Memory: Introduction, Types Of LTM, MSM, WMM

Question 1

What Is Memory?

Answer 1

• Memory refers to the process by which we retain information about events that have happened in the past.
• There are two types short term memory and long term memory.

Question 2

STM - Capacity, Coding, Duration.

Answer 2

• Capacity: 7 +/- 2 (Jacob + Miller).
• Coding: Acoustic (Baddeley).
• Duration: 18-30 seconds (Peterson + Peterson).

Question 3

LTM - Capacity, Coding, Duration.

Answer 3

• Capacity: Unlimited.
• Coding: Semantic (Baddeley).
• Duration: Unlimited (Bahrick).

Question 4

Baddeley (1966) Research Into Coding In STM And LTM.

Answer 4

Aim: He researched coding STM and LTM.
Procedure: Used 4 sets of words lists (acoustically/semantically paired with similar/dissimilar). Participants had to recall the order of the list of words either immediate (STM) or after 20 minutes (LTM)
Findings: Participants given the list of acoustically similar words had worst recall, they confused the similar words.
Conclusion: Found information was coded semantically in LTM and acoustically in STM.

Question 5

Jacobs (1887) Research In Capacity Of STM.

Answer 5

Aim: Researched capacity of STM.
Procedure: Developed a technique to measure digit span.
Findings: Found the mean span for digits across participants was 9.3. Found that the mean span for letter was 7.3.
Conclusion: Discovered STM has a limited capacity.

Question 6

Millers (1956) Research Into Capacity Of STM.

Answer 6

Aim: Researched capacity of STM.
Procedure: Did some research similar to Jacobs. Investigated chunking of STM.
Findings: The capacity of STM is about 7 items.
Conclusion: Noted that things come in 7s.

Question 7

Peterson And Peterson (1956) Research Into Duration Of STM.

Answer 7

Aim: Researched duration of STM.
Procedure: Used constant syllables such as BNT in their research. Used counting backwards to prevent rehearsal.
Findings: Found that participants remembered 90% when there was a 3 second interval and about 2% when there was a 18 second interval.
Conclusion: Suggested when rehearsal is prevented, STM lasts about 20 seconds at most.

Question 8

Bahrick (1975) Research Into Duration Of LTM.

Answer 8

Aim: Researched duration of LTM.
Procedure: He tested the recall of participants of people they had went to school with, using photo recognition and free recall.
Findings: Found that 90% accuracy for photo recognition for participants who graduated 15 years ago and 60% accuracy for free recall.
Conclusion: LTM can last a very long time, potentially a lifetime.

Question 9

The Multi-Store Model (MSM).

Answer 9

• Atkinson and Shiffrin developed MSM which is a representation of how memory works using three stores (sensory register, STM, LTM).

Question 10

What Is The Sensory Register?

Answer 10

• Where information from our senses is stored.
• Included stimulus from the environment such as sight, sounds and smells.
• Two main stores in SR are called iconic memory and echoic memory.
• Iconic memory is more for visual information which is coded visually.
• Echoic memory is more for auditory information which is coded acoustically.
• Have high capacity, duration less than half a second, coding is either echoic or iconic.

Question 11

Sensory Register - Capacity, Coding, Duration.

Answer 11

• Capacity: High.
• Coding: Iconic or Echoic.
• Duration: Less than half a second.

Question 12

Short Term Memory.

Answer 12

• Capacity 7 +/- 2 however can be increased through chunking information.
• Duration is brief (18-30 seconds) but maintenance rehearsal helps retain information in STM.
• Prolonged rehearsal allows information from STM go to LTM.

Question 13

Long Term Memory.

Answer 13

• LTM can be permanent memory store for information that has been rehearsed.
• Has unlimited capacity and duration.
• In order to recall information it needs to be transferred back to STM known as retrieval.

Question 14

HM Case Study.

Answer 14

• He had a brain injury so doctor removed part of his brain (hippocampus) however this part was important as it helped store LTM.
• He lost most of his memory from the previous decade and unable form new ones.
• However his unconscious motor remembered more than the conscious motor.

Question 15

KF Case Study.

Answer 15

• Involved in a serious motorcycle accident which led to amnesia.
• Shallice and Warrington discovered that KF’s STM for digits was very poor when they were read out to him. However his recall of digits were better when he read them himself.
• KF still could add memories to LTM even though his STM was damaged and couldn’t repeat more than 2 digits.

Question 16

HM Case Study Evaluation For MSM: Strength - Supports Central Feature Of MSM.

Answer 16

• The case of HM supports the central feature of MSM that there are two separate and independent memory stores, STM and LTM.
• HM’s LTM was badly damaged, however testing showed that the STM wasn’t as effected.
• This is evidence that it is possible to suffer damage to one of these stores and the other remain unaffected.
• Therefore, it can be concluded that the STM and LTM are separate.

Question 17

KF Case Study Evaluation For MSM: Weakness - Doesn’t Provide Full Explanation.

Answer 17

• The case of KF can be used as a limitation to MSM.
• Shallice and Warrington found that KF’s STM for digits was very poor when they read them out loud to him.
• But his recall was much better when he was able to read the digits himself.
• Therefore, there must be different STM stores to process different types of information; visual and auditory.
• This therefore suggests that STM is not unitary and the MSM doe not reflect this.

Question 18

MSM Evaluation: Weakness - Rehearsal Type Is Important.

Answer 18

• The MSM states that what matters in rehearsal is the amount of it that you do.
• The more you rehearse information, the more likely it is to transfer to the LTM.
• However, research suggests that this prediction is wrong.
• Craik and Watkins found that what really matters about rehearsal is the type.
• They discovered 2 types of rehearsal , maintenance and elaborative.
• This is a limitation of the MSM because it is another research finding that cannot be explained by the model.

Question 19

MSM Evaluation: Weakness - Lacks Realism/Artificial Stimulli.

Answer 19

• MSM can be criticised as some research uses artificial stimuli.
• For example, Peterson and Peterson used nonsense trigrams to investigate the duration of STM.
• Trigrams bear little resemblance to items learned in real life and therefore this research lacks mundane realism.

Question 20

MSM Evaluation: Weakness - Over-simplified.

Answer 20

• It can be argued that MSM is over-simplified.
• Evidence suggests that there are multiple short and long-term memory stores.
• The MSM does not take these into account and simplifies memory into three compartments.

Question 21

MSM Evaluation: Strength - Qualitatively Different Acknowledge.

Answer 21

• The MSM is supported by research studies that show STM and LTM are qualitatively different.
• For example, Baddeley found that we tend to confuse words that sound similar when we use our STMs.
• But we mix up words that are semantically similar when we use our LTMs.
• This clearly shows that coding in STM is acoustic and in LTM is semantic.
• So, the fact that they are different, supports the MSM’s view that these two memory stores are separate and independent.

Question 22

Types Of LTM.

Answer 22

• Tulving believed MSM was too simplistic.
• LTM is anything that lasts longer than 30 seconds.
• There is semantic, episodic and procedural memory.

Question 23

What Is Semantic Memory?

Answer 23

• Type of LTM.
• Store for our knowledge of the world.
• Conscious recall of facts that have meaning.
• Explicit - consciously recalled.
• Need to be recalled deliberately.

Question 24

What Is Episodic Memory?

Answer 24

• Type Of LTM.
• Refers to any events that can be reported from a person’s life.
• Includes memories of when events occurred and of the people etc involved.
• Explicit.
• Need conscious retrieval and takes effort

Question 25

What Is Procedural Memory?

Answer 25

• Knowledge of how to do things
• Describes our implicit knowledge of tasks that usually do not require conscious recall to perform them.
• Implicit - no conscious recall.

Question 26

Different LTM Evaluation: Strength - Supporting Evidence.

Answer 26

• Case studies can be used to support Tulving’s different LTM stores.
• Clive Wearing had an intact procedural and semantic memory, however a damaged episodic memory.
• If it is possible to damage some stores, whilst others are unaffected, they must be separate stores.

Question 27

Different LTM Evaluation: Weakness - Questionable Evidence.

Answer 27

• A limitation of Tulving’s LTM stores is that evidence comes from people with brain damage.
• Cases such as HM are used as evidence for the model.
• Clinical studies are not perfect, for example, there is a serious lack of control of different variables.
• This means that we are unable to determine a cause and effect.

Question 28

Different LTM Evaluation: Strength - Practical Application.

Answer 28

• Knowledge of different aspects of LTM allow Psychologists to assist patients with memory problems.
• Belleville et al demonstrated that episodic memories can be improved in older individuals with mild cognitive impairment.
• Episodic memory is the type of memory not often affected by cognitive impairment and this highlights the benefit of being able to distinguish the types of LTM.

Question 29

Different LTM Evaluation: Strength - Brain Scan Support.

Answer 29

• There is also evidence from brain scan studies to suggest that different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain.
• Tulving et al found that episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex, whereas semantic memories were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex.
• This supports that there is a physical reality to the different types of LTM in the brain.

Question 30

Different LTM Evaluation: Weakness - Disagreement Between LTM.

Answer 30

• There is a disagreement about whether episodic and semantic memories are different or whether there are only 2 types of LTM.
• Cohen and Squire argue that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in one store called declarative memory.
• These are memories that can be consciously recalled, whereas procedural are non-declarative.
• Therefore it can be argued that there are only 2 LTM memory stores.

Question 31

Working Memory Model Introduction.

Answer 31

• Baddeley and Hitch developed WMM which focuses on STM.
• Believed MSM was too simplified.
• WMM is composed of 4 different components each have different coding and capacity.

Question 32

What Is The Central Executive?

Answer 32

• Component of WMM that coordinates the activities of the 3 subsystems in memory.
• Also allocates processing resources to those activities.
• Only able to deal with one stand of info at a time.
• Has limited capacity.
• Coding: Modality Free.

Question 33

What Is The Phonological Loop?

Answer 33

• Component of WMM that processes information through sound (includes written and spoken material).
• Codes acoustically .
• Capacity is 2 seconds.
• Divided into phonological store and the articulatory process.
• Articulatory process (inner voice) of language, allows maintenance rehearsal.
• Phonological store (inner ear) holds auditory speech information.

Question 34

What Is Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad?

Answer 34

• A component of WMM that stores and process visual and spatial information, is known as our ‘inner eye.’
• Capacity of 3-4 objects.
• Divided into visual cache (stores visual info about colour and form) and inner scribe (deals with spatial relationship and the arrangements of objects).

Question 35

What Is Episodic Buffer?

Answer 35

• A component of the WMM that brings material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands.
• Also a bridge between working memory and long term memory.
• Limited capacity of 4 chunks.
• Coding: Modality Free.

Question 36

WMM Evaluation: Strength - Case Study Support.

Answer 36

• The study of patient KF who had suffered brain damage is one example of case study support for WMM.
• After the accident KF had difficulty with sounds but could recall letters and digits.
• He had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information.
• Suggests that his phonological loop had been damaged.
• This supports WMM as it shows the existence of separate STM stores for visual and acoustic information.

Question 37

WMM Evaluation: Weakness - Evidence Comes From People With Brain Damage.

Answer 37

• A limitation of Baddeley’s WMM is that evidence comes from people with brain damage.
• Cases such as KF are used as evidence for the model.
• This evidence may not be reliable as it uses patients who have had unique traumatic experiences.
• It may mean that performance of brain damage people is not the same as those without brain damage.
• Therefore must be cautious when generalising results to population.

Question 38

WMM Evaluation: Strength - Dual-Task Perfromance.

Answer 38

• Studies of dual-task performance support the separate existence of visuo-spatial sketchpad.
• Baddeley et al showed that participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks simultaneously than doing both visual and verbal task at the same time.
• The increase difficulty for the two visual task is because they were competing in the same system (visuo-spatial sketchpad), whereas when doing a verbal and visual task there were no competition between the components.
• This means there must be separate systems therefore supporting the existence of separate STM stores for visual and acoustic information.

Question 39

WMM Evaluation: Weakness - Lack Of Clarity Over The Central Executive.

Answer 39

• Cognitive psychologists suggests there is a lack of clarity over the central executive.
• It is argued that this part of the model isn’t really explained.
• Baddeley argued that the central executive was the most important but least understood component.
• The central executive needs to be more clearly specified than just being an attentional process.
• This means that the WMM has not been fully explained, and the model is therefore limited as it is incomplete.

Question 40

WMM Evaluation: Strength - Brain Scan Support

Answer 40

• Further support for the model comes from studies that have completed brain scans.
• Braver et al (1997) gave their participants tasks that involved the central executive while they were having a brain scan.
• The researchers found that greater activity in an area known as the left prefrontal cortex.
• Ask the task increased in difficulty, so did the activity in left prefrontal cortex.
• This can be explained by the WMM; as demands on the central executive increases, it must work harder to fulfil its function.
• This suggests that there is biological or physical brain basis to the central executive components of the WMM.