Memory II

Modified: 2026-03-24 4:00 PM CDST

Encoding specifity and eyewitness memory are examples of memory that have stood the test of time. Both, however, are not yet fully explained.

Chapter 10 Memory: Beyond Tulving and Thomson's (1973) Encoding Specificity Principle--James S. Nairne

• Background to the Classic Study
  • Endel Tulving
  • Encoding Specificity Principle
  • Appropriate memory cues
    • Tulving: memory best regarded as a "joint product of information stored in the past and information present in the immediate cognitive environment of the rememberer"
    • Tulving and Pearlston (1966):
      • Cued recall higher than non-cued
      • Cuing had no effect proportion of words recalled within recalled categories
    • Radical idea: effectiveness of any retrieval cue is entirely dependent on what has been stored
• Detailed Description of the Classic Study
  • The Effectiveness of Extra-List Cues
    • Non-seen category name during encoding, nevertheless, category names later facilitated recall
    • Generate-Retrieval see retrieval as a search process
      • Helps generate a narrower search process
        • Recognition easier than recall
        • Recognition requires only one process (did item occur before?)
        • Recall requires two processes (access it first, recognition that it was in the experiment)
  • Recognition Failure of Recallable Words
    • Recognition-Failure Paradigm
      • Present target words in context of experiment
      • Recognize target words outside of experiment context
      • Recall target words in study context
      • RESULT:
        • Recall better in study context
        • Strong extralist cues did not facilitate recall (15%)
        • Strong extralist free associates also did not facilitate recall (30%)
        • Six free associates recognized from original target words, also poor (24%)
        • Cues and target words (63%)
      • FINDINGS:
        • Strong extralist cue is poor when target studied in unique context
        • Generating associates after does not improve recall
        • Weak associates were better for memory than target itself
  • The Encoding Specificity Principle
    • Effectiveness of cue depends on study conditions
    • Remembering is always the product of the past and present cognitive environment
    • Cues will facilitate recall if and only if their information is established at the time of encoding
    • In other words, the cue occurred in a specific temporal-spatial context
    • Tulving and Thompson use the relative failure of permanent cues (chair-table) compared to test cues (glue-table) as evidence for separate episodic records
• Impact of the Classic Study
  • Recognition-Failure is still a core memory phenomenon
  • Generate-Recognition models revised
  • Generation process dependent on recent episodic experiences
  • Electrophysiology: neural signatures of recognized recalls differ from those of recognition failures
• Critique of the Classic Study
  • Godden and Baddeley (1975) deep sea divers
    • Performance better when encoding and retrieval matched
  • Neuroimaging:
    • Animals "memory" usually linked to a ''fear" response
    • Humans: matching neural activations produced better retention
• Elaboration
  • Episodic retention is a function of elaboration
  • Successful retrieval is related to overlap between encoding and testing
  • Research suggested that 'spread of encoding' better explained results than 'depth of encoding'
  • Difficult to study:
    • Hard to measure
    • Circular reasoning
    • More elaboration leads to lower target accessibility
• The Encoding-Retrieval Match
  • Relative match is more important than absolute match
  • Brightness is good example (p. 147)
• Conclusions
  • Tulving and Thomson (1973) is a landmark paper
  • Challenges remain:
    • Cue generation
      • What constitutes a 'match'
      • Little conscious recollection
    • Reconstructive nature of remembering
      • Memory is complex and includes: reconstructions, additions, and deletions
      • Autobiographical memories depend on: cultural scripts and norms
      • Autobiographical memories are unique
      • Memories function to promote adaptive behavior in future
• Afterthought: Comment from Endel Tulving
  • Tulving-Wiseman function works for names of famous people and names of cities

Chapter 11 Memory: Beyond Loftus and Palmer's (1974) Misinformation Effect--Coral Dando

• Background to the Classic Study
  • Elizabeth Loftus
  • Eyewitness Memory
  • Episodic Retrieval Mode:
    • Cognitively demanding
    • Subjective sense of time
    • Being the eyewitness
    • Autonoetic consciousness
    • Searching--what, where, when
  • Errors can have serious consequences
  • Foils in line up arrays
  • DNA and eyewitness memory
  • Pre-1974
    • Questioning centered on--truthfulness, intelligence, and general competence of witnesses
    • Errors were poorly understood
    • Importance of retrieval cues not yet realized
    • Interrogation practices caused errors
• Loftus and Palmer (1974):
  • Ground breaking research
  • Led to changes in:
    • Handling of eyewitnesses
    • Understanding crime
    • Realizing the fragility of eyewitnesses's memories
    • The established interrogation procedures
• Today
  • New Directions in Eyewitness Evidence
    • Reviews national changes in the handling of eyewitnesses and their testimony
• Detailed Description of the Classic Study
  • Two experiments investigated eyewitness accounts of filmed traffic accidents
    • Experiment 1
      • Participants watched seven films (from 5 to 30 sec showing automobile accidents
      • They completed questionnaires after each film
      • Films shown in counterbalanced fashion
      • Critical question varied one word: hit, collided, smashed, bumped, contacted
      • The dependent variable was estimated speed at time of accident
      • The word smashed affected participants the most yielding the highest speed estimates
    • Experiment 2
      • 150 participants
      • Viewed a multiple car accident film lasting less than a minute
      • Completed a questionnaire
      • Groups with words smashed or hit reported seeing broken glass (no broken glass in the film) when asked one week later
      • But smashed groups responses were statistically significantly higher than the hit group
• Impact of the Classic Study
  • Eyewitness memory is a large area in the study of memory
  • Results similar to Bartlett's ideas
  • Eyewitness performance is impacted by:
    • retrieval process
    • retrieval context
    • post-event information
    • leading questions
  • Changed how police and others approach and question eyewitnesses
• Critique of the Classic Study
  • Replications have failed or only partly confirmed Loftus and Palmer (1974)
  • Why?
    • Ecological validity
    • Statistical analyses (no reported post-hoc analyses)
    • Personal experiences in driving and being in a vehicle accident
    • Misattribution
    • Framing
    • Linguistic or Response biases
    • Multiple questionnaires
    • Retrieval inhibition
    • Relative decision making
  • Nevertheless, such issues above should not diminish the effect that Loftus and Palmer's (1974) article had on the psychology of memory
• Conclusions
• Highly influential
  • Post-encoding experiences matter
  • Effects on forensic psychology
  • Effects of social situational demands on memory
• Afterthought: Comment from Elizabeth Loftus
  • Switched research focus from semantic to episodic memories
  • Decided to investigate the questioning process
  • Lucked into films of accidents
  • Showed that leading questions could distort memory
  • Leading questions not the only source of disinformation, also:
    • Exposure to misleading conversations
    • Misleading media coverage
    • Other forms of biased information (remember, there was no social media in 1974)

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