Memory Trivia Quiz

Answer: Atkinson and Shriffin

Atkinson and Shriffin developed this model, describing memory as a fixed, linear process of stores - from our sensory memory, to our short-term memory, to our long-term memory.

Answer: 5 to 9 items

Miller suggested that short-term memory could hold 9 items (or seven plus or minus two), suggesting that if chunking were used, these items could be words, and not just letters. Chunking is a strategy to help improve the capacity of short-term memory by grouping singular letters or numbers. For example 1234567890 could become 12 34 56 78 90.

Answer: It acts as an 'allocator of resources' and deals with the problem-solving and reasoning tasks

Baddeley and Hitch created this model on the principle that the short-term memory can be split up into components that work simultaneously. The Central Executive sends information to other components in this model, and is key to this model. This model conflicts with Atkinson and Shriffin's Multi-Store Model, which suggests that the memory is split into compartments that work separately.

Answer: Episodic Buffer

The Episodic Buffer is a general store that holds information that does not fit into the other components, and holds extra space for both visual and acoustic information. This store was added after the Working Memory Model was first suggested by Baddeley.

Answer: The stronger the word, the more influence it had on eyewitnesses' perception

Loftus and Palmer suggested that the stronger the word used by police, the more dramatically the event would be remembered. Because the police need to know exactly what happened during a crime, even the words that they use to ask questions to eyewitnesses could affect what they say they saw, leading to misleading information.

In a study, they asked participants to view a clip of a car accident. They split them into two groups. Group 1 was asked how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other. Group 2 was asked how fast were the cars going when they hit each other. A week later, the participants were asked if there was any glass. They found that the word 'smashed' had a bigger impact on the participants' perceptions, and participants who heard that word were more likely to say there was glass because it is a stronger word. However, the word 'hit' had less of an impact on perceptions and that group was less likely to say there were broken glass.

Answer: The Weapon Focus Effect

Loftus (1979) asked participants to wait outside a laboratory, where they overheard what they believed to be a real incident. Half of the participants heard a friendly argument and saw a man come out with a greasy hand holding a pen. The other half heard a hostile argument and the sound of furniture breaking. They then saw a man come out with a bloody hand carrying a knife. Participants were asked to identify the man out of 50 photos. They found that those who overheard the more peaceful argument had better accuracy than those who heard the hostile argument.

Loftus believed it was because the anxiety of seeing a weapon (i.e. the bloody knife) narrowed the focus of the participants and took the attention away from the face.

Answer: Recalling the event from a changed point of view

The other parts of the cognitive interview are:
'recall everything'
'recall in reverse order'
and 'context reinstatement'.

Certain members of the police are trained to use the cognitive interview when questioning a witness to a crime.

Answer: A set of phrases built by the first letters of a sentence or phrase

Acrostics, acronyms and chunking are all verbal mnemonics, and all ways to improve our memory using rehearsal. For example, acrostics are used to help children remember the order of colours in a rainbow (ROYGBIV).

Answer: Semantic encoding

Encoding is the way information is changed before it can be stored. In long-term memory, semantic encoding happens. It is debated whether visual encoding also occurs in both the short-term and long-term memory. When we need to recall something from our long-term memory, the item is transferred to the short-term memory, and then recalled.

Answer: The process of memory

Craik and Tulving (1975) tested the process of memory by giving participants a list of words and a question with each word. For example, some asked whether the word was in capital letters (testing shallow processing), some asked whether the word rhymed with another word (testing phonemic processing), and some asked whether the word meant something or was a type of something (testing semantic processing).

They found that the most remembered words used semantic processing, and the words least remembered used shallow processing.