Memory Flashcards
What is cognitive psychology?
Concerned with people’s thought processes and these affect the way they behave.
What is memory?
The process of retaining learned information and accessing it when it’s needed.
What are the processes in memory?
- Coding
- Storage
- Retrieval
What are the memory stores?
- Sensory Register
- Short Term Memory
- Long Term Memory
What is the sensory register?
A short duration store which retains unprocessed impressions of information received through the senses and has a separate sensory store for each input.
What is short term memory?
It is a temporary store received from the sensory register.
What is the long term memory?
It is a permanent store that holds a limitless amount of information for long periods of time.
What is capacity?
The amount of information that can be held before it is displaced or pushed out by new information.
What is duration?
How long information can be held before it decays or fades away.
What is coding?
The way information is changed to be stored.
What is storage?
Keeping information within memory until it is needed.
What is retrieval?
This is recovering information when it is needed.
What is coding in the sensory register?
Coding is modality specific, so each sensory store codes differently.
How is information coded into short term memory and how was this discovered?
A psychologist gave four lists of words to recall; list A where the words sounded similar, list B where the words sounded dissimilar, list C where the words had similar meanings and list D where the words sounded dissimilar. Performance was worse with list A and B and there was no difference between C and D so information is coded acoustically into STM.
How is information coded into long term memory and how was this discovered?
The word recall test with the four lists of words was repeated but this time the participants had to recall after a 20 mins test. Recall if C was worse than D and there was no difference between list A and B. This means that information is coded semantically into LTM.
What is the capacity of sensory register?
Unlimited
What is the capacity of short term memory and how was this discovered?
The digit span test is where there are several sequences of digits or letters and the participants are asked to repeat the sequence in the right order immediately after. The sequence got longer by one item each time and it was found that on average STM can hold 9.3 digits and 7.3 letters. This was reviewed by another psychologist and it was decided that the capacity of STM is 7+/-2.
What is chunking?
This is grouping large amounts of information into smaller groups which helps us remember more.
What is the capacity of long term memory?
The capacity is unlimited but there is no way to accurately measure.
What is the duration of sensory register?
250 milliseconds
What is the duration of short term memory and how was this discovered?
The nonsense trigrams test is where random three consonants were given to recall. The participants had to count backwards from 100 in threes to prevent rehearsal. After 3 seconds they were 90% accurate, after 9 seconds they were 20% accurate and after 18 seconds they were 2% accurate. This means that STM only lasts from 18-30 seconds before it is lost to decay.
What is the duration of long term memory and how was this discovered?
The photo recognition test is where 400 people were shown 50 photos and had to decide if they were class mates or not. They were then asked to list the names of the people they could remember which is free recall. They were 90% accurate at identifying faces 15 years after leaving school and 70% after 48 years. They were 60% accurate at the free recall of names after 15 years and 30% after 48 years. This means the duration of LTM is a lifetime but retrieval failure could occur and retrieval cues are needed.
Who constructed the Multi-Store Model of Memory?
Atkinson and Schiffrin
What is the Multi-Store Model of Memory?
It was designed to show the way information flows from one store to another. It includes the three stores and they all differ in capacity, coding, duration and how information is lost.
What happens in the sensory register in the Multi-Store Model of Memory?
The capacity is unlimited however the duration is 250 milliseconds. Only a small fraction is attended to and selected for further processing. Information is lost due to decay.
How is information kept in and lost from short term memory in the Multi-Store Model of Memory?
It is kept using maintenance rehearsal, which is verbalising and thinking repeatedly. Elaborative rehearsal, organising information in a meaningful way, allows information to be transferred into LTM. Information is lost through decay and displacement.
How is information lost from long term memory in the Multi-Store Model of Memory?
When information is needed it is retrieved by STM to be recalled. Retrieval failure could occur where there is no access to certain information and retrieval cues are needed.
Advantages of the Multi-Store Model of Memory. (3)
- HM
- KF
- serial position
- an attempt to treat an epilepsy patient called HM meant that several parts of his brain had to be removed including the hippocampus. He was unable to code new long term memories but his STM was unaffected. This shows that there is a distinct and separate STM and LTM.
- a patient called KF had a motorbike accident which meant his STM was reduced to a capacity of 1 or 2 digits. His LTM was normal showing STM and LTM are separate stores.
- participants were presented with a long list of words to be recalled in any order (free recall). The words at the beginning and the end were recalled better than the middle. This is because of the serial position effect. The words at the beginning were constantly rehearsed then transferred int LTM, which is the primacy effect and the words at the end were still in the STM, which is the decency effect.
Disadvantages of the Multi-Store Model of Memory. (4)
- types
- retrieve
- oversimplified
- multi-tasking
- KF had a Poor STM for verbal tasks not visual which shows there is more than one type of STM
- long term memories are retrieved by the STM. If the STM is damaged then retrieval shouldn’t be possible but KF could do this.
- it is oversimplified as there are several types of STM, for visual and verbal task. There are several types of LTM too.
- it fails to explain multi-tasking
What are the three types of long term memory?
Episodic, Semantic and Procedural memory.
What are episodic memories and where are they stored?
These are memories of events and are stored in the hippocampus.
What are the three elements to episodic memories?
The specific elements of the event, the context of the event and the emotions felt at the time of the event.
What are semantic memories and where are they stored?
These are our memories of facts and general knowledge about the world. They may relate to things like function of an object or appropriate behaviour or abstract ideas like maths and language. They are stored in the temporal lobe.
What are procedural memories and where are they stored?
These are automatic memories concerned with motor skills and actions that are acquired through practise and repetition. They are stored in the cerebellum.
Advantages of types of long term memory. (4)
- scan
- HM
- Clive
- brain scans showed the hippocampus was active when episodic memories were accessed, semantic memories relied on the temporal lobe and procedural memories were associated with the cerebellum
- HM could form new procedural memories but not others because his hippocampus was destroyed
- Clive Wearing could play the piano (procedural memory) but couldn’t remember memories with his wife (episodic memories)
Disadvantages of types of long term memory. (2)
- priming
- amnesia
- priming is how implicit memories can influence people’s responses/behaviours and is controlled by a brain system separate from systems involved with the LTM. This shows that there is a fourth type of LTM called the perpetual-representation system.
- for 147 amnesia patients had their procedural and perceptual-representation systems intact but episodic and semantic weren’t. This shows that there are four types of long term memory.