Lecture 2 - Short & Long-Term Memory

Question 1

Freud suggested that memory had 2 layers, what are these?

Answer 1

Surface (transitory) and Deep (permanent)

Question 2

William James suggested 2 types of memory, what are they?

Answer 2

Primary (stream of consciousness) and Secondary Memory

Question 3

There are thought to be 3 basic memory systems, what are these?

Answer 3

Sensory Memory
Short term/Working memory
Long-term memory

Question 4

What are the general characteristics of sensory memory?

Answer 4

Large capacity
Literal record of perceptual experience
Lost quickly (transient)

Question 5

What is iconic memory and what are its characteristics?

Answer 5

Iconic memory: visual memory

• Holds visual input for about 250msec
• Representation is pre-categorical - has not been categorised as meaning anything yet - purely what something looks like

Question 6

What is echoic memory and what are its characteristics?

Answer 6

Echoic memory: auditory memory

• Holds visual input for 2-3 seconds
• Thought to be less transient than iconic memory

Question 7

Describe Sperling’s (1960) Iconic Memory Research

Answer 7

• Flash a matrix of letters and digits for 50msec
• Identify as many items as possible
• P’s typically remembered 4 items

Question 8

What is ‘The Free Recall Task’?

Answer 8

• Present P’s with a list of words
• P’s to recall them in any order
• Plot the results according to how well the words were recalled at each serial position

Question 9

What are the reasons behind the Primacy & Recency gradients from free recall tasks?

Answer 9

Primacy - First few items can be rehearsed a lot and so more likely to move into LTM
Recency - Last few items of list are still in STM

Question 10

Describe the purpose of a free recall task including a filled delay

Answer 10

To reduce the recency effects

Question 11

What are P’s required to do during a filled delay?

Answer 11

Complete a simple secondary task (e.g., counting backwards)

Question 12

What’s the capacity of STM as per George Miller (1956)?

Answer 12

From a digit span test, the magic number is 7+/- 2, however Cowan (2000) found it is more likely to be 4+/- 1

Question 13

What type of coding is believed to be used for STM?

Answer 13

STM is thought to be basic on a phonological (sounds) code and is believed to be like one’s ‘inner voice’

Question 14

What is the Phonological Similarity Effect?

Answer 14

• Words that ‘sound’ alike more poorly recalled than dissimilar sounding words
• Therefore, if you are presented with semantically similar/different words, there will be no impact on memory

Question 15

What is the Word Length Effect?

Answer 15

Recall of words is worse for longer words than for shorter words

Question 16

How can the word length effect eliminated?

Answer 16

If phonological coding is prevented through ‘articulatory suppression’ (e.g., repeating an irrelevant word)

Question 17

What is the modal model of memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)

Answer 17

Stimuli - Sensory Stores - STM - LTM

Question 18

Outline Standing’s (1973) “Learning 10,000 pictures”

Answer 18

• P’s could recognise 133/160 pictures selected randomly from about 10,000 pictures studied earlier
• Therefore, must have had a LTM trace of ~6,600 pictures

Question 19

Why are pictures better recognised than words?

Answer 19

You have both a visual representation and a verbal semantic representation of it so acts as a dual coding system

Question 20

Outline Paivio’s (1969) Dual Coding Hypothesis

Answer 20

Words that are imageable can be encoded in both visual and verbal forms so are remembered better

Question 21

What is explicit vs implicit memory?

Answer 21

Explicit: when retrieval of a memory is deliberate/involves conscious recollection
Implicit: When behaviour indicates that memories are being retrieved in the absence of a conscious attempt to retrieve them (e.g., procedural memory)

Question 22

What is episodic vs semantic memory?

Answer 22

Episodic - Memories for events/experiences

Semantic - General knowledge about the world

Question 23

What is the evidence for the hierarchical structure of semantic memory?

Answer 23

Speed of responding to Q’s about semantic concepts differs according to number of ‘vertical’ steps required through the network (Collins & Quillian, 1969)