Booklet 1: The Nature and Structure of Memory

Question 1

Define ‘memory’

Answer 1

The process by which we retain information about what has happened in the past.

Question 2

What is short term memory?

Answer 2

Memory for events in present or immediate past.

Question 3

What is long term memory?

Answer 3

Memory for events in the past.

Question 4

What is the duration for STM?

Answer 4

20 seconds (without rehearsal)

Question 5

What is the duration for LTM?

Answer 5

Up to a life time.

Question 6

What is the capacity for STM?

Answer 6

5-9 chunks.

Question 7

What is the capacity for LTM?

Answer 7

Unlimeted.

Question 8

What is the encoding for STM?

Answer 8

Acoustically.

Question 9

What is the encoding for LTM?

Answer 9

Semantically.

Question 10

What is the study into STM capacity?

Answer 10

Jacobs.

Question 11

What is the study into LTM capacity?

Answer 11

Linton.

Question 12

What is the study into STM duration?

Answer 12

Peterson & Peterson.

Question 13

What is the study into LTM duration?

Answer 13

Shepard.

Question 14

What is the study into both STM and LTM encoding?

Answer 14

Baddley.

Question 15

What did Jacobs do?

Answer 15

Showed participants a sliest of numbers or letters and asked them to recall in order they were presented. If they recalled it correctly, another was added until they mistake.
Findings- Numbers = 9 Letters = 7

Question 16

What did Linton do?

Answer 16

Spent 6 years creating a diary of 5, 500 personal events. She tested herself for recognition of events each month.
Findings- she had excellent recall of dates.

Question 17

What did Peterson & Peterson do?

Answer 17

Participants were shown a consonant tried e.g. HGG, then asked to count backwards in 3’s from a specified number, after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 intervals. After this distraction participants were asked to recall the original triad.
FINDINGS- 3 seconds = 80%, 18 seconds = 10%

Question 18

What did Shepard?

Answer 18

Showed participants a picture, and then asked them to view it within 50 other pictures an hour later.
FINDINGS- Could recognise pictures after the hour and 50% of the pictures 4 months later.

Question 19

What did Baddeley do?

Answer 19

Gave participants a list of words either; Semantically dissimilar or similar or acoustically dissimilar or similar.
FINDINGS- Participants had a trouble remembering acoustically similar words in STM but not LTM whereas participants found semantically similar words no problem in STM but difficult in LTM.

Question 20

Name one evaluation point of the research into nature of memory.

Answer 20

Done in an artificial environment so it is unrealistic. Reciting words is not part of everyday life and the words have no meaning therefore there is no consequence for forgetting. Because its an artificial environment the participants also know they are being tested so could show demand characteristics.

Question 21

Name a second evaluation of research into the nature of memory.

Answer 21

It fails to take into account individual differences. The nature of memory varies greatly between people and so cannot generalise these findings to everyone. Lots of the e experiments take part on students so can’t be generalised to the rest of the population.

Question 22

What are the three components of the MSM?

Answer 22

Sensory store, short term store and long term store.

Question 23

What is the first arrow in the MSM?

Answer 23

Environmental stimulus.

Question 24

What is the arrow between sensory store and STS?

Answer 24

Attention.

Question 25

What is the arrow between STS and LTS?

Answer 25

Rehearsal.

Question 26

What is the arrow back from LTS to STS?

Answer 26

Remembering.

Question 27

What is the arrow from both STS and LTS?

Answer 27

Forgetting.

Question 28

Who was the multi store model developed by?

Answer 28

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)

Question 29

What does the model explain?

Answer 29

How one information flows from one storage system to another.

Question 30

What is the evidence to support the claim that STM and LTM are different stores?

Answer 30

Brain scanning- modern techniques of scanning the brain such as PET scans, have found different parts of the brain are active when doing different tasks. For example when doing a task which requires STM the prefrontal cortex is active whereas a task which requires LTM activates the hippocampus. This shows that short term and long term memories must be stored in different part of the brain.

Case studies- Psychologists have also found evidence for different brain stores from cases of individuals with brain damage. For example in the case of HM, who suffered brain damage as a result of an operation to remove his hippocampus to reduce his severe epilepsy. As a result he was no longer able to from new long term memories but his short term memories were unaffected, showing again that the parts of the brain are in different stores.

Question 31

What are the negative evaluation points for the multi store model?

Answer 31

There is a lot of evidence which suggests that there is not just one short term and long term store. For example KF. he suffering brain damage which resulted in difficulty dealing with verbal information in STM but a normal ability to process visual information. This means there must be multiple stores for short term and long term memories.

The idea of rehearsal being the only way to transfer info from STM to LTM has been criticised. For example one study found that participants who were told they were going to be tested on a list of words and therefore were able to rehearse them did not do any better than the participants unaware of the test. The MSM has therefore been criticised for focusing too much on the structure of memory and not enough on the processes involved.

Question 32

Who was the Working memory model devised by?

Answer 32

Baddeley & Hitch- who argued that STM was more complex than a single, temporary store.

Question 33

What are the 3 components of of the WMM?

Answer 33

The central executive (the boss) and the phonological loop and the visio-spatial sketchpad (the slave systems) who each have separate responsibilities.

Question 34

What was the 3rd slave system added by baddeley in 2000?

Answer 34

The episodic buffer.

Question 35

Describe the central executive.

Answer 35

This is the central component of working memory (the boss) It has limited capacity but can process any type of information. Its function is to pay attention to tasks and determine which of the slave systems are allocated to the task. The central executive keeps an eye on what is happening in the slave systems and takes over the most demanding task where necessary.

Question 36

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 36

This deal with auditory information and also has limited capacity. Baddeley further subdivided this loop into 2 parts, the phonological store and the articulatory loop.

The phonological store (the inner ear)- this is responsible for the perception of sound and holds the words that you hear.

The articulatory loop (the inner voice)- this allows words that are heard or seen to be stored through rehearsal by silently repeating them.

Question 37

Explain the visio-spatial sketchpad.

Answer 37

This is responsible for setting up mental images and is what you use if you have to plan a spatial task e.g. it temporally stores visual and spatial information. The visio-spatial sketchpad organises information visually as you would by sketching them out on paper.

Question 38

Explain the episodic buffer.

Answer 38

In 2000, baddeley added the episodic buffer as he realised that the model needed a general store to operate properly. This store integrates the information from the central executive and the other two slave stores as well as the long term memory.

Question 39

What does the working memory model explain?

Answer 39

How it is possible to do 2 tasks at the same time as long as they involve separate parts of the WMM, but when they involve the same store it becomes more difficult, because the store becomes overloaded. For example it is possible to draw and talk at the same time but it isn’t possible to read and talk at the same time because they use the same store.

Question 40

What is a positive evaluation point for the WMM?

Answer 40

There is lots of real life evidence from brain damaged patients & brain scans to suggest separate stores. For example, cases of brain damaged patients- the case of KF. He suffered brain damage which resulted in difficulty dealing with verbal information in STM but a normal ability to process visual information, suggesting separate visual and auditory stores.

Question 41

Explain the first negative AO2 point for the WMM?

Answer 41

There is concern with the vagueness of the tole of the central executive. Because it does not have a measurable function, it is not possible to test and so very little is known about how it works or what it does. Critic feel that simplistic the idea of a single central executive is too simplistic and there are probably several components.

Question 42

Explain the second negative A02 for .

Answer 42

As this model does not fully explain ow information is transferred from the working memory to the long term memory, it can be criticised for not being a comprehensive of memory.

Question 43

Explain the last negative A02 point.

Answer 43

Much of the evidence for this model comes from patients who have suffered brain damage. A major problem with this is that you cannot make ‘before and after’ comparisons, so it is not clear whether changes in behaviour are caused by the damage, Secondly, as the process of the brain damage is traumatic for the individual, this in itself may cause the changes in behaviour.