Memory

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Sensory register:
-

Coded depending on the sense that has picked it up

Short-Term Memory:
-

Limited capacity (7+/-2 items)

Acoustically coded

Long-Term Memory:
-

Unlimited capacity
Semantically coded
Episodic memory: information about events
Semantic memory: information about facts and knowledge
Procedural memory: knowledge about how to do things

Multi-Store Model:

Sensor
y
register

Echoi
Iconic
Other

ShortTerm
Memor
y

Rehearsal
Prolonged
Rehearsal

LongTerm
Memor
y

Maintenance
Rehearsal
Response

Working Memory Model:

Central
executive

Phonological
Loop

Visio-spatial
sketchpad

Episodic buffer

Speech-based
information

Temporary
storage of
visual and
spatial
information

Stores information
from other subsystems and
integrates it
together along
with information
from LTM

Forgetting:

In the STM
o Lack of availability due to limited capacity and limited duration
o The information may have been pushed out (displaced) or faded
away (decay)
In the LTM
o Lack of accessibility: information is stored but hard to retrieve
o Confusion due to interference

Interference:
-

Retroactive interference: new information interferes with old information

Proactive interference: old information interferes with new information

Recall:
-

Being
cue.
o
o
o

able to recall a piece of information depends on getting the right

The information still exists but cant be accessed
Internal cue: mood
External cue: context (surroundings, situations,)

Eyewitness Testimony:
-

Leading questions
Post-event discussion

The effects of anxiety:

-

Negative effect on recall: prevents us from paying attention to important

cues
Knife experiment
Positive effect on recall: fight-or-flight response is triggered which
increases our alertness and improves our memory for the event because
we become more aware of cues in the situation
Gunshot experiment: recall right after and after 5 months was the same

The cognitive interview:

-

Techniques used by the police when interviewing witnesses

1) Report everything
2) Reinstate the context
3) Reverse the order
4) Change perspective
Evaluation

Time-consuming
A combination of report everything with reinstate the context produced
better recall than any of the other conditions (not all have equal value).