a-level_psychology_3_1_2_memory_20240615133045 Flashcards
What does Coding mean?
The format in which info is stored in the various memory stores
What does Capacity mean?
The amount of info that can be held in a memory store at a given time
What does Duration mean?
How much time information can be held in a memory store
What is Short Term Memory (STM) and what are it’s properties?
- The limited capacity memory store
- Coding is mainly acoustic
- Capacity is between 5-9 items
- Duration is between 18-30 seconds
What is Long Term Memory (LTM)?
- The permanent memory store
- Coding is mainly semantic
- Unlimited Capacity
- Unlimited store of memories
What are the Research Studies for Short Term Memory?
- Baddeley- Coding
- Jacob/Miller - Capacity
- Peterson and Peterson - Duration
What are the Research Studies for Long Term Memory?
- Baddeley - Coding
- Duration - Bahrick
x
Desribe Baddeley’s study. (Aims, Procedure, Findings, Conclusions)
- Aims- Assess whether coding in STM was mainly semantic or acoustic
- Procedure - Uses word lists like cat, mat. There were 4 sets of word lists - acoustically similiar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similiar, semantically dissimilar. Participants had to recall order of word lists. Done immediately to assess STM, 20 min after to assess LTM
- Findings - Participants given list of acoustically similiar words had worst recall. Confused similiar sounds word. Participants given list of semantically similiar words had worst recall.
- Conclusion - Poor recall showed words were confused. For immediate recall, acoustically sounding words weren’t remembered well. Suggests STM is acoustically coded, people remembered other lists fine. For delayed recall, semantically sound words weren’t remebered well. LTM is semantically coded
Desrcibe Jacobs (1887) Study.
- Aims- Research capacity of STM
- Procedure - Developed technique to measure digit span - how many items an individual can remember in sequence and repeat in order
- Findings - Found mean span for digit was 9.3 items. For letters it was 7.3
- Conclusion - Memory can hold 7-9 items
Describe Miller (1956) study.
- Aim - Research capacity of STM
- Procedure - Saw things came in sevens (days of week). Chunked items into groups
- Findings - Found people could recall 5 words, and 5 letters
- Conclusion - Used term ‘magical number 7’ to describe capacity
Desribe Peterson and Peterson (1956) study.
- Aim - Research duration of STM
- Procedure - 24 students did 8 trials and were given consonant syllable (BNT) and a three-digit number and asked to count back down to stop rehearsal
- Findings - STM lasts 18s after this hard to recall
- Conclusion - STM has a very short duration, unless rehearsed
Describe Bahrick (1975) study.
- Aim - Research duration of LTM
- Procedure - Tested recall of people participants had gone to school with using photo recognition and free recall
- Findings - 90% accuracy for photo recog with people who graduated in 15 years and 60% accuracy for free recall. After 48 years, photo recog = 70% and other 30%
- Conclusion - LTM lasts a long time
Baddeley
What is a Limitation of the Research into Capacity, Coding and Duration of STM and LTM?
- Baddeley’s study didn’t have any meaningful material
- Words had no personal meaning
- When info is meaningful people will use semantic coding even in STM
Jacob (too old)
What is a Limitation of the Research into Capacity, Coding and Duration of STM and LTM?
- Jacob’s study was conducted a long time ago
- Early research lacked control of extraneous variables
- Some participants = distracted
- Reduces validity of finding
Miller (oversimplified)
What is a Limitation of the Research into Capacity, Coding and Duration of STM and LTM?
- Miller’s research may have oversimplified capacity in STM
- Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and said that capacity of STM was only 4 chunks lower than 5-9 itms
- Accepted capacity of STM = inaccurate
Peterson (artificial)
What is a Limitation of the Research into Capacity, Coding and Duration of STM and LTM?
- Peterson and Peterson used artificial stimuli
- YCG doesn’t represent real life
- Lacks external validity
Bahrick (real life + extr var)
What is a Limitation and Strength of the Research into Capacity, Coding and Duration of STM and LTM?
- Bahrick = high external validity
- Used memories of real life
- Real life is more accurately representative
- Confounding var not controlled - may have looked at photos before experiment
What is the Multi Store Model of Memory?
- A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores; sensory register, STM and LTM.
- Describes how info is transferred from one store to another, how it’s remembered and how its forgotten.
What does Sensory Register mean (SR)?
[3]
- The memory store for each of our 5 senses, such as vision (iconic store) and hearing (echoic store)
- Coding in iconic sensory register is visual and in the echoic sensory register it’s acoustic.
- Capacity of SR is huge and info lasts for very short time - less than half a second
What does Short Term Memory mean?
Revision
The limited capacity memory store. Coding is mainly acoustic and cacpaity is between 5 to 9 items. Duration is 18s-30s
What does Long Term Memory mean?
Revision
The permanent memory store. Coding is semantic and it has unlimited capacity. Duration is unlimited.
What does iconic store mean?
Vision
What does echoic store mean?
Hearing
What is the coding in the iconic ensory register?
Visual
What is the coding in the echoic sensory register?
Acoustic
What is the capacity for Sensory Register?
Huge
What is the duration of SR?
Less than half a second
What is the coding for Sensory Register overall? [5]
- Iconic
- Echoic
- Olfactory
- Haptic
- Gustatory
Who developed the Multi Store Model of Memory and when?
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
What happens after half a second when info is stored?
It’s forgotten
The SR is _____ specific.
Modality
What does Modality specific mean?
Whichever sense is registered will match the way it is consequently held (for e.g. taste is held as taste)
If attended to, where can sensory information move into for temporary storage?
STM
How is temporary storage primarily encoded?
Acoustic (sound)
How can you increase the capacity of the STM from 30 s?
Chunking (converting a string of items into a number of larger ‘chunks’)
How can you consolidate information from STM to LTM?
Rehearse information via the rehearsal loop helps to retain info in STM, and then conslidate it to LTM
LTM and STM is different
What is a Strength of the Multi Store Model of Memory theory? [3]
- There’s a lot of research to support the fact that STM and LTM are different
- For e.g. KF who was brain damaged, had impaired STM. But his LTM, after testing, was still intact
- STM and LTM are different memory stores
What is another Strength of Multi Store Model of Memory? [3]
- It makes sense that LTM memories are coded semantically
- For e.g. you might recall general example in a political speech, rather than all the words
- MSM has face validity
What is a Limitation of Multi Store Model of Memory? [3]
- MSM incorrectly says STM is single, unitary store
- Shalice and Waarington found that amnesia patient KF had poor STM recall for auditory stimuli, but good recall for visual stimuli
- KF can differentiate between verbal and non-verbal sounds, shows different types of STM
What is another Limitation for Multi Store Model of Memory? [3]
- MSM says amount of maintenance rehearsal determines likelihood info will pass into LTM
- Craik and Watson says it’s type of rehearsal that’s more important.
- They suggest elaborative rehearsal is needed to transfer info from STM into LTM - by making links with existing knowledge
What does Episodic Memory mean?
[3]
- A long term memory store for personal events.
- It includes memories of when events occured and of people, places etc. involved
- Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort
What does Semantic Memory mean?
[3]
- A long term memory store for our knowldge of the world
- This includes facts and our knowledge of what words/concepts mean
- Memories need to be recalled deliberately
What is Procedural Memory?
- A long term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things
- This includes our memories of learned skills
- We recall these memories without conscious or deliberate effort
What does Explicit/Declarative mean?
Memories that can be inspected and recalled consciously
What does Implicit mean?
Memories that are unable to be consciously recalled
What is Episodic memory a LTM store for?
Personal events
What is Semantic memory a LTM store for?
Our knowledge of the world
What is Procedural memory a LTM store for?
For knowledge on how to do things
Which LTM types is explicit?
[2]
- Episodic Memory
- Semantic Memory
Which LTM type is implicit?
Procedural memory
Episodic memories are “time ——–”
Stamped
What parts of brain is involved in coding of episodic memories (initial coding + consolidation and storage) ?
[2]
- Prefrontal cortex is involved in initial coding
- Neocortex and hippocampus involved in consolidation and storage
What parts of brain is involved in Semantic Memory?
[3]
- Hippocampus
- Frontal lobes
- Temporal lobes
What parts of brain is involved in Procedural Memory?
[3]
- Primary motor cortex
- Cerebellum
- Prefrontal cortex
Different → Treatments → episodic memory training
What is a Strength of the Different types of LTM?
[4]
- Identifying different types of memory allows treatments to be developed
- Belleville showed episodic memories could be improved in individuals with mild cognitive impairment
- Trained participant did better on test of episodic memory than control group
- Real life applications of research
What is a Limitation of Different types of LTM?
- Argument if episodic memory and semantic memory are seperate
- Cohen & Squire not agree with Tulving LTM three types - they argue only two. Declarative vs Non-Declarative
- Difficult to seperate episodic and semantic memory - both stored in PFC
What is the Working Memory Model?
A representation of STM that suggests STM is a dynamic processor of info using sub-units controlled by a central decision-making system
What is the Central Executive?
[2]
- The component of WMM that controls activities of three subsystems in memory.
- It also allocates processing resources to those activities
What is the Chronological Loop?
[2]
- Part of WMM that processes info in terms of sound (written, spoken material)
- Divided into phonological store and articulatory process
What is the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad?
The part of WMM that processes visual and spatial info in a mental space often called our ‘inner eye’
What is an Episodic Buffer?
[2]
- Component of WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory than seperate strands
- It’s also a bridge between working memory and long-term memory
What does WMM suggest the STM is made up of?
[4]
- The central executive
- The phonological loop
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad
- Episodic buffer
What is the Central Executive often described as?
An attentional process
What type of coding is Central Executive?
All sensory forms
What type of coding is Phonlogical Loop?
Auditory
What type of coding is Visuo-spatial sketchpad?
[2]
- Visual
- Spatial
What type of coding is Episodic Buffer?
All sensory forms
What is the capacity of Central Executive?
One strand of info at a time
What is the capacity of Phonological Loop?
Amount of info that can be spoken out loud in 2 seconds
What is the capacity of Visuo-Spatial sketchpad?
3 or 4 objects
What is the capacity of Episodic Buffer?
4 chunks of info
Who developed the Working Memory Model? And when?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
What part of Memory does the WMM specifically focus on?
The short term memory
over-simplifying
What was Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Multi-store Model of memory criticized for?
- For over-simplifying STM as a single, unitary store
- WMM said STM is composed of three, limited capacity stores
What does the Central Executive manage?
Attention
What does the Central Executive (CE) control information from?
Two ‘slave’ stores
What demands are placed on CE?
Attentional demands - completeing new task and need focus
What does the Phonological Loop temporarily retain?
It temporarily retains language-based information in auditory form
What doesa articulatory rehearsal prcoess do?
[4]
- It’s the ‘inner voice’ of language
- Allows maintainance rehearsal
- Includes any language presented visually then converted to a phonological state
- Involves subvocal repetition
What does the Phonological store do?
- It’s the ‘inner eye’
- Holds auditory speech info and the order in which it was heard
What is the main purpose of the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad?
Navigation
What does the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad retain? And for how long?
[2]
It temporarily retains visual and spatial information
How many items can the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad hold?
It can hold 3 or 4 items at one time
Within the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad, what does the visual cache do?
[2]
It stores visual information about form and colour
Within the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad, what does the inner scribe do?
[2]
It deals with spatial relationships and arrangement of objects
What does the Episodic Buffer do?
Helps communication between components of the WMM and long-term memory
Where does Episodic Bufgfer integrate info from?
From other store
Episodic Buffer integrates info from other stores and maintains a sense of ________________.
Time sequencing
What does the Central Executive actually do?
It’s the ‘sorter’
What controls where the info is going between Phonological Loop or Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad?
The central executive
What is the link between central executive and long-term memory?
Episodic buffer
Which research did the WMM stem from?
Dual-task technique (interference tasks)
What happens in ‘dual-task technique’?
Performance is measured as participants perform two tasks simultaneously
What happens to task performance if one store is utilised for both tasks? Why?
- Task perfromance is poorer than when it’s completed seperately
- Due to store’s limited capacity
What happens to task performance, if different stores is used for a task?
- Performance is unaffected
- e.g. “the the the” repeat aloud whilst doing reasoning task is fine
Shalic and Warrington - KF amnesia
What is a strength for Working Memory Model?
- Support come from Shalic and Warrington’s study of patient KF who had amnesia
- After damage, KF had poor STM abaility for verbal info, but could process visual info fine
- Phonological loop is damaged, leaving other parts of memory intact
- Evidence to support that STM has different stores for visual and acoutsic info
no clarity over CE
What is a limitation for WMM?
- there’s a lack of clarity over central executive
- Model isn’t really explained
- Needs to be more specified than just attentional process
- WMM is incomplete
What is a strength of WMM?
- Brain scanning supports WMM
- Braver et al gave participants tasks that used centrale xecutive whilst brain scna and found lots of activity in left prefrontal cortex
- As difficulty increased, activity in left prefrontal cortex ncreased
- WMM makes snese
- Biologuila bases
What is limitation of WMM?
- Evidence from case studies need to be treated with caution
- Evidence not reliable because unnique cases with aptient
- Baslien measuremnts not taken behaviour
- No control to compare