Atkinson-Shiffrin's Multi-Store Model Of Memory: Sensory Memory

Question 1

Define: sensory memory

Answer 1

The entry point of memory where new incoming sensory information is received in raw form by each sensory system.

Question 2

Does sensory memory have unlimited storage capacity?

Answer 2

Yes

Question 3

Does sensory memory have limited storage duration?

Answer 3

Yes, depending on which sensory register.

Question 4

What does sensory memory have to be long enough for?

Answer 4

For each sensory impression to slightly overlap the next so we perceive the world as continuous (eg. movies as moving, remembering sentences); and to attend to info to be put in STm

Question 5

Why is the sensory memory limited in duration?

Answer 5

Prevents us from otherwise being overwhelmed by huge amounts of incoming sensory information.
Allows us to filter the irrelevant from the relevant??

Question 6

Is there a separate sensory register for each of the 5 senses?

Answer 6

Yes; eg. visual sensory register (iconic mem) and auditory sensory register (echoic mem)

Question 7

Define: iconic memory

Answer 7

Visual sensory memory

Question 8

Duration of iconic memory?

Answer 8

0.3 seconds - long enough for visual stimuli to be recognised and processed/perceive the visual world as continuously moving

Question 9

Who’s research demonstrated the existence of the iconic memory?

Answer 9

George Sperling’s 1960 research

Question 10

Describe George Sperling’s research

Answer 10

Tachistoscope flashed sets of 12 letters for 1/20th of a second, could name only 4-5 letters despite recognising that they had saw 12 (conc: all letters registered but image of letters faded from iconic memory to say all)
Letters flash then tone sounded (high tone: report letters from top row, as with medium and low tone). Could repeat rows with 75% accuracy (conc: whole pattern of letters was momentarily stored in iconic memory, and could recall as attention was immediately directed to row)
Delayed tone helped determine how long image was retained in iconic mem - 0.2-0.4 seconds.

Question 11

Who were the participants of George Sperling’s research?

Answer 11

University students and a work colleauge

Question 12

Define: echoic memory

Answer 12

Auditory sensory memory which stores all types of sounds in raw form

Question 13

Storage duration of echoic memory?

Answer 13

3-4 seconds.

Question 14

Describe how echoic memory enables speech comprehension.

Answer 14

The 3-4 second duration allows us to blend the successive spoken sounds we hear holistically and as meaningful words/phrases/sentences; if 0.3 seconds then speech might be perceived as separate sounds

Question 15

How does information enter the short term memory from the sensory memory?

Answer 15

When we attend to the sensory stimuli.