Memory models

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

Memory is the process by which we retain and recall information about events that have happened in the past.

Question 2

What is STM?

Answer 2

Your memory for immediate events, which disappears if not rehearsed.

Question 3

What is LTM?

Answer 3

Your memory for events that have happened in the past from anywhere between 2 minutes and 100 years ago. It is the permanent memory store.

Question 4

What is the sensory register?

Answer 4

A part of memory that stores a huge amount information from our senses for a very brief amount of time (about half a second).

Question 5

What is duration?

Answer 5

The length of time information can be held in the memory store.

Question 6

What is capacity?

Answer 6

The amount of information that can be stored.

Question 7

What is coding?

Answer 7

The format in which information is stored in the memory stores. It’s the process of converting information from one format to another.

Question 8

What is the capacity of STM?

Answer 8

Limited - between 5 and 9 items.

Question 9

What is the duration of STM?

Answer 9

(18 to 20s) Roughly up to 30 seconds.

Question 10

How is STM coded?

Answer 10

Acoustically

Question 11

What is the capacity of LTM?

Answer 11

Potentially unlimited.

Question 12

What is the duration of LTM?

Answer 12

potentially up to a lifetime.

Question 13

How is LTM coded?

Answer 13

Semantically

Question 14

What is a model of memory?

Answer 14

A model of memory is a representation of memory. It is based on available evidence. A model provides us with an analogy of how memory works.

Question 15

What did Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) suggest about memory?

Answer 15

That memory is made up of three unitary (separate/different) stores:
- The sensory register
- Short-term memory
- Long-term memory

Question 16

What was the multi-store model of memory?

Answer 16

The first complex model of human memory that suggested that each store is different/separate (unitary) and information is transferred from one store to another in a fixed, linear sequence.

Question 17

What are the 5 stores of the sensory register?

Answer 17

Iconic store for visual information, echoic store for sound information, haptic store for tactile information, olfactory for smell information, and gustatory for taste information.

Question 18

What is the capacity of the sensory register?

Answer 18

High (e.g. Over 1 hundred million cells in one eye.

Question 19

What is the duration of the sensory register?

Answer 19

Less than 0.5 seconds.

Question 20

How much information is lost from the sensory register?

Answer 20

95-99% lost as we do not pay attention to it.

Question 21

How is the sensory register coded?

Answer 21

Each store of the sensory register are coded differently

Question 22

How does information transfer from the sensory register to the STM?

Answer 22

Attention

Question 23

How is information transferred from the LTM to STM (MSM)?

Answer 23

It is retrieved from LTM to STM then used as a response in your STM.

Question 24

How is information transferred from STM to LTM (MSM)?

Answer 24

Prolonged rehearsal.

Question 25

How does information stay in STM (MSM)?

Answer 25

Maintenance rehearsal.

Question 26

What is an episodic memory? | 3 details

Answer 26

Our ability to recall personal life events (episodes). These are time-stamped (you remember when they happened). They are complex as a memory of a single episode will include several elements e.g. people, places, objects and behaviours that are interwoven to produce a single memory. You have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories (you are aware that you’re searching for a memory).

Question 27

What is a semantic memory?

Answer 27

Our knowledge of the world such as facts and what words and concepts mean. It has been likened to a combination of an encyclopaedia and dictionary. These memories are not time-stamped (we don’t usually remember when we first learned them). You have to make a conscious effort to recall semantic memories (you are aware that you’re searching for a memory).

Question 27

What is procedural memory?

Answer 27

It is our memory for learned actions or motor skills. We can recall them without conscious awareness or a great deal of effort e.g. driving a car. We find it hard to explain these to someone else. They are not time stamped.

Question 28

3 key features of episodic memory?

Answer 28

- Can be expressed verbally (recalled with conscious effort) – available for conscious inspection (explicit) - Time-stamped – with reference to time and place - May be less resistant to amnesia/forgetting

Question 29

3 key features of procedural memory?

Answer 29

- Difficult to explain verbally (recall without conscious awareness) – unavailable for conscious inspection (implicit) - Not time-stamped - May be more resistant to amnesia/forgetting

Question 30

3 key features of semantic memory?

Answer 30

- Can be expressed verbally (recalled with conscious effort) – available for conscious inspection (explicit) - Not time-stamped - May be less resistant to amnesia/forgetting

Question 31

What is the working memory model?

Answer 31

A representation of how short-term memory is organised and how it functions. It suggests that STM is an **active processor** of different types of information using **sub-units** that are **coordinated** by a central decision-making system.

Question 32

Who proposed the WMM?

Answer 32

It was proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974 as an updated version of STM.

Question 33

What are the 4 main components of the WMM?

Answer 33

Phonological loop, Central executive, episodic buffer, Visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Question 34

What is the function of the Central executive?

Answer 34

Coordinates activity of the three slave systems. Takes in info from senses and LTM, makes decisions and allocates tasks to slave systems.

Question 35

What is the capacity of the Central executive?

Answer 35

Storage - 0, processing - limited

Question 36

What is the coding of the Central executive?

Answer 36

All of the senses and LTM

Question 37

What is the function of the phonological loop?

Answer 37

Processes and temporarily stores information in terms of sound, preserving order in which the information arrives, including both written and spoken material.

Question 38

What are the subcomponents of the phonological loop?

Answer 38

The phonological store and the articulatory process