Cognitive

Question 1

who is the multistore model of memory propose by?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968

Question 2

what does the multistore model consist of?

Answer 2

Sensory Memory, STM, LTM

Question 3

what type of encoding is primarily used in the STM and LTM?

Answer 3

STM: Acoustic
LTM: Semantic

Question 4

what are the seneses?

Answer 4

sight, taste, sound, smell or touch

Question 5

give an overview of the sensory memory?

Answer 5

it is the shortest memory store and receives information through the 5 senses.
It is ultra short and the duration is 200 - 500 milliseconds.

Question 6

give an overview of the short term memory?

Answer 6

Information will transfer to the STM is if attention is payed to the information.
The duration is 15-30 seconds.
The capacity is 5-9 items (displacement can occur if there are too many items - chunking can help with retrieval)
Encoding happens mainly auditory an d visually.
Retrieval happens due to a sequential scan.
it will transfer to the LTM when we make sense of the information and give it a verbal label (we rehearse it).

Displacement will occur and there are too explanations, the primary effect (info learnt first will be remembered as it has been rehearsed and moved to LTM) and the recency effect (info learnt most recently will be remembered as it is still in the STM).

Interference shows new information will get in the way of old information and prevent it being transfered to the LTM.

Question 7

give an overview of LTM?

Answer 7

Occurs when information is rehearsed in the rehearsal loop and then information is transfered to LTM.

Capacity: Unlimited
Duration: Unlimited
Encoding: Rehearsal of info will move it to LTM
Retrieval: Recognition (remembering info because association due to a prompt e.g. object with one previously encountered/experienced. - usually passive, passes through the limbic areas to generate a sense of familiarity and linking up with the cortical path to be processed
Recall involved remembering even if the thing (object/event etc) is not there, it involved actively reconstructing the information.

Question 8

Give 2 strengths of the MSM?

Answer 8

1) Serial position effect by Glanzer and Cunitz 1966, they found people recalled more words from the beginning and the end (primacy and recency effect) and fewest from the middle, this shows there is a STM and a LTM as shows by MSM.

2) Supporting Evidence for MSM is from the case study of the brain damaged patient HM who had a severely damaged LTM by intact STM, shows they are separate systems.
- bicycle accident

Question 8

Give 2 weaknesses of MSM?

Answer 8

1) Reductionist model due to it only having 1 STM and 1 LTM. WMM shows they have multiple stores splitting the STM into visuo-spatial and acoustic stores and LTM into episodic, semantic and procedural memory. - Far more complex than MSM says.

2) The studies which support the MSM use nonsense syllables like PRQ like in Peterson and Peterson 1959. This means the results do not illustrate the different ways we use memory in day to day life but instead focuses on verbal learning which is not the only way we process/remember.

Question 9

Who proposed the Working Memory Model (classic study)?

Answer 9

Baddeley 1966b

Question 9

what did Baddeley’s 1966b study test?

Answer 9

The influence of acoustic and semantic similarities on long term memory for word sequences

Question 10

what does STM and LTM mostly encode through?

Answer 10

STM: Acoustic and a little bit of visual for storing information

LTM: Semantically (some evidence to show it encodes through sound as well e.g. when a word is on the tip of our tongue).

Question 11

What does acoustic encoding mean?

Answer 11

processing and encoding of sound, words etc for input for storage and later retrieval. (concept of phonological loop allows us to sub-vocally rehearse after input within the echoic memory).

Question 12

what does semantic encoding mean?

Answer 12

encoding information that has a particular meaning or can be applied to a particular context

Question 13

In Baddeley’s 1966b study what do the acoustic and semantic recall test for? (STM or LTM).

Answer 13

Acoustic - STM
Semantic - LTM

Question 14

who proposed that the LTM can be split into two memory types? - The explanation of LTM

Answer 14

Tulving 1972

Question 15

what is episodic memory?

Answer 15

events that have happened to us e.g. first day of school

Question 16

what is semantic memory?

Answer 16

memory for meaning such as words and symbols etc - FACTS e.g. knowing than an MP is a type of politician

Question 17

what is declarative memory?

Answer 17

episodic and semantic - it is the conscious recollection of facts and events

Question 18

what is procedural memory?

Answer 18

knowing how to do something

Question 19

what is the nature of semantic episodic memory?

Answer 19

Tulving proposed that semantic related to a mental representation of facts, words, meanings and knowledge e.g. a nurse works in a hospital.
Episodic is like a ‘mental diary’ which stores information about experiences and events - these are linked to time and context

Question 20

what is time referencing (in Tulvings explantation of LTM)?

Answer 20

he believed that episodic memory was time referenced e.g. your first day of school is linked to a date the event happened.

HOWEVER…..

Semantic is factual memory and can be recalled without you remembering when you learnt the information e.g. you cant remember when you learnt London is the capital of England.

Question 21

what is spatial referencing (in Tulvings explantation of LTM)?

Answer 21

it refers to when something occurred, episodic memory is continuous and links to a frame of reference e.g. birthday party
Semantic is more fragmented

Question 22

what is retrieval (in Tulvings explantation of LTM)?

Answer 22

Episodic memory needs context to be recalled - context aids the retrieval of information, whereas, semantic does not need context to be retrieved.
Episodic ids susceptible to memory alteration, semantic leaves the memory trace intact of aspects.

Question 23

Do episodic and Semantic memory overlap?

Answer 23

YES, the semantic memory is usually derived from the episodic memory in that we learn new facts from experiences and episodic memory is considered to support and underpin semantic memory.
Memory can transition from episodic to semantic as the memory is reduced in sensitivity and association to particular events so that information can be generalised as semantic memory.

Semantic can work along e.g. remembering Romeo and Juliet does not require you to remember the lesson you learnt it in but episodic may require semantic as you often need to know knowledge of objects, people and events to completely understand. - This overlap can be referred to as AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY - a memory system linking episodic memories and semantic memories.

Researchers agree there is a gradual change from episodic to semantic as we age. e.g. learning how to use a phone may start as episodic with playing with a toy phone but then moves to LTM as you don’t remember playing with the toy phone.

Question 24

give 2 strengths of Tulvings 1972 explanation of LTM?

Answer 24

1) Ostergaard 1987 described a 10 year old boy with brain damage following a anoxic episode (lack of oxygen to the brain). He suffered damage to his episodic but not semantic memory. - He was able to make academic progress, this shows separate stores.

2) KC 1951-2014, they suffered specific LTM impairment to his episodic memory resulting in an inability to recall/form personal events due to a motorbike accident. - He could recall facts, this shows 2 separate memory stores in the LTM.

Question 25

give 2 weaknesses for Tulvings 1972 explanation of LTM?

Answer 25

1) Research into the separate stores is difficult as the stores work together so isolating them and measuring them is not always possible as there is a suggestion there is some which makes accurate measurement difficult.

3) The case study evidence like that of Ostegaard and KC that provide evidence for the semantic and episodic distinctions provided by Tulving need to be viewed cautiously as they are unique cases and cannot be easily generalised to others, so there may be individual differences in the memory processes of those patients on whom the case study is based.

Question 26

who proposed the working memory model?

Answer 26

Baddeley and Hitch 1974

Question 27

what is the central executive and explain what it is?

Answer 27

It is the control centre responsible for coordinating the other slave units. - It can process information from any of the senses and has a minimal storage capacity.
We use it when focusing on more than one thing at a time, it switches our attention between the two, if you try to use your phone whilst driving you are stretching your central executive.

Mikaye et al 2000 proposed its 3 primary functions:

Inhibition: Being able to block something happening and focus on something else e.g. a football game outside your classroom

Shifting Attention: switch back and forth

Slave systems: Organisation hub and is served by other sub-units that are modality specific.

Question 28

what is the phonological loop and explain what it is?

Answer 28

The Phonological Loop seems to be split into two sub-systems: an Articulatory Loop (inner voice) which voices information you are rehearsing and a Primary Acoustic Store which just holds on to the memory of sounds. The Articulatory Loop (or Process) engages in something called “subvocalising” which is that mental “talking to yourself” that goes on in your head. It’s similar to the Rehearsal Loop in the Multi Store Model.

It stores a limited number of speech-based sounds for a brief period.
It has 2 components:

1) The phonological store: Allows acoustically coded items to be stored for a brief period. It relies on acoustic encoding for storage. - Studies have shown phonological and articulatory factors compete for phonological capacity and affect verbal WM performance. - THIS IS SHOWN BY THE PHONOLOGICAL SIMILARITY EFFECT, ITEMS WHICH HAVE TO BE HELD THAT ARE SIMILAR PHONOLOGICALLY ARE MORE EASILY LOST! (sound similar)

2) Articulatory processing: speaking of the presented items by the inner voice - WORD-LENGTH EFFECT causes performance of recall to drop. - IT IS NOT THE number of syllables but the time taken to pronounce.
The longer it takes to rehearse the set of items the more likely it is they will be dropped from the phonological store. - longer words fill up the capacity causing them to be decayed earlier in the list.

Question 29

what is the visuo-spatial sketch pad and explain what it is?

Answer 29

It stores visual and spatial information - inner eye

It sets up and manipulates mental images.

It has a limited capacity - 3/4 objects

The limits of two systems are independant - you can rehearse a set of digits in the phonological loop and make a decision on the spatial layout of letters in the visual spatial scratchpad.

Question 30

what is the episodic buffer 2000 and explain what it is?

Answer 30

It links the WMM and the LTM - proposed in 2000 by Baddeley.

It is responsible for integrating and manipulating material.
It has limited capacity & depends heavily on executive processing.

Recalls information from the LTM and integrates it into the STM.

It resembles Tulvings concept of episodic memory.

Question 31

give and explain 2 strengths of the WMM

Answer 31

1) Williams syndrome sufferers have normal language ability but impaired visual and spatial ability - THEY ARE AFFECTED BY WORD LENGTH AND SIMILARITY (PHONOLOGICAL FACTORS) LIKE THE REST OF THE POPULATION - however they also perform poorly on Corsi block tapping tasks. Therefore there must be separate phonological and visuospatial systems.

2) Philips et al 2004 also found Williams syndrome sufferers also struggle with comprehending sentences with spatial preposition e.g. behind, beneath etc this suggests an association between visuospatial and language acquisition, showing there is separate stores as proposed by the WMM.

Question 32

give and explain 2 weaknesses of the WMM

Answer 32

1) It is a reductionist model as it is only an explanation of STM so can’t help psychologist understand the LTM. - Not complete unlike the MSM

2) Little research has been done to understand the CE as it can’t be empirically observed. Richardson 1984 claimed there are problems specifying the precise function of the CE and that they couldn’t be verified or falsified making the exact function of the CE unscientific.

Question 33

who proposed reconstructive memory - including schema theory?

Answer 33

Bartlett 1932

Question 34

what did Bartlett 1932 argue and suggest?

Answer 34

He argued people do not record memories and passively play them, he said they make sense of the information and fit it in with what they already know, he suggested memory needs to be seen within context.

He said we interpret and recall what we see according to what we expect to see/happen as we assume it is normal. - This is schema (rebuild or memory based on our existing knowledge).

Question 35

what does reconstructive memory and schema show?

Answer 35

It shows we reconstruct/fill in gaps with what we think, based on our schema.

Question 36

Explain what Bartlett did to test peoples memory?

Answer 36

He devised experiments to test a persons memory of shapes and objects to see if they would be reconstructed - he found people often assigned labels and shapes for an object depending on their schema. Some people who saw a circle remembered it as a ball and redrew it as a ball. - QUALATIVE viewpoint

He used ink blots and asked people to see what they saw, what they saw was based on their schema - this shows memory is an active process of what we think using prior knowledge.

Question 37

explain Bartletts 1932 war pf the ghosts experiment (supporting research)? and why did he choose it?

Answer 37

he chose it because it is culturally unfamiliar - so he could examine transformations that the story may make when reproduced by participants
It lacked any rational story order
it had a dramatic nature so could encourage visual imaging
the conclusion was supernatural 0 he wanted to see how participants would perceive an image like this

Each participant read the story twice and repeated reproduction (at different time intervals e.g. 10 minutes, week, months etc) - this was to test effect of time lapse on recall.
20 Participants recalled the story over different time stamps (longest 61/2 years)

He found as time went on recollections became shorter, they changed canoe to boat etc and also they left out the ghosts or rationalised them being there in a different way.
Memory is reconstructed each time it is recalled, it is rarely accurate and prone to distortion, rationalisation, transformation and simplification.

Question 38

what are the features of reconstructive memory?

Answer 38

Rationalisation: making something make sense occurs when participants made thinks make sense to fit their own schemas - this may mean missing things out.

Confabulation: bits were added to make them make more sense - drawing on previous experiences to aid their recall.

Question 39

explain Bartlett schema theory:

Answer 39

he proposed pervious knowledge is used to interpret information. He suggested schemas are important parcels of knowledge or mental representation of information about an object/event we have already experienced.
They organise our knowledge, assist recall and guide our behaviour.

They are culturally specific and may even vary within classes.

Question 40

give and explain 2 strengths for reconstructive memory and schema theory:

Answer 40

1) Bartlett went on to repeat his experiment with 8 different stories and found overall shortening of stories and therefore the evidence has been replicated and retested for reliability making the credibility stronger.

2) It has cultural relativism - determined by the society you live in - so the theory can take into account cross-cultural differences in memory - people in other cultures are exposed to different information in there daily lives.

Question 41

give and explain 2 weaknesses of reconstructive memory and schema theory:

Answer 41

1) Many of Bartletts experiments had little standardised controls and procedure when subsequent recalling was taking place, therefore the evidence lacks scientific rigour. - reliability

2) Cohen 1993 said the idea of schema is too vague and hypothetical as it can’t be observe even with fmri - any evidence would lack construct validity as you would be unable to fully test any schema you set out.

Question 42

what can memory be affected by?

Answer 42

Individual differences in processing speed or by schemas that guide the reconstructive nature of memory.

Question 43

explain what processing speed is and what it can look like etc:

Answer 43

The pace at which you take in information, make sense of it and begin to respond. - This information can be visual or auditory.
It can be explained through differences in the speed which they can process information and the capacity of their STM.

It can change with age (increases with age)

Slow processing does not mean someone is less intelligent.

Working memory and processing speed are linked as information goes to the WM quicker so you work quicker and more effectively.

It can look like:
finishing tasks in a given time
listening and taking notes while someone is speaking
keeping up with conversations

Question 44

what is the evidence for individual differences in memory?

Answer 44

Hale 1990 revealed the trend. He tested 4 age groups (10,12,15,19) on 4 different processing speed tasks.
Results showed an increase in processing speed - it was not specific to any one of the tasks

12 year olds were 50% slower than young adults, this shows the trend.

Question 45

who proposed the developmental issues in memory span development, which is low at 5 years old, then develops as memory develops, up to 17 year olds?

and what did it test?

Answer 45

Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil 2012

processing speed of digit span in Spanish speaking children (can be linked to individual differences in processing speeds, especially the comparisons to English speakers and Dementia patients.). - THE AMOUNT OF NUMBERS YOU CAN RECALL IS IN YOUR DIGIT SPAN!!!!

Question 46

what is autobiographical memory?

Answer 46

A memory system consisting of episodes recollected from an individuals own life, often episodic and semantic memory.
- Bartlett says our schemas are often similar but different based on our experiences.

Question 47

Assess the individual differences in memory (8 marks):

Answer 47

1) Loftus and Pickrell (1995) investigated whether participants aged 18 to 53 could be led to believe they were lost in a shopping mall as a child. Relatives of the participant provided 3 true stories about the participants and researchers added 1 fake one about getting lost. Participants were sent a booklet with the stories to read which included blank spaces for them to fill their own memories of the stories. - 68% of the true stories were recalled and 25% of the false stories.

2) Bartlett (1932) would claim the one above is evidence of reconstructive memories as strong emotions form strong memories and vice versa.

3) Steyvers and Hemmer (2012) investigated the interaction between episodic and prior knowledge (schema) in natural environments.- They wanted to see how prior knowledge was used to reconstruct memory for photographs of normal everyday settings (e.g. hotel, kitchen etc).
They found participants had strong prior expectations of the environment - this shows schema, supporting individual differences in memory.

4) Palombo et al (2012) did a study on 598 volunteers, a survey of autobiographical memory designed to test individual differences in their autobiographical memory (they divided autobiographical into 4 groups: episodic, semantic, spatial (memory of physical objects) and prospective memory (imagination for future events)).
They found people who scored high or low in episodic or scored high/low on semantic, so we wither have good/poor individual autobiographical memory recall.

Question 48

what is the difference between alzheimers and dementia also explain what they are?

Answer 48

Dementia is the broad term, alzheimers is a type of dementia.

Alzheimers is a progressive generative disorder that attacks the brains nerve cells and neurons.

Symptoms:
memory loss
concentration loss
confusion
changes in mood
- these become worse

It causes the inability to recall autobiographical information from episodic memory and affects STM and LTM.

Question 49

Alzheimers affects the temporal lobe, what does this mean/cause to happen?

Answer 49

while certain objects might be recognised, there is little or no ability to capture new information and recall it later.

Episodic memory is most affected.

Question 50

Explain some information about Alzheimers:

Answer 50

First identified early as 1906 by Alois Alzheimer.
The extent of memory loss is associated with the depletion of brain matter - mainly in the hippocampus and temporal cortex. - more damage = more impairment (increases with the progression of the disease).
- First damages hippocampus causing memory loss and disorientation then amnesia which causes inability to form new memories (especially those regarding time and location).

STM goes first, then episodic, then semantic, then procedural. - Eventually all reasoning, attention and language abilities are disrupted.

The severity can be measured using The FAST scale. - showing how dependant they are, it has 7 stages.

Question 51

Evidence for Alzheimers

Answer 51

Lack of executive function results in a lack of general coordination and difficulty with attention. Baddeley et al 2001 conducted a series of attentional tests on individuals with alzheimers and control patients and had them look for ‘z’ among distractors and a dual task procedure - they found people with alzhemiers performed worse on the distractor task and even worse on the dual task. - THIS SUGGESTS DUAL ATTENTION TASKS ARE SPECIFICALLY IMPAIRED BY THE DISEASE, THIS EXPLAINS THAT ALZHEIMERS IS A COGNITIVE DISEASE.

BECKER 1988 said memory loss with the disease may have multiple cognitvie components. WM is impaired due to failures inn the CE, other impairments are due to ppor encoding.
A analysis of perforce of 71 patients found individual patients were identified with significantly different and unique patters of impairment. This was consistent with a two component model suggesting WMM is not the only explanation of AD.