MSM Flashcards
(9 cards)
Clive Wearing supports the MSM..
In free recall experiments, they show good recency effects but extremely poor primacy effects. Showing he had a normal STM, but were unable to transfer information into the LTM, supporting the different stores of memory.
CW criticises the model for being too simple..
He could still play the piano and remember his wife, showing some LTM. There seems to be more than one type of LTM. Critics have argued this model doesn’t differentiate enough between procedural, semantic and declarative memories
Craik and Watkins(1973) critiques the idea of rehearsal..
Participants rehearse a number of certain words from a list. Found that recall was unrelated to duration in STM or the number of times words were rehearsed. Suggesting rehearsal of info does not necessarily lead to better recall
Lab studies using free recall experiments proved empirical evidence for the model…
High control over variables enable clear cause and effect. The primacy and recency effects have shown that performance on certain memory tasks can’t be explained in terms of a STM and LTM distinction.
Lab studies are also a weakness…
Artificial settings mean research is low in ecological validity. Therefore can’t explain how the theory works in the real world
Case studies are a weakness…
As it is testing one unique individual with brain damage. Therefore hard to generalise their results to general population not explaining how memory works for ‘normal’
Application: Theory would benefit students…
It can explain that in order to create LTM’s need to repeat the info again and again. Therefore gives teachers revision strategies to use in the classroom
Credibility: Mere rehearsal is also too simple a process to account for the transfer of info from STM to LTM..
The model ignores factors such as effort and strategy participants may use when learning and does not account for the type of info taken into memory. A better theory would be levels of processing which considers elaborative learning where info is processed according to meaningfulness unlike MSM which states it’s just about how many times you rehearse it
Credibility: Model can be seen as too simplistic of an explanation…
The way info from LTM influences what is regarded as important and relevant enough to be paid attention to in the sensory memory and helps meaningful chunking of info in STM. It under emphasises interaction between the stores
