Memory

Question 1

what are the 3 storage systems in the MSM developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin

Answer 1

sensory input -> sensory memory –attention–> STM – rehearsal–> LTM

Question 2

what is meant by capacity

Answer 2

amount of info the memory store can hold

Question 3

what is meant by duration

Answer 3

length of time the memory store can hold info

Question 4

what is meant by encoding

Answer 4

the way info is stored/processed into memory (e.g. acoustic, visual, semantic)

transforming incoming info into a form that can be stored in memory

Question 5

outline the sensory memory store

Answer 5

capacity = limited by amount of info that can be physiologically received, but potentially very large

duration = 250 milliseconds (up to 2s max)

coding = multimodal (ionic, echoic, haptic)

forgetting = mostly decay

Question 6

outline the STM store

Answer 6

capacity = 7+/-2 digits or chunks of info

duration = 18-30s (w/o rehearsal)

coding = acoustic

forgetting = mostly displacement

Question 7

outline the LTM store

Answer 7

capacity = unlimited

duration = up to a lifetime

coding = semantic

forgetting = mostly inference and cue/context-dependent forgetting

Question 9

describe 3 sensory memory registers

Answer 9

ionic = visual sensory register ~ what we see and = fast decaying

echoic = auditory info

haptic = recalls stimuli acquired by touch

Question 10

describe research into capacity of the SS

Answer 10

sperling

found that ppts were able to process/absorb almost all the matrix (12 letters)

shows that SS = large capacity

Question 11

describe research into duration of SS

Answer 11

treisman

found that ppts were able to notice if auditory messages were identical when the delay between the messages was 2s or less

shows SS duration = 2s and less

Question 12

describe research into encoding in SS

Answer 12

crowder

founds sensory memory retains info in the:
- ionic store = few milliseconds
- echoic store = 2-3 sec

shows that sensory info is coded in diff ways ~ SS = multi-modal

Question 13

describe research into capacity of STM

Answer 13

jacobs

used the digit span technique and found ppts could recall and average sequence length of:
- 7.3 letters
- 9.3 numbers

shows capacity of STM = 7+/- chunks/items of info

Question 14

describe research into duration of STM

Answer 14

peterson + peterson

ppts had to recall trigrams (3 letters)
found as duration of interference task increased, accuracy of trigram recall decreased
recall = particularly poor when inference = 15-18s

shows duration of STM = around 18-30s