Psychology Revision Video Notes

Introduction

• The video summarizes key points from memory videos.
• Longer, detailed videos available for full explanations.
• PsychBoost app available for A-Level Psychology revision with flashcards.
• Additional resources on Patreon.

Multistore Model of Memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)

• Sensory Register
  • Receives raw sense impressions
  • Large capacity, very short duration (250ms)
  • Modality-specific coding
  • Attention transfers information to short-term memory
• Short-Term Memory (STM)
  • Info from sensory register/long-term memory through attention/retrieval
  • Coding is acoustic
  • Duration: ~18 seconds
  • Capacity: 7 ± 2 items (Miller)
  • Information lost via displacement/decay
• Long-Term Memory (LTM)
  • Permanent storage, theoretically unlimited capacity
  • Coded semantically
  • Information transferred back to STM for use
  • Separate from STM (Glasner & Kunitz)

Capacity and Duration Studies

• Sensory Register
  • Spierling: recall of a 12-letter grid was 75% for a row
  • Large capacity, short duration
• STM Coding
  • Baddeley: immediate recall worse for acoustically similar words
• STM Capacity
  • Jacobs: average recall 7 letters, 9 numbers
  • Can be improved by chunking
• STM Duration
  • Peterson & Peterson: less than 10% recall after 18 seconds
• LTM Capacity
  • Wagner: 75% recall after 1 year, 45% after 5 years for diary events
• LTM Duration
  • Bairack: 90% recall after 15 years, 80% after 48 years for friends' names

Critiques of Multistore Model

• Often artificial, low ecological validity
• Different types of LTM exist
• Capacity of STM can be altered by age/practice

Types of Long-Term Memory

• Episodic Memory
  • Time-stamped, autobiographical, influenced by emotions
  • Declarative, conscious recall
• Semantic Memory
  • Facts and knowledge
  • Not time-stamped, lasts longer than episodic
  • Declarative, conscious recall
• Procedural Memory
  • Skills, not consciously recalled, resistant to forgetting

Working Memory Model (Baddeley & Hitch)

• Central Executive
  • Controls attention, limited capacity
• Phonological Loop
  • Processes sound information
  • Contains primary acoustic store and articulatory process
• Visuospatial Sketchpad
  • Processes visual/spatial information
  • Contains visual cache and inner scribe
• Episodic Buffer
  • Combines information from other stores and LTM

Interference Theory

• Proactive Interference
  • Old information disrupts new
• Retroactive Interference
  • New information disrupts old
• Information similarity increases interference

Retrieval Failure

• Cue-Dependent Forgetting
  • Absence of cues leads to forgetting
  • Encoding Specificity Principle
  • Context-dependent and state-dependent cues

Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony

• Leading Questions and Post-Event Discussion
  • Can alter witness recollection
• Anxiety
  • Can either decrease or increase recall accuracy
  • Yerkes-Dodson Law: optimal anxiety level for recall

Cognitive Interview

• Techniques to improve eyewitness testimony accuracy
  • Context reinstatement, report everything, changed perspective
  • Reverse order recall
• Evaluations highlight increased information recall but also increased errors

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• Additional resources available in the PsychBoost app and on Patreon.
• Thanks to supporters and patrons. Good luck with revision!