Summary Memory: Psychology AQA A-level notes

2 - Memory
Contents
Coding, Capacity and Duration....................................................................................................................2
Multi-Store Model.......................................................................................................................................3
Types Of LTM...............................................................................................................................................4
Episodic memory.....................................................................................................................................5
Semantic memory....................................................................................................................................5
Procedural memory.................................................................................................................................5
Working Memory Model (WMM)................................................................................................................5
Explanations for Forgetting..........................................................................................................................7
Interference.............................................................................................................................................7
Retrieval Failure.......................................................................................................................................8
Encoding specificity principle...............................................................................................................8
Context-dependent forgetting.............................................................................................................9
State-dependent forgetting.................................................................................................................9
Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony (EWT)...........................................................................................9
Misleading Information...........................................................................................................................9
Leading questions..............................................................................................................................10
Post-event discussion........................................................................................................................10
Anxiety...................................................................................................................................................11
Negative effects of anxiety................................................................................................................11
Positive effects of anxiety..................................................................................................................11
Contradictory findings explained.......................................................................................................12
The Cognitive Interview.............................................................................................................................12




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, Coding, Capacity and Duration
➥ Coding: The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.
o Baddeley (1966a,1966b) investigated this by giving different lists of words to four groups of
participants to remember:
 Acoustically similar – words that sounded similar (e.g., cat, cab, can)
 Acoustically dissimilar – words that sounded different (e.g., pit, few, cow)
 Semantically similar – words with similar meanings (e.g., great, large, big)
 Semantically dissimilar – words with different meanings (e.g., good, huge, hot)
o When asked to recall the words in the correct order immediately (STM), they did worse with
acoustically similar words. When recalling the words after an interval of 20 minutes (LTM), they
did worse with semantically similar words.
o Therefore, information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM.
 The research was an important step in our understanding of the memory system as it identified
a clear difference between two memory stores, and hence led to the multi-store model.
 Artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material (the word lists had no personal meaning to
participants) therefore the findings have limited application.
 Lacks standardisation.

➥ Capacity: The amount of information that can be held in a memory store.

o Digit span
 Jacobs (1887) measured digit span by reading out x digits to the participant, and if they
recall these in the correct order, reading x+1 digits out until they cannot recall the order
correctly.
 Jacobs found that the mean span for digits across participants was 9.3 items, and the
mean span for letters was 7.3.
 Jacob’s study has been replicated by other studies with greater control over variables
(e.g., Bopp and Verhaeghen 2005) and his findings were confirmed.
 Lacks standardisation and appreciation for scientific methods.
o Chunking
 Miller (1956) noted that in everyday practice things comes in 7s (days, notes, deadly
sins) and thought that the span of STM is about 7 +/- 2 items. He also noted that people
can recall five words as easily as five letters by chunking – grouping sets of digits or
letters into units or chunks.
 Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is only
about 4 +/- 1 chunks.
 Low mundane realism/external validity.




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