Memory Flashcards
(21 cards)
What are the stores of the multistore model?
Sensory memory, Short term memory, Long term memory.
How is sensory memory coded?
Takes information from one of the sense organs (e.g. smell) and holds it in the same form
Capacity of sensory memory
Very large capacity (Sperling 1960)
Duration of the sensory memory?
Less than a second (Sperling 1960)
Coding of the short term memory
Acoustically (Conrad 1964)
Capacity of the STM
5-9 items (Miller, magic number 7)
Duration of the short term memory.
18 seconds (less than 30 seconds) (Peterson and Peterson)
Coding of the LTM
Somatic (Baddely 1996)
Capacity of the long term memory
Potentially unlimited (Solomon)
Duration of the long term memory
A lifetime (Bahrick)
Evaluation of the MSM
2 strengths + 1 counter
1 weakness
✅ Research support- Murdock experiment (serial position effect). Primary and recency effect. Words that were rehearsed went into the long term memory (primary effect). Words that were heard last were in the STM.
✅ Case study support- Clive wearing has some long term memory suggesting that the stores are different.
❌ However, case studies are unique and are ungeneralisable
❌ Reductionist- Clive wearing can remember how to play the piano (procedural memory) but cannot remember his children being born (semantic memory), showing there is more than one type of LTM.
What are the three types of LTM?
Semantic, Episodic, Procedural
What is a semantic memory and example
> Its explicit.
Contains shared knowledge of the world
Not time stamped
Example- The capital of France is Paris
What is episodic memory and example
> Its explicit
Ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives
Are time stamped
Memory of single episodes will include several elements such as people and places.
Example- Most recent visit to the dentist
What is procedural memory and example
> Its implicit
Memory for actions, skills and how we do things
Recall without conscious awareness or much effort
Not time stamped
Example- Driving, learning to ride a bike
Evaluation of types of LTM
✅ Research support- Clive wearing can remember how to play the piano (procedural memory) but cannot remember his children being born (semantic memory), showing there is more than one type of LTM.
❌ Counter- Case studies are unique, so ungeneralisable
✅ Real world application- research has shown aging has been linked to memory loss specifically episodic memory. This has led to treatments to improve episodic memories. Participants who were trained by researchers performed better on a test of episodic memory than control group.
What is forgetting?
failure to retrieve memories (retrieval failure)
What is interference?
Forgetting because one memory blocks another causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.
When is interference most likely to happen? + Example
Interference is most likely to occur with two similar types of information. For example, if pre-existing and new memories are alike.
What is proactive interference?
Things we already know can cause problems when we try to take in new information (Old affects new)
What is retroactive interference?
New things that we learn can cause problems when we try to recall information that we have learnt before (New affects old- NOIRA)
