Memory Flashcards
(81 cards)
What do psychologist believe are the three stages of memory
Encoding- changing he form of information so it can be stored in the memory.
Storage- so it can be held in the memory system
Retrieval- so it can be brought back from the memory system and used.
What do psychologist believe are the three types of memory
Sensory register, short term memory and long term memory
Explain the multi store model of memory
Atkins and shiffrins attempt to explain the flow of memory. Based on the informational process approach: information passes through each stage in a fixed sequence.
External stimulus—–sensory register(decay)—-attentions—-short term memory(displacement)—-rehears—long term memory(decay).
Retrieval is used to get info from the long term to the short term memory.
In the multi store model of memory how does information get from the sensory register to the short term memory
If attention is paid. Attention is about whether you actually consciously take notes of incoming stimulus. Research shows that information not paid attention to has a duration of a few seconds at the most.
What does cognitive psychology focus on and why may it be a problem
Focuses on the way in which we perceive, process, store and respond to information. It is interested in the sensory information and the behaviour. Cognitive psychologist believe the mind is a bit like a computer , calculating, analysing and interpreting information in a systematic way, we have been programmed by experience. This analogy has its flaws since no human behaviour is as neatly predictable as this.
Why do Atkinson and Shiffrin believe rehearsal is important in the multi store model of memory
It acts as a buffer between the sensory register and the long term memory by maintaining incoming information within the short term memory while you consider whether or not you want to process the information further.
It enables Information to be maintained in the short term memory otherwise it is lost because the short term memory has a limited duration.
Enables us to transfer information to the ltm. The longer we rehears the stronger the memory trace.
How would the multi store model say we rehears in information
Rehearsal is normally done by verbal repetition
What does Atkinson and Shiffrin mean by displacement
A process that takes place in the Stm if too much information enters the store. This is because stm has a limited capacity. Once this is reached any other Information pushes out earlier Information.
What is the sensory register according to the msm
It’s not under conscience control, it responds to sensory information by the sense organs and is the first storage system I’m the multi store model.
Experiments to look into the sensory register are often highly artificial and lack mundane realism
How are things stored in the sensory register? According to the msm
What does crowder say about the way information is coded in the sensory register ?
In a raw and unprocessed form.
Separate stores for different sensory input
Information that is paid attention to passed to the stm the rest fade away through decay
Crowder- sr only retains iconic information for a few milli seconds but 2-3 seconds for echoic information. Supporting how the sensory information is processed in different sensory stores.
What is the capacity of the sensory register according to the msm
What was spelling research into the capacity of the sensory register
How may his study be criticised
Very large
Info stored in an unprocessed, highly detailed and ever changing format.
Sperling- flashes a grid of letters on a screen for 0.5 seconds and found that participants could only record up to 4/5 letters. He found that when he asked the participants to respond to cues and focus on one row participant were able to recall up to 75% of letters. Performance improved but still wasn’t 100% suggesting that iconic memory has a limited capacity and the information decays rapidly.
Criticism- participants iq may effect how many letters there recall- such as dyslexia
What is the duration of the sensory register according to the msm
What did Darwen et Al find about the duration of the sensory register
Limited duration
Not constant across all stores
Different sensory stores have different durations. There is some research to suggest that duration decrease with age.
Darwen- presented a letter and a number list to participants through earphones so it seemed to participants that one list came from the left one from the right and one from behind. The participants were then asked to recall the list between 0 to 4 seconds after hearing it. It was found that as the time increased the recall decreased. Suggesting that info in the sensory register is stored in a raw form before being processed.
What is the short term memory according to the msm
Temporarily stores information received from the Sr. It’s an active memory store as it stores info that is currently being though through.
How is info coded in the short term memory according to the Msm
What does Braddeley suggest about the way info is coded in the Stm
Arrives from the Sr In its raw format and is then encoded in a way that the stm can easily deal with it.
Information can be encoded visually, acoustically and semantically. Research suggest that acoustic is the main form of coding in the stm.
Baddeley- give participants 4 lists of words: acoustically similar and dissimilar and semantically similar and dissimilar. He asked ps to recall the list either straight away ( from the stm) or after 20 minutes (from the ltm)
He found that ps recalling from there stm were able to remember the semantically similar words accurately but made some mistakes on the acoustically similar words, recall was 10 percent. Recall from the other list was between 60-80%.
This suggest that stm codes acoustically. The reason participants struggled with the acoustically similar words was because they all enter the same box in the brain as they sound the same. Making it difficult to recall. Acoustically dissimilar words are all being placed in different boxed that cope with different sounds and so recall is easier.
How was the msm describe the capacity of the stm
How does miller study support this
Limited capacity
7+/-2 items is the average number of items individuals can hold in the stm before some items are displaced.
Miller- used the digit span technique to investigate how much information can be stored in the stm. Participants coped reasonably well with counting 7 dots flashed onto a screen but not many more than this. Miller concluded the span of stm to be 7 plus minus 2 he also said the capacity is determined by the number of chunks of info rather than the number of individual letters or numbers.
How would the msm explain the duration of the stm
How may Peterson and Peterson support how the stm is limited
Limited.
Info usually last up to 30 seconds unless items are repeated over and over again.
Peterson and Peterson- presented ps with trigrams ( LDH, CKX) ps were then required to count back in 3s from a given number so they wasn’t rehearsing the trigrams in their head. Ps were asked to stop counting and repeat the trigram after intervals of 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds. 80% of the trigrams were recalled after 3 seconds but as the seconds increased the recall decreased. After 18 seconds ps could recall fewer than 10 % of the trigrams correctly.
How would the msm explain the coding of the ltm
How does Baddeley support this?
The preferred coding in the ltm is semantic.
Baddeley- 4 list of works: semantically similar and dissimilar and acoustically similar and dissimilar. Participants recalling the list from the ltm ( after 20 mins) performed worse on the list that was semantically similar ( 55%) compared to the other lists which recall was between 70 and 85%
Suggesting that the ltm is coded on a semantic basis as words with the same meaning were confused.
How would the msm explain the capacity of the ltm
How Wagenaar support this ?
How can this study be criticises?
Limitless - research can’t determine a finite capacity.
Wagenaar- created a diary of 2,400 events over 6 years he tested himself on recalling the events rather than the dates finding he had an excellent recall suggesting the capacity of the ltm is large. However this is a case study- not representative of the general population- bias- self testing
How does the msm explain the duration of the ltm
What does bahrick propose about the long term memory
Permanent
It can be easily lost again
Duration depends on an individual’s lifespan- many elderly have detailed childhood memories. Items in the ltm have a longer duration if they were coded well. Certain ltm have longer durations- those based on skills rather than facts.
bahrick- showed 400 ps aged between 17-74 a set of photos some of which where ex school friends and asked them to identify the photos. They also give them a free recall test where they where asked to identify the names of those who they have graduated with.
Those who left high school in the last 15 years identified 90% of faces and free recall was 60%
Those who had left 48 years previously identified 70% of faces and there free recall was 30 percent.
Suggesting that distant memory from the past was much better if we are given cues instead of free recall.
Why is the msm an important contribution to memory research
Allows psychologists to conduct studies and further our understanding of memory
How may Craik and Tulving argue with the msm as it proposes “ with rehearsal information with be transferred into the ltm”
Craik and Tulving suggest that it is not the amount of rehearsal time in the stm that determines the long term retention. Rather it is how the info is rehearsed. 2 types of rehearsal-
Maintenance rehearsal- repeating it
Elaborative rehearsal- rehearsed making it meaning full- linking to existing knowledge
How may brown and Kulik argue with the msm and say In fact rehearsal is not crucial in transferring info to the stm to the ltm
Brown and Kulik described a specific type of remembering called “flashbulb memory” where insignificant details surrounding a emotional of shocking event are implicated directly into the ltm without any rehearsal eg- ( twin towers)
Why is the msm good in helping understand the way memory works
It supports the idea that the stm and the ltm are distinct stores, it also supports the claim that rehearsal is needed to keep items in the stm and that displacement happens if you try to hold to much info in the stm.
What two parts is the ltm split into
- Explicit ( conscience)
- episodic memory
- semantic memory - Implicit (unconscious)
- procedural memory