Memory

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

The process by which we retain information

Question 2

Name the 3 types of long term memory

Answer 2

Procedural, Semantic and Episodic

Question 3

How is information usually coded in long term memory?

Answer 3

Coded semantically

Question 4

Semantic Memory

Answer 4

Factual knowledge an individual has learned

Question 5

Episodic Memory

Answer 5

Personal experiences that are time stamped

Question 6

Procedural Memory

Answer 6

Memory store for our knowledge of how to do things, including our memories of learned skills

Question 7

Give one similarity between episodic and semantic memory

Answer 7

Both declarative - they can be consciously recalled

Question 8

3 types of memory

Answer 8

Sensory memory, Short term memory and Long term memory

Question 9

Sensory Memory

Answer 9

Initial contact for stimuli. SM is only capable of retraining information for a very short time

Question 10

Short term Memory

Answer 10

The information we are currently aware of, or thinking about. It comes from paying attention to sensory memories

Question 11

Long term Memory

Answer 11

Information transferred from short-term memory into long-term storage in order to create enduring memories

Question 12

Duration of STM vs LTM

Answer 12

Up to 30 seconds unless its rehearsed or paid attention to

Can last from 2 minutes to 100 years

Question 13

Rehearsal

Answer 13

Transferring information into long term memory

Question 14

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Answer 14

-Participants given a nonsense syllable and asked to count down in threes or fours for 3-18 seconds
-after 3 seconds, 80% recalled correctly
-after 18 seconds, less than 10% recalled correctly

Question 15

Coding

Answer 15

The process of converting information from one form to another

Question 16

Baddeley (1966) Method

Answer 16

Gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember. These were either acoustically similar or dissimilar, semantically similar or dissimilar.

Question 17

Baddeley (1966) Results

Answer 17

Participants had problems recalling acoustically similar words when recalling immediately (from STM)

If recalling after an interval (from LTM) they had problems with semantically similar words

Question 18

Baddeley (1966) Conclusion

Answer 18

LTM more likely to rely on semantic coding and the STM on acoustic coding

Question 19

Baddeley Evaluation

Answer 19

Lacks ecological validity

Other types of LTM and other methods of coding that aren’t considered

Question 20

Peterson and Peterson (1959) Evaluations

Answer 20

-Forgetting in STM can occur if information is not rehearsed
-Identified that duration of STM is approximately 18 seconds

-Artificial stimuli lacked personal meaning creating mundane realism, meaning we cannot generalise findings to different memory tasks
-Small sample size

Question 21

Miller (1956)

Answer 21

noted that things come in sevens: 7 notes, 7 days etc. This suggests that the capacity of STM is 7 items (plus or minus 2).
-chunking: our capacity for remembering information can be increased if we chunk items together. We are more likely to remember things if we group them together.

Question 22

Evaluation of Millers Chunking

Answer 22

Miller may have overestimated the capacity of the STM

Question 23

(Sperling’s investigation of the sensory register) Method

Answer 23

Participants were shown a grid with three rows of four letters for 50 milliseconds.

They had to immediately recall either the whole grid or a randomly chosen row indicated by the pitch of a tone.

Question 24

(Sperling’s investigation of the sensory register) Results

Answer 24

When recalling the whole grid they only recalled an average of 4 or 5 letters.

When a particular row was indicated, an average of 3 items were recalled, no matter which row was selected.

Question 25

(Sperling’s investigation of the sensory register) Conclusion

Answer 25

They did not know which row was to be selected, so we can assume that 3 items from any row could be recalled. Therefore the entire grid was in their sensory register.

They could not recall the whole grid because the trace faded before they could finish recall.

Question 26

(Sperling’s investigation of the sensory register) Evaluation

Answer 26

Lab experiment was highly scientific but lacked ecological validity. People do not normally have to recall letters so it might not represent what would happen in the real world.

Question 27

Glanzer and Cuntiz

Answer 27

showed participants a list of 20 words, presented one at a time and then asked them to recall.
This is called the serial position effect: “When asking people to remember a list of words which is greater than the capacity of short term memory they have a tendency to remember words from the beginning and end of the listshowed participants a list of 20 words, presented one at a time and then asked them to recall.
This is called the serial position effect: “When asking people to remember a list of words which is greater than the capacity of short term memory they have a tendency to remember words from the beginning and end of the list”

Question 27

Multistore Memory of Memory

Answer 27

A theoretical framework that explains how information is processed and stored in our memory. It consists of three different memory stores: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Question 28

Working Memory Model

Answer 28

Explains how we hold and manipulate information in the short term

Question 28

Central Executive

Answer 28

-Functions: direct attention to tasks, decides what working memory pays attention to
-manages the slave systems (phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketch pad, episodic buffer)

Question 29

Phonological Loop

Answer 29

-Limited capacity
-deals with auditory information and preserves order
-Baddeley 1986 further subdivided it into: phonological store (holds on to words heard) and Articulatory process (holds words heard/seen and silently repeated (looped) like an inner voice This is a kind of maintenance rehearsal)

Question 29

Visuo-spatial Sketch Pad

Answer 29

-Visual and/or spatial information stored here (inner eye)
-visual refers to what things look like and spatial refers to the relationships between things
-limited capacity
-Logie (1995) suggested subdivision: visuo-cache (store) and inner scribe for spatial relations

Question 30

Episodic Buffer

Answer 30

-Baddeley 2000 added episodic buffer as he realised model needed a more general store
-slave systems deal with specific types of information
-buffer extra storage system but with limited capacity
-integrates information from all other areas

Question 31

Baddeley and Hitch 1974

Answer 31

Believed memory is not just in one store, but in a number of different stores.

-only focused on STM
-LTM is a more passive store that holds previously learned material for use by the STM when needed

Question 32

(Evaluation of Working Memory Model) Clinical evidence

Answer 32

Shallice and Warrington 1970 supports the existence of a separate visual and acoustic store.

However, this was a case study so results cannot be generalised.

Question 33

(Evaluation of Working Memory Model) Evidence for the Episodic Buffer

Answer 33

Baddeley et al 1987
-Participants were shown words and then immediate recall
-Recall was much better for related words in sentences than unrelated words

Supports the idea of ‘general’ memory store that draws on LTM (semantics), for items that are neither visual nor phonological.