Lecture 8 and 9 Flashcards
(49 cards)
Describe the multi store model of memory
- by Atkinson and Shiffrin
- environmental stimuli enters sensory memory (iconic or echoic)
- we briefly hold this and process it through the sensory buffer until attention is able to process it through to short term memory
- it is stored as a phonological code and uses rehearsal to keep it fresh
- moves to long term memory if it can be retained and is stored there for an unlimited amount of time
- assumes STM and LTM are unitary stores
- assumes rehearsal is the gateway from STM to LTM
What did Craik and Lockhart (1972) suggest?
The transfer to LTM is affected by the level of processing received in STM
- depth of processing at STM affected the strength of the memory trace in LTM
What are the two different types of rehearsal
Maintenance: simple, info only stays in STM
Elaborative: stimuli are subjected to deeper, semantic processing that recodes them more efficiently
Describe the working memory model
- by Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
- central executive
- visuo-spatial sketch pad
- episodic buffer
- phonological loop
- looks at STM as a sum of processes rather than just a structure
Describe the phonological loop
- made up of articulatory process and phonological store
- phonological store keeps the acoustic/phonological information
- articulatory process is akin to maintenance rehearsal and refreshes the info in the phonological store, without it the phonological store would be lost in time
- refreshes information every 2-2.5 seconds
What is the word length effect
When long words are lost more easily because the control processes fail to get to them in time to refresh them
Describe the visuo-spatial sketch pad
- used to remember maps or pictures
- Logie (1995-2003) created two sub components:
- inner scribe: works like articulatory process, keeps visual info refreshed, assists representing spatial info between objects
- visual cache: storage part of this system
Describe central executive
- had a capacity limit and deals with cognitively demanding tasks
- controls information flows between slave systems, thereby controlling input of sensory information
- involved in retrieval of info from LTM
- problems defining exactly what it does
- Robbins (1996) found suppression to this area made a significant difference to chess players performance when they had to calculate their next move
How long had the WMM been around?
3 decades, with some modifications
What supporting evidence does the WMM have?
- studies of brain damaged patients with dysexecutive syndrome
- damage in prefrontal cortices (proposed location of central executive) and leads to loss of functioning
- eg switching between tasks, can’t suppress thoughts, struggle to stay on task
What are the two main divisions of LTM (Tulving and Craik, 2000)
- explicit memory: memory we have for all the memories we consciously aim to store and retrieve, further divided into semantic and episodic memory
- implicit memory: memory in our unconscious, further divided into priming and procedural memory
What is the encoding specificity principle (Tulving, 1979) ?
Information is retrieved better from LTM when information and environment at the time of retrieval matches it
- eg Godden and Baddeley (1975) deep sea divers listened to 40 words on the beach or submerged 10 feet underwater
- when asked to recall as many words as they could, they found recall was better when they were asked to recall the words in the environment in which they learned them
What did Miles and Hardman (1998) find? (ESP)
- people learned words while resting on an exercise bike or pedalling to raise heart rate to 120 beats per minute
- word recall was 20% higher when they recalled the information in the same cardiovascular state
What is metamemory?
- the feeling of knowing despite not being able to recall what it is
- makes you more efficient because you can decide whether to attempt a retrieval of an item from LTM based on your confidence that you do in fact know it
- if we provide a cue we can determine whether the topic is familiar
What is the Tip of the Tongue phenomenon?
- having a high familiarity with a topic/ word but not being able to retrieve the information
- inaccessibility of an item in memory you actually know
What is flashbulb memory?
- a memory that has a strong emotional resonance with a person
- ‘flashbulb’ refers to the strength of the memory being so strong it is as if a photograph has been taken and stored
What is semantic memory?
Memory necessary for the use of language
Your knowledge bank
What are concepts in semantic memory?
- generalised descriptions represent your CONCEPT, despite the description you can still identify it
- concepts are flexible
- freedom is an abstract concept but you are capable of recognising it, even if the description you produce differs from the one you hear someone else say
- concepts formalise our understanding of the world
What are schemas in semantic memory?
- schemas are dependent on our previous experiences to define information in a task orientated, context dependent manner
- powerful mechanism for storage and allow for efficient functioning but can lead you astray
- eg scripts!! (schemas for a sequence of events)
- scripts are activated by events and allow us to predict future events in the world, perception is stabilised and we don’t require as much info to know what is going on
- eg office example, left in office, went into another room and asked to recall what they saw, listed stereotypical office things even if they weren’t there
What does episodic memory rely on?
Semantic memory:
- uses records from semantic memory but combines them according to events that took place at a specific temporal frame
- episodic memory is linked to specific times, places or events in a persons life
- autobiographical memory
What is mental time travel made up of?
Retrospective memory: the recall of specific events in your life, not only for the knowledge it contains but to relive the experience
Prospective memory: memory for events that you are yet to do, allows you to plan ahead and remember to do things in the future
What is foresight?
Using previous experiences of a hot pan to efficiently plan ahead to avoid burning
What is implicit memory?
- memory without awareness (Jacoby and Witherspoon, 1982)
- memory in your unconscious
- ability to learn without knowledge, e.g. exposure to hostile words later meant people rated a target person more negatively than did those who had not received prior exposure
- implicit memories affect your decision making
What does procedural memory do?
Aspect of memory that stores our skills, despite you having no recollection of the specific learning event related to the skill e.g. Writing
You struggle to explain how you perform the skill to pass on duplicate skills