Unit 1

Memory

The Multi-Store Model of memory: Sensory register, short-term memory and

long-term memory. Features of each
store: coding, capacity and duration

Types of Long-Term memory: Episodic, semantic, procedural

The Working Memory Model: Central executive, phonological loop,

visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic
buffer. Features of the model: coding and
capacity

Explanations for Forgetting: Proactive and retroactive interference

and retrieval failure due to absence of
cues

Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Misleading information, including leading

Eyewitness Testimony (EWT): questions and post-event discussion;
anxiety

Improving the Accuracy of EWT: The use of the cognitive interview

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 Multi-store model of memory (MSM)
Key Terms

Sensory register: The first store which holds the sensory information received through all the
senses for a brief period of time. Examples include iconic (visual) and echoic (sound) memory.

Short-term memory: The memory for immediate events. These memories tend not to last for more
than a minute or two, usually shorter, and disappear unless they are rehearsed. Capacity is limited to
7 plus or minus 2 individual items.

Long-term memory: The memory for past events that can last for the life-time of a person. Its
capacity is most probably unlimited

Key features of the MSM

1) Information flows through a number of storage systems in a linear fashion (in a line)
2) There are three main storage systems which are unitary (each a single unit)
3) Each store differs in terms of:
i) Coding – the form in which the information is stored
ii) Capacity – how much information can be stored
iii) Duration – how long information can be stored for

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 4) Information can remain in short-term memory by maintenance rehearsal, and
prolonged rehearsal (sometimes called elaborative rehearsal) will create a long term
memory.
5) The more information is rehearsed, the better it is remembered
6) Information can be lost from each store, but in different ways

Describing the MSM

When describing or outlining the MSM, you need

to include detail on the key features of the model
(see above) as well as information on coding,
capacity and duration of each store.

Here is an example of the kind of detail you would need for a 6 mark answer:

● The multi store model consists of three unitary stores; the sensory register, short term
memory (STM), and long term memory (LTM). Information flows through these stores in
a linear way.
● Information from the environment will pass into the sensory register along with other
sights, sounds, smells etc. The two main stores in the sensory register are echoic, which
is sound or auditory information and iconic which is visual information.
● Material in the sensory register only lasts very briefly, less than 3 seconds, but has a
high capacity.
● Information from the sensory register only passes through into STM if we pay attention
to it.
● STM has a limited capacity, 7 +/- 2 item, and information in STM has a duration of up to
30 seconds. If information is rehearsed it will be kept in STM, if not it will be lost.
Information is usually encoded acoustically in STM.
● Repeating information over and over again is called maintenance rehearsal. If we
rehearse the information for long enough it will pass to LTM and remain for a life time
although loss is possible. Encoding here is semantic, and the capacity is unlimited with
information lasting for a very long time.
● Although the information is stored in LTM when we want to recall it, it has to be
transferred back to STM by a process called retrieval.

Evaluation of the Multi-Store Model of Memory

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Supportin P – There is research that supports the separate
g Evidence stores identified in the Multi-store model.
(primacy-r
ecency E- Glanzer and Cunitz found that if participants
were allowed to immediately recall a list of one
syllable words they were asked to remember,
they could remember the words at the beginning
and the end of the lists, but not the words in the
effect)
middle. This is known as the primacy-recency
effect (first and last).

E- This supports the MSM in that the words at the beginning of the list are
rehearsed and therefore placed in LTM, but the words in the middle of the lists
are quickly displaced by rehearsing the first words. The words at the end of the
list are remembered because they are still fresh in STM.

L- These findings support the distinction of STM and LTM and the role of
rehearsal in passing information from STM to LTM.

Fails to P- The MSM can be criticised for failing to explain why in our day to day lives a
explain lot of information can transfer to LTM without prolonged rehearsal.
why
informatio E- Craik and Lockhart suggested that enduring memories are created by the
n can processing that you do, rather than through maintenance rehearsal, things that
transfer to are processed more deeply are more memorable just because of the way they
LTM are processed ‘Deep’ means doing more complicated things with the item to
without be remembered rather than just repeating it.

E- Craik and Tulving (1975) gave participants a list of nouns (e.g. shark) and
asked a question that involved shallow or deep processing – asked whether
rehearsal the word was printed in capital letters (shallow) or asked wither the word fitted
in a sentence (deep). The participants remembered more words in the task
involving deep processing rather than shallow processing.

L- This research contradicts the original claim that for memories to be

transferred into LTM, maintenance rehearsal (verbal repeating) is required.
Thus giving doubt to some of the assumptions of the multi-store model.

The STM P- There is evidence to suggest that both the STM store and the LTM store
and the should not be considered unitary stores.
LTM
should not E- In a case study, after a virus caused damage to the hippocampus, Clive
be Wearing had very little long term memory for events that had happened in his
considered life but could still remember skills such as playing piano, reading music and
writing in a diary.

E- This evidence challenges the idea that LTM is a unitary store.

a unitary
store.

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 L- It demonstrates that it may store and process episodic (memory for events)
and procedural (skills) long term memories differently. As a result, the tripartite
approach to describing LTM was introduced.

Features of each store: Capacity, Duration and encoding

Nature of The Sensory register

Research Supporting the capacity and duration of the Sensory register

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Sperling presented participants with a number of grids each containing three rows of four letters for
1/20th (50 milliseconds).

When asked to recall the whole grid Participants could only recall 4 or 5 letters HOWEVER many
claimed to have seen more. Sperling assumed this happened because, while all letters had entered the
SR they had faded before most of them could be reported. So Sperling tested this claim…

…This time he asked participants to recall only part of the information. He showed the 4x5 grid and
then asked them to recall 1 of the rows either top, middle or bottom. This time recall was very good and
suggested Iconic memory could hold 9 or 10 items.

Two main Conclusions…

Capacity - The fact that Participants did not know which line they would be asked to recall, yet had
much better recall than the original experiment suggests that all of the letters in the grid had been
available. Demonstrating the capacity of the sensory register is larger than 4/5 letters.

Duration – The time it takes to report the letters in 1 row is much quicker than reporting the whole grid,
therefore the issue of letters fading is avoided, thus recall is very good compared to recalling the full
grid. This suggests that while the capacity of the SR may be large the duration is very limited at
approximately 0.5 seconds.

Nature of Short term memory

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Nature of Long term memory

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Summary of the research into coding, capacity and duration

Sensory Register Short-term memory Long-term memory

Coding Separate Mainly Baddeley Mainly Baddeley

sensory stores N/A acoustic (by (1966): Semantic (1966):
for different sound) but immediate (by delayed
sensory inputs other codes recall meaning) recall
used too condition other codes condition
used too
Sperlin
Capacity Very large Small Jacobs Unlimited Konkle
g chunks of (1887) (2010)
(1960) information 96%
ACCURACY
(5 – 9 items
or 7+/-) OF 2192
SCENES.

Sperlin
Duration Brief (between Short Peterson Potentially Bahrick et
½ and 3 g (maximum and for a life al (1975)
seconds) (1960) of 30 Peterson time
varies seconds) (1959)
between
sensory stores

Look carefully. it might appear that you have loads of studies to learn for the
nature of memory, But there are only 6 studies – some can be used more than
once.

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Evaluation of the research

Laboratory Much of the research conducted uses the experimental method and therefore
environme means that extraneous variables are controlled. For example in Peterson and
nt Peterson’s study of duration of the STM, the distraction task meant that
participants were prevented from using techniques such as rehearsing the
trigram and therefore the variable of duration could be manipulated in order to
establish cause and effect. However critics have argued that the distraction of
counting backwards actually led to the trigrams being DISPLACED rather they
‘fading’. Therefore the scientific rigour of the laboratory method strengthens
claims made by the likes of Peterson but there is some scope for argument.

This point can be applied to a range of concepts: Baddeley, Sperling, Jacobs

ect.

Artificial The Highly artificial tasks that are used in memory experiments mean that we
nature of know very little about how memory operates in real life settings. For example
the trying to memorise strings of digits (Jacobs) or consonant syllables (Peterson
research and Peterson) does not reflect memory in everyday life. Although it must be
noted that we do occasionally try to remember fairly meaningless things such
as phone numbers or postcodes. This matters because the studies may lack
ecological validity and therefore make it very difficult to generalise the
conclusions to explain the complexity of memory in the real world, they simply
tell us how people recall digits, trigrams or word lists under very strict
laboratory conditions.
(For example March et al (1997) showed that if people were not expecting to
have to recall information, STM had a maximum duration of four seconds).

Practical A strength of research into the nature of memory is that it has positive real
application world benefits. Information about the capacity of STM is useful for teachers,
s students and anyone else who needs to know the cognitive limitations of
people. For example teachers can plan lessons in ways that reduce the amount
of new information that needs to be held in the STM and create tasks which
enabled students to transfer information into the LTM where the capacity is
much larger. Similarly simple initiatives such as the postcode system uses
Miller’s research of Chunking, whereby the limited capacity of the STM can be
increased if we group digits together. Therefore research is important as it has
led to techniques to improve the limits of the memory.

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 The Working Memory Model (WMM) - Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
After the development of the multi-store model, research questioned the existence of a single
STM store. Because we actively process information in STM, it is far too complex to suggest
that STM is just a temporary store for transferring information into LTM. Baddeley and Hitch
(1974) devised the ‘working memory model’ in an attempt to demonstrate what is happening
to information when we are consciously thinking about it. Cohen described the WMM as the
explanation of conscious thought happening ‘now’.

NB: Although LTM is shown here, it is not actually part of the working memory model.

The Central Executive

The function of the central executive is to direct attention to particular tasks, determining
how the brain’s resources are allocated to tasks. The CE attends and monitors incoming
information from the senses or LTM and this information is then sent to the other slave
systems for processing and temporary storage. The CE has very little capacity so it cannot
attend to too many things at once, and it has no capacity for storing data.

The Phonological Loop

The phonological loop has a limited capacity and its function is to store speech-based sounds
for brief periods. It has two components:
● The phonological store
Allows acoustically coded items to be stored for brief periods (someone talking, a
melody etc.) Hence its nickname - The Inner ear.
● The articulatory control process
Allows sub vocal repetitions of items in phonological store. This is similar to
maintenance rehearsal. Hence it’s nickname - the inner voice.

The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

The VSS processes and stores mental images in terms of what they look like and their place
in the visual field. It is independent from the phonological loop, and has a limited capacity.
It is used when people are planning a spatial task, like moving from one room to the next,
reaching for their cup of coffee etc. Hence it’s nickname – the inner eye.

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 The Episodic Buffer

Added in 2000, the episodic buffer is a general store that allows both sound and visual
information to be bound together.
It integrates information from the other systems and also offers a sense of time sequencing.
It records events (episodes) that are happening and sends information to LTM.
Like all the systems in working memory, it has a limited capacity.

Evaluation of the working memory model

Supporting P- There is evidence to support the limited capacity and separate nature of the
evidence: slave systems, demonstrated by research into dual-task performance.
Separate
existence of E- Gathercole and Baddeley (1993) found that participants had more difficulty
stores doing two visual tasks (simultaneously tracking a moving point of light and
describing the letter F) than doing both a visual and verbal task at the same time.

E-This increased difficulty is because both visual tasks compete for the same
slave system, whereas when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously, there
is no competition.

L- The evidence indicates that the VSSP and the PL are separate slave systems
but also demonstrates the limited capacity of the VSSP.

There is a lack P- The WMM can be criticised because there is a lack of clarity over the central
of clarity over executive and the exact role it plays in the model.
the central
executive E- Baddeley acknowledges this flaw in the model when he stated in 2003 “The
central executive is the most important but the least understood component of
working memory.”

E- Evidence to support this argument was conducted by Eslinger and Demasio

(1985. . They reported on the case study of EVR who had a cerebral tumour
removed. He performed well on tests of reasoning, which suggests that his
central executive was intact; however, he had poor decision-making skills, which
suggests that his central executive was not wholly intact.

L- This suggests that the original concept of the central executive needs to be
more clearly specified than just being simply ‘attention’ and that perhaps it may
consist of separate components.

Comparison to P- The WMM compares favourably to the MSM. It attempts to explain how
memory functions, as opposed to simply describing the structure of memory.

E- As a result of this, it has led to a greater understanding of cognitive

dysfunction e.g. ADHD and dyslexia which are thought to be linked with
MSM impairments of working memory.

E- Research has led to a number of methods being developed to help children

with ADHD focus on tasks e.g. use brief and simple instructions so they don’t
forget what they are doing (limited capacity of phonological loop).

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 L- The development of the working memory model has many tangible benefits
that clearly demonstrate the value of the model. In comparison, the practical
applications of the MSM are limited.

Types of Long-Term memory - Episodic, semantic and procedural

One of the major limitations of the MSM is that its description of LTM as a single unitary store
is now seen as outdated. Many research studies have shown that there are at least three
different types of long-term store

Episodic Memory:
● First suggested by Tulving (1972), it is the type of long-term
memory that gives individuals an autobiographical record of
things that have happened to them (our memories of our
experiences). In other words, it is the storage of episodes that
happen throughout our lives. Examples of episodic memories
are your 7th birthday party, your last holiday, what you did last
night, your first kiss etc.
● Think of episodic memories in terms of 3Ws, containing information about what
happened, where it happened, and when it happened. Individuals tend to see
themselves as actors in these events, and the emotional charge and the entire context
surrounding an event is usually part of the memory, not just the bare facts of the event
itself. Furthermore, having episodic memory allows us to make predictions about what
will happen to us in the future.
● That is not to suggest that episodic memories contain exact reproductions of what
happened. It is suggested that episodic memories are constructed, rather than
reproductive, and is prone to errors and illusions. The section on eye-witness testimony
will explore this further, but our episodic memories are subject to stereotyping,
subjective interpretation, missing out information or
adding in missing parts.

Semantic Memory:
● This is a structured record of facts, meanings, concepts
and knowledge about the external world that we have
acquired. It refers to general factual knowledge, shared
with others and independent of personal experience and of
the time and place in which it was acquired.
● Semantic memories may once have had a personal context, but now stand alone as
simple knowledge. It therefore includes such things as types of food, capital cities,
social customs, historical dates, functions of objects, vocabulary, understanding of
mathematics, etc.
● There is an enormous amount of information available in semantic memory, and is
continually being added to.
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Procedural Memory:
● This differs from the other two types of long-term memory,
as it tends to be unconscious, whereas the other two are
conscious. Procedural memory (“knowing how”) is the
unconscious memory of skills and how to do things,
particularly the use of objects or movements of the body, such as tying a shoelace,
playing a guitar or riding a bike.
● These memories are typically acquired through repetition and practice, and are
composed of automatic sensorimotor behaviours that are so deeply embedded that we
are no longer aware of them. Once learned, these "body memories" allow us to carry out
ordinary motor actions more or less automatically. A good example of this is learning
how to drive a car. Initially it is very difficult, but with repeated practice it becomes
‘second nature’.

Evaluation of the different types of Long-term memory

Supporting evidence There is evidence to suggest that when a person uses episodic
(biological memory, they use a different region in the brain compared with
evidence) when they use semantic memory. Tulving (1989) injected
himself, his wife and 4 others with particles of radioactive gold
that he could use to track brain blood flow in a scanner. He
scanned each person’s brain whilst they thought about historical
facts or childhood experiences. He found in 3/6 participants
(including himself), that when they were thinking about historical
facts blood flow increased at the back of his brain, whereas when
he thought about childhood experiences blood flow increased at
the front of his brain. The activation of the different areas of the
brain when recalling facts or episodes suggests a biological basis
to the different types of memory in LTM

Supporting In the case of Clive Wearing, as illness caused the near total
evidence destruction of his hippocampus. This left him with an inability to
(case studies) store new episodic or semantic information for any more than a
few seconds. However, he was perfectly able to read, write,
speak and play piano.

Other researchers investigated learning in people with

Huntingdon’s Disease (a progressive, degenerative disease of
the brain). They found that HD patients had no problems learning
new facts and knowledge, but had severe problems learning new
motor skills.

These findings give a strong indication that damage to specific

areas of the brain leave the patients with deficits in one or more

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 types of long term memory, whilst leaving other long-term
memory stores intact, this offers support for the biological basis
of separate long-term stores

Challenging research Critics challenge the need of distinguishing between types of

LTM. Cohen and Squire suggest that semantic and episodic
memory should be understood as the same type of memory,
called ‘declarative memory’, and research by Kan et al (2009)
found that there was interdependence between episodic and
semantic memory. Whether there are two or three types (or
more) of LTM may be important when attempting to help people
recover their cognitive functions after illnesses such as stokes.

(Counter point for extension: Being able to identify different

aspects of LTM has led to psychologists targeting specific kinds
of memory to make people’s lives better. Belleville et al (2006)
demonstrated that episodic memories could be improved with
training in older patients with mild cognitive impairment. This
shows that the tripartite division of long-term memory has had
tangible benefits for people with cognitive impairment, making it
a useful theory).

Explanations for Forgetting: Interference and Retrieval failure

Proactive and retroactive interference

Interference theory suggests that forgetting is due to information in LTM becoming confused with or
disrupted by other information during coding, leading to inaccurate recall. There are two types of
interference: proactive and retroactive

Proactive Interference

This involves memory impairment for something we have learned by other learning that had occurred
previously. In other words, old information interferes with the new information. Imagine that you had
already learned Spanish, and later learned French, then some of the Spanish would interfere with you
trying to speak French.

Jacoby et al (2001) argued that proactive interference occurs because of competition between the
strength of the old learning and the weakness of the new learning. If you try to use a new password for
an online transaction, the strength of an old password will interfere, and you lose the ability to recall the
new one. Perhaps a more damaging example is calling your new partner by your old partner’s name!

Retroactive interference

This involves the disruption to recall of previously learned material by the interference of newly learned
material (newer information interferes with older information). For example, the learning of a new car
registration number plate disrupts the recall of the old one.

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Evaluation of interference theories of forgetting

Supporting There is research to support the impact of old information interfering with new
evidence information. Underwood (1957) showed that participants, who were repeatedly
asked to learn series of word lists made far more errors as the number of lists
increased, compared with when they first began the study. As the participants
made more errors in the word lists shown at the end of the study, this
demonstrates how the old information (the first word lists) was interfering with
the newly learned information (the most recent list), which is what proactive
interference would predict.

Supporting Schmidt et al. (2000) collected a sample of 211 former students of a Dutch
elementary school and sent them a map of the surrounding area of the school.
The map had the street names removed and replaced with numbers from 1 –
48. Participants were asked to name as many as they could. The researchers
found that there was a positive association with how many times the
evidence
participants had moved outside the area, and the number of names forgotten.
The researchers concluded that learning new street names (when they moved
house) made recalling the old street names more difficult. This demonstrates
that retroactive interference plays a role in forgetting because the new
information interferes with the old information. It also shows that interference
is key in forgetting and not just the amount of time that has passed. This is
because increased forgetting was due to how many times they had moved not
how long along they moved out of the area.

Fails to explain The explanations are limited due to the focus on interference of very similar
types of information. For example how one list of words interferes with another
list however interference theories fail to explain how forgetting information,
skills or other information happens in the majority of real life settings, where
we are not juggling with similar material and yet still manage to forget a lot of
what we experience. Therefore the explanations may be able to tell us how
interference affects our memories in artificial situations, and of very similar
types of information, but they do not explain most cases of forgetting in
real-life.

Retrieval failure due to absence of cues

The reason that people forget information is because there are insufficient cues. When information is
placed in memory, their associated cues are stored at the same time. If these cues are not available at
the time of recall, then there is an appearance that the information has been forgotten. This theory
suggests that the information is still available for recall, but it cannot be accessed until the correct cues
are in place.

Tulving (1983) referred to what he called the Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP). This states that a
cue is going to help us remember information; it has to be present during encoding (when we learn the
information) and at retrieval (recall). If the cues at encoding and retrieval are different then some
forgetting will occur. For example, if you revise at college, you are more likely to retrieve the information
than you are if you revise at home, as the college will act as a cue for retrieval because the surroundings
were there during encoding.

Context dependent forgetting:

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This refers to external cues that are different when encoding information and when retrieving it. This is
illustrated in to example above (college vs home revision)

State-dependent forgetting:

This refers to internal cues (states of awareness) that are different during
encoding information and retrieving it. An example is encoding information while
under the influence of alcohol, only to forget it the next day.

Evaluation of Retrieval failure due to absence of cues

Supporting There is evidence supporting the role of context to explain why we forget.
evidence: context Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied deep water divers and the effects of
dependent context dependent memory. Participants had to learn lists of 36 words (two or
three syllables) either on land or underwater and then recall them either on
land or underwater. The percentage of accurate recall is shown for the 4
conditions below:
forgetting
Learn on land – recall on land (same Learn underwater – recall on land
context) (different context)
Recall accuracy = 37% Recall accuracy = 23%

Learn on land – recall underwater Learn underwater – recall

(different context) underwater (same context)
Recall accuracy = 24% Recall accuracy = 32%

The higher percentage recall in the matched environments support the

prediction that if the cues at encoding are the same as the cues at retrieval,
recall is more likely, and if they are different, recall is less likely. This supports
the concept of context dependent forgetting

Supporting There is evidence which highlights the impact of your internal state on
evidence: state learning and recall. when Carter and Cassaday (1998) gave anti-histamine
dependent (anti-allergy) drugs or a placebo (vitamin pills) to participants (students from
Nottingham University). Anti-histamines have a mild side-effect of causing
drowsiness and therefore altering the state of awareness for the participants.
Participants were asked to learn and recall information in four different
conditions.
forgetting
The results showed a marked decrease in accuracy of recall in a memory test
when the participants’ internal state did not match at the time of encoding
and retrieval, and an increased performance when the internal states did
match.

This supports the concept of state dependent forgetting, as when the internal
cues were different during encoding and retrieval, recall of a list of items was
worse, as predicted by the theory.

Ability to generalise Baddeley (1997) argued that these studies do not reflect real-life, and
therefore the strength of the explanations should be questioned.

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 He claimed that the contexts or states have to be very different to have an
effect and subtle changes of environment or internal states, that tend to be
the norm, will not have a strong effect.

We must not make exaggerated claims about cue dependent forgetting

based on evidence that alters both context and state in a dramatic way.

Applications In places where getting instructions correct is absolutely vital, such as

soldiers in novel environments, it is important to recognise that instructions
maybe more likely to be forgotten if issued back in the safety of the camp.

This would be true for many different people, such as deep water divers
repairing oilrigs, astronauts, medics etc. therefore care must be taken to
recognise this, and much practice in different scenarios required

The value of these explanations maybe that they are used to save the lives of
people in threatening and novel situations

Factors affecting the accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony (EWT)

Eye witness testimony is defined as an account or evidence provided by people who witnessed an
event, such as a crime, reported from their memory.

In appeals against conviction in the United States, DNA evidence has overturned over 200 cases and in
75% of these, eye-witness testimony was the main evidence against them. In a famous case, Cornelius
Dupree had spent 30 years in prison for rape because the victim incorrectly identified him as the
perpetrator. DNA evidence proved that he was innocent, and the conviction was quashed.

Many variables can influence the accuracy of eye-witness testimony. These include being presented
with misleading questions during police interviews, post-event discussion with other witnesses, and
the anxiety that people feel if they witness or are a victim of the crime.

Misleading information
Most cognitive psychologists agree that our memories for events are not precise copies of what
happened, as you might see if you were filming it. Instead, we only accurately retain fragments of the
information, and fill in the gaps. This reconstruction of events leads to inaccuracies in recall, which can
be compounded if we receive information after the event which distorts our original memory. For
eye-witnesses to an incident, a subtle change in the wording of a question can have dramatic effects on
what they recall, as is demonstrated by the findings of the study below

Key study: Loftus and Palmer 1974

Two experiments are reported in which subjects viewed films of automobile accidents and then
answered questions about events occurring in the films. In experiment 1, 45 university students were

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divided into 5 conditions. The question “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into
each other?” elicited higher estimates of speed than questions which used the verbs collided, bumped,
contacted, or hit in place of smashed. (see table 1 below).

Table 1: results for Loftus and Palmer (1974) leading question experiment:

Word Average speed estimates

Smashed 40.5 mph
Collided 39.3 mph
Bumped 38.1 mph
Hit 34.0 mph
Contacted 31.8 mph

In a second similar experiment, 150 different students were split into three conditions, one condition
were asked the question with ‘smashed’, the other condition were asked the question with ‘hit’ and the
other condition had no question (control). On a retest one week later, those subjects who received the
verb smashed were more likely to say “yes” to the question, “Did you see any broken glass?”, even
though broken glass was not present in the film (see table 2 below).

Table 2: results for Loftus and Palmer (1974) broken glass experiment

Response Smashed Hit Control

Yes 16 7 6
No 34 43 44

In both of these experiments, it can be seen the memory of the incident was changed due to the
leading question in the first experiment. These results get are consistent with the view that the
questions asked subsequent to an event can cause a reconstruction in one’s memory of that event.

Evaluation of misleading information effect on EWT

Validity P- There is an issue with the validity of Loftus and Palmer’s research.

E- A witness to a real-life car crash is likely to experience a greater emotional

response compared with watching one on film, which research has shown may affect
the memory of the witnesses in this study.

E- Other critics suggest that the participants may have worked out the aims of the
study, and on hearing the word ‘smashed’, gave the higher answer that they thought
the researcher was hoping to get (demand characteristics).

L- If either criticisms are correct, then the findings of these experiments tell us little
about real-life eye witness testimony.

Reliability P- The reliability of research in this area can be praised as many laboratory studies
have found similar findings when participants are faced with leading questions.

E- However one experiment found that leading questions did not change the accuracy
of the EWT when the misleading information was obviously incorrect.

E- Loftus (1979) showed participants slides that showed the theft of a large purse
from a handbag. 98% of the participants remembered the correct colour of the purse.
They were then asked to read an account of the incident that was allegedly written by
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 a professor of psychology. In this account, the professor stated that the purse was
brown, a false statement as the original colour was red. Only 2 participants changed
their answer to brown on a subsequent test, with most keeping to their original
identification of a red purse.

L- This means we cannot reliably conclude that all misleading information will have
the same effect in all circumstances. The testimony is unlikely to change if the
information they receive and the event they witnessed was obviously different.

Applicatio P- Research into misleading information has led to some important practical
applications.

E- For example, it has been used to train professionals e.g. the police not to use
ns leading questions when questioning witnesses. In addition, psychologists (in
conjunction with legal representatives) have also used research in this area to develop
the cognitive interview, designed to increase the accuracy of eye-witness testimony.

E- As a result, this has led to positive economic implications. It has helped to conserve
limited police resources and money by reducing the likelihood of police officers
obtaining inaccurate information about criminal suspects.

L- This demonstrates the importance and value of the research conducted into
misleading information and the positive impact it can have on obtaining accurate
witness testimonies.

Post-event discussion
Co-witnesses are likely to discuss the event with eye-witnesses and this could be a source of further
distortion. 58% of eye-witnesses had reported discussing the incident post-event with other witnesses
(Skagerburg and Wright, 2008)

Errors in eyewitness accounts can occur when a witness comes into contact with post-event
‘misinformation’. A common way to encounter misinformation is through face-to-face interaction, in
particular via conversation with other individuals who also witnessed the crime. The current research
compares this kind of misinformation with the non-social post event narrative method typically
employed in laboratory studies.

Key study: Gabbert et al, (2003)

Gabbert et al. (2003) investigated the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of
eyewitness testimony. Her sample consisted of 60 students from the University of Aberdeen
and 60 older adults recruited from a local community.

Procedure: Participants watched a video of a girl stealing

money from a wallet. The participants were either tested
individually (control group) or in pairs (co-witness group).

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The participants in the co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video,
however they had in fact seen different perspectives of the same crime and only one person
had actually witnessed the girl stealing.

Participants in the co-witness group discussed the crime together. All of the participants then
completed a questionnaire, testing their memory of the event.

Results: Gabbert et al. found that 71% of the witnesses in the co-witness group recalled
information they had not actually seen and 60% said that the girl was guilty, despite the fact
they had not seen her commit a crime.
These results highlight the issue of post-even discussion and the powerful effect this can have
on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Evaluation of post-event discussion

Validity The mundane realism of these research findings are under scrutiny due to the
controlled nature of the research. An eye-witness to a real crime who is then involved
in post-event discussion may not act in the same way as the participants under
laboratory conditions. For example, there might have been a conformity effect in this
research because they knew it was a study. Thus, the outcome of the participant’s
answers had no social impact and this meant no one would suffer as a result of their
testimony (go to prison). This might make them more likely to conform and recall
information they hadn’t seen, as there are no consequences for doing so. The lack of
validity in laboratory research suggests we must be cautious when making firm
conclusions about the role post-event discussion would play in real life testimonies.

Reliability A strength of the research into post-event discussion is the consistency of the
findings. There are many research studies that have found similar findings to Gabbert
et al. (2003).
For example, Gabbert et al (2007) found that participants receiving misinformation
after an event were less accurate at recalling the event than controls. Especially if this
information came from a social source (another person) compared to a non-social
source (written account). This means the research in this area has high reliability and
allows us to suggest with confidence that EWT can be distorted by post-event
discussion.

Applicatio Research into post-event discussion has many practical applications. For example,
police officers should advise witnesses not to discuss the case with any other
co-witness and will strive to interview the witnesses as soon as possible, to prevent
their testimony from being distorted by discussion with others. However, in the
ns aftermath of an incident, it would be natural for co-witnesses to discuss what they
have just seen. Thus, police officers are advised to take this into consideration when
later questioning them on events. This demonstrates the value of these research
findings and they can be used in many ways to improve the accuracy of testimonies.

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Anxiety

Eye-witnesses are often very anxious and stressed when witnessing a crime, especially if they are
victims themselves. This is because of the danger they perceive to be in, although there may be some
important individual difference to how people react to this anxiety. It is thought that the anxiety can be
a source of distortion for EWT.
Anxiety tends to be accompanied by physiological arousal
(e.g. pounding heart, rapid, shallow breathing) which has
been found to have an effect on performance. The
Yerkes-Dodson effect (as shown in the graph), is the
observation that arousal has a negative effect on
performance (such as memory recall) when it is very LOW
or very HIGH, but moderate levels are actually beneficial.
This is described as an inverted U-shape curve.

The Yerkes-Dodson effect can be used to explain errors

made by eyewitnesses, particularly when recalling a violent
crime. In such cases it is likely that the witness was in a high
state of arousal during the crime and therefore their performance in recalling details is affected
negatively.

Anxiety and The weapon focus effect

Loftus argues that anxiety is most problematic for later recall when a crime involves a weapon.
Research suggests that the anxiety of seeing a weapon focuses all of your attention of the central
details (the weapon itself) which means you are less able to recall the peripheral details such as what
else was going on, what the perpetrator looked like. This effect is therefore known as the Weapon
focus effect.

Evidence of the Weapon focus effect

Loftus (1979) reported the findings of Johnson and Scott’s 1976 study in which they created two
conditions where the participants were asked to sit in a waiting room. A receptionist who was seated
nearby excused herself to run an errand, leaving the participant alone. The experiment used
an independent groups design, as participants were then exposed to one of two conditions:
● either heard a hostile and aggressive argument by two people in a different room, followed by
one of them emerging holding a letter opener covered in blood,
● or they heard a harmless conversation between two people followed by one of them holding a
pen with grease on his hands.

Participants were asked to identify the culprit from photographs, with only 33% correctly identifying
the culprit in the letter opener condition, and 49% correctly identifying the culprit in the pen condition.

Loftus argued that the anxiety caused by seeing the letter opener caused the weapons focus which
lead to them not paying attention to other information, hence poor recall of the culprit.

Loftus et al (1987) asked participants to watch one of two sequences: a person pointing a gun at a
cashier and receiving some cash, and a person passing a cheque to the cashier and receiving some
cash. Loftus found that participants correctly identified details about the incident in the ‘cheque’
condition more than they did the ‘gun’ condition, again demonstrating the weapons focus effect

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Evaluation of the role of anxiety in EWT

Internal One criticism of the weapon focus effect is that the effect may not be caused by
anxiety. Critics have suggested that Loftus is testing surprise, and not anxiety. In
another study, Pickel (1998) showed a video of an incident in a hair-dressing salon,
in which the handheld item was either scissors, a wallet, a gun or a raw chicken. The
validity scissors were the low anxiety item, low unusualness as it was a hair salon.
Eyewitness accuracy was signficiantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions
(chicken and handgun). This suggests hat the weapon focus effect is due to
unusualness / surprise rather than anxiety/ threat and therefore tells us nothing
specifically about the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Reliability There are differences in the results between research conducted on real-life
and eye-witnesses and research conducted in a lab environment, showing that there is
artificiality of a lack of consistency in the research.
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) conducted research into a real-life crime. 13 people, who
had witnessed a shop keeper shooting a thief dead in Canada, were interviewed 5
months after the event. These interviews were compared with the original police
interviews immediately after the event. Participants were asked to rate how much
research anxiety they felt during the incident. Those who had reported high anxiety levels
reported the highest level of accuracy when recalling the incident five months later
(88% accuracy), compared with those who had reported a relatively low level of
anxiety (75% accuracy). This is in contrast to Loftus’s laboratory findings.

Extension of this point: Alternative explanations suggest that this can be explained
by the physiological arousal triggering the fight and flight response which actually
increases our alertness and improves our memory for the event because we
become more aware of cues in the situation.

Research into the effect of anxiety has had important real world applications.
Recognising the role of anxiety in EWT has meant the police proceed with extreme
caution when pursuing lines of enquiry. Today criminal investigations rarely rely on
Eye witness testimony’s alone and instead commonly look for alternative evidence,
Applications such as DNA sampling or CCTV footage that could be used to collaborate the
witness’s testimony before charging someone or making a conviction. Therefore
research into the effect of anxiety on EWT has had positive benefits for the
criminal justice system by reducing the chances of erroneously convicting the
wrong person.

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Improving the Accuracy of EWT

The use of the cognitive interview- Geiselman et al.

Before the advent of the Cognitive interview, police interviews would often be conducted in such a way
that it elicited false information, with witnesses unable to give accurate accounts of what happened.
That changed when Geisleman et al. argued that police interviews must take into account the
characteristics of human memory. These characteristics include:

● Memories are complex, and are made up from different types of memory
● Retrieval cues are important, and their absence can lead to inaccuracy
● Misleading information can distort recall

The four techniques used in cognitive interview are presented here.

Geisleman et al (1985) four instructions for CI How does this differ from
standard police interviews?
Recreate Ask the witness to try and picture the circumstances Police do not ask witness to
the context surrounding the crime. Next ask the witness to think recreate the context, instead
of the about, or visualise the scene. Ask what the scene just to free recall the events
original looked like, who was present or nearby, where the and then answer questions
incident furniture was, what the weather was like, how the
witness was feeling at the time or how they reacted
to the event
Tell the witness that some people withhold The police interview uses the
To report information because the feel it is irrelevant, but they repetition technique, where
every detail should try and tell the whole story, leaving nothing they repeat the questions
out. Here the interviewer must be extremely patient needed for the eyewitness
and allow the recall as the witness sees it testimony, often interrupting
the witness
To recall the Tell the witness that although it may not feel normal,
event in to try and tell the story in the reverse order, starting The police would ask for free
reverse at the end of the event or at a significant part of the recall, which would usually
order event. This should help stop witnesses recreating end up with a chronological
the event in relation to expectations or stereotypes account of events.
about what normally happens in crimes such as was
witnessed
Instruct the witness to recall the event from a The standard interview is
To change different physical perspective, from a location other more likely to focus only on
perspective than where he or she was during the event. What the witness’s point of view,
s might they have seen from across the street? What
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 did any of the other witnesses see? What would they asking questions about what
have heard? Again this is used to disrupt the they saw directly.
personal expectations of what usually happens in a
crime (as seen in films etc.)

Fisher et al (1987) added elements to CI. Called the enhanced cognitive interview (ECI) social
dynamics were taken into account, such as when to (or not to) establish eye-contact, ways to reduce
anxiety, minimising distractions, asking the witness to speak slowly and to ask open ended questions.

Evaluation of the use of Cognitive Interview

Supporting P- There is supporting evidence for the effectiveness of the cognitive

evidence interview.

E- For example, Kohnken et al (1999) carried out a meta-analysis of 53 studies

investigating the Enhanced Cognitive Interview (ECI), and found, on average, a 34%
increase in the amount of correct information generated compared with standard
police interviews.

E- Although, caution is required in drawing conclusions about the effectiveness of

the CI as most of these studies were carried out with volunteer participants in a
laboratory and not in a ‘real life’ setting.

L- Despite the limitations of the research, there remains support for the use of CI
over the current police interviewing standards.

Reliability of P- The research findings about the effectiveness of the CI are reliable.
research
E- Geisleman et al (1985) assessed whether the Cognitive Interview is more
effective than standard police interviews when interviewing eye-witnesses. They
showed police training videos to 89 students. About 48 hours later, the students
were interviewed individually by American Law enforcement officers (detectives,
CIA investigators and private investigators). The interviewers had either been
trained in standard police interviewing techniques or in the new Cognitive Interview
Schedule. Each interview was taped and analysed for accuracy of recall. The
results of the study can be seen in the table below

Cognitive Interview Standard interview

Correct items reported 41.5 29.4
Incorrect items reported 7.3 6.1

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 Made up (confabulated) 0.7 0.4
items

E- The findings from both Kohnken and Geiselman’s research studies demonstrate
consistent results and clearly show that accuracy of EWT is improved by the use of
cognitive interview.

L- As a result, it should be suggested that the CI procedures are used for all EWT in
the future.

Economic P- The use of the cognitive interview has some limitations.

Impact of the
cognitive E- It tends to take longer and requires more training than the standard interview.
interview Some critics also suggest that some of the procedures are more valuable than
others.

E- For example, Milne and Bull (2002) found that a combination of report
everything and context reinstatement produce the most effective reports, which
confirmed some of the police officers’ views that some aspects are better than
others.

L- Thus, the economic impact of using the CI must be considered. It may be more
viable to only use aspects of the CI so that time and resources are not being used
without good reason to do so.

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Design a study exam question

Previous research has shown that various factors can affect the accuracy of eyewitness
testimony. One of these factors is misleading information in the form of leading questions.

Design an experiment to find out if the use of leading questions can affect the accuracy of an
eyewitness’s recall of an event.

In your answer you will be awarded credit for providing appropriate details of:

● An operationalised hypothesis
● Experimental design used with justification
● Materials used
● Ethical issues that have been considered

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 Practice short answer exam questions

1. Outline what psychological research has shown about short-term memory according to the
multi-store model of memory. (4 marks)

2. Read the item and then answer the questions that follow.

A researcher investigating the multi-store model of memory tested short-term memory by

reading out loud sequences of numbers that participants then had to repeat aloud immediately
after presentation. The first sequence was made up of three numbers: for example, 8, 5, 2.
Each participant was tested several times, and each time the length of the sequence was
increased by adding another number.

Use your knowledge of the multi-store model of memory to explain the purpose of this research
and the likely outcome. (4 marks)

3. Research has suggested that the encoding and capacity of short-term memory are different
from the encoding and capacity of long-term memory. Explain what is meant by coding. (2 marks)

4. Briefly evaluate the multi-store model of memory (4 marks)

5.
Annie can still skateboard even though she hasn’t skated for many years. Germaine can still
recall what happened on his first day at university even though it was ages ago. Billy
remembers the names of the tools he needs to repair the broken tap.
Identify three types of long-term memory and explain how each type is shown in one of the
examples above. (6 marks)

6. Give one example of a semantic memory and one example of an episodic memory. Briefly
explain one difference between these types of long-term memory. (3 marks)

7. Briefly describe the working memory model (4 marks)

8.
Claire can search through family photos on her laptop and listen to music at the same time.
However, she finds it difficult to read her e-mails when talking to a friend on the phone.
Use your knowledge of the working memory model to explain why Claire is able to perform the
first two tasks at the same time, but finds it difficult to perform the second two tasks at the same
time. (4 marks)

9.
A researcher carried out an experiment to investigate misleading information. Participants
were shown a photograph in which a man and a woman were talking. The photograph was
then taken away and the participants were asked questions about it. Participants were
randomly allocated to condition one or condition two. Participants in condition one were
asked: Question A “How old was the youth in the photograph?” Participants in condition
two were asked: Question B “How old was the man in the photograph?”

(a) Why is Question A an example of misleading information? (2)

(b) Name an appropriate experimental design which could be used in this experiment. Explain why
a repeated measures design would be unsuitable to use in this experiment. (4)
(c) Explain why it would be appropriate to use a pilot study as part of this experiment. (4)
(d) In this experiment, participants were asked to look at a photograph rather than watch a live
conversation. Explain one strength and one limitation of carrying out the experiment in this way.
(4)
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10. (a) In the context of explanations of forgetting, what is meant by interference? (2)
(b) Choose one study in which the effects of interference were investigated. Briefly outline what
the participants had to do in the study. (2)
(c) Briefly discuss one limitation of interference as an explanation of forgetting. (3) (Total 7
marks)

11. Outline one study that has investigated the effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony. (4
marks)

Essay planning

“Outline and evaluate the Working Memory Model” (16 marks)

Outline (AO1)

Part a) Draw the model

Part b) describe the function of each component

Part c) Other information about capacity and relationships between each component

Evaluation (AO3)

Supporting evidence Challenging evidence Further evaluation

P: There are numerous studies P: However, there is a lack of clarity P: The WMM is considered a better
which support the existence of over the central executive. explanation than the MSM.
each store in the WMM.
E: Gathercole and Baddeley (1993) E = Explain/Evidence: E = Explain: This is because…….
found….

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 SW: This indicates that…… SW: SW: A greater understanding of
cognitive dysfunction has led to
many practical applications for
children with dyslexia and ADHD.
………….

SSW: There is also other evidence

that supports the existence of the
stores is, Trojani and Grossi who
found ……………

This shows us that……….

Outline and evaluate the role of proactive and retroactive interference in forgetting (16 marks)

Outline – Proactive interference Outline - Retroactive interference

Evaluation – supporting evidence Evaluation – supporting evidence

Underwood 1957 Schmidt et al (200)

Evaluation - Further supporting evidence for the role of interference over time – Baddeley and Hitch
(1977)

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Evaluation - The explanations fails to explain

Evaluation – Practical applications for students – including finding from McGeoch and McDonald (1931)
on the role of similarity and interference

Other practice essay questions

1. Describe and evaluate the multi-store model of memory. Refer to evidence in your answer. (16
marks)

2.
A woman is being questioned by a police officer about a heated argument she witnessed on
an evening out with friends. The argument took place in a bar and ended with a violent
assault. A knife was discovered later by police in the car park of the bar.

‘Did you see the knife the attacker was holding?’, asked the police officer.

‘I’m not sure there was a knife – yes, there probably was,’ replied the woman. ‘I was so scared
at the time that it’s hard to remember, and my friends and I have talked about what
happened so many times since that I’m almost not sure what I did see.’

Discuss research into two or more factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
Refer to the information above in your answer. (16 marks)

3. Outline and evaluate research into the effects of leading questions on the accuracy of
eyewitness testimony. (8 marks)

4. Some psychologists argue that there is always more information about an event in a person’s
memory than can be recalled at any one time. This means that eye-witness recall can be
improved by using certain techniques and methods.
Describe and evaluate at least one way of improving eye-witness recall. Refer to evidence in your
answer. (16 marks)

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5. Discuss the types of long term memory (8 marks)

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