Cognitive Psychology ~ MemoryStarter Activity:

How good is your memory?

• You are now going to take a memory test.• At the start of the test you will be shown

pictures of a group of objects.• Try to memorise them.• You will have 20 seconds• When the objects disappear write down all

the objects you can remember.• Who has the best memory?………..

In Psychology you will learn strategies to

improve your memory

Memory

•So what is Memory?•Memory is the process of storing and retrieving information about the past.•What would life be like without our memories?....•How would we …… •Make a cup of tea? •Find our way home? •Know who are friends or enemies were?

•Is there anything that we don’t need our memories for?

Types of MemoryTypes of Memory

* *

**Procedural Memory (skills)*

* *Requires conscious thought Does not require conscious thought

Implicit and Explicit Memory• Implicit memory is memory for things not

intentionally remembered (without conscious thought) e.g. If you remembered the bee in the last slide – did you intend to?

• Explicit memory is when you intend to remember something (which requires conscious thought) e.g. you revise so that you can remember information in the exam.

• We may remember through implicit memory far more than we are consciously aware.

Procedural (Skills) Memory• Procedural – skills; actions that do not require

conscious thought (riding a bicycle?) you don’t have to think about how you pedal or balance.

• Procedural memory is much more resistant to forgetting.

• Procedural includes implicit memory (that means you may remember something without intentionally learning it or intentionally remembering it e.g. you don’t try to learn to text without looking at your fingers: you learn by practice.)

Give some examples of skills that you may have learned via procedural memory……

Declarative Memory:- Semantic and Episodic Memory

• Declarative things you can declare:– facts, faces, names, events (what did you have for breakfast this morning?)

• There are two kinds of Declarative memory:-

• Episodic Memory= memories of personal experiences or events (e.g. Christmas, birthdays, what I had for breakfast)

• Semantic Memory= learned memories; knowledge not linked to time or events (e.g. what is good for me to have at breakfast, capital city of France)

• Give some of your own examples of Episodic and Semantic Memory…

The Three Processes of Memory

EncodingTaking information / stimulus from

environment and programming it into our brains. Stimulus is usually visual

(iconic) , but it can be sound (acoustic) and smells etc. It can then be programmed or ‘encoded’ into our brains as iconic, acoustic or semantic

encoding

Storage

Retrieval

Once information is encoded it has to be stored until it is required at a later time.The length of time the information is stored is

the store’s DURATION and how much information can be stored is its CAPACITY

Recalling by using ‘cues’ to remember items you have stored. People may do this differently.

(what has to happen in order for a memory to be formed and remembered)

Definitions/words to learn:Use the hints to write your definitions

(if you get stuck use your course guide: glossary)

• Memory is ...a process where information.......• Encoding is… a process where information.......• Retrieval is ......a process where information.......• Capacity is…..the amount of information ….• Duration is… how ............ the information...........• Episodic memory is ...visual memory for ….• Semantic memory is .... memory for things you have....• Proceedural memory is memory for ..............• Implicit memory is memory without conscious …..• Explicit memory is memory requiring …........... thought

Activity2

Who has the best attention?Watch the video clip carefully and count the

number of times the white team bounces or catches the ball.

Importance of attention in memory clip.wmv

Multi-Store Memory Model

Environment

Sensory Stimuli

Sensory Memory

Long Term

Memory

Attention Short Term

Memory

If not attended to information is lost

Retrieval

Rehearsal

Loss via displacement or decay if not

rehearsed

Coding

Coding

Coding

By Atkinson & ShiffrinFollow this on your handouts.

DETAIL: Sensory Memory Store:• Temporary storage of information stimulus taken

in….• Visual encoding (iconic) • Auditory encoding (acoustic) • Probably others as well (smell – chemical)

– Capacity: Very large– Duration: Very short

• about 250 ms. for iconic (visual)• 1-2 sec. for acoustic (sound)

• Forgetting: Information can be lost (storage failure) because of lack or diversion of attention remember the gorilla experiment! Or through trace decay

Detail: Short Term Memory (STM)• Capacity: Small: 7 plus or minus 2 units or

‘chunks’ (Miller, 1956)Chunk: a meaningful unit

Examples: • A group of letters (FBI)• A group of words (Four score and seven years

ago) • Let us recreate Miller’s experiments now.

• Duration: Short:20-30 seconds without rehearsal (Peterson & Peterson, 1959)

• Encoding: mainly acoustic (by sound) See p16 of course guide for research evidence.

• Forgetting due to displacement and trace decay. (storage failure)

Bread

Displacement in STM

Bread

STM7 slots

( For 7 units or ‘chunks

of information)

Lost from STM

MilkBreadFlourMilkBread

ApplesFlourMilkBread

SyrupApplesFlourMilkBread

PeasSyrupApplesFlourMilkBread

EggsPeasSyrupApplesFlourMilkBread

CheeseEggsPeasSyrupApplesFlourMilk

This experiment shows that the duration of the STM is around 18 seconds. The experiment is outlined in detail in your course guide on page 14.Most of the research shows that duration is less than 30 seconds in STM

Detail: Long Term Memory (LTM)

• Capacity: Potentially Infinite • Duration: A lifetime (decades)• Encoding: Organized by meaning (semantic)• Evidence for this can be found on page15 of your course

guide. (Bahrick)• Forgetting: cue dependant retrieval failure and interference

unlikely to be much decay

• Procedural Memory: habits and motor skills, conditioned or practiced

• Declarative Memory: Memory for semantic knowledge (facts) and personal experiences (episodic)

Evidence for the MSM

Remember the following words:

TIMEPEAKSLOWPENSLONGAGESTHANVASTHEATRAINMORESOMETUNERAREWITHBEARTHISTIESHEARLIFE

Count how many you recalled:

TIMEPEAKSLOWPENSLONGAGESTHANVASTHEATRAINMORESOMETUNERAREWITHBEARTHISTIESHEARLIFE

7371457167624534464834454148426753344578

Primacy-Recency orSerial-position effect

Primacy Effect

• First items in a list are remembered better than items in the middle

Recency Effect

• The last items in a list are remembered better than items in the middle, if tested immediately

• This primary-recency or serial position effect is evidence for the MSM model.

Brain Damage Patient Studies H.M. & C.WFurther supporting evidence for MSM model

• H.M. became unable to form new memories after surgical removal of the hippocampus (so no STM)

• Still able to acquire procedural information (he learned a mirror writing skill. Can you explain this?)

• He was still able to access his original long term memories but not able to form new ones.

• This is evidence for the multi-store model in that it shows LTM and STM storage areas are in different locations.

Summary of Multi Store Memory Model Components

EVALUATION: Evidence In support of MSM

• Primacy and recency effects. First items arerecalled from LTM, having been rehearsed, and

last items are still being held in STM.• Baddeley’s research into acoustic and semantic

coding shows that STM & LTM are separate.• Case studies, e.g. HM. shows that STM & LTM are separate

Problems and limitations

• Rehearsal does not always lead to storage.Storage occurs without rehearsal!

• If coding in the STM is predominantly acoustic,how do we understand language?

• Initial oversimplification of LTM store, but thiswas redressed by Tulving (semantic/episodic),and Cohen and Squire (procedural/declarative).• Some types of information are not amenable to

rehearsal, e.g. smells.

Use your notes, handout, guide and textbook to plan and write an answer to the following question:

(Q) Describe and evaluate the multi-store memory model.

Descriptions should form about 50% of the essay and Evaluations should form 50% of the essay.

Your essay should be about 1 to 1 and a half A4 pages long.

Multi-Store Memory Model Activity (In Pairs or threes) Read through & Discuss the handouts:

Then in your groups complete a poster detailing the Multi Store Model:

The title should be “Memory ~ The Multi Store Model (Evidence and Evaluation)”

• Outline the model and evidence in support of the model. • Then evaluate the model fully listing all the positive and

negative criticisms you can find. • At the end of the lesson the class will vote on the poster

with the fullest explanation and evaluation of the model, and the best presented poster.

• Students will have to explain and present their posters to the class, and justify why their poster deserves to win the prize and be displayed.

Alternatives to the MSML4

Levels of processing model• We are going to attempt an experiment

similar to Craik & Lockhart’s Levels of processing experiment NOW…..

• What are the differences in processing?• Depth of analysis/depth of processing

– Shallow processing (e.g., structural (iconic/visual) processing)

– Intermediate processing (e.g., phonetic processing)

– Deep processing (e.g., semantic processing)But recall can be affected by other factors not

directly associated with levels of processing:

• Elaboration of processing (how much time available) – more time more processing

• Organisation (categorisation etc.)• Distinctiveness (more distinctive things are

remembered…… do these factors fit the model – can they be explained by LOP?)

FITFOTF2T

Level of Processing – Craik and Lockhart’s experiment:-

Levels of Processing (Craik & Lockhart)

Letter Size Phonetic Meaning

% L

ate

r R

eca

lled

Judgment Required

• Central executive (Fat Controller)

• Articulatory-phonological loop (Inner Voice & Ear on same loop so cannot listen and talk at same time!)

• Visuo-spatial sketch pad (Inner Eye)

Working Memory Model

Activity: How do we know that there are two components in the phonological –

articulatory loop? Try these two exercises with a partner.

• Find two paragraphs from a book or handout that you have not read.

• Read one paragraph to yourself quietly and then explain its contents to your partner.

• Then read the other paragraph to yourself, but at the same time say out loud; ‘the, the, the’ over and over again.

• Now try to explain the contents of the paragraph to your partner.

• Can you explain why this is virtually impossible: use the Working memory model…..take 2 minutes thinking time.

Limitations & Criticisms of LOP & MSM

☺LOP gives a good understanding of the processes that take places when learning. Evidence?

☺MSM gives a good understanding of the organisation and structure of memory. Evidence?

LOP Difficult to define ‘deep’ processing and why it is effective. (More time? More meaning?)

Semantic processing does not always lead to better retrieval (Morris 1977)

LOP and MSM describe rather than explain. MSM is linear and does not explain how some things

appear to go straight into our memory without rehearsing. (memory for events – episodic -)

For homework: complete the chart on the back of the activity sheet including similarities and differences between MSM & WMM

Comparing MSM & LOPSimilarities:- • Both refer to processing as visual, acoustic and semantic.• Both indicate that semantic processing will be remembered better.• MSM states that rehearsal will improve memory (this would result in

phonetic processing as when we rehearse we tend to repeat things verbally in our head.

Differences:-• MSM explains the structure and organisation of the memory and

evidence supports this (primary / recency, HM KD) LOP does not.• LOP says that rather than stages our ability to remember depends

on the level to which we process the information focussing on processing rather than organisation.

• LOP states the number of different ways we process the information is important.

• LOP has practical applications – education• MSM has practical applications – medicine (brain damage,

amnesia)• LOP links memory, attention and perception.• LOP emphasises recall is influenced by how information is encoded.

Consolidating the WMM

• Students in groups.• You will be given one of the components of the WMM to

research• Use A3 paper draw a representation of your component in

the centre then: • 1. Describe component: in terms of function, capacity,

strengths and weaknesses. • 2. Say how your component interacts with the other three. • 3. Say what the evidence is for your component, and

whether that evidence is strong evidence or weak evidence. Use text books and handouts provided.

• To make this more interesting you can try and put your information into songs, rhymes, raps, stories or poems for your presentation.

• Then: Present to the class. Vote for best presentation• Have fun!

5

• 1. Alice is rehearsing for a play at school and has to learn her lines.

• (a) Give her advice, based on the multi-store model, on how to learn her lines.

• (b) She still finds it difficult to learn the lines. What other suggestions can you offer her based on other psychological research.

• 2. Tom’s mother gets very annoyed when she tries to speak to him when he is playing a game on the computer: he never seems to actually hear what she is saying.

• Use both the multi-store model and the working memory model to explain why he doesn’t seem to hear her.

• 3. On his way home from work, Rick witnessed an accident involving two cars but when asked to make a statement to the police he can’t remember many details. Use the multi-store model to explain why his memory for the details is so poor.

6

Memory in Everyday Life

• In this section we will look at factors affecting memory recall (remembering and forgetting) in particular in connection with Eyewitness testimony and Memory improvement methods

• When things are forgotten or not remembered it is because:– The memory Is not available (it has ceased to exist)– The memory Is just not accessible (though we might find it given

time or the right cues)

• Forgetting is fastest right after initial learning

• But slower for more meaningful material

The multi store memory model suggests that forgetting happens because of:-

• Trace decay :- Memory fades with time if not used (structural changes occur when a memory is laid down (an ENGRAM is formed) – temporary if not rehearsed – otherwise it becomes permanent) Peterson and Peterson (1959) (STM & LTM)

• Displacement:- Information in STM is pushed out by newer information. 7+/- 2 ! (STM ONLY)

• Interference:- Memories are disrupted or obscured by other incoming information. Confusion or entanglement of similar memories (STM & LTM)

• Retrieval Failure:- Information/memories in LTM store cannot be accessed because suitable retrieval cues are not available. (LTM ONLY)

• Diversion of attention:- (mainly in SM but also affects STM) Watkins et al. (1973)

How cues can aid memoryCue dependent retrieval failure is when information may be

available to recall but is temporarily inaccessible. Evidence – Tip of the tongue phenomenon (Brown & McNeill

1966) The feeling of being on the verge of recalling something, often you can say what letter it starts with, or

how many syllables it has.

This means that there are Cues that can aid retrieval e.g.

• CATEGORY :- We remember things better when we sort information in to different categories (Tulving & Pearlson 1966)

• CONTEXT :- (Godden & Baddeley 1975) found external environmental cues present at the time of learning affected our ability to recall information.

• STATE :- Internal bodily cues that were experienced at the time of learning may affect our ability to recall information. (Goodwin 1969) Investigated the effects of alcohol.

• Stress and Anxiety can also cause retrieval failure. (as stress is a bodily state!)

KARMA SUTRA

Context dependent memory

• Context becomes encoded along with the material being remembered.

• Reinstating context often helps people remember.

Godden & Baddeley 1975

State-Dependent Memory

• Internal body states are encoded with memories

• Memories easier to retrieve when these body states are entered again (learn something when you are drunk and you won’t remember it well until you are drunk again!) Goodwin 1969

Stress and MemoryP

erf

orm

an

ce

Stress

Low Moderate High

7

Use what you know about memory to explain what techniques Mr. Bean used to aid his memory and why they

worked.

What is Eyewitness Testimony?

“Evidence given in court about what was seen by an individual who witnessed events relevant to a crime.”

Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony

• The Devlin Report, (1976) states that eyewitness testimony is generally unreliable. Some of the reasons for this may be:-

• Rather than record things like a film, we tend to be selective about what aspects of events we commit to memory.

• This can cause us a problem in situations where accurate recall is vital, such as in eyewitness testimony (EWT).

• Also much other research (which we will now examine) suggests that EWT may not always be accurate, and can be influenced by lots of things including leading questions, time, anxiety, the reconstructive nature of our memories and age of witness.

Activity• Sad• Tree• Kill• Smile• Death• Win• Hate• Flower• Disease• Cat• Coffin• Star• Murder• Bucket• Knife• Dance• Choke• Play• Die• House

Look at the following words for 2 minutes and try to remember as many as possible.

When they disappear write down all that you remember.

ANXIETY…..THE EFFECT OF EMOTION ON MEMORY

Emotional states: Can emotion make us forget? (Repression)

Freud said that we repress memories (our ego’s bury them in our unconscious mind), usually to avoid dealing with traumatic experiences; this is referred to as motivated forgetting. This is a protective ego defence mechanism.

EVIDENCE • Levinger and Clarke found that emotionally charged words

were remembered less well than emotionally negative words. (did we find this?)

• Memories of Child Sex Abuse are occasionally only recovered by psychoanalysis or hypnotherapy.

• Shell Shock – Soldiers loose their memories of war horrors.

• Witnesses of violent crimes often remember less detail than would be expected.

• Major disasters such as 9/11 are less well remembered by the people directly involved, but remembered well by others watching on TV or reading in the news.

• Loftus & Burns showed participants two videos of a bank robbery – one video was extremely violent the other was not. Participants remembered much more from the non-violent video. (can you think of another reason for this?)

EVALUATION of REPRESSION (is this the whole story?)

• Uncomfortable / horrific memories may just not be thought of so much – so are rehearsed less often than normal memories…. So a weaker engram is laid down, which makes the memory trace more likely to fade away. OR

• It could be caused by high levels of stress! • Loftus later theorised that the violent video

was less well remembered because the participants focused on the weapon used rather than the trivial details of the situation, and that this weapon focus (which diverts attention from other details) is why less was remembered in the violent video.

Flashbulb memories Can emotion help us remember better?• Brown & Kulik (1977) Coined the phrase Flashbulb memory. It

is a type of Episodic Memory that is especially vivid or detailed and relates usually to some major public event (Twin Towers, Princess Diana’s Death).They theorised that an emotional event triggered a neural mechanism in the brain and that the scene was printed on the memory (a strong engram was laid down instantly).

EVIDENCE • Brown & Kulik questioned participants about famous

people’s assassinations – J. F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King. They found that certain things were almost universally remembered about them, these were:-

• Where you were, What you were doing, Who gave you the news

• What you felt, What others felt, What happened immediately afterwards.

• Do you have similar memories of Twin Towers 9/11• Further evidence showed that the more personally significant

the event the more likely you were to develop a flashbulb memory for it. (75% of black people questioned had a flashbulb memory to Martin Luther King’s death whereas only 33% of white people did!)

• Can you think of other reasons why things like these are remembered so vividly?

EVALUATION• It could be that the vivid memories

are simply due to over rehearsal – frequent repetition of event on news / everyone talking about it etc. (so really strong engrams are laid down)

• But other research supports Brown and Kulik . Christianson and Hubinette found that emotional involvement does increase the accuracy of memory. When interviewing 110 people who witnessed a bank robbery they found those who had been personally threatened had better memory of the event. This goes against Freud’s theory of repression.

Memory Recall The Time Factor• The longer we watch the

more likely we are to remember details (more time for rehearsal and elaboration).

• The longer the interval between an event and the recall the worse the recall. (Trace decay theory) If the memory is not revisited shortly after the event and often then the memory trace will fade away, however.....

Research shows that witnesses beliefs about their own testimony

changes over time but their level of accuracy doesn’t! :

Low

er

Time

Hig

her

Explain this using memory theories you have learned

Age of Witness

• Memories and the way we use them change as we age. Most research evidence on age related memory shows that :

• Children are more sensitive to leading questions than adults: found by (Warren et al 2005) & (Ceci et al 2000) found that memories of 3 to 4 year olds were most susceptible.

• Children’s ability to understand the question can influence recall. (Goodman and Schaff 1997) found that the more complex the question the more likely the child would give an inaccurate response.

• Young children tend to recall less complex memories than older children and adults and so can appear unconvincing. (Goodman and Reed 1986) showed that the recall of younger children was less detailed but no less accurate. However, (Saywitz 1987) showed that younger children tended to embellish their recall (add bits to it!).

• Old people however have also been shown to have poorer performance on tests of eyewitness memory and face recognition in particular. However they do remember faces around their own age better (own age bias). Research by Anastsi and Rhodes (2006) shows that older participants had less accurate recall, but ALL age groups were more accurate in identifying photographs of their own age group,

Other factors influencing the accuracy of Eyewitness testimony: Research shows...• FACES:- Faces are recalled from top down – hair,

forehead, are the first things we recall about someone. So people with heads covered or wearing glasses are less well remembered when those items are removed.

• CLOTHING:- People tend to focus attention on clothing rather than height or other features

• CONTEXT / STATE / FAMILIARITYSTEREOTYPES have an effect on what we expect, and therefore what we remember.

• LEADING QUESTIONS:- (LOFTUS 1975) (MISSLED MEMORY) If people are asked questions that lead them in a certain direction they will usually go there.

• RACE:- People remember their own race better.• WEAPON FOCUS:- (Loftus) People focus on the

weapon / violence rather than the person who is perpetuating it.

• SOCIAL INFLUENCE:- People can be influenced by what the other witnesses say.

• STRESS/ High emotion:- – Repressed memories. Loftus:- People who saw the

more violent video remembered less.

Activity...... What could affect the recall of these witnesses to a bank robbery?

Maria was in the bank when the robbery took place. She was frightened for her son Juan. Maria did remember that he wore a hat.

Pedro was waiting outside the bank, he was unaware of the robbery until afterwards, but he saw the robber enter and leave.

Juan was in the bank with his mum, he was fascinated by the robber and watched everything.

Peter was a guard at the bank. He was attacked by the robber and he was threatened with a gun.

He was then shot and was in hospital some time recovering.

In pairs/threes take 5 minutes to note down ideas about factors affecting each of their recall. Either positively or negatively.

Let us imagine that you were in China during the Olympics. Pick pocketing was a real

problem. You witnessed the following event. Now the Police want you to identify the thief…..

• Think back to last lesson and list as many things that you can think of that may affect your memory of this incident both +ve & -ve.

8

Factors affecting EWT: how did you do?• Age (same age bias) (age of witness)• Face recognition (top down processing – hair over

eyes)• Time (since witnessing crime) (watching event)• Context (if not reinstated)• State (emotion, stress, anxiety, fear, intoxication)• Race (same race bias)• Clothing – (attention focus)• Attention – lack of, or focus: weapon, violence, action.• Questioning by police (leading questions)• Level of Processing (faces, visual so shallow etc)• Rehearsal (how many times you told the story)• Stereotypes and one more very important one…..the• Reconstructive nature of memory ………

How does the way our memories work affect EWT?• Bartlett’s famous research study: ‘War of the

Ghosts’ (see course guide) supported his ‘Schema’ or ‘Reconstructive nature of Memory’ Theory:-

• Bartlett said that when remembering we piece together a few highlights, then fill in details based on what we think should have happened. Our memories working like rough notebooks rather than video recorders.

• He said we use schema’s to make sense of our world and to help us remember.

• A schema is an organised package of information that stores your knowledge about the world. Schemas are stored in LTM.

• Your schemas tell you that if you see someone wearing a short-sleeved shirt outside then there is unlikely to be snow on the ground. Schema’s lead us to make assumptions which can be wrong!

8

Your Schema’s an example:-• What is your schema for having a restaurant meal ?– What are the

most important events associated with having a restaurant meal.• You probably said most or all of the following:• Sitting down• Looking at the menu • Ordering• Eating/drinking• Paying the bill• Leaving a tip• Leaving the restaurant.• Reconstructive memories are made by combining what you are

remembering with your knowledge of the world (Schemas)• Schema theory indicates that prior expectations will influence our

perceptions. This means that our prejudices and stereotypes will influence what we think we have seen and how we recall the information.

• This can be particularly important for interpretation of eyewitness testimony.

• So does that mean that we cannot trust our memories to be accurate?

MESSING WITH YOUR MIND ~TOTAL RECALL

Reconstructive memories = false memories?

In Total Recall, Arnold plays a man who is frustrated by dreams of Mars, where he has never been. So he goes to a memory shop to buy a false memory, the memory that he was a secret agent on Mars. The folks at the shop discover that they can't implant the false memory because Arnold really had been a secret agent on Mars! Arnold is confused was his ordinary life false, a dream imposed on him when he stopped being a secret agent? Or is the current situation all a dream? He can't trust his memories & can't tell what is real & what is false.

You, of course, don't have any such difficulties. Your brain hasn't been tinkered with by secret agents or memory technicians. You can trust your memories--can't you?...

sour nice candy

honey sugar soda

bitter chocolate good

heart taste cake

tooth tart pie

mad wrath fear

happy hate fight

rage hatred temper

mean fury calm

ire emotion enrage

Read through the following words and try to remember them. I will tell you when to write down what you remember. Do the same with the next set. Did you remember any words that were not there?Most people falsely remember the word sweet as being on the first list and the word angry as being on the second list. The words aren't there, but they are strongly suggested by the words that are on the list. Memory is associative and reconstructive, remembering the words candy and honey and sugar and others that are associated with sweetness bring that word sweet to mind so strongly that it is ‘reconstructed’ into part of the original list.

• RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY (BARTLET 1932) :- People have expectations, assumptions or schemas (our understanding of the way things are based mainly on previous experience) This can lead to us expecting certain things and then ‘filling in the gaps’ when things don’t quite fit.

• STEREOTYPES have an effect on what we expect, and therefore what we remember.

Look at the picture on the right. Study it carefully.

Problems with Schemas

“Whose hand held the knife?”

(Allport & Postman, 1947) found that most people wrongly remembered the black man with the knife.

What problems can you see with this research?

Activity....

Imagine that you are a criminal psychologist who has gone bad! You are going to produce an information leaflet for prospective criminals giving them advice on committing perfect crimes.

Use the theories we have discussed in this lesson and previous lessons in order to ‘help’ them be better, more successful crooks! Use text books to find research support..................

The Police & Eyewitness Testimony

• Can the police influence the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?

9

Activity: Witnessing a crime……

Video clip for EWT.mpg

Can you help the police with the following questions?

1. Did the woman call for help before or after she handed out the money?

2. Did the getaway car turn left or right?3. What was covering the faces of the robbers?4. Who else was in the shop?5. What were the robbers wearing?6. About what age and build were the robbers?7. Can you recall anything else about them that

would help the police – Hair colour? Accent?8. What did they use as weapons?

The effect of language on recall • Loftus and Palmer (1974) different questions got consistently

different responses:-

– “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”

• 41 mph• 32% ‘saw’ broken glass

– “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”

• 34 mph• 14% ‘saw’ broken glass

What does this all mean for the reliability of eyewitness testimony?

Leading Questions

As we have seen eyewitness testimony is not always reliable. This can have serious consequences. Many people have been hanged or imprisoned for long periods because they were convicted of crimes mainly on the say of eyewitness testimony. Some have later been found to have been innocent. – An argument against the death penalty? Here is an example of what can happen and an explanation of how it can happen.........

So how Can Eyewitness Testimony Be Made More

Reliable?1. Police Interview guidelines (Questioning)

1. Questions should be open ended NOT leading2. Avoid encouraging guessing – can lead to false

memories3. No prompting of witnesses

2. Cognitive Interview Techniques1. Geiselman et al. (1985) investigated the

Cognitive interview using eyewitnesses.2. He found that the cognitive interview produced

41.1 correct answers compared to 29.4 using traditional techniques

The Cognitive Interview

Developed by Geiselman the police were trained to assist the witness to:

• Reinstate the context (and state)• Recall everything they remember in minute

detail, whether they feel it is relevant or not.• Recall details of the incident in various

different orders.• Recall the event from a different perspective,

such as that of another witness. (DVD)

Exam Questions

• Complete the exam questions relating to eyewitness testimony.

Improving Memory

Strategies for Improving memory

Cues

Mnemonics & mind maps

•10

Strategies for memory Improvement

For the exam you need to learn at least 2 strategies for improving memory.

We will focus on the following – these are in your text book

a. Cues

b. Mnemonics & mind maps

Use of CuesCues act as a trigger to help recall memory.

Evidence:

• Context – Godden & Baddeley = Divers.

• State: Goodwin = Alcohol

• Context - Baker et al (2004) Chewing gum experiment = Students who learned whilst chewing gum remembered more if chewing gum!

• Cognitive interview techniques. Geiselman

Using cues

To improve recall ..• Context and state cues need to be as

similar as possible to the original learning situation.

• So to perform best in exams…• Context – revise with a favourite pen• State – stay calm whilst revising and

during exam (easier said than done!!)

Use of CuesElaboration – elaborative rehearsal is more

effective than maintenance rehearsal as the info becomes meaningful and is encoded in a way that suits LTM

e.g. Morris et al (81) – football fans have better recall of scores (because they mean more to them)

Organisation – using categories – Tulving and Pearlstone (66) Memory greatly enhanced by actively organizing material as it is learned

Cues: Organisation Tulving and Pearlestone•Daffodil•Plum•Nose•Weather•Copper•Labrador•Water•Flowers•Brass•Foot•Tulips•Pansy•Dogs•Sleet•Milk•Orange•Toe•Snow•Flute

•Pear•beagle,•Clarinet•Hail•Rain•Drinks•Rose•Squash•Hand•Boxer•Iron•Coke•Gold•Harp•Piano•Metal•Apple•Body•Fruit

•Dogs•Labrador•Beagle•Boxer•Spaniel•Fruit•Apple•Pear•Plum•Orange•Weather•Snow•Rain•Sleet•Hail•Flowers•Daffodil•Rose•Pansy

•Instrument•Harp•Piano•Flute•Clarinet•Drinks•Water•Milk•Squash•Coke•Body•Nose•Foot•Toe•Hand•Metal•Brass•Gold•Copper

Mnemonics

Strategies that can increase memory, especially for material that is not easily organized;

Mnemonics can be…. tricks, games, or rhymes that help you remember something.

By this we can impose an artificial structure on items that would otherwise be hard to remember

There are different types of Mnemonic techniques that may suit different materials or learning styles. E.g. visual or verbal….. Video clip

Mnemonics clip.mpg

Verbal Mnemonics

Acronyms: An acronym is a word formed by the first letter of other word. Choose a key word that will help you remember each step. Then, using the letter of each key word, create your acronym.

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

Good when remembering the order of something (like colours of the rainbow, what are they?)

Verbal Mnemonics

Rhymes E.g

• i before e except after c

• 30 days hath September ….. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue….

•Also good when remembering• the order of something

Visual Imagery Mnemonics

• Method of Loci –Involves pairing each thing to be remembered with one of an organized set of familiar locations

•Good for visual learners!

Visual Imagery Mnemonics

Narrative Chaining – story made up using items to be remembered

•Good for verbal learners!

Visual Imagery Mnemonics

Key word technique – 1. Acoustic stage

2. Visual stage

3. Rehearsal stage E.g. Visualise a baguette –

Image of a french stick in bag! •Very good when learning• another language

Visual Imagery Mnemonics• Peg-word system - Connecting each thing

to be remembered in an interactive image with each item on a standard list using visualisation: e.g.

• One-bun

• Two-shoe

• Three – tree ….

• Good for shopping lists or lists of any sort.... BPS Guidelines!

Visual Imagery Mnemonics•Mind maps

•Giving each page of revision notes an unique, distinctive visual appearance

•An example of elaborative rehearsal

A mind map on how to

do a mind map!

Watch the film clip

• What is the Memory Improvement technique used by Andy and Professor Winston?

•Method of Loci

Method of loci clip.mpg

Improving Memory: other methods

• Recall Practice: Practicing recalling material rather than just rereading it; especially useful for college material

• Spaced Practice: Shorter practice sessions spaced widely apart; more effective than massed practice

• Over-learning: Practicing material well beyond the point needed to recall it for the moment

Visualization

• Form an image, or picture, in your mind of something you want to remember.

• Eg: In anatomy, label the bones on a

drawing of a human skeleton. When reviewing or recalling, close eyes and see the skeleton with labels.

Now try a strategy yourself!!

• Use one or more of the techniques you have learned today to help you to remember as much as you can about Memory Improvement Techniques.

• You may use text books to help you• If you wish to complete your own mind map in

which you include all the memory improvement techniques you have learned.

• Here is how you do it......

Mind mapping clip.mpg

That’s all folks!

Key Term: Duration

• This refers to how long a memory lasts. The existence of two distinct memory stores is supported by differences in duration because this differs between short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). STM has a very limited duration of 18–30 seconds. In contrast, LTM potentially lasts forever and so a memory may endure permanently

Key Term: Ecological validity

• The validity of the research outside the research situation itself; the extent to which the findings are generalisable to other situations, especially “everyday” situations. The question is whether you would get the same findings in a different setting or whether they are limited to the original research context. If the latter is true then there is a lack of ecological validity

Key Term: Encoding

• This involves the transfer of information into code, leading to the creation of a memory trace, which can be registered in the memory store. There is evidence that STM and LTM are dependent on different codes, as in STM encoding it is primarily acoustic (based on the sound of the word), and in LTM encoding it is primarily semantic (based on the meaning of the word)

Key Term: Eyewitness testimony

• Evidence supplied by people who witness a specific event or crime, relying only on their memory. Statements often include descriptions of the criminal (facial appearance and other identifiable characteristics) and subsequent identification, and details of the crime scene (e.g., the sequence of events, time of day, and if others witnessed the event, etc.). There is good evidence that eyewitness testimony can be incorrect, because eyewitness memories of events tend to be fragile and easily distorted (e.g., by leading questions)

Key Term: Flashbulb memory

• A long-lasting and vivid memory of a specific event and the context in which it occurred. The event is important and emotionally significant (e.g., a national or personal event). The term “flashbulb” refers to the fact that it is as if a photographic image of the event and setting has been encoded, as the memory is so detailed and accurate. Examples include the atrocities of September 11th 2001, and the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy

Key Term: Forgetting

• This is the inability to recall or recognise information. Forgetting may occur because the information no longer exists in memory and so is not available for retrieval. Alternatively, it can occur because it cannot be found and so is not accessible (cue-dependent forgetting). Forgetting is more likely with information that needs to be recalled, as recognition is generally easier than recall

Key Term: Levels of processing

• The extent to which something (e.g., a list of words) is processed, not in terms of how much processing is done (as in repetition), but in terms of how much meaning is extracted. Shallow processing focuses on the superficial features of the information (e.g., whether a word is in upper or lower case). In contrast, deep processing focuses on the meaning of the information and generally (but not always) leads to better long-term memory

Key Term: Long-term memory

• A relatively permanent store, which has unlimited capacity and duration. Different kinds of long-term memory have been identified, including episodic (memory for personal events), semantic (memory for facts and information), and procedural (memory for actions and skills)

Key Term: Memory• The mental processes used to encode, store, and

retrieve information. Encoding takes many forms; visual, auditory, semantic, taste, and smell. Storage refers to the amount of information that can be held in memory. Retrieval refers to the processes by which information is “dug out” of memory, and includes recognition, recall, and reconstruction. It is useful to distinguish between two types of memory: short-term or immediate memory and long-term or more permanent memory

Key Term: Multi-store model

• The notion that memory is divided into three kinds of store (sensory memory; short-term memory; and long-term memory). It is often assumed that attention is used to select some information from sensory memory for processing in the short-term store, whereas verbal rehearsal is involved when information is transferred from the short-term memory store to the long-term memory store. It is increasingly doubtful that there is a single long-term memory store

Key Term: Reconstructive memory

• It is often assumed that recall from long-term memory involves reconstruction. This is an active process in which information from the to-be-remembered material and information from our knowledge and experience of the world is combined. Information based on our knowledge and experience of the world is contained in schemas, which are packets of knowledge. What often happens is that what we recall is not an accurate reproduction of the original material, because our recall is distorted by schemas, which have been used to fill in the gaps in our memory

Key Term: Repression

• This is one of the main defence mechanisms suggested by Freud. What happens is that memories causing great anxiety (e.g., traumatic memories) are kept out of conscious awareness in order to protect the individual. Thus, repression is a good example of motivated forgetting. Information that has been repressed still exists, and can often be recalled during psychoanalysis

Key Term: Short-term memory

• A temporary place for storing information during which it receives limited processing (e.g., verbal rehearsal). Short-term memory has a very limited capacity and short duration, unless the information in it is maintained through rehearsal

Key Term: Working memory model

• A model of memory proposed by Baddeley and Hitch as an alternative to the multi-store model. The model consists of a central executive (an attentional system, which has a limited capacity and which is involved in decision-making), together with two slave systems (the articulatory-phonological loop, and visuo-spatial sketch pad). This model is concerned with both active processing and the brief storage of information