Memory

Question 1

Define memory

Answer 1

Process in which we retain and recall information about events that have happened in the past

(Process = internal and mental)

Question 2

Define Short-term memory (STM)

Answer 2

Memory for immediate events, which disappear if not rehearsed.
Sometimes referred to as working memory.

Question 3

Define Long-term memory (LTM)

Answer 3

Memory for events that have happened in the past (between 2 minutes to 100 years ago → theorised to be unlimited).
It’s the permanent memory score.

Question 4

Define sensory register

Answer 4

Stores a huge amount of information from our senses for a small range of time (one millisecond up to one second)

Question 5

Define capacity

Answer 5

Amount of information that can be stored

Question 6

Define duration

Answer 6

Length of time information can be held in the memory store

Question 7

Define coding

Answer 7

Format in which information is stored in the memory stores → acoustic or semantic.
The process of converting information from one format to another.

Question 8

Define acoustic coding

Answer 8

Information stored in the form of sounds.
Stored in STM.

Question 9

Define semantic coding

Answer 9

Information stored in the form of the meaning of the experience.
Stored in LTM.

Question 10

Define sensory register

Answer 10

Storage system that receives information from the sense organs.
It is not under cognitive control, but is an automatic response to the reception of sensory information.
If information is paid attention to, it passes on to the next store → STM.
If not paid attention to, the information fades away quickly through trace decay, leaving no lasting impression.

Question 11

The separate sensory stores for different sensory inputs:

Answer 11

Iconic → Visual
Echoic → Auditory
Haptic → Touch
Gustatory → Taste
Olfactory → Smell

Question 12

Match the sensory store to the sensory input,
Iconic:

Answer 12

Visual (sight)

Question 13

Match the sensory store to the sensory input,
Echoic:

Answer 13

Auditory (sound)

Question 14

Match the sensory store to the sensory input,
Haptic:

Answer 14

Touch

Question 15

Match the sensory store to the sensory input,
Gustatory:

Answer 15

Taste

Tip: Remember gustatory with link to oesophagus

Question 16

Match the sensory store to the sensory input,
Olfactory:

Answer 16

Smell

Question 17

Coding in the sensory register

Answer 17

Information is stored in a raw, unprocessed form

Question 18

Research: Coding in the sensory register

Answer 18

Crowder provides research evidence for different types of coding in the sensory register.
Crowder found that the sensory register retains:
→ Iconic information for a few milliseconds
→ Echoic information for 2-3 seconds
This suggests that there are different stores within sensory memory (therefore is not unitary) so different types of coding exist too.

Question 19

Research: Capacity in the sensory register

Answer 19

The capacity of each sensory memory (visual, iconic etc) must be very large (potentially unlimited) given that the information contained within them is unprocessed, highly detailed and ever-changing formats.

Sperling provides research evidence that the capacity of each memory store within the sensory register is quite large.
Sperling studied iconic store of sensory memory by:
Flashed 3x4 grid of letters onto a screen for 1/20 th of a second.
Participants asked to recall the letters of one random row from the screen and to indicate which row had to be recalled (1st, 2nd or 3rd), Sperling followed it immediately with a tone (high, medium or low).

→ Recall of letters in indicated row was high (= 76% average)
This suggests that all of the information was originally there, indicating that the capacity of the sensory register, especially for the iconic store, is quite large and therefore potentially unlimited.

Question 20

Research evaluation: Capacity in the sensory register

Answer 20

Method can be criticised because it *blacks Mundane realism** and ecological given that … is not an everyday task and is quite articifical therefore cannot be generalised to everyday life activities which is not valid and reliable ??

Question 21

Research: Duration in the sensory register

Answer 21

All sensory memory stores have a limited duration, though the actual duration of each is not constant - different types of information decaying at different rates.
Different sensory stores appear to have different capacities and there is some evidence that duration decreases with age.

Sperling provides research evidence that the duration of each memory store within the sensory register is limited.
Sperling varied the conditions of his original 3x4 grid experiment by delaying the time between showing the letters and giving the tone. If there was a delay between the presentation of the grid and the sounding of the tone, more information was lost each time.
→ Only 50% available after 0.3 second delay
→ 33% available after 1 second delay
This suggests that the duration of the sensory register is only about 1 second (max)

Question 22

Research: Coding in the STM

Answer 22

Baddeley explored the effects between acoustic VS semantic coding

Participants asked immediately after the presentation, to recall a list of 5 words in serial order (= the original order that it was read out in) from words in the 4 categories:
→ Acoustically similar words = words that sound the same (e.g. man, mad ,map)
→ Acoustically dissimilar words = words that sound different (e.g. pen, day, few)
→ Semantically similar words = words that have the same meaning (e.g. great, big, large)
→ Semantically dissimilar words = words that have different meaning (e.g. hot, old, late)

Findings:
→ Words with similar sounds (acoustically similar) were much harder to recall using STM than words with dissimilar sounds (acoustically dissimilar)
→ Similarity of meaning (semantically similar) had only a very slight detrimental effect on STM

Therefore STM relies on acoustic coding

Question 23

Research: Coding in the LTM

Answer 23

Baddeley explored the effects between acoustic VS semantic coding

Participants asked 20 minutes after the presentation, to recall a list of 10 words in serial order (= the original order that it was read out in) from words in the 4 categories:
→ Acoustically similar
→ Acoustically dissimilar
→ Semantically similar
→ Semantically dissimilar

Findings:
→ When participants were recalling from LTM, recall was much worse for semantically sounds words than for semantically dissimilar words
→ Recall from LTM was the same for acoustically similar and acoustically dissimilar words

Therefore LTM primarily makes use of semantic coding

Question 24

Research conclusions: Coding in memory

Answer 24

→ STM relies heavily on acoustic coding
→ LTM primarily makes use of semantic coding

Question 25

What are **acoustically similar** words ?

Answer 25

Words that **sound** the **same** (e.g. man, mad ,map)

Question 26

What are **acoustically dissimilar** words ?

Answer 26

Words that **sound different** (e.g. pen, day, few)

Question 27

What are **semantically similar** words ?

Answer 27

Words that have the **same meaning** (e.g. great, big, large)

Question 28

What are **semantically dissimilar** words ?

Answer 28

Words that have **different meaning** (e.g. hot, old, late)

Question 29

What **category** are the words **man, mad ,map** ?

Answer 29

Acoustically similar

Question 30

What **category** are the words **pen, day, few** ?

Answer 30

Acoustically dissimilar

Question 31

What **category** are the words **great, big, large** ?

Answer 31

Semantically similar

Question 32

What **category** are the words **hot, old, late** ?

Answer 32

Semantically dissimilar

Question 33

What **other word** can **coding** be referred to as ?

Answer 33

**Encoding** (→ used in exam questions)

Question 34

Evaluation of **coding** in **STM** and **LTM**

Answer 34

1) **Some experiments have shown that visual codes are also used in STM** → Brandimonte et. al found that participants used visual coding in STM if they were given a visual task (picture) and prevented from doing any verbal rehearsal in the retention interval (they had to say ‘la, la, la’) before performing a visual recall task. Normally we ‘translate’ visual images into verbal codes in STM but, as verbal rehearsal was prevented, participants used visual codes → Other research (Wickens et. al) has shown that STM sometimes uses a semantic code *This suggests that STM is not exclusively acoustic* 2) **In general LTM appears to be semantic but not always** → Frost showed that LTM recall was related to visual as well as semantic categories → Nelson & Rothbart found evidence of acoustic coding in LTM *Therefore, it seems that coding in LTM is not simply semantic but can vary according to circumstances* 3) **Baddeley’s methodology has been criticised** → In Baddeley’s study STM was tested by asking participants to recall a words list immediately after hearing it → LTM was tested by waiting 20 minutes → It’s questionable as to whether this is really testing LTM *This casts doubt over the validity of Baddeley’s research because he may not have been testing LTM after all*

Question 35

2 mark questions regarding: **Capacity, duration, coding**

Answer 35

‘Explain what is meant by **capacity/ duration/ coding**’ 1) State the definition for the 1st mark 2) Give an example for the 2nd mark *E.g. Explain what is meant by coding (2 marks)* *The format that the information is stored in the memory stored. For example, acoustic.*

Question 36

Research: **Capacity** in the **STM**

Answer 36

Jacob’s measured STM capacity using **digit span** → Average span for **digits** = **9.3 items** → Average span for **letters** = **7.3 items** Jacob suggests it is **easier to recall digits** because there are **only 9** of them, whereas there are **26 letters** To measure digit span, the researcher gives e.g. 4 digits The participant is asked to **recall** the digits in the **correct order**. If the participant is **correct**, the researcher increases the digit by **1 more each time**. When the participant **fails to recall no more than 50%** of the digit string they are judged to have **reached their capacity**. Miller published ‘The magic number plus seven or minus two’ (**7±2**) which is the capacity of STM. This means that the **capacity** of **STM** is a range of **5 to 9 pieces of information**. Miller found that if people can recall 5 words **as well** as they can recall 5 letters, we chunk things together and can then remember them - process = **chunking**.

Question 37

Research: **Capacity** in the **LTM**

Answer 37

Wagenaar created a diary of **2,400 events** over **6 years** and tested himself on **recall of events** NOT dates → Had **excellent recall** of the events Therefore it can be concluded that **LTM capacity** is **extremely large**, *potentially unlimited*

Question 38

Evaluation of **capacity** research in **STM** experiment

Answer 38

1) **The capacity of STM may be even more limited as Miller’s findings have not been replicated** → Cowan reviewed a variety of studies on the capacity of STM and concluded that STM is likely to be limited to about 4 chunks → Vogel’s et al. research on the capacity of STM for visual information (rather than verbal stimuli) also found that 4 items was about the limit → This means that the lower end of Miller’s range is more appropriate (i.e. 7-2=5) *This suggests that STM may not be as extensive as was first thought* 2) **It seems that the size of the chunk affects how many chunks you can remember** → Simon found that people had a shorter memory span for larger chunks, such as 8 word phrases, than smaller chunks, such as one-syllable words *This continues to support the view that STM has a limited capacity but further refines our understanding - the size of the chunk matters* 3) **There are individual differences in terms of the capacity of STM - it is not the same for everyone.** **Jacobs also found that recall (digit span) increased steadily with age** → 8 year olds could remember an average of 6.6 digits → 19 year olds could remember a mean of 8.6 digits This increase with age might be due to changes known brain capacity and/or development of strategies such as chunking. *This suggests that the capacity of STM is not fixed and individual differences may play a role*

Question 39

Evaluation of **capacity** research in **LTM** experiment

Answer 39

**Anokhin supports the conclusions of this study.** → He estimated the number of possible neuronal connections in the human brain is followed by 10.5 million km of noughts. He concluded that ‘no human yet exists which can use all the potential of their brain’. *This suggests that the capacity of LTM is limitless.*

Question 40

**Why** were participants instructed to **speak aloud** in the **Peterson & Peterson** experiment ?

Answer 40

To **prevent mental rehearsal** in the **retention interval** in order to achieve **valid results** which **increases** the **accuracy** of measuring the **duration**

Question 41

Research: **Duration** in the **STM**

Answer 41

Aim to provide **empirical evidence** for the multi-store model. **Lab experiment** conducted where **24** undergraduate students took part in **8 trials** (8 tests). On each trial participants were given a **consonant trigram** (= meaningless three-consonant syllables, e.g. TGH) and a **3-digit number** to **remember**. Students instructed to **count backwards aloud** in **3s** until told to stop *(e.g. number given = 943, count 943, 940, 937 …)* On **each trial**, they were told to **stop** after a **different amount of time** - **3**, **6**, **9**, **12**, **15** or **18 seconds** (**= a retention interval**). Asked to **stop counting backwards** and **recall** the **trigram**. Percentage of trigrams correctly recalled was recorded for each retention interval. The **longer** the **interval delay**, the **less trigrams** were **recalled** → Participants able to recall **90%** of trigrams after a **3 second delay** → Participants able to recall **20%** of trigrams after a **9 second delay** → Participants able to recall **2%** of trigrams after a **2 second delay** **STM** has a **limited duration** of **18-30 seconds** when **verbal rehearsal** is **prevented**. The results of the study also show the STM memory is different from LTM in terms of duration.

Question 42

Evaluation of **duration** research in **STM** experiment

Answer 42

1) **A criticism of this research is that investigating STM in this way is rather artificial**. → Trying to memorise consonant trigrams does not reflect most everyday memory activities where what we are trying to remember is meaningful. However, we do sometimes try to remember fairly meaningless things such as groups of numbers (phone number) or letters (postcodes). *Thus, although the task could be criticised for lacking mundane realism and ecological validity, it could also be argued that it does have some relevance to everyday life*. 2) **A criticism of the Petersons’ study is that it did not actually measure what it set out to measure, therefore lacks internal validity**. → When the participants were counting down the numbers in their STM this may have displaced or ‘overwritten’ the trigrams to be remembered. *Thus, the forgetting in the Petersons’ study may have been due to displacement rather than decay, reducing the internal validity of the study and therefore the support that this study can offer for the duration of STM memory*.

Question 43

Research: **Duration** in the **LTM**

Answer 43

*Also referred to as the ‘yearbook study’* Participants were an **opportunity sample** of **392** American **ex-high school students** aged **17-74** years. Types of recall: (1) **Free call test** = Participants recalled the names of as many of their former classmates as possible (2) **Photo recognition test** = Participants asked to identity former classmates in a set of 50 where some were from their yearbook and some weren’t → Participants tested **within 15 years** of graduation = **90%** accurate in **photo recognition** → Participants tested **after 48 years** of graduation = **70%** accurate in **photo recognition** → Participants tested **within 15 years** of graduation = **60%** accurate in **free recall** → Participants tested **after 48 years** of graduation = **30%** accurate in **free recall** *Therefore performance in free recall was worse than photo recognition** Therefore **LTM** has a seemingly **unlimited duration**

Question 44

Evaluation of **duration** research in **LTM** experiment

Answer 44

1) **A strength of this research is that, unlike a lot of memory research, it studied real life memories**. → When studies on LTM have used meaningless pictures, recall rates were lower. *Thus, this study’s findings have higher mundane realism and ecological validity and might be more useful in terms of explaining the duration of LTM memory than other studies*. 2) **The downside of such real-life research is that confounding variables are not controlled**. → The researchers assumed that the last contact with their classmates would have been when they left school. Little consideration seems to have been made of participants seeing classmates in the intervening years or even of them having looked through yearbooks themselves. *Thus, confounding variables could have influenced the results, reducing the support that the study can offer for the duration of LTM*.

Question 45

**Explain** and **evaluate** the use of **diary studies**

Answer 45

= A type of **case study** → Only measures data for one person *therefore* **can’t be generalised** to others meaning it **lacks population validity** given that his memory may be drastically above or below average → **Bias** *due to the fact that* he investigated himself *therefore* is **more subjective** (less objective) and research is more prone **demand characteristics**

Question 46

**Capacity** of **STM**

Answer 46

**7±2 pieces** of information (range of **5 to 9**)

Question 47

**Capacity** of **LTM**

Answer 47

Unlimited

Question 48

**Duration** of **STM**

Answer 48

18-30 seconds

Question 49

**Duration** of **LTM**

Answer 49

Unlimited

Question 50

**Coding** of **STM**

Answer 50

**Acoustic** coding

Question 51

**Coding** of **LTM**

Answer 51

**Semantic coding**

Question 52

Define **displacement**

Answer 52

Information gets **pushed out** by **something new** in our **STM**

Question 53

Define (**trace**) **decay**

Answer 53

Memory of information **fades overtime** *Also referred to as ‘trace decay’*.

Question 54

**Why** does **displacement** occur ?

Answer 54

**STM** has a **capacity** of **7±2 pieces of information** therefore if it has **exceeded** the **maximum** of **9** pieces of information, **new information** will **push out** the previous information as a result of the **STM’s limited capacity**

Question 55

What is a **consonant trigram** ?

Answer 55

A meaningless three-consonant syllables *E.g. TGH*

Question 56

**Why** is it important that the **consonant trigrams** are **meaningless**

Answer 56

To eliminate the ability of **chunking** as that **doesn’t** measure memory’s **true duration**

Question 57

**What** is **empirical** evidence ?

Answer 57

**Numerical** data derived from **direct experience** or **experiments** rather than theories and principles

Question 58

**Why** is **empirical** evidence good ?

Answer 58

It **reinforces psychology’s claim** to be a **science** given that science only uses empirical evidence in order for something to be proved rather than theories and principles

Question 59

**What** is **chunking** ?

Answer 59

Ability to **improve STM** by **grouping information** into ‘**chunks**’ to **reduce** the amount of **items** to **remember**, given that the **STM** has a **limited capacity** of 7±2. The ‘**chunks**’ are **received** from our **LTM**.

Question 60

**Capacity** of **chunking** in **STM**

Answer 60

**Limited** to **4 chunks**

Question 61

**Coding** in **sensory register**

Answer 61

Information stored in **raw**, **unprocessed** form Sensory stores: (1) **Iconic** (2) **Echoic** (3) **Haptic** (4) **Gustatory** (5) **Olfactory** *E.g. Visual information is coded to be stored into the iconic store*

Question 62

**Capacity** of **sensory register**

Answer 62

Very large → **unlimited** *E.g. Very large for the iconic store*

Question 63

**Duration** in **sensory register**

Answer 63

**Min**imum = **1 millisecond** **Max**imum = **1 second**

Question 64

Findings of **Peterson and Peterson** *(STM duration)*

Answer 64

The **longer** the **interval delay**, the **less trigrams** were **recalled** → Participants able to recall **90%** of trigrams after a **3 second delay** → Participants able to recall **20%** of trigrams after a **9 second delay** → Participants able to recall **2%** of trigrams after a **2 second delay**

Question 65

Findings of **Bahrick et al.** *(LTM duration)*

Answer 65

→ Participants tested **within 15 years** of graduation = **90%** accurate in **photo recognition** → Participants tested **after 48 years** of graduation = **70%** accurate in **photo recognition** → Participants tested **within 15 years** of graduation = **60%** accurate in **free recall** → Participants tested **after 48 years** of graduation = **30%** accurate in **free recall** *Therefore performance in free recall was worse than photo recognition** Therefore **LTM** has a seemingly **unlimited duration**

Question 66

Findings of **Baddeley** *(STM coding)*

Answer 66

→ Words with similar sounds (**acoustically similar**) were much **harder to recall** using **STM** than words with dissimilar sounds (**acoustically dissimilar**) → Similarity of meaning (**semantically similar**) had only a very **slight** detrimental effect on **STM** Therefore **STM** relies on **acoustic coding**

Question 67

Findings of **Baddeley** *(LTM coding)*

Answer 67

→ When participants were recalling from **LTM**, recall was **much worse** for **semantically sounds** words than for **semantically dissimilar** words → Recall from **LTM** was the **same** for **acoustically similar** and **acoustically dissimilar** words Therefore **LTM** primarily makes use of **semantic coding**

Question 68

Findings of **Jacobs** and **Miller** *(STM capacity)*

Answer 68

→ Average span for **digits** = **9.3 items** → Average span for **letters** = **7.3 items** Jacob suggests it is **easier to recall digits** because there are **only 9** of them, whereas there are **26 letters** → Miller published that the **capacity** of **STM** is a range of **5 to 9 pieces of information** → Miller found that if people can recall 5 words **as well** as they can recall 5 letters, we chunk things together and can then remember them - process = **chunking**.

Question 69

Findings of **Sperling** *(Sensory register duration)*

Answer 69

→ Only **50%** available after **0.3 second delay** → **33%** available after **1 second delay** This suggests that the duration of the sensory register is only about **1 second (max)**

Question 70

Findings of **Crowder** *(Sensory register coding)*

Answer 70

→ **Iconic** information for a **few milliseconds** → **Echoic** information for **2-3 seconds** This suggests that there are different stores within sensory memory (therefore is **not unitary**) so different types of coding exist too.

Question 71

Findings of **Sperling** *(Sensory register capacity)*

Answer 71

→ Recall of letters in indicated row was **high** (= **76%** average) This suggests that **all of the information** was **originally there**, indicating that the capacity of the sensory register, especially for the **iconic store**, is **quite large** and therefore **potentially unlimited**.

Question 72

**What** is a **retention interval** ?

Answer 72

The **period between** a **participants exposure** to **information** and being **tested** for the **retention** of the **information**. → So when **each trial** participants are asked to **stop** after a **different amount of time**. *E.g. 3 ,6 ,9 ,12 ,15 or 18 seconds*

Question 73

**Purpose** of **retention interval**

Answer 73

Provides **empirical evidence** for the **correlation** between **duration** of memory (**STM**) and **maintenance rehearsal**