1. Multistore memory model Flashcards
(32 cards)
1
Q
What is a memory model?
A
A representation of memory to help our understanding of memory
2
Q
Who was the MSM created by?
A
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) (A&S)
3
Q
How many stores are their in the MSM and what are they?
A
3:
- Sensory Memory (SM)
- Short Term Memory (STM)
- Long Term Memory (LTM)
4
Q
How do these memory stores differ?
A
- Capacity
- Duration
- Coding
5
Q
According to A&S, how do memories enter into LTM?
A
Info passes through a number of stores to be transferred to LTM
6
Q
Coding of SM
A
- Memories encoded in form appropriate to the sense
7
Q
Capacity of SM
A
- Very high capacity
- Because all info from world passes through senses
8
Q
Duration of SM
A
- Up to 0.5 seconds
- Info remains in SM briefly unless you pay attention to it (then transferred to STM)
- Otherwise info decays/ fades
9
Q
What evidence do we have to support SM features?
A
Sperling’s experiment in 1960
10
Q
Brief overview of Sperling’s experiment
A
- 3 x 4 (12) letter grid
- Initially asked participants to recall as many as they could
- Typically only 4-5 letters recalled
- Redid test with auditory cue (high, medium, low tones) which corresponded to a row one grid
- Participants consistently recalled almost all letters from cued row perfectly
11
Q
What does Sperling’s experiment suggest about SM?
A
- SM has high capacity but very short duration
12
Q
Coding of STM
A
Acoustic
13
Q
Whose experiment supports this?
A
Baddley (1966b)
14
Q
Capacity of STM
A
- On average 7 items (+2-) (Miller’s magic number)
15
Q
Whose experiment supports this?
A
Miller
16
Q
Duration of STM
A
- Less than 30 seconds UNLESS rehearsed
- Repeated info will remain in STM but after multiple rehearsals will eventually go into LTM
17
Q
Whose experiment supports this?
A
Peterson & Peterson
18
Q
Coding of LTM
A
- Semantic (meaning)
19
Q
Whose experiment supports this?
A
Baddley
20
Q
Capacity of LTM
A
- Potentially unlimited due to evolution of brains
- Constantly weeding out unneeded info therefore we always appear to have more room
- Estimated 100,000 billion items
21
Q
Whose experiment supports this?
A
Brady
22
Q
Duration
A
- Potentially up to a lifetime
23
Q
Whose experiment supports this?
A
Bahrick
24
Q
Bahrick’s experiment
A
- Found participants able to recognise names and faces of school peers almost 50 years later
25
MSM: Supporting evidence (Baddley)
+ Found mix up acoustically similar words when using STM but semantically similar words using LTM
+ Therefore STM encoded semantically and LTM encoded acoustically
26
MSM: Supporting evidence (Glanzer and Cunitz)
+ Serial position effect
27
MSM: Supporting evidence (Henry Molaison)
+ HM lost memory on operating table in hospital in Aug 1953
+ 27 years old, suffered from epileptic seizures for many years
+ A neurosurgeon removed his hippocampus from temporal lobe while he was awake
+ Operation successful as significantly reduced his seizures but left him w/ retrograde amnesia (loss of memories before brain damage) of 11 years & in+ Until then, not known that hippocampus essential for memory formation
+ Global amnesia was result of loosing both hippocampi therefore couldn't learn new songs, words, faces after surgery
+ Also forgot who speaking to the second he turned away
+ Didn't know how old he was
28
MSM: Supporting evidence (Clive Wearing)
+ Musicologist, conductor, pianist
+ Contracted herpes virus (attacks nervous system) and had severe effects on memory
+ Suffers from anterograde amnesia (can't create new memories) and retrograde amnesia (lost many prior memories)
+ For him, life is a haze between consciousness and slumber
+ Memories of life before 1985 very few: knows he loves his wife and has children
+ According to wife, his memory lasts between 7-30 seconds and he feels as though he wakes up several times a minute (ie: consciousness essentially rebooting)
+ Recurrently believes that he was woken from a coma
+ Each time sees his wife he believes he hasn't seen her in years even though she may have just left for a moment
+ Remembers names of food but cannot link to taste
+ Can still play piano perfectly but cannot learn new songs (muscle memory in tact)
29
MSM: C
+ Many studies carried out are empirical and can be falsified using scientific evidence
+ Scientific methods used, variables controlled, objective data
- However many have low external validity due to artificial stimuli and laboratory experiments
- Therefore, we can only infer using data, cannot be sure occurs naturally
30
MSM: O
- KF (1970) in a motorcycle accident resulting in brain damage to left occipital lobe
- Developed amnesia after accident: LTM in tact but STM could not deal with new verbal info
- Could understand instructions perfectly well written down but if delivered verbally unable to understand
- Therefore suggests that STM has different components for visual and verbal info
- Supporting existence of separate stores for these different info categories, implying MSM may be too simplistic
- WMM
31
MSM: D
- Over-emphasises role of rehearsal in memory
- Model suggests info has to be repeated multiple times to be remembered
- Craig & Lockheart's Levels of Processing Theory (info remembered if meaningful, doesn't need rehearsal)
- Deep processing (meaning) > shallow processing (physical) in retaining LTM
- Renders MSM reductionist as doesn't consider importance of emotion and relevance of material to individual
32
MSM: A
+ Applied to eyewitness testimony, helping legal system
+ Help police to improve methods to ensure innocent people not wrongfully convicted (avoiding leading questions)+ Education: helping students use more effective revision/ learning strategies
