Coding, Capacity & Duration - What is coding?
- The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.
Coding, Capacity & Duration - What is capacity?
- The amount of information that can be held in a memory store.
Coding, Capacity & Duration - What is duration?
- The length of time information can be held in memory.
Coding, Capacity & Duration - Give an example study of coding.
- Alan Baddeley (1966).
- Gave different lists of words to 4 groups of participants to remember:
1 = words sound similar = acoustic similar
2 = words sound different = acoustic dissimilar
3 = words with similar meanings = semantically similar
4 = words with different meanings = semantically dissimilar - STM recall = worse with acoustically similar.
- LTM recall = worse on semantically similar = info coded semantically in LTM.
Coding, Capacity & Duration - Give an example study of capacity - digit span.
- Joseph Jacobs (1887).
- Researcher gives e.g 4 digits and then ppt asked to recall these in the correct order out loud.
- If correct, researcher reads out 5 digits and so on until ppt can’t correctlys recall.
- Determine an individual’s digit span.
- Mean was 9.3 for digits.
Coding, Capacity & Duration - Give an example study of capacity - span of memory and chunking.
- George Miller (1956).
- Made observations of everyday practice.
- Things come in 7’s = musical scale, days of the week, deadly sins etc.
- Capacity of STM about 7+/-2 items.
- People recall 5 words as well as 5 letters, do this by chunking digits or letters into small groups.
Coding, Capacity & Duration - Give an example study of duration of STM.
- Margaret and Lloyd Peterson (1959).
- 24 undergrad students. Each took part in 8 trials.
- On each trial student given a consonant syllable (e.g YGC).
- Given 3 digit number, told to count backwards until told to stop = prevent rehearsal.
- Each trial stopped at different times, 3 secs, 6, 9, 12, 15 etc.
- Asked for consonant syllable. STM very short duration, unless repeated.
Coding, Capacity & Duration - Give an example study of duration of LTM.
- Harry Bahrick et al. (1975).
- Studied 392 ppts from Ohio aged 17-74.
- High school yearbooks obtained.
- Recall tested differently: photo recognition test, 50 photos, some from year book and free recall test = ppts recalled names of their graduating class.
- Within 15 years of graduation = 90% accurate - photo recognition
- After 48 years of graduation = 70% accurate - photo recognition.
- Within 15 years of graduation = 60% accurate - free recall.
- Within 48 years of graduation = 30% accurate - free recall.
Multi-Store Model of Memory - What is MSM?
- A representation of how memory works in terms of 3 stores.
- Sensory register, STM and LTM.
- Describes how info transferred from 1 store to another, how it’s remembered and how it’s forgotten.
Multi-Store Model of Memory - Explain the sensory register.
- For 5 senses.
- Duration = less than 1/2 a second.
- Capacity = high e.g over 100 million cells in one eye.
- Coded = differently depending on info e.g. two main stores iconic & echoic = coded visually in iconic and acoustically in echoic.
- Passes to STM if you pay attention to it.
Multi-Store Model of Memory - What is the short term memory?
- Duration = about 30 secs unless rehearsed.
- Capacity = 5-9 items roughly.
- Coded = acoustically.
- Maintenance rehearsal = repeat material to ourselves over and over again. If rehearse for long enough it passes to LTM.
Multi-Store Model of Memory - What is the long term memory?
- Potentially permanent store.
- Duration = years.
- Capacity = unlimited.
- Coded = semantically (in terms of meaning).
- When we want to recall, has to transfer back to STM by a process called retrieval.
Multi-Store Model of Memory - Describe the case study of HM.
- Brain surgery to relieve his epilepsy = gone wrong.
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Types of LTM - What is episodic memory?
- Recall events from our lives.
- ‘Time-stamped’ = remember when they happened.
- One memory = several elements e.g place, people, object, behaviours etc, all interwoven.
- Make conscious effort to recall them = may be quick but still aware of it.
Types of LTM - What is semantic memory?
- Knowledge of the world.
- Not ‘time-stamped’, less personal and more about facts we share.
- More than just facts, contains an immense collection of material which is constantly being added to.
- Need to be recalled deliberately.
Types of LTM - What is procedural memory?
- How to do things e.g skills, actions.
- Recall these without making a conscious or deliberate effort.
Working Memory Model - What is the working memory model?
- A representation of STM. It suggests STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision-making system.
Working Memory Model - What is the central executive?
- The component of the WMM that co-ordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory. It also allocates processing resources to those activities.
- Very limited processing capacity.
Working Memory Model - What is the phonological loop?
- Processes information in terms of sound.
- Includes both written and spoken material.
- Divided into two parts:
Phonological store = stores words.
Articulatory process = allows maintenance rehearsal.
Working Memory Model - What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
- Component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called our ‘inner eye’.
- Limited capacity = Baddeley (2003) 3-4 objects.
- Divided into two parts:
Visual cache = stores visual data.
Inner scribe = records arrangements of objects in visual field.
Working Memory Model - What is the episodic buffer?
- Component of WMM that brings together material from te other subsystems into a single memory, rather than separate strands.
- Provides a bridge between working memory and LTM.
- Links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception.
Forgetting: Interference - What is interference?
- Forgetting because one memory blocks another causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.
- There are two types.
Forgetting: Interference - What is proactive interference?
- When older memories disrupt the recall of newer memories.
- Usually when memories are similar.
Forgetting: Interference - What is retroactive interference?
- When newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories.
- Usually when memories are similar.
Forgetting: Interference - Outline a study on interference as an explanation of forgetting.
- McGeoch and McDonald (1931).
- Studied retroactive interference by changing amount of similarity between 2 sets of materials.
- Ppts had to learn a list of words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy, then given a new list to learn.
- 6 groups of ppts who had to learn different types of lists.
- When recalled original list of words, performance depended on nature of second list. Most similar = worst recall.
- Shows interference strongest when memories = similar.
Forgetting: Retrieval Failure - What is retrieval failure?
- A form of forgetting. Occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory.
- Memory available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.
Forgetting: Retrieval Failure - What is a cue?
- A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked to being encoded at the time of learning.
- For example cues may be external (environmental) or internal (mood).