multi store model of memory Flashcards

Question

summarise the different stores of the MSM in terms of coding, capacity and duration

Answer 1

sensory register - coding = modality specific capacity = unlimited duration = 250milliseconds short term memory - coding = acoustic capacity = 7+/-2 items duration = 18-30 seconds long term memory - coding = semantic capacity = large potentially unlimited duration = unlimited

Answer 2

Glanzer and Cunitz asked participants to free recall word lists in any order. they noticed that recall was stronger for words at the start and end of the list. this was known as the serial position effect

Answer 3

it describes how our memory is affected by the position of information in a sequence

Answer 4

words early on in the list were put into LTM because the person has more time to rehearse the words due to the primacy effect words later on in the list went into STM due to the recency effect

Answer 5

it showed that they were separate stores holding certain information at certain times

Answer 6

students had a 3 by 4 grid of letters. when presented quickly, they recalled one row. they found that recall for one row was above 75%. this suggests that all rows were contained within capacity of the iconic store so sensory memory is large. with practice, participants became more accurate. this overall shows that STM has capacity of 5-9 items. To recall a whole row, sensory memory would hold all 12 letters. this suggests that the capacity of sensory register is larger than STM

Answer 7

he gave 4 types of word lists = acoustically similiar/dissimiliar and semantically similiar/disimilliar. they either recalled immediately testing STM or after 20 minutes testing LTM. after the immediate testing they found that the worst recall condition was for acoustically similar words. this shows the coding for STM is acoustic as the acoustic similarity of the words caused confusion making it harder to recall

Answer 8

it storage system is coded in a similar way

Answer 9

using the same lists he tested the recall of the students after 20 minutes. the worse recall was for semantically similiar words as it caused confusion. this shows that coding for LTM is semantic

Answer 10

they wanted to know if retrieval was needed to transfer long term info from STM to LTM. they also wanted to investigate the duration of short term memory and provide empirical evidence for the multi store model of memory

Answer 11

lab experiment in which 24 psychology students had to recall trigrams (meaningless 3 consonant syllables). to prevent rehearsal participants were asked to count backwards in threes or fours from specified random numbers till they saw a red light appear. when the red light appeared they would have to say the trigram. this would be in intervals of 3,6,9,12 or 15 or 18 seconds

Answer 12

the longer the interval decay, the less trigrams recalled participants could recall 80% of trigrams after 3 seconds delay. but after 18 seconds less than 10% of trigrams were recalled correctly

Answer 13

STM has limited duration when rehearsal is prevented information is lost from STM using trace decay STM is different from LTM in terms of duration this supports the MSM

Answer 14

- it gives good understanding of structure and process of STM - allows researchers to expand on the model - can do experiments to improve the model and make it valid and to also prove what each individual store does - model is influential as it generates lots of research into memory - the large capacity and short duration of the sensory register matches expectations from evolutionary theory taking in as much information as possible but only processing the important information. too much processing slows down reaction speed. - it may be the only way to clearly measure memory and test its limits

Answer 15

- experiments testing MSM are highly artificial - low ecological validity (the findings dont usually apply to envt for e.g the lab envt is unusual and doesnt reflect places we recall) - not general. they lack mundane realism - may not apply what we have found in memory in experimental conditions to situations out of experiment - not able to directly observe - too simplistic. it suggests that STM and LTM are unitary and passive (just one thing holding on to information) - lacks face validity (we have LTM that are tastes and smells, capacity of STM isnt fixed, changes with practices)