1. Introduction to Memory C:\Documents and Settings\fac6l170\My Documents\My Videos
Why do we process certain
Information when other stimuli
passes us by.
We will be looking at
Short term memory
Long term memory

2. The difference between STM and LTM
Capacity
Duration
Encoding
Forgetting
STM
Very limited
(7 items)
Mainly acoustic
(By sound)
Mainly
Displacement
LTM
Unlimited
(A lifetime)
Mainly semantic
(By meaning)
Interference

3. Neuropsychological Evidence
Brain Damage: Shows some people lose the
ability of one type of memory but not the
other. (Milner, 1966 and Warrington 1970)
Alzheimer disease: Shows that
when a certain neurotransmitter
is blocked LTM is affected.
Squire 1992: Found the
Hippocampus is active in
LTM while the Pre-frontal
cortex works for STM

4. Capacity

5. Check your Capacity in STM
Write down 8 strings of numbers first with three No then add one for each following string 265, 2768, and so on.
In pairs : One person read out your no’s while your partner writes them down immediately after hearing them.
Now swap roles. Note down your scores

6. Results of your STM
1: What is your score ( this is the longest strip of numbers you recalled )
2: The class mean =
3: How did you try to remember the numbers.
4: How might you increase your STM span

7. Measuring the Capacity in STM
Digit span technique: Jacobs (1887) A number of digits are presented and participants must recall in the correct order
George Miller (1957) devised
“The Magical Number Seven”
7 +/- 2 digits
Miller believed it was the number
of chunks of information and not
just number of digits

8. Miller’S Chunking C B T U O D S A G I L E P N G CBT UOD SAG ILE PNG
CAT SUN LEG DOT PIG
Showing that memory scan can increase by chunking

9. Measuring the Capacity in STM
Simon (1974): argued
That it depended on the size
of the chunks. Small chunks
More capacity, larger chunks
smaller capacity.
capacity.
Cowan: More recent studies
have argued that both visual
and auditory capacity is
around 4 chunks.

10. Factors that affect STM
Rehearsal and storage in LTM: This will increase the capacity for STM
Reading digits allowed:
Strengthens memory
trace
Pronunciation time:
Lower capacity for
Arabic than English as
it is quicker to pronounce
English.

11. Test (pages 4 – 12)
1) Outline how information is transferred from sensory memory to short-term memory in the multi-store model. (2 marks)
2) Outline two characteristics of short-term memory (2 marks)
3) What is the evidence for a distinction between STM and LTM. (2marks)

12. Duration

13. Retention in STM Peterson and Peterson: Discovered that we can only
hold information for a few
seconds.
They found that memory
Deteriorated by 90% after
18 seconds
When rehearsal was prevented
information decayed or
disappeared very quickly

14. Serial Position Stimulus lists
Distant Cottage
Stable Bargain
Cabbage Finger
Mattress Landscape
Uncle Future
Minstrel
Question

15. This time after you have looked at the words
This time after you have looked at the words. You need to count back in 3’s from 100
Velvet Village
Stomach Carpet
Flower Favour
Gossip Lawful
Chamber Started
Sandal
Warehouse

16. Studies in Duration Peterson and Peterson (1959)
found that when participants
were given a 3-second interval
they could remember 90% of data.
However, when there was an
18- second interval retention
reduced.
This suggest that when rehearsal
is prevented STM last about 20
seconds at most

17. Methodological Issues
Laboratory study using
repeated measures.
Trigrams are artificial = low validity
May have been capacity rather duration
Possible proactive interference
(different items were used in each trial)

18. Factors Affecting Duration in STM
Rehearsal: increases duration.
Intention to recall: When we are
under pressure to remember. Sebrechts
Relevance of information:
Murdock showed the number
of chunks was more important
than the number of individual items.

19. Retention in LTM It is generally accepted that LTM lasts a lifetime.
Bahrick et al (1975)
tested memory and
found that after 34 years
memory was good, but
after 47 years there was
a decided dip.

20. Factors affecting duration in LTM
Experimental techniques: Cues help recall, example recognition tasks were higher than recall tasks.
Depth of learning: The more time spent learning, the longer information stays.
Pattern of learning: Spaced out learning hold longer than intensive learning
Nature of Material to be learned: Statistics was seen to be particularly well retained. It was a skill rather than just remembering facts

21. As stimuli reaches memory it is in it’s raw form. i. e
As stimuli reaches memory it is in it’s raw form. i.e. a visual picture or a sound It is believed that STM and LTM have different methods of encoding information
Encoding

22. 3 Main Types of Encoding Acoustic: The sound of the stimulus
Visual: The physical
appearance of the stimulus
Semantic: The
meaning of the stimulus

23. Acoustic Coding in STM B G C T D V
Conrad ran a number of tests. Write these letters down in the correct serial order
Acoustically similar
B G C T D V

24. Second Condition. F J X M S R Acoustically dissimilar
Now write these letters down in the correct serial order
F J X M S R

25. Conclusion Conclusion: Conrad believed that we must convert
information FLOWER
that is visual into acoustic
to store it in STM
Therefore, participants were confused when faced with letters
hat sounded the same
Methodology: A little low in validity, not everyday chore to
learn strings of letters.

26. Semantic coding in LTM Braddeley ran a similar test using words and
found that STM used acoustic coding
He ran tests 4 times with participants to see how they faired in LTM = Semantic coding
He found that words that
were similar in meaning
were poorly recalled.

27. Encoding in STM List A AS: Mad, map, mad, mat, cad, cap, cat.
List B AD: pen, cow, pit, sup, day , wet, ran
List C SS: tall, high, broad, wide, big, large, fat
List B SD: foul, thin, late, safe, strong, back, look

28. Encoding in LTM
List A: Great, large, big, huge, broad, long, tall, fat, wide, high
List B: good, huge, hot, safe, thin, deep, strong, foul, old, late

29. List A: cad, mad, cab, map, can, man, cad, cap
List B: cow, sup, hot, bun, bar, day, rig, few, fit, pen

30. Evidence for different Encoding
Conrad (1964) found
that STM used acoustic
coding.
Baddeley (1966) found
that LTM used semantic
coding
Peterson and Peterson (1959) found that information decayed quickly in STM

31. Sensory Memory
This is where stimulus enters the brain and is sorted. Information is retained for only a fraction of a second. There are three separate stores
Iconic store:
for visual input
Echoic store:
for auditory input
Haptic store:
for tactile input

32. Sensory Memory Iconic store: Helps us see the world in one
smooth motion.
Evaluation: What information requires our attention, thus moving into STM, and what stimuli should be discarded?

33. Evidence for Sensory memory
Sperling (1960): Used a
chart containing three
rows of letters. Showed
for 50 milliseconds
He found that we can
only focus on a few
pieces of information at once, as information fades quickly.
This shows that memory has different components which are linear in nature.

34. Multi Story Model
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) created The information-processing system to help explain how memory works

35. What is a Model ? Psychologists have used
flow charts to try and explain
how memory works
Information-processing
systems are similar to the
workings of acomputer.
There is a temporary
store, a STM and LTM store. Temporary store = buffer on a computer

36. The Multi Store Model S memory STS LTS Stimulus input
Attention Rehearsal
S memory STS LTS
Visual, auditory Acoustic coding semantic coding
Haptic coding limited capacity Unlimited capacity
Limited capacity brief duration Unlimited duration
Very brief duration
Rehearsal Loop

37. Evidence for a distinction between STM and LTM
Glanzer and Cunitz (1966): When participants were distracted they lost the regency effect but not the primary words
Long term memory:
The Primary effect
( beginning of a word list)
Short term memory:
Recency effect
( the end of a word list)
Their work showed that
there was a difference
between STM store and LTM store

38. Methodology and Ethics
Laboratory studies:
Most research in memory has been done in a laboratory where variables are easy to control = high reliability.
Validity: However,
these experiments
are something we
would not normally
Do in everyday life,
= low validity
memory loss - Google Video

39. Weaknesses Different types of information:
Some data is a lot more exciting
and therefore easier to remember.
It’s not always about how much!
Repetition vs Semantic:
Craik and Lockhart found that
information is remembered better
if it is processed with meaning
rather than simple rehearsal.

40. Weaknesses Flashbulb memory: This supports Semantic
inputting Kulik and Brown
argue that shocking events
are imputed without rehearsal.
Linear: Ruchkin (1999)
Information in LTM helps
to improve recall from STM.
(words with meaning vs words
without)

41. Weaknesses Brain Damage: It has been shown that people with damaged
STM do not necessarily have
impairment to their LTM.
Artificial Experiments: Laboratory
experiments do not necessarily
show us how we behave in the
real world.

42. The Working Memory Model
Baddeley and Hitch believe that memory is much more complex than the Multi-story model suggests

43. The Working Memory Model
Baddeley and Hitch believed that
there was more than one component
to STM.
One for information that we hear
One for information that we see.
Therefore we can do two tasks
at once, i.e. driving a car and
having a conversation at the same time
attention test - Google Video

44. The Components of working memory

45. The Working Memory Model
There are three different components
The Central Executive: Responsible for all the processing and attention tasks.
The Phonological Loop: The temporary storage system for verbal information.
The Visuo-spatial sketchpad: The temporary storage system for visual information

46. Recent model Baddeley (2000) 1.Central Executive 2.Episodic Buffer
4.Visio-spatial sketch pad
(Inner eye)
3.Phonological loop
Articulatory
Control system
(Inner voice)
Phonological store
(Inner ear)

47. This part of the loop holds
Phonological store:
This part of the loop holds
the words you hear, like
an inner ear.
Articulatory control system:
This is where words are silently
repeated or rehearsed, like an
inner voice.

48. Evidence for Working Memory
Baddeley et al ran numerous
experiments and found evidence
to support the existence of the Phonological loop, the Visuo-spatial sketchpad and the Central Executive

49. Evidence for the Visuo-Spatial
Baddeley et al (1973) showed two tasks
F H L Task one: identify the angles on a letter
Task two: Follow a spotlight
They could not do both tasks together.
They could do one visual task and
one auditory task.
This shows that there is a difference
between the phonological loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad

50. Evidence for the Phonological loop
Braddeley et al (1975): presented lists of words
With one syllable: Harm, Wit, Twice
With multi syllables: Organisation, University
It takes longer to say multi syllable word, therefore participant remembered more single syllable words
This shows that we remember information by listening to the word in our heads. Shorter words take shorter time to rehearse

51. Strength and Weaknesses of Working memory.
This model is generally accepted throughout the psychological world. It has a much more in-depth and logical interpretation of STM

52. Evidence for the Central Executive
Some evidence from Neurological investigation shows that brain activity is increased when doing two tasks that require attention and rehearsal.
It is difficult to test the existence of a central executive.
There has been limited evidence given and this is one of the weaknesses of this theory

53. Lesson Objectives
Understand the concept that eyewitness testimony is not always reliable.
Know the procedures of experimental research into eyewitness testimony
Understand Reconstructive Memory

54. How accurate do we recall details of events witnessed.
Eye Witness Testimony
How accurate do we recall details of events witnessed.

55. Psychological Experiment

56. Misleading Information
Loftus discovered that a problem we have in recalling events often comes from stimuli experienced after the event.
Participants were
Shown a
Video clip of a
car accident.
misleading
information
Caused errors
in recall

57. Loftus’ Experiments Experiment 1: After watching the car.
Experiment 1: After watching the car
Crash Participants were asked
how fast the car was going.
Some questionnaires said how fast
Was the car going when it hit others
others used the word smashed or
Contacted instead or hit.
Experiment 2: Students were shown a
Video of a multiple car crash. One week
Later they were brought back and asked
Was there any broken glass? Again using
The various verbs; hit, smashed, or contacted

58. The Results of Both Experiments.
VERB
MEAN ESTIMATE OF SPEED (mph)
Smashed
40.8
Collided
39.3
Bumped
38.1
Hit
34.0
Contacted
31.8
Results – Experiment 1
How fast was the car going?
Results – Experiment 2
Did you see any broken glass?
Response
Smashed
Hit
Control
Yes 16 7 6 No 34 43 44

59. Discussion Response Bias: critical words bias a person’s response.
Memory is altered: The critical
word changes a person’s memory.
Reconstructive memory
Information processing for an event:
1: The person’s own perception, during the event
2: Information supplied after the event

60. Demand Characteristics
Participants might have guessed the aim of the experiment and changed their behaviour
To reduce demand
characteristics Loftus
offered money to
participants who got
The recall correct.
Despite this incentive
over 70% still got
the recall details wrong.
Black et al

61. Methodology and Ethics
Laboratory experiments are high in reliability.
Although films of real events
were shown participants would
have experienced things
differently if they had been
present at the car crash.
Lack of validity/ emotional
response
Ethics: Participants were
deceived therefore debriefing
would be necessary afterwards

62. The Accuracy of EWT

63. Schemas Schema: Is our Preconceived ideas about certain experiences.
i.e. eating in a restaurant
Tuckey and Brewer (2003)
did an experiment on our
ideas about bank robbers
Participants recalled more
details if they were in line with their schema of such events.

64. Anxiety Loftus and Burns (1982) found that high levels of
anxiety negatively effect
memory.
When people witnessed a
Man with a knife covered
in blood leaving a room
Identification was poor.
To busy looking at the
knife.
Christianson and Hubinette discovered that in real life experiences of anxiety often heighten recall. Witness bank robbery > Being threatened by robbers.

65. Age of Participant
Children seem to accept what others tell them as part of their own memories (Poole and Lindsay 2001 = incorporate stories into real events)
Flin et al (1992) found
that children forget details
much quicker than adults.
Elderly people: Recall of
events is less accurate

66. Methodology and Ethics
There is difficulties in eliminating
extraneous variable with children
There are also ethical issues when
using children. Need informed
consent from parent.
In the real world when events happen
we are not expecting them therefore not
prepared to try and remember every
detail . + demand Characteristics.

67. Improving EWT

68. Method of Questioning Fisher (1987) discovered
If misleading information
has an affect of EWT then
it is important that the police
are careful not to misdirect
witnesses.
Fisher (1987) discovered
that police asked closed
questions which seems to
conflict with the witnesses
testimony. They also
frequently interrupted
breaking concentration.

69. The Cognitive Interview
Instructions to witness
Context
reinstatement
Recall what you were thinking, feeling and the scene beforehand
Report everything
Report everything, even trivia
Recall from changed
Perspective
Recall it from another’s point of view.
Recall in reverse order
Report from different ways moving backwards and forwards in time

70. Evidence for the Cognitive Interview
Geiselman et al (1985) found that the cognitive interview was better than the original method and hypnosis. More correct
details were recalled
But there was also
more mistakes
Fisher et al (1990)
discovered that police
in Miami were
impressed with results.

71. Evidence for the Cognitive Interview
Police have expressed a concern, with the increase incorrect detail, when using CI.
They believe that the context reinstatement and reporting everything are more useful than the other two categories
This has been backed up by psychologists Milne and Bull (2002)

72. Improving Memory Teaching strategies for memory improvement is a useful tool for future exams

73. Mnemonics based on Visual Imagery
The Peg Word System
One is bun
Two is Shoe
Three is tree
Four is a door
Five is a hive
Six are Sticks
Seven is Heaven
Eight is a Gate
Nine is a Line
Ten is Hen

74. One is bun
Two is Shoe
Three is tree
Four is a door
Five is a hive
Six are Sticks
Seven is Heaven
Eight is a Gate
Nine is a Line
Ten is Hen

75. Mnemonics based on Visual Imagery
The Peg Word System
Eggs
Bread
Biscuits
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Cheese
Jam
Pasta
Juice
Cornflakes

76. Six are Sticks
One is bun
Seven is Heaven
Two is Shoe
Three is tree
Eight is a Gate
Four is a door
Nine is a Line
Five is a hive
Ten is Hen

77. Mnemonics based on Visual Imagery
The Peg-word system: Where you thing of one word and then peg another on to help recall
The Method of Loci: Thing of things you see on your route to college. Then attach a list of item to each of the things on your route

78. Visual Imagery
Paivio (1965): found that people could remember words that were easy to put pictures to – concrete V abstract nouns
Beni and Moe (2003):
Present words + images together,
rather than words + words
or images + images

80. Improving Memory

81. Organisation and Understanding
Bransford and Johnson gave a passage to participant.
One with a title to the piece
One with no title (Content was not clear)
People remembered the title and that coupled with their schema helped recall.

82. Organisation in memory
Bransford and Johnson (1972) found that participants who were given a title to a passage of information found it easier to recall than those not given a title, as participants applied already stored knowledge on the topic to their understanding of the passage. This enhanced their recall later.

83. Chunking
As already noted, chunking increases the amount we can recall and also reduces the load on memory. A difficult task can be reduced to a simpler task for STM.

84. Encoding and retrieval strategies
We recall things better if we try and retrieve the information in the same context or situation as when we learnt it.
(Geiselman and Glenny (1977)

85. Active processing
We are more likely to remember material that we have actively processed. Simple rehearsal is not enough to lay down long-lasting memories.
Craik (1977) investigated recall of a word list under different conditions e.g. Is a word written in capital letters, does the word rhyme with another word, is it the name of a living thing.
They found that group 3 remembered more than groups 1 and 2 because they had to think about the meaning of the word rather than just look at its structure.

86. Attention and practice
If we don’t pay attention to material we cannot remember it (as looked at in EWT).
Practice is also important in order to remember large amounts of information for an exam, for example. Ericsson and Chase (1981) studied SF who could memorise up to 80 digits in one go – he had to practice for an hour a day over a two year period to do this!
However, you need to be aware of your own memory and what works best for you!