memory

Question 1

what is capacity?

Answer 1

a measure of how much can be held in memory. it is represented in terms of bits of information such as number of digits

Question 2

what is coding?

Answer 2

the format information is stored as, such as visual codes, semantic codes, or acoustic codes

Question 3

what is duration?

Answer 3

a measure of how long a memory lasts before it is no longer available

Question 4

what are the two stores of memory?

Answer 4

the Long Term Memory (LTM), and the Short Term Memory (STM).

Question 5

what is the capacity of the short term memory?

Answer 5

7 (+/- 2). about 7 items, sometimes less, sometimes more.

Question 6

how can the capacity of the short term memory be assessed, who created it, and how is it carried out?

Answer 6

the Digit Span Test can be used to capacity of the STM. It was developed by Joseph Jacobs, and includes seeing how many words, letters, or numbers a person can recite in the correct order from reading or hearing a set list.

Question 7

what is the duration of the short term memory?

Answer 7

18-30 seconds

Question 8

who studied the duration of the short term memory, and how?

Answer 8

Peterson and Peterson assessed the duration of the STM. they did this using 24 students. each participant was tested over 8 trials. participants were given 3 letters and a 3 digit number, and they were asked to recall the letters after a retention interval of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 seconds. during the retention interval they were asked to count backwards from the given number.

Question 9

what were the results for the Peterson and Peterson study on the duration of the short term memory?

Answer 9

on average, 90% of participants were correct after 3 seconds, 20% were correct after 9 seconds, and only 2% were correct after 18 seconds.

Question 10

what are the coding’s of the long term and short term memories?

Answer 10

long term memory is largely encoded semantically and short term memory is largely encoded acoustically

Question 11

what are the two explanations for forgetting?

Answer 11

interference theory and retrieval failiure

Question 12

what does interference theory suggest?

Answer 12

it suggests long term memories become confused by other information whilst it is coded

Question 13

what are the two types of interference in interference theory?

Answer 13

proactive and retroactive interference

Question 14

what is proactive interference?

Answer 14

when old information interferes with the recall of new information

Question 15

what is retroactive interference?

Answer 15

when new information interferes with the recall of old information

Question 16

what two factors makes interference more likely?

Answer 16

how similar the two pieces of info are and time sensitivity

Question 17

why are two similar pieces of information more likely to be forgotten?

Answer 17

this is due to response competition, both pieces of information are available, its just difficult to chose between them

Question 18

when does time sensitivity affect memory more?

Answer 18

the smaller the difference in time between learning two pieces of information, the more likely they are to be confused

Question 19

what is context dependant forgetting?

Answer 19

Context-dependent forgetting is when you struggle to remember something because you’re in a different environment from when you learned it.

Question 20

what is state dependant forgetting?

Answer 20

State-dependent forgetting is when your memory is better if you’re in the same internal state (like mood or alertness) as when you learned something.

Question 21

who developed the working memory model?

Answer 21

Baddley and Hitch

Question 22

what is the phonological loop responsible for?

Answer 22

processing sound based information

Question 23

what are the sub components of the phonological loop?

Answer 23

the articulatory control process, and the phonological store

Question 24

what is the articulatory control process?

Answer 24

its the inner voice, which rehearses verbal sounds, helping us to prepare speech and think in words

Question 25

what is the phonological store?

Answer 25

known as the inner ear as it receives and stores sounds, it focuses on speech perception

Question 26

what is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 26

the slave system which is responsible for processing visual information.

Question 27

what are the components of the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 27

Logie suggested the VSS is made up of a visual cache and an inner scribe

Question 28

what is the visual cache?

Answer 28

it stores information about visual items, e.g. colour, form

Question 29

what is the inner scribe?

Answer 29

it stores the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 30

what is the function of the Central Executive?

Answer 30

it directs attention to particular tasks, it has a very limited capacity, and has no capacity for storing data

Question 31

what is the function of the episodic buffer?

Answer 31

it acts as a general store for information, and can store and process both visual and auditory information

Question 32

who is KF?

Answer 32

a man who was in a motorbike accident which resulted in damage to his short term memory, specifically with verbal recall. when tested, he could only recall 2 items verbally from his short term memory, however, his recall was unaffected when his short term memory was tested using visual information.

Question 33

what are the 3 types of long term memory?

Answer 33

episodic memory, semantic memory, and procedural memory

Question 34

what does the case study of KF suggest?

Answer 34

that the STM must have separate stores for auditory and visual information

Question 35

what is procedural memory?

Answer 35

they relate to motor skills and actions and memories of actions that are carried out in a certain order (knowing how to do things). They're non-declarative, and can be hard to explain, and are unavailable for conscious inspection, we do them automatically.

Question 36

what is episodic memory?

Answer 36

they relate to a specific episode (event) which happened in a persons life, they have a time and place and are an example of an autobiographical memory. they're declarative and can be consciously inspected, meaning you are aware of the specific memory and you can explore it in your mind

Question 37

what are semantic memories?

Answer 37

they relate to meaning, and are fact-based memories which include general knowledge. we may not be able to recall where we learnt and encoded a semantic memory as they're not personal, however they're declarative, so simple to explain

Question 38

how did Tulving study and what did he find about the different types of Long term memory?

Answer 38

he reported data from studies that used PET scans, participants were asked to recall different memories whilst the blood flow in their brain was being monitored. different types of LTMs triggered different parts of the brain, showing how different parts of the brain

Question 39

describe and explain the case study of H.M.

Answer 39

he suffered brain damage after an operation to remove his hippocampus in order to reduce his epilepsy, which left him unable to form new long term memories

Question 40

what is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 40

the lack of ability to form new memories

Question 41

what is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 41

the loss of past memories