Memory Flashcards
(35 cards)
What is an eye witness testimony?
A description of an event given by people at the scene, i.e identification of people, speed or vehicles, ect.
What are the 3 separate stores and unitary stores of the Multi-store Model of Memory - Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968).
- Sensory Register
- Short-term Memory
- Long-term Memory
What is the process of the Multi-store Model of Memory: Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968).
- Sensory Information is received through the senses.
- The Sensory information enters the Sensory Register (held for 0.25 seconds, then will decay if not attended to).
- If it’s attended to it will be transferred to the ST Memory Store. Info can remain in ST memory if rehearsed but not for long.
- Info can be transferred to the LT store if rehearsed enough. Info in LT memory can be retrieved when needed and potentially remain there forever.
What is the definition of Capacity?
- How much information can be held by a store.
What is the definition of Duration?
- How long the information can be stored for in a store.
What is the definition of Coding + examples?
- How the information is processed into something that can be stored.
- E.g. Acoustically by sound or semantically by meaning.
What is the Capacity of the Sensory Register + research evidence?
Capacity of Sensory Register = Unlimited
- Sperling (1960): Ppts were presented with a 3x4 letter grid for 1/20th of a second. When a high, medium or low pitched tone was produced to indicate which row was to be recalled, ppts scored 3/4.
Since ppt did not know which row they had to recall the information had to be available somewhere. - This suggested capacity of sensory register = unlimited.
What is the Duration of the Sensory Register?
- No research.
Duration of the Sensory Register = 250 milliseconds.
What is the Coding of the Sensory Register + stores for each sense?
Coding for the Sensory Register = Modality Specific.
Modality specific = separate sensory stores for different sensory stores for different sensory inputs.
- Echoic for sounds👂
- Iconic for sight 👀
- Olfactory for smells👃
- Gustatory for taste 👅
What is the Capacity of the Short Term Memory (STM) + research evidence?
Capacity of STM = Limited (7 +/-2 chunks).
- Jacobs (1887) devised the ‘serial digit span technique’. He presented ppts with a sequence of numbers and using the serial recall procedure, asked the ppts to repeat back the letter or digits to him in the same order in which they were presented.
- Found that the average STM span (no of words accurately recalled) was between 5-9 items.
What is the Duration of the STM + research evidence?
Duration of the STM = 18-30 seconds.
- Brown & Peterson briefly showed ppts constant trigrams (e.g. AJB) and were given an interference task of counting backwards in 3s to prevent rehearsal.
- After intervals of 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds they were asked to recall the trigram.
- The intervention task didn’t affect recall after 3 seconds but as time increased between the presentation of the trigram and recall, performance declined.
- After 18 seconds, the memory trace for the trigram had decayed.
What is the Coding of the STM Memory + Research?
Coding of STM = mainly acoustic (sound).
Baddley (1966): Focused on identifying errors in the recall of semantically similar and dissimilar words and errors in the recall of acoustically similar and dissimilar words.
- Ppts (independent groups) were presented 4 sets of words and had to recall them.
1. Acoustically similar (cup, cum, drum).
2. Acoustically dissimilar (bed, cat, wet).
3. Semantically similar (hard, solid).
4. Semantically dissimilar (top, good, noise). - Found that in ST memory task there was acoustic confusion with words that sound alike.
What is the Capacity of the LTM?
- No research evidence.
Capacity of the LTM = unlimited.
What is the Duration of the LTM + Research evidence?
P - Duration of LTM = lifetime (unlimited).
E - Bahrick et al (1975) showed 400 ppts aged 17-74yrs a set of photos + a list of names, some of which were old school friends, and were asked to identify their school friends in the photos.
E - Those that had left school 48yrs ago recalled 80% of names and 70% of faces.
L - Suggesting that memory of names + faces is long lasting.
What is the Coding in the LTM + research evidence?
Coding in the LTM = mainly semantic (meaning).
Baddley (1966): Focused on identifying errors in the recall of semantically similar and dissimilar words and errors in the recall of acoustically similar and dissimilar words.
- Ppts (independent groups) were presented 4 sets of words and had to recall them.
1. Acoustically similar (cup, cum, drum).
2. Acoustically dissimilar (bed, cat, wet).
3. Semantically similar (hard, solid).
4. Semantically dissimilar (top, good, noise). - When ppts were given a LTM task there was semantic confusion with words with a similar meaning.
Strength of the Multi-store Model of Memory - Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968).
P - Supporting evidence because they are located in different areas of the brain.
E - Research using brain scans has revealed that STM is located in the Pre-frontal Cortex and LTM in the Hippocampus.
E - Further supported by case studies such as HM. HM has his Hippocampus removed and was unable to form new LT memories, but his STM was not affected.
L - Shows that STM and LTM are unitary and separate stores as the MSM suggests.
Criticism of Multi-store Model of Memory: Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968).
P - Contradictory evidence of the MSM.
E - Clive Wearing suggests that LTM memory is more complicated than just a UNITARY store.
E - Clive Wearing had some LT memories intact (still able to play piano) but was unable to recognise photos of his Cambridge College.
L - Suggests a distinction in LTM between procedural memories (how to do something), semantic and episodic and therefore the stores are not UNITARY.
Practical Application of the Multi-store Model of Memory: Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968).
P - Led to many practical applications.
E - One example is that the MSM states that rehearsal (elaborative) results in information being transferred from the STM to LTM.
E - This could be applied to designing revision techniques for students in education. E.g. it is more useful to extract meaning from information than to repeatedly read info.
L - This means that the MSM of memory has uses in the real world.
What are the stores in the Working Memory Model: Baddeley & Hitch.
- Central Executive (The Boss).
- Episodic Buffer.
- Visuo-spatial Sketchpad = Visual Cache + Visual Scribe.
- Phonological Loop = Articulatory Control System + Phonological Store.
How does the Working Memory Model work?
- The Working Memory is an ACTIVE PROCESSOR that manipulates and analyses information.
- ST memory is divided into several different components each of which is qualitatively different especially in terms of its coding and capacity.
What is the Central Executive: Working Memory Model?
Central Executive = The Boss of the model.
- DIRECTS ATTENTION to particular tasks and decides to send data to the phonological or visual part of the STM to be stored and manipulated.
- Very limited capacity, so can only attend a limited number of things at any time.
- Also deals with cognitive tasks such as mental arithmetic and problem solving.
What is the Phonological Loop: Working Memory Model?
- Subdivided into the Phonological Store (holds the words you hear, an inner ear) and the Articulatory Process (silently repeating words you hear, an inner voice).
- Stores a limited no of speech based sounds for brief periods.
- Very limited capacity.
What is the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad: Working Memory Model?
- Involves holding visual and spatial information (inner eye).
- Used when you have to plan a spatial task.
- Contains the Visual Cache (stores info about form and colour) and the Visual Scrive (rehearses info from visual cache and transfer it to the central executive.
- Very limited capacity.
What is the Episodic Buffer: Working Memory Model?
- Temporary store for info integrating the visual, spatial, and verbal info processed by the other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing (what order they took place in).
- Storage component of the central executive.
- Links the working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes (perception).
- Limited capacity (4 chunks) - Baddeley 2012.
