KEY WORDS
Capacity: amount/ quality of information stored
Coding: the type of format the information is being stored as
Duration: length of time information is held for
Eyewitness testimony: evidence given in a courtroom, or police investigation by someone who has
witnessed a crime or accident.
Weapon focus effect: witnesses focus their attention to the weapon being used; this causes anxiety
which leads to dif culties recalling other details
Response bias explanation: word used doesn't have a long-term in uence on memory but does affect
kind of answer
Substitution explanation: wording of question does affect EW memory, in uences original memory,
distorting accuracy.
Demand characteristics: play up to experiment to give them what you think the right answer is.
Explicit memory: memory that can be consciously recalled
Implicit memory: functional form of memory that does not have to be consciously recalled
Interference: one memory disturbs the ability to recall another, might result in forgetting or distorting
one memory or both. More likely to happen if they are similar
Proactive interference: previously learnt information interferes with new information you are trying to
store. Pro= forward
Retroactive Interference: a new memory interferes with older ones. Retro= backwards
fi fl fl
, CASE STUDIES
Peterson and Peterson - gave 24 psychology students 3 letter combos they had to remember
followed by a distractor task, longer wait less correct, after 3 seconds 80% were correct, after 18
seconds less than 10% were correct which proves 18 second duration of STM.
Bahrick et al: examined 382 American uni graduates on their memory for former classmates by
asking them to match names to former class. 60% accuracy after 47 years. Meaning LTM can last
lifetime/ 47 years.
Patient KF: Patient KF was injured and as a result he had issues with STM but was able to recall info
from LTM. He could remember visual information but not sounds, shows MSM is too simplistic and
has different inputs.
Johnson and Scott: participants heard a discussion in two rooms, with one scenario being more
violent sounding than the other, scenario A didn't involve a weapon, scenario B did. When asked to
identify the man from 50 photos scenario A were 49% accurate compared to scenario B with 33%
accuracy. Which proves more anxious individuals are less able to identify perpetrator.
Yuille and Cutshall: 21 witnesses observed shooting where 1 was killed, took place on major road
midafternoon, they were interviewed 4-5 months later all ages 15-32. They were all highly accurate
with little change over the time, this concludes they resisted leading questions and stress levels had
no negative impact on memory
Pickel: using scissors, handgun, wallet and raw chicken in a hair salon where a crime took place,
EWT was signi cantly poorer in high unusualness situations. Suggests WFE is due to unusualness
rather than anxiety.
Loftus and Palmer: experiment involved 45 American students, who were divided into 5 groups of 9.
They were all asked to watch a video of a car crash then asked a question where the verb changed
every time e.g. smashed, hit, crashed. They found estimated speed was affected by the verb used.
Gabbert: made participants watch a video of the same crime from different angles, some participants
could see elements others couldn't, they discussed what they saw before recall. 71% of participants
mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they didn't see in the video.
Underwood and Postman: aimed to discover if new learning interferes with previous learning. 2
groups of participants one was asked to remember a list of word pairs then a second set, the other
was asked to remember one list then recall it. Group B remembered more. Proves Retroactive
interference
fi
Capacity: amount/ quality of information stored
Coding: the type of format the information is being stored as
Duration: length of time information is held for
Eyewitness testimony: evidence given in a courtroom, or police investigation by someone who has
witnessed a crime or accident.
Weapon focus effect: witnesses focus their attention to the weapon being used; this causes anxiety
which leads to dif culties recalling other details
Response bias explanation: word used doesn't have a long-term in uence on memory but does affect
kind of answer
Substitution explanation: wording of question does affect EW memory, in uences original memory,
distorting accuracy.
Demand characteristics: play up to experiment to give them what you think the right answer is.
Explicit memory: memory that can be consciously recalled
Implicit memory: functional form of memory that does not have to be consciously recalled
Interference: one memory disturbs the ability to recall another, might result in forgetting or distorting
one memory or both. More likely to happen if they are similar
Proactive interference: previously learnt information interferes with new information you are trying to
store. Pro= forward
Retroactive Interference: a new memory interferes with older ones. Retro= backwards
fi fl fl
, CASE STUDIES
Peterson and Peterson - gave 24 psychology students 3 letter combos they had to remember
followed by a distractor task, longer wait less correct, after 3 seconds 80% were correct, after 18
seconds less than 10% were correct which proves 18 second duration of STM.
Bahrick et al: examined 382 American uni graduates on their memory for former classmates by
asking them to match names to former class. 60% accuracy after 47 years. Meaning LTM can last
lifetime/ 47 years.
Patient KF: Patient KF was injured and as a result he had issues with STM but was able to recall info
from LTM. He could remember visual information but not sounds, shows MSM is too simplistic and
has different inputs.
Johnson and Scott: participants heard a discussion in two rooms, with one scenario being more
violent sounding than the other, scenario A didn't involve a weapon, scenario B did. When asked to
identify the man from 50 photos scenario A were 49% accurate compared to scenario B with 33%
accuracy. Which proves more anxious individuals are less able to identify perpetrator.
Yuille and Cutshall: 21 witnesses observed shooting where 1 was killed, took place on major road
midafternoon, they were interviewed 4-5 months later all ages 15-32. They were all highly accurate
with little change over the time, this concludes they resisted leading questions and stress levels had
no negative impact on memory
Pickel: using scissors, handgun, wallet and raw chicken in a hair salon where a crime took place,
EWT was signi cantly poorer in high unusualness situations. Suggests WFE is due to unusualness
rather than anxiety.
Loftus and Palmer: experiment involved 45 American students, who were divided into 5 groups of 9.
They were all asked to watch a video of a car crash then asked a question where the verb changed
every time e.g. smashed, hit, crashed. They found estimated speed was affected by the verb used.
Gabbert: made participants watch a video of the same crime from different angles, some participants
could see elements others couldn't, they discussed what they saw before recall. 71% of participants
mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they didn't see in the video.
Underwood and Postman: aimed to discover if new learning interferes with previous learning. 2
groups of participants one was asked to remember a list of word pairs then a second set, the other
was asked to remember one list then recall it. Group B remembered more. Proves Retroactive
interference
fi
