memory - atkinson & shiffrin (1968) multistoremodelofmemory

Question 1

3 distinct stores in our memory system?

Answer 1

• sensory register
• stm
• ltm

Question 2

define sensory register

Answer 2

our immediate memory of sensory info.

Question 3

define attention

Answer 3

focus on certain sensory information.

Question 4

features of sensory register?

Answer 4

• receives all sensory info around us; holds it very briefly.
• if paid attention to it, transferred into STM where we can process it further.
• no atttention paid = decays.

Question 5

define iconic memory

Answer 5

sensory register for visual information.

Question 6

define echoic memory

Answer 6

sensory register for auditory (sound) information.

Question 7

what are the other sensory registers?

Answer 7

• gustatory (taste)
• olfactory (smell)
• tacticle (touch)

Question 8

what do atkinson & shiffrin describe stm as?
and whats the definition of it

Answer 8

modality free: not linked to a specific type of sensory information

Question 9

george miller (1956)

Answer 9

• average stm can hold between 5-9 chunks of info.
• or 7+-2

Question 10

strength (evidence for multi-store model of memory)

Answer 10

Ben Murdock (1962)
* serial position effect - tendency to recall more words at beginning (primacy) & end (recency) of a word list.
* primacy occurs bc words at beginning of list had been rehearsed & transferred into LTM.
* recency occurs bc words still being held in stm.
* words in middle recalled less; not been enough time to rehearse them in to ltm b4 they were displaced from stm.

Question 11

strength

Answer 11

• lot of evidence to support theory of separate memory stores. cases of amnesia show how brain injury can damage LTM, while stm remains intact.

Question 12

weaknesses

Answer 12

• overstating role of rehearsal as a means of transferring info into stm. things can be remembered bc they were meaningful.
• unlikely we have one type of ltm.
  clive wearing suffered damage to part of memory storing personal events, other parts of memory still intact (playing piano.)
  demonstrates that we have several diff types of ltm.

Question 13

define primacy

Answer 13

tendency to recall words at the beginning of a list when asked to remember it.

Question 14

define recency

Answer 14

the tendency to recall words at the end of a list when asked to remember it.