Memory

Question 1

What is the capacity of the STM?

Answer 1

Miller’s magic number: 7+-2

easier to remember numbers than letters

Question 2

What is the duration of the STM?

Answer 2

STM- tested by Peterson & Peterson, where participants were asked to recall consonant syllables with retention intervals from 3 to 18 seconds.

they found the duration is less than 18 seconds, as long as verbal rehearsal is prevented

Question 3

What is the duration of the LTM?

Answer 3

Free recall of names of people in graduation photos declined from 60% to 30% from 15 to 48 years (Bahrick et al)

Question 4

Evaluation points for STM capacity

Answer 4

• Cowan (2001) reviewed the studies and found that the capacity is likely to be even more limited to 4 chunks
• the size of the chunk affects how many you can remember: hard to test
• individual differences: capacity is not the same for everyone, recall increases steadily with age

Question 5

Evaluation points for STM duration

Answer 5

• low ecological validity; memorising consonant syllables does not represent everyday memory activities (except phone numbers, postcodes)
• results may be due to displacement rather than decay; the numbers may have just overwritten the letters memorised

Question 6

How are the STM and LTM coded?

Answer 6

STM- acoustically
LTM- semantically

tested by Alan Baddeley

Question 7

Evaluation points for STM and LTM coding

Answer 7

• Baddeley may not have been testing LTM: waiting 20 minutes to recall a word list rather than recalling it straight away does not accurately represent the function of the LTM
• STM may not be exclusively acoustic: visual coding used as well, and semantic.
• LTM may not be exclusively semantic: it can vary according to circumstances. Evidence of different coding found for both

Question 8

Who invented the multi-store model?

Answer 8

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

Question 9

What are the 3 components of the multi-store model and how do they link together?

Answer 9

Sensory Register, Short-term memory, Long-term memory

Environmental stimuli arrive at the sensory register, and if it gives them attention then the information is transferred to the STM. Repetition keeps this information in the STM, but eventually such repetition creates a long-term memory.

Question 10

How does one access information in the LTM in the multi-store model?

Answer 10

Retrieval - the info has to pass back through the STM

Question 11

What are the strengths of the multi-store model?

Answer 11

• Studies using brain scanning techniques have demonstrated that there is a difference between STM and LTM: Beardsley (1997) found that the prefrontal cortex is active during STM but not LTM tasks
• Case studies also show that different areas of the brain are involved in STM and LTM, eg. HM: his hippocampus was removed, and his personality and intellect remained intact but he couldn’t form new LTMs

Question 12

What are the limitations of the multi-store model?

Answer 12

• Too simple: it suggests that the STM and LTM are unitary stores, but they are both in fact split up into a number of qualitatively different stores
• LTM involves more than just maintenance rehearsal; Craik and Lockhart (1972) suggested that enduring memories are created by the processing that you do instead. Things that are processed more ‘deeply’ are more memorable

Question 13

Describe the structure of the working memory model

Answer 13

The central executive directs attention to particular tasks by allocating them to one of the three ‘slave systems’: episodic buffer, phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketch pad.

Question 14

Who proposed the working memory model?

Answer 14

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Question 15

What is the phonological loop, and what is it split into?

Answer 15

The phonological loop deals with auditory information.

1) phonological store: holds words you hear
2) articulatory process: inner voice that repeats words you hear or see

Question 16

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and what is it split into?

Answer 16

The visuo-spatial sketchpad stores visual and/or spatial information, and is used when you have to plan a spatial task.

1) visual cache: stores info about visual items
2) inner scribe: stores arrangement of objects

Question 17

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 17

It integrates information from the other components to send to the LTM and acts as a general store of information. It also maintains a sense of time sequencing

Question 18

What are the strengths of the working memory model?

Answer 18

• Dual task performance: Hitch and Baddeley gave participants task 1 (central executive) and task 2 (just articulatory loop or AL and CE). when task 2 was both, then task 1 was slower, which demonstrates dual task performance effect
• Evidence from brain-damaged patients: Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a man called KF whose short-term forgetting of auditory information was much greater than that of visual stimuli. This suggests that there are separate stores

Question 19

What are the limitations of the working memory model?

Answer 19

• The concept of the central executive is too vague and doesn’t explain much; there are probably several components, and it is more complex than currently represented
• Evidence from brain-damaged patients may be unreliable because the process of brain injury is traumatic, and can change behaviour so someone performs worse on a certain task. They also may have difficulties paying attention to a task as a result.

Question 20

What are the 3 types of long term memory? How are they different?

Answer 20

Procedural- concerned with skills, acquired through repetition and practice. automatic - we can perform other tasks simultaneously

Semantic- knowing that e.g. the capital of England is London. shared facts and knowledge - not personal

Episodic- knowing that e.g. personal experiences, time and place of events. contextual + emotional details

Question 21

Evaluation points for the 3 types of long term memory

Answer 21

1) Evidence from brain scans: different areas of the brain are active when different kinds of LTM are active. episodic and semantic rely on temporal lobe, procedural associated with cerebellum
2) HM: could still form procedural memories, but not episodic or semantic. shows that there is a difference in LTMs

Question 22

Evaluation point against 3 types of long term memory

Answer 22

Episodic and semantic memories may not be so distinct; episodic memories may be a gateway to semantic memories