Memory Flashcards

Question

**Explanation of WMM:**

Answer 1

* The three-store STM stemmed from research using a ‘dual-task technique’ (or ‘interference tasks’), whereby performance is measured as participants perform two tasks simultaneously. The following observations provided evidence to suggest different, limited-capacity STM stores process different types of memory: * If one store is utilised for both tasks, then task performance is poorer than when they are completed separately, due to the store’s limited capacity E.g. repeating “the the the” aloud and reading some text silently would use the articulatory-phonological loop for both tasks, slowing performance.

Answer 2

**Strengths:** - The WMM provides an explanation for parallel processing (i.e. where processes involved in a cognitive task occur at once), unlike Atkinson and Shiffrin’s MSM. - A Shallice and Warrington (1974) case study reported that brain-damaged patient KF could recall verbal but not visual information immediately after its presentation, which supports the WMM’s claim that separate short-term stores manage short-term phonological and visual memories. - The model was developed based on evidence from laboratory experiments, so confounding variables could be carefully controlled to produce reliable results (that can be replicated).

Answer 3

**Weaknesses:** - Despite providing more detail of STM than the multi-store model, the WMM has been criticized for being too simplistic and vague, e.g. it is unclear what the central executive is, or its exact role in attention. - Results from laboratory experiments researching the WMM will often have low ecological validity (i.e. may not relate to real life), as tasks such as repeating ‘the the the’ are arguably not representative of our everyday activities.

Answer 4

* Baddeley/Hitch (1974) state that people can peform two tasks at the same time as long as the tasks use different components of the working memory system. However, if they are using the same parts of the same components processing will slow down.

Answer 5

KF suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident that damaged his short-term memory. KF struggled to process verbal information but his visual memory was unaffected. This shows that visual information (VSSP) is processed separately from verbal information (phonological loop).

Answer 6

* Badeley et al found that participants could indeed remember more single syllable words than multi-syllablic ones, and they called this the word length effect.

Answer 7

* Interference is an explanation for forgetting in long-term memory, which states that forgetting occurs because memories interfere with and disrupt one another; in other words, forgetting occurs because of interference from other memories (Baddeley, 1999). * This idea suggests that information in long-term memory may become confused or combined with other information during encoding thus distorting or disrupting memories.

Answer 8

(pro=forward) occurs when you cannot learn a new task because of an old task that had been learnt. When what we already know interferes with what we are currently learning – where old memories disrupt new memories.

Answer 9

Retroactive interference (retro=backward) occurs when you forget a previously learnt task due to the learning of a new task. In other words, later learning interferes with earlier learning – where new memories disrupt old memories.

Answer 10

- In both cases of retroactive/proactive interference is worse when the memories are similar

Answer 11

McGeoch and McDonald (1931)

Answer 12

They studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between 2 sets of materials.Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember all of them.Then they learned a new list.The six groups learnt different types of lists.They found that the most similar material produced the worst recall meaning that interference is strongest when memories are similar.

Answer 13

* Evidence of interference in everday lifes - **Baddeley and Hitch (1977**) examined rugby union players** who had played every match in the season and players who had missed some games due to injury. The players were asked to recall the names of the teams they had played against earlier in the season. Baddeley and Hitch found that players who had played the most games forgot proportionately more games than those who had played fewer games due to injury. These results support the idea of retroactive inference, as the learning of new information (new team names) interfered with the memory of old information (earlier team names). * Shows high validity *** Coenen and Gilles Van Luijtelaar (1997)** * Participants were given a list of words and later asked to record a list, assuming that intervening experiences would act as interference * They found that when a list of words was learned under the Influence of the drug diazepam, record one week later was poor. * When a list of words was learned before the drug was taken, later recall was better than placebo. * The drug actually improved recall of material learned beforehand.

Answer 14

* First, interference theory tells us little about the cognitive processes involved in forgetting. * Secondly, the majority of research into the role of interference in forgetting has been carried out in a laboratory using lists of words, a situation which is likely to occur fairly infrequently in everyday life (i.e. low ecological validity). As a result, it may not be possible to generalize from the findings. * Forgetting may be better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure due to lack of cues. * Tulving/ Ptoska - gave participants a list of word, then interefered and then given cues recall rate rose to 70%

Answer 15

* Group 1: synonyms. * Group 2: antonyms. * Group 3: words unrelated to the original ones. * Group 4: consonant syllables. * Group 3: three-digit numbers. * Group 6: no new list.

Memory Flashcards

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