Cognitive Flashcards
1
Q
Outline the Multi Store Model
A
- Information from the environment passes through sensory register to sensory memory
- If you pay attention to the sensory memory it passes through to short term memory (acoustic encoding)
- Elaborative rehearsal passes it though to long term memory (semantic encoding)
-All ca be lost by displacement or decay
2
Q
Short Term Memory Capacity?
A
- Miller (1956): the STM can hold ‘the magic number seven, plus or minus two’
- Duration – 18-30 seconds
3
Q
Short Term Memory Duration?
A
-Peterson & Peterson (1959) got students to recall combinations of 3 letters (trigrams), after longer and longer intervals.
- Participants shown trigrams and then distracted, were able to recall about 90% after 3 seconds and only 5% after 18 seconds.
- This shows that the duration for which STM can retain info is temporary and will be lost unless it is rehearsed.
4
Q
Long Term Memory Encoding?
A
- Baddeley (1966) presented lists of 10 short words one at a time.
- Found that after 20 mins, they did poorly on the semantically similar words.
- This suggests that we encode LTMs according to what they mean – so we get similar-meaning things confused!
5
Q
Strength of MSM -case studies
A
- Clive Wearing and HM
- The MSM explains their disability as a failure to rehearse information, preventing them from encoding information in LTM.
6
Q
Strength of MSM -researchers
A
- Glanzer and Cunitz conducted an experiment where participants recalled a list of 20 words.
- They were interested in seeing if the position of the words had any effect on whether participants can recall them
- Participants recalled more words from the beginning (primacy effect) and the end (recency effect) of the word list.
- The words in the middle were poorly recalled.
- The words in the beginning were rehearsed more and had been linked to the long term store.
- The words in the end occupied the capacity of the short term store, displacing the words in the middle.
-This research provides evidence that the short term store and the long term store are separate and process memories differently.
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7
Q
Weakness of MSM
A
- It does not account for memories which do not require rehearsal eg flashbulb memory.
- This directly contradicts the Multi-store model which says that information must be rehearsed in order to be transferred to the LTM
- Its description of STM may be too simplistic.
- Dual task experiments show that we perform poorly when trying to complete two similar tasks at the same time (eg two verbal tasks), but we perform well when doing two tasks of a different nature (eg on verbal and one visual).
- This dual capacity cannot be explained by MSM as it suggests that the limited capacity of STM is not dependent on the type of information.
Therefore Working Memory may be a better explanation as it explains dual task performance and is seen as a more dynamic model of STM.
8
Q
Outline the Working Memory Model
A
- Central Executive: briefly process different forms of information.
- It focuses, divides and switches our limited attention.
- It monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave subsystems to tasks.
- Has a very limited processing capacity and does not store information
- Phonological Loop: Auditory short term memory
- Can store and repeat verbal information for a limited period of time.
- Two subcomponents:
1) The articulatory process, e.g. remembering a phone number by repeating it in your head.
2) The phonological store, e.g. you will be able to hold an auditory memory of your teachers last sentence when she dictates notes to you in class.
-Visuo-spatial sketchpad: Visual and spatial short term memory – temporarily stores visual and/or spatial information.
- Episodic buffer:
- Temporary store that integrates the acoustic, visual and spatial information processed by other subsystems.
- It also maintains a sense of time sequencing, basically recording events (episodes) that are happening.
9
Q
Outline Tulving’s Long Term Memory Theory
split into 4 sections
A
- Episodic memory: These are autobiographical
- Semantic memory: Facts/knowledge of something, but you do not recall how you gained the knowledge. Like a mental encyclopedia.
1) Nature of memory
2) Time referencing
3) Spatial Referencing
4) Retrieval
10
Q
Strength of WMM
A
- There is evidence from brain damaged patients which support the idea of separate short-term memory stores.
- KF suffered brain damage after a motorbike accident and this left him unable to form or recall memories of personal events in his life (episodic). However, he was able to recall factual information (semantic).
- This case study supports the idea of separate long-term stores, but also indicates that these may be stored in different regions of the brain giving avenues for further research.
11
Q
Weakness of WMM
A
- Other case studies such as that of HM and Clive wearing, demonstrate a weakness of the model.
- In both of these cases they were unable to recall long-term memories from episodic storage, however they were able to remember how to perform tasks, for example Clive Wearing could still play the piano.
- Therefore, there must be a further long-term store for remembering practiced skills. In a reformulation of his theory, Tulving 1985, suggested we have a separate procedural memory which contains memory for skills and abilities such as learning grammar or riding a bike.
12
Q
What is Reconstructive memory and what does it consist of?
A
-Bartlett considers memory as reconstructive, not split into stores. It is based from previous knowledge and experiences
- A schema is an organised package of information that stores our knowledge about the world
- A schema is made up of all our previous experiences and expectations about an event
- Schemas are good: These preexisting frameworks of knowledge can be used to predict things and make short cuts when encountering new situations
- Schemas are bad: Can lead to prejudice, e.g. You have schemas for certain groups of people, which can lead to you to become prejudiced against them
13
Q
Study for Reconstructive memory
A
- The aim of his study was to see if cultural background and unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion of memory when the story was recalled.
- Bartlett had 20 British participants learn a Native American story named “The War of Ghosts”.
- The participants read the story at their normal reading speed, then made their first reproduction 15 minutes after.
- This was then repeated over several time intervals, few hours, days, weeks, even years…
- This process of repeating the story over time is known as serial reproduction.
- It was culturally unfamiliar to the participants which would make it easier for him to examine the transformations.
- It lacked any rational story order.
- The dramatic nature of the story would encourage visual imaging.
14
Q
3 Patterns of distortion (Bartlett)
A
-The story was changed in 3 ways:
Confabulation: The story became more consistent with the participants’ own cultural expectations. E.g. objects within the story were made more familiar – ‘canoe’ was changed to ‘boat’, ‘hunting seals’ changed to ‘fishing’.
- Levelling: The story also became shorter with each retelling as participants omitted information which was seen as not important. (330 words – 180 words) E.g. Many participants did not grasp the role of the ghosts in the story, so simply omitted to mention them.
- Rationalisation: Participants also tended to change the order of the story in order to make sense of it using terms more familiar to the culture of the participants.
15
Q
Strength of Bartlett’s study
A
- In his “War of Ghosts” study participants altered the story upon each recall, omitting and rationalising the information.
- Therefore this illustrates how we have SUBJECTIVE MEMORY
