Schema Theory + Dual Process Model
What are schemas and how do they help us?
mental representations that are derived from prior experience and knowledge; used to organize our knowledge, to assist recall, to guide our behaviour, and to help us to make sense of current experiences.
Name one case study that supports the arguments of the MSM
HM Milner (HM, anterograde amnesia, no transfer of memory to LTM)
List the hypothesized components of working memory (4 components)
The central executive, the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, the episodic buffer
What is the term that describes the tendency for post-event information to interfere with the memory of the original event?
Misinformation effect
Name one cognitive bias in thinking and decision making
Any of: anchoring bias, peak-end rule, framing effect
Name one study pertaining to schemas and explain what it demonstrates about schemas (clue: office study)
Brewer and Treyens; to study the role of schema in the encoding and retrieval of memory; participants more likely to remember items in the office that were congruent with their schema of an office + tended to change the nature of the objects to match their schema
List the assumptions made by the MSM (minimum 2, 3 total)
memory consists of a number of separate locations in which information is stored; memory processes are sequential; memory store operates in a single, uniform way
Explain how the phonological loop functions in WMM
Phonological loop, aka verbal STM, component one is articulatory control system (inner voice) hold information in a verbal form, component two is phonological store (inner ear) holds auditory memory traces
What does reconstructive memory mean?
our minds actively recreate an event depending on the completeness of the script used to narrate and the degree to which details adhere, individuals are prone to omit and inadvertently alter details to conform with the script
What is anchoring bias? Name the appropriate study
tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions; Strack and Mussweiler (1997)
Name one study pertaining to schemas and state the purpose and results (clue: story-telling study)
Bartlett (1932); to investigate how the memory of a story is affected by schemas; results: the story became more consistent with the participants’ own cultural schemas & participants changed the order of the story in order to make sense of it, added details and emotion
Name a study pertaining to MSM and state the result
Glanzar and Cunitz; the ability to recall words at the beginning of the list because they had already been transferred to long-term memory is called the primacy effect. The ability to recall words that have just been spoken because they are still in short-term memory is called the recency effect
Name the main study investigating WMM and explain the results
Landry and Bartling; results support the prediction of the Working Memory Model that disruption of the phonological loop through the use of articulatory suppression results in less accurate working memory; articulatory suppression is preventing rehearsal in the phonological loop because of overload.
Which study supports the counterargument for reconstructive memory? (clue: thief, gun shop, stealing)
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) - eyewitnesses were actually very reliable /recalled a large amount of confirmed accurate detail
Define a flashbulb memory
a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid "snapshot" of the moment when a surprising and emotionally arousing event happened
List some characteristics of System 1 and System 2 thinking separately (minimum 2 each)
System 1: context-dependent, concerns everyday thinking, not logic-based, prone to error, operates automatically, quick with little effort
System 2: abstract, conscious reasoning, logical and reliable, slow and requiring effort, slow & conscious
around seven items (7+/-2) and its duration is normally about 6–18 seconds
Name one case study pertaining to brain damage and WMM
Warrington and Shallice (1970) (patient KF - motorcycle accident, longitudinal)
Name the major study pertaining to reconstructive memory, outlining its aim and results
Loftus and Palmer; to investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect an eyewitness's estimation of speed; when the different verbs are used, they activate schemas that have a different sense of meaning, stronger the connotations of the verb, higher the estimate of speed
Tversky & Kahnemann; where information was phrased positively, (the number of people who would be saved) people took the certain outcome, when the information was phrased in terms of people dying (a negative frame) people avoided the certain loss option
Strengths: there is some biological evidence, Wason selection task is fairly reliable
Limitations: model can be overly reductionist, definitions of the two systems not always clear
Briefly evaluate Multi-Store Memory Model (minimum 2 per)
Strengths: lots of research to support both bio and cogn., of historical importance, presents good account of basic mechanisms in memory process (encoding, storage, retrieval)
Limitations: over-simplified, does not explain memory distortion, does not explain vivid memory, sometimes memory is not transferred to LTM despite rehearsal
Briefly evaluate Working Memory Model (minimum 2 per)
Strengths: supported by experimental evidence, brain scans show different brain activities during visual vs. verbal tasks, abundant case studies, explains ability to multitask
Limitations: role of central executive is unclear, interactions BETWEEN the components unclear, model does not explain memory distortion or role of emotion in memory formation
Briefly evaluate Loftus and Palmer (2 strengths + 2 limitations)
Strength: control of confounding variables, established cause and effect relationship between IV and DV
Limitations: low ecological validity, young students are not representative of entire population, results can not be generalized to for ex. experienced drivers, video may be traumatic to participants that may have experienced car crashes, low external validity
Name the major study that investigated flashbulb memory and outline the results (clue: assassination of John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King)
Brown & Kulik; the link between personal importance and the event is important in the creation of a flashbulb memory