Memory Flashcards
Tests for STM capacity, duration and coding
Capacity: Jacobs (had participants recall numbers, mean for participants was 9.3 numbers)
Duration: Bahrick (yearbook study)
Coding: Baddeley (gave list of words to participants to learn, found that short term they tended to worse with acoustically similar words)
Tests for LTM capacity, duration and coding
Capacity: unlimited capacity
Duration: Peterson and Peterson (gave participants 3 digit number, told them to count backwards for a certain amount of time, found it had very short duration past 8 seconds)
Coding: Baddeley
Stages in multi store model of memory
1) Stimulus
2) Sensory register (iconic/echoic)
3) STM (becomes LTM through rehearsal)
4) LTM (becomes STM through retrieval)
Evaluation points for MSM
P: Baddeley’s study supports it, shows existence of STM and LTM, also shows that they’re encoded differently
N: Shalice and Warrington with patient KF, his STM was very poor but his recall was better when he read to himself, shows there’s more than one type of STM
Define episodic, semantic and procedural memory
Episodic: memories that relate to events in our lives
Semantic: memories that relate to knowledge of the world (factual info)
Procedural: memories that relate to how we do things (eg. Ride a bike)
Evaluation points for types of LTM
P: Neuroimaging evidence, brain scans found that different types of memory are stored in other parts of the brain, increased validity
P: Studies allow psychologists to target specific types of memory to improve people’s wellbeing, increases application.
P: Clive Wearing is an irl example, has a memory span of 7-30 seconds, his case supports Tulving’s view that there are different memory stores
What is interference and what are the two types of interference?
Interference: when one memory blocks another memory, resulting in one or both of the memories becoming distorted or forgotten.
Proactive: old memory interferes with new memory
Retroactive: new memory interferes with old memory
How did McGeoch and McDonald contribute to interference?
Did study where participants learnt lost of words until they were 100% accurate in recalling them. Then had to learn a list of words that were: Synonyms of the original list, antonyms of the original words, unrelated words, nonsense syllables, 3 digits number strings.
Those who had to remember synonyms of the original list struggled most with recall, showing that the more similar the memory is, the more likely it is to be interfered.
Evaluation of interference
P: Baddeley and Hitch= Rugby players who had played 3 weeks ago were able to better remember their enemy team rather than those who had played since
P: Burke and Skrull found evidence for interference in adverts when they were similar products, improves application
N: Research uses artificial materials, lacks external validity
What is retrieval failure and what are the two forms of forgetting associated with it?
Retrieval failure is a form of forgetting whic occurs when we do not have the cues needed to access a memory. The two types of forgetting associated with this are context dependant forgetting and state dependant forgetting.
Types of long term memory
Episodic memory: our ability to recall events in our lives
Procedural memory: our memory of how we do actions (e.g. driving)
Semantic memory: recall of knowledge and facts
Structure of the Working Memory Model
Central Executive Phonological Loop Phonological Store Episodic buffer Visio-spatial sketchpad
Evaluation of Working Memory Model
P: Patient KF, had poor stm for verbal information but could remember visual information. Suggests just his phonological loop had been damaged, increases validity.
N: Baddeley said the central executive need to be more clearly specified.
P: Studies of dual task performance supports existence of visio-spatial sketchpad, Baddeley showed that participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks rather than doing a visual and verbal task at the same time.
What is retrieval failure and what are the two reasons for retrieval failure?
Retrieval failure is a form of forgetting which occurs when we don’t have the cues necessary to retrieve a memory from LTM. The two types of retrieval failure are context dependant forgetting and state dependant forgetting.
Describe research done for context and state dependant forgetting and the findings of the research.
Context dependant: Baddeley would get groups of divers to memorise a list of words either underwater or on land. They then had to recall the list either in the same condition or a different condition to where they learned it originally. Found that when the conditions matched, recall was much better than when they were different.
State dependant: same thing with drugs which induced drowsiness, found that when recalling the list in the same state, recall was much better.
