. So for example, the child would start to believe that they actually stole the vodka if you kept asking them that question.

19 Ceci and Bruck (1993)This research was a review of studies concerning the suggestibility of children. That is, how easily misleading information is integrated into their memory. It was found that children aged 6-7 years old were more suggestible than adults. The vulnerability of a child’s memory can be explained by them not having developed any effective schema in which to remember an incident. A schema is the collection of knowledge and experiences that a person has, which is meant to help with interpreting new information. Children therefore find it difficult to interpret the misleading information and so more readily accept it within their poor schema. Additionally their ineffective schema makes it difficult for them to encode the original event accurately.

Evidence concerning the age of an eye-witness has demonstrated that younger individuals provide less accurate testimonies. This can be explained by their schemas having poor structures due to their young age and lack of experiences.

Section 8: misleading information
If a witness is presented with information that is misleading, it is possible that such information will influence the accuracy of their later recall. There are 2 ways in which misleading information can influence recall. 1. The misleading information may be imagined, changing and distorting the original representation. It becomes part of their mental representation of the event they witnessed. 2. The misleading information may simply replace the original information, so that the misleading information is retrieved instead. Each of these possibilities for the effects of misleading information has been demonstrated by studies from Elizabeth Loftus: Loftus (1975)     The aim of this study was to discover the influence of misleading information on eye-witness testimony. 150 participants were shown a film of a car accident. Group 1: asked 10 questions which were consistent with the original film. Group 2: asked the same questions apart from 1 question which was ‘How fast was the white sports car going when it passed the barn?’. This was a misleading question as it suggested that there was a barn in the film, even though there wasn’t one. A week later both groups were asked ‘did you see the barn?’. 17.3% of the group that were provided with the misleading question, gave the incorrect answer of ‘yes’. Only 2.7% of the other group said ‘yes’. For the group provided with the misleading question, it is likely that they formed an image of a barn, which over time became integrated with their mental representation of what they had actually seen in the film. This shows that misleading information can alter the mental representation a witness has of an event, consequentially reducing their accuracy.

21 Loftus et al. (1978) This was another study to demonstrate the effects of misleading questions on accuracy of event recall. All participants watched a set of photo slides showing the events leading up to a car accident. Group 1: saw a red car stopping at a junction with a ‘Yield’ sign. Group 2: saw the same red car stopping at a junction with a ‘Stop’ sign. After viewing the slides participants were given a questionnaire. ½ the participants in each group were asked a question about whether they saw another car pass by, when the red car was stopped at the ‘Stop’ sign The other ½ of the participants in each group were asked if another car passed the red car while it was stopped at the ‘Yield’ sign. This meant that half the participants in each group were asked a misleading question and the other half of each group were asked a question that was not misleading, as it was consistent with what they had seen. After 20 minutes they were all shown 15 pairs of random slides and had to select one slide from each pair, what they had seen earlier. There was a critical pair of slides, where one slide showed the red car stopped at ‘Yield’ sign. The other critical slide showed the red car stopped at a ‘Stop’ sign. Only 41% of the participants that were provided with the misleading question selected the correct slide, compared to 75% of those who had received the non-misleading question. Loftus suggested that the misleading question replaced the true information from memory. The original memory was no longer stored and only the misleading information could be accessed. X However, participants were only shown photo slides which are not representative of reallife conditions.

Sign participants saw

The sign participants were given a misleading question about % who identified correct slide

Consistent 75%

Inconsistent 41%

Inconsistent 41%

Consistent 75%

22 The misinformation may not have replaced the original information as suggested by Loftus. It is possible that instead, the original information is covered by the misleading information so it may still be uncovered to be retrieved again. This possibility is explored in the following study: Bekerian and Bowers (1983)     Replication of study by Loftus et al. (1978) where car is shown as stopping at a Stop or Yield sign. The Bekerian and Bowers study was different in the recognition phase. The Loftus study involved the participants being shown the slides in random order. The participants in the Bekerian and Bowers study were presented with the pairs of slides in chronological order, that is, in the same order of time as the slides were presented at the start of the study. It was found in this study that the memory of the participants who were provided with the misleading information was nearly as accurate as that of those provided with the consistent non-misleading information. Bekerian and Bowers concluded that the original memory representation wasn’t lost for the participants. The display of the slides in the correct order provided sufficient cues for the original memory to be retrieved, despite the misinformation provided. This opposes Loftus’ conclusion that the information is destroyed, where instead the information is just covered but can still be uncovered again.

Section 9: The Cognitive Interview
1) This technique was developed in response to the large amount of evidence concerning the inaccuracy of eyewitness testimonies. The Cognitive interview is a memory retrieval technique that aims to elicit (bring out) more accurate information from witnesses. It involves 4 stages: Context reinstatement: The interviewer encourages the witness to mentally recreate the context of the original incident including the weather conditions and their feelings/emotional state. Report everything: The witness is then told to report every detail they can remember concerning the incident, regardless of how important they think it is. Recall in reverse order: They must describe the events as they occurred, starting from the end and going back to the beginning (like a rewind). Recall from changed perspective: Finally, they are asked to take different perspectives of the incident. For example, taking the points of view of other witnesses who were at the incident.

2) 3) 4)

Evidence in support of the Cognitive Interview Schedule has shown that it is effective in comparison to standard interview techniques and that it can be used appropriately for children. Geiselman et al. (1985)        This study aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Cognitive Interview Schedule compared to traditional interview techniques Videos of violent crimes were shown to students. 2 days later the students were interviewed by detectives and investigators. The interviewers had been trained in either standard police interviewing techniques or the Cognitive Interview technique. The interviews were analysed to measure the accuracy of participant recall. The students remembered more items when interviewers used the Cognitive Interview compared to the standard interview technique. This study demonstrates that the new Cognitive Interview technique is more effective than the normal interview procedures for retrieving accurate testimonies.

Holliday (2003) The aim of this study was to show how the Cognitive Interview could be effectively used on children. 2 groups of children were interviewed, aged 4-5 and aged 9-10. A 5 minute video of a child’s birthday party was shown to them. Children were interviewed using the standard interview technique or a Cognitive Interview. The use of the Cognitive Interview provided more correct details being recalled compared with the standard interview. This shows that the Cognitive Interview is also effective for helping children recall information for testimonies. X ethics: in-depth exploration of experiences may be traumatic

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Section 10: Strategies for memory improvement
With a lot of memory research demonstrating that everybody has a crap memory, researchers have been driven to find ways to improve how we remember information. The following three strategies have been found to be effective: context-dependent retrieval, organisation and visual imagery. All of these can also be used to help you in learning new information while you study for any of your subjects. Context-dependent retrieval When we learn new information, it is linked to the environment in which it is learned. The contextdependent retrieval technique involves the relationship between the retrieval of information and the environment in which it was learned. The context acts a cue to help recall the information stored in the long-term memory, therefore the context becomes a retrieval cue. The more similar the retrieval cue is to the original retrieval cue (the more similar the retrieval context is to the original learning context), the more effective the retrieval. Godden and Baddeley (1975)     This study aimed show how retrieval environment can influence recall. Divers learned a list of 40 unrelated words either on land or underwater. Half of the divers were tested for their recall in the same location as they learned the words. The other half were tested in a different location. Those who learned and were tested in the same location were found to remember the most words e.g. those who learned words underwater and recalled words underwater could remember more. This can be explained by the way that information from the learning environment was encoded along with the words to be learned. When participants were tested in the same locations as they learned, they benefited from retrieval cues available in the environment. It has also been found that by simply imagining the original context you were in when you learned information, you can aid your recall. For example, when in an exam hall for your psychology exam, it may help to imagine yourself being in your psychology class room or bedroom.

Organization
Hierarchies An effective way of improving long-term memory is to use hierarchies to organize material into meaningful patterns. This makes it easier to locate specific items of information in your memory. It’s kind of like how it would be easier to find what you are looking for in your room, if only you cleaned it up. In general, by organizing information and seeing the links between different pieces of information you can increase its meaningfulness to remember it more effectively. And as you hopefully remember, encoding by meaningfulness is the preferred method for the long-term memory.

Bower et al. (1969) Aimed to show how organizing information into a hierarchy can improve recall of words. Participants were asked to learn a list of words. The experimental group viewed the words organized in conceptual hierarchies. The control group saw the words presented randomly. The group with the organized hierarchy of words recalled 65% on average. The control group recalled only 19%. The organizational method was shown to be effective for improving recall, providing evidence in support of its use.

Memory techniques

Organization

Encoding specificity principle

Conceptual hierarchy

Story

Context-dependent retrieval

Story Another way of organizing information is the story method. For example, if you wanted to remember the names for some of the studies in this section: I used my BOW to shoot an arrow at someone wearing CLARKS shoes (Bower and Clark), but I missed and hit GOD while he was swimming, which was a BAD mistake (Godden and Baddeley).

Bower and Clark (1969) Aim of the study was to show the effectiveness of the story method Participants were asked to memorize 12 lists of 10 unrelated words by organizing each list into a story. Participants in the story group recalled 90% of the words. The control group recalled only 10%. This demonstrates that the story method can be effectively used to remember words.

Visual imagery
Higbee (1979) This involves visual association, where you relate images of what you already know to what you want to understand. Such associations make the material more meaningful, therefore it is easier to remember. There are three ways to make visual associations more memorable: 1) Making the images as vivid and detailed as possible 2) Using interactions between the images 3) Making the images bizarre.

Vivid The visual image has to be clear, distinct and strong. It has to be as similar as possible to actually seeing the item. For example, a dinosaur and a bus. The image in your mind should be extremely detailed, by visualising what type of bus or dinosaur is involved. Motion is important for vividness, so you should imagine the items in action e.g. a race between the dinosaur and the bus. Substitution may also help for vividness, for example, imagining that the bus is riding the dinosaur. Exaggeration is also effective, where the dinosaur can be extremely large and squashed inside the bus.

Interactions The two items you are associating should be visualized as interacting with each other. One item has to be doing something to or with the other item. For example, if you were associating the words dinosaur and bus, you’d imagine the dinosaur driving the bus, not just sitting beside it. The images of the items are combined to become one image, therefore only one unit (chunk) has to be remembered.

27 Wollen et al. (1972)   Study aimed to show the effectiveness of creating interactive images for recalling word pairs. Images were provided alongside the words. These images varied based on how interactive they were e.g. whether a giraffe was standing next to a window or more interactively, if the giraffe had its head through a window. It was found that interaction in the images provided an improvement for recalling the words.

Bizarreness Bizarre images, such as the dinosaur driving the bus, tend to be more unique than realistic images. The uniqueness can aid in recall. Creating bizarre images may be ineffective for some people if they have difficulties thinking up bizarre images, which has been found for elderly individuals.