Models of memory

Question 1

What are the 2 models of memory?

Answer 1

Multi store and Working Memory

Question 2

Sensory store (MSM)

Answer 2

Encoded - not specific - senses
Duration - limited - memories decay rapidly
Capacity - large

Question 3

Evidence for sensory store

Answer 3

Sperling - ppts presented with a visual array of letters and are asked to recall them - info forgotten quickly and delayed recall of information

Question 4

STM (MSM)

Answer 4

• if there is already information in the STM, old information will be displaced
• if info is not rehearsed, it will decay

Encoded - verbal form
Duration - 18 seconds on average
Capacity - 7 items on average

Question 5

Evidence for STM

Answer 5

Peterson and Peterson - ppts shown trigrams and then given interference task before having to recall the trigram - tasks were between 3-18 seconds - longer the task, the more decay of memory

Question 6

LTM (MSM)

Answer 6

Encoded - depends on rehearsal process
Duration - infinite
Capacity - very large

Question 7

Evidence for LTM

Answer 7

Bahrick - 90% high school class mates correctly identified photos from a year book 15 years after leaving school - 70-80% correctly identified them after 48 years of leaving

Question 8

Strengths of MSM

Answer 8

• Bahrick, Peterson and Peterson, Sperling - research evidence - valid
• Real life evidence - HM - brain damage caused him to have a faulty LTM where he couldn’t remember events over the last 45 years, but STM remained in tact - valid - shows separate stores

Question 9

Weaknesses of MSM

Answer 9

• Eco val - research done by Peterson and Peterson (trigrams) - not something asked to be done in every day life - may not represent the ability of the STM

Question 10

What does the WMM focus on?

Answer 10

STM

Question 11

What is the role of the working memory?

Answer 11

To temporarily store information being used

Question 12

What is the WM fragile to?

Answer 12

distractions, overload and overwork

Question 13

What is the central executive?

Answer 13

controls flow of information

Question 14

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 14

Phonological store - stores limited amount of auditory information for a few seconds - stores the info

Articulatory control - reverses verbal information in the mind and articulates what it means - processes the info

Question 15

What is the visouspatial sketchpad?

Answer 15

holds sight info

• visual cache - colour and form
• inner scribe - spatial and movement
  e.g - rely on this to find our way home

Question 16

Strengths

Answer 16

• Case study - KF - had a motorbike accident - had a digit span of 2 - suggests phonological store was damaged as he couldn’t remember verbal info but could still remember visual info such as peoples faces
• Baddeley and Hitch - dual task experiment - ppts did 2 visual tasks (following a light with a pointer and tracing edges of letter F) and couldn’t complete it - 1 visual and 1 verbal task could be completed at the same time

Question 17

Weaknesses

Answer 17

• Eco val - artificial tasks used in experiments and highly controlled environments - may have impacted performance
• Validity - later studies added in episodic buffer