Memory Models and Influences: An Examination

Categories: MemoryPsychology

Flashbulb Memories are when people have a particularly strong and often-detailed memory of where they were and what they were doing when a specific event took place. This occasion might be a popular event in the paper such as when Princess Diana died or it might be more individual event, which is memorable to that specific individual such as their big day or the death of a relative.

Repression is the principle, which was presented by Freud who suggested that we forget, since there is excellent anxiety related to specific memories, which is too terrific to deal with.

When this holds true we might utilize the unconscious defense system of Repression to push out memories into the unconscious. These memories continue to exist however out of the conscious memory. For example memories of been abused as a kid may be to disturbing for an individual to handle and might be out of conscious recall.

Bartlett (1932) argued that Reconstructive Memory is when we save memories in terms of our previous understanding and experience (schemas).

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A schema is a method of summarizing events, which allows us to anticipate what will take place in certain situations. For example if you were asked what your schema of 'getting on the bus' involved you would probably include: Getting on the bus; specifying your destination; paying the fare and lastly sitting down. 2. Detail two aspects that may influence the precision of Eyewitness Testament (3 +3) The two factors that could affect the precision of eyewitness statement are, leading concerns and face acknowledgment.

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Loftus et al has actually recommended that the accuracy of the recall by a person can be affected by asking leading concerns, which imply that a particular response is expected can significantly impact a persons testament. Loftus and Zanni (1975) showed individuals had a movie of a car mishap. They found that more participants recalled (improperly) seeing a damaged headlight if they were asked 'did you see the broken headlight' than 'did you see a broken headlight'. It can be concluded that leading concerns not just affect recall of product, however also can in fact change details that has actually previously been saved in the memory.

Face recognition is when witnesses are called upon to describe some of the people involved in these events. Shapiro and Penrod (1986) found that subjects asked to make judgments about a face rather than just looking at it showed more accurate recall later on. Research shows that more familiar and distinctive faces are remembered better after long delays. Davis and Jenkins found that t5he accuracy of face recognition id significantly reduced if subjects are shown composite photo-fit pictures of other faces beforehand. Gorenstein and Ellsworth (1980) found that witnesses are more likely to identify (correctly of otherwise) a person from a line up if they had appeared in mug shots the witness had searched beforehand. It can be concluded that the witness of an event would have to have a good look at the criminal to remember the distinctive features, because if there is any incorrect information then the wrong person may be falsely accused.

3. The Multi-Store model proposed by Atkinson and Shriffrin has been very influential, but it has also been criticised for its over simplicity and lack of flexibility. To what extent does psychological research support the Multi-Store model as an adequate explanation of human memory? (18) There is additional research that shows that there are two main lines of evidence that support the models assumptions about the way information flows through the system and the existence of STM and LTM. These are the Free Recall Experiments and the studies of brain damaged patients.

In the Free Recall experiments, participants are given a number of words to remember to test whether they can recall them accurately. The results usually fall into a pattern known as the serial position curve. This curve consists of a primary effect, which means that the participants tend to recall the words of the list well, which indicates that this involved recall from long-term memory. An Asymptote which indicates that middle portion items of the list are remembered far less well than those at the beginning and at the end, and a regency effect which means that participants recall items from the end of the list and are more likely to get these right that all the earlier items.

Further evidence for the primary and regency effect comes from the findings that slower rates of representation can improve the primacy effect possibly due to the increase in rehearsal time, but this has little or no effect on the regency effect. The regency effect disappears if the last words are not recalled straight away and this is supported Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) research, which involved giving subjects an interference task immediately after the last word of the list and found a primary but no regency effect.

The studies of brain damaged patients included cases of anterograde amnesia such as H.M (Milner et al, 1978) or Clive Wearing provide strong evidence for the distinction between STM and LTM. Anterograde amnesia is often caused by brain damage to the hippocampus and those suffering from it are incapable of transferring new information between STM and LTM. They attract in a world of experience that only lasts as long as their STM does.

They often retain a large amount of LTM for events up until the point of brain damage and maintain their procedural memories. Despite the fact that they are incapable of gaining new long-term declarative memory for semantic or episodic information, most are able to learn new procedural skills. Research by Baddely and Warrington (1970) shows that if these people are given free recall experiments they show good recency effects, but poor primacy effects. This research provides support for the Atkinson and Shiffrin Model of Memory and proves that to a certain extent it is a reliable model. However there are many criticisms of this model, which cause it to become a less accurate in terms of explaining human memory and the way information passes through the stores.

Updated: Nov 30, 2023
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Memory Models and Influences: An Examination. (2017, Sep 13). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/reconstructive-memory-essay

Memory Models and Influences: An Examination essay
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