Cognitive Flashcards
Who made the Multistore Model of Memory?
Atkinson + Schiffrin
When was the MSM Created?
1968
What was each part of the Multistore Model of Memory?
Sensory Register
Short Term Memory
Long Term Memory
What does Each Part of the MSM Encode?
Sensory Register: All 5 Senses
STM: Mainly Acoustic
LTM: Semantic
What is the Storage Capacity for Each Part of the MSM?
Sensory Register: All Sensory Experience
STM: 7 Items (+/-2)
LTM: Unlimited
How does Retrieval Occur during Each Part of the MSM?
Sensory Register: Scanning
STM: Sequential Scan
LTM: Semantic/ Temporal Search
How does Forgetting Occur during Each Part of the MSM?
Sensory Register: Lack of Attention (Decay)
STM: FIFO
LTM: Lack of Rehearsal
What Evidence supports the MSM?
Henry Molaison:
Brain Surgery damaged his LTM, but his STM is still intact - Proves they’re Separate
Clive Wearing:
Encaphalitis - Unable to transfer STM to LTM - Proves they’re Separate
Glanzer + Cunitz (Primary + Recency Effect):
First words are Remembered due to LTM, Last Words are Remembered due to STM. - Proves they’re Separate
What Evidence challenges the MSM?
HM:
Couldn’t make long term memories, but could learn new skills -> challenges that STM is just 1 store
CW:
Couldn’t remember LT memories, but could play the piano + conduct an orchestra -> challenges that STM is just 1 store
Dual Tasks:
Better at remembering 2 of the same type than 2 different ->Challenges that STM has a fixed capacity.
What are some Issues + Debates for the Multistore Model of Memory?
Brain damaged patients aren’t generalisable to all society
Brain Damaged Patients are meant to be Anonymysed
Reductionist: The MSM underplays the connection between the Sensory Register, STM + LTM - too Simplistic
What is Episodic Memory?
Stored info about life Experiences + Events
Sometimes called Autobiographical Memory; Similar to a Mental Diary
e.g. Receiving your GCSEs
What is Semantic Memory?
Words, Facts, Rules, Meaning + Concepts are stored as Knowledge
Similar to a Mental Encyclopaedia
e.g. Counting in French, Knowing Paris is the Capital of France
How is Episodic Memory Encoded and Stored?
Experiences and Events are encoded and stored with Temporal/Spatial Referencing (when + where they were learnt)
e.g. You know you got your GCSEs on a morning of Aug 2015, in the canteen
How is Semantic Memory Encoded and Stored?
Facts are NOT encoded with temporal/spatial referencing
e.g. You don’t remember where or when you learnt that Paris is the Capital of France
How is Episodic Memory Retrieved?
When being retrieved, memories may be tempered with
e.g. Because you were happy with your results, you forgot how nervous you were
How is Semantic Memory Retrieved?
The facts retrieved are the exact same as when they were encoded
e.g. You’ll always say that Paris is the Capital of France
What Evidence supports Episodic and Semantic Memory as a theory of memory?
Ostergaard:
After suffering an anoxic episode, a 10 year old boy with brain damage suffered impairment to his episodic + semantic memory.
However, he still made educational progress and was able to store info in his semantic memory.
This proves the systems are independent
KC:
Motorbike accident - he couldn’t form or recall personal life events. However, he could recall facts.
Proves the systems are independent, and they could be held in different parts of the brain
Brain Damaged Patients:
Research from brain damaged patients shows that damage to the medial temporal or prefrontal lobe caused damage to semantic memory but not episodic
Proves the systems are independent, and they could be held in different parts of the brain
What Evidence challenges Episodic and Semantic Memory as a theory of memory?
HM + CW:
Their episodic memories were damaged, but they were both still able to perform tasks like play the piano and recall new skills
This suggests that there may be a further store for already developed skills.
Squire and Zola:
They suggested that the medial temporal lobe is used for both semantic + episodic memories
This challenges the idea that the semantic + episodic memory work separately
What are the Issues and Debates surrounding Episodic and Semantic Memory as a theory of memory?
Reductionist:
Dividing the LTM into different stores suggests that they never overlap, when in fact they are easily able to work together.
Issues +; Debates:
Each case study of a brain damaged patient is unique, and you can’t really generalise their result to a wider population.
Who made the Working Memory Model, and when?
Made By: Baddeley + Hitch
When: 1974
What does the Working Memory Model consist of?
Central Executive
Phonological Loop
Visuospatial Sketchpad
What does Central Executive do?
Described as a Homonculus (little man)
Supervises the system and oversees the 2 slave systems
Controls and/or Divides the amount of attention shared between the 2 systems
Modality free - can deal with any type of sensory info
Has a limited capacity
What does the Phonological Loop do?
Deals with the temporary store of verbal information.
It also involves rehearsing verbal information, allowing it to be held for a few seconds longer. It has evolved in to allow us to learn language.
What does the Phonological Loop consist of?
Articulatory Rehearsal System
Phonological Store
What is the Articuatory Rehearsal System?
Known as the Inner Voice
Explains the Word Length Effect- shorter words w/ less syllables are recalled more successfully than longer words. The longer the word, the more capacity is used up, and forgetting is more likely.
What is the Phonological Store?
Known as the Inner Ear
Holds a limited amount of verbal info for a few seconds, but can be extended if info is refreshed using the articulatory rehearsal system.
Explains the Phonological Similarity Effect- it’s more difficult to remember similar sounding words than different sounding words. However, this effect wasn’t true regarding words with semantic similarity. This shows the phonological store depends on acoustic encoding.
What is the Visuospatial Sketchpad?
Deals with visual and spatial information
It deals with the info either directly through observing images or by retrieving visuospatial info from the LTM.
Uses a visual code to maintain + integrate the info
Spatial scan has been tested using the Corsi block tapping task, where participants have to recall a sequence of lit up block on a screen, with the number of lit up block increasing every time
What was an issue with the Original Working Memory Model, and how was this Addressed?
A problem with the original WMM was that it didn’t explain why the phonological loop had such a limited storage, but far longer sentences could be bound together by meaning/grammar.
It also failed to explain the interconnections between subcomponents, as well as the LTM
Baddeley addressed this in 2000 and made a 4th component: Episodic Buffer
What is Episodic Buffer?
Episodic Buffer is a limited capacity system, that could integrate information between subcomponents, as well as feeding/retrieving info to and from the LTM.
What Evidence supports the Working Memory Model as a theory of memory?
William’s Syndrome:
•Normal language ability, Impaired visuospatial ability
•Significant problems comprehending sentences with spatial prepositions
•Shows Association with visuospatial memory and language acquisitions
KF:
•Damaged parietal lobe
•Impaired language memory, normal spatial ability
•Proves they’re separate
Neuroimaging:
•Broca’s Area was activated during a rehearsal task
•Supramarginal Gyrus was activated when the Phonological Store was used
•Difficult to locate the area of the central executive
Baddeley + Hitch
•Ppts found it hard to do 2 visual tasks simultaneously
•Tracking a moving light, and tracking the edges of a capital ‘F’
What Evidence challenges the Working Memory Model as a theory of memory?
Research Findings:
•Far longer sentences could be remembered / stored, when connected by meaning
•The WMM fails to explain that
What are Other Problems with the Working Memory Model as a theory of memory?
Ecological Validity:
•Tasks like what B + H used do not reflect normal behaviour
•Therefore it lacks ecological validity
Alternative Theory:
•The Working Memory Model only explains the STM
•Episodic + Semantic Memory explains the LTM
•Both can be used together to give a better overall understanding of memory
Brain Damaged Patients:
•Findings can’t be generalised
•Individual Differences affect findings
Who come up with Reconstructive Memory?
Bartlett, 1932
What does the theory of Reconstructive Memory argue?
Memory is an imaginative reconstruction of past events influenced by how we encode, store and retrieve information
Memory is not like a blank tape but is changed when we recall it
Our attitudes and responses to events change our memory for those events
Retrieval of stored memories thus involves an active process of reconstruction using a range of information
What are Schemas?
Schemas are parcels of store knowledge or a mental representation of information about a specific event or object.
Every schema has fixed information, and variable information.
What do we use Schemas for?
We use schemas that we already have to interpret information and incorporate these into our memory
This means recall is an active reconstruction of an event strongly influenced by previously stored knowledge, expectations + beliefs
What is Confabulation?
Confabulation is when information is added to fill in the gaps to make a story/ make sense
What are False Memories?
Memories that not true, but made to seem true in order to deceive people
What is the War of the Ghosts folk tale Experiment?
The ‘war of the ghosts’ folk tale surrounds a story of young men from Euglac, resulting in a paranormal death.
Each ppt read the story twice, and repeated reproduction was used to test the effect of time lapse on recall. Bartlett was interested in the form the reproduced story would take.
20 ppts recalled the story after several minutes, weeks, months and years- the longest time lapse being 6.5 years.
Bartlett found that the story became considerably shortened, objects discussed in the story became more familiarised (e.g. ‘hunting seals’ to ;fishing’), and many ppts didn’t grasp the role of the ghosts in the story, rationalising their presence in some way
Bartlett concluded that memory is reconstructed each time it is recalled
Why did Barlett use the War of the Ghosts folk tale for his research?
He chose it for 4 reasons:
- It was culturally unfamiliar to ppts, so he could examine the transformations that the story may make when reproduced by ppts
- It lacked any rational story order
- The dramatic nature of the story would encourage visual imaging
- The conclusion was somewhat supernatural, and Bartlett wanted to see how ppts would perceive and image this.
What are the Strengths + Weaknesses of Bartlett’s research?
S: Bartlett’s research is considered as strong evidence in support of reconstruction theory of memory because he has repeated his reproduction experiments using 8 different stories on different participants and found the same familiarisation and transformations in line with schemas.
W: Bartlett’s experiments had a lack of control and standardisation in procedures so it is more difficult to re-conduct the war of the ghosts research to re-establish if memory is reconstructed.
How does Reconstructive Theory have Practical Application?
Barlett’s theory has practical application as it could be useful in the real world because it emphasises to courts that eyewitnesses might reconstruct memories using schemas. So EWT alone should not be used to convict a criminal.
What is an Alternative Theory to Reconstructive Memory?
Reconstructive memory fails to explain dual task experiment findings on how we can process/remember a visual and an auditory stimuli at the same time:
Working memory does explain this due to the phonological loop and VSSP, hence working memory has broader explanation of memory.
What were the Aims of Baddeley’s study?
To Investigate the influence of acoustic + semantic word similarity, on learning and recall in the STM and LTM
How many lab experiments did Baddeley conduct in his 1966 study?
Three different lab experiments were conducted
we focus on Experiment Three
How many participants were there in Baddeley’s study, and what levels of the IV were there?
72 participants
The 4 Lists of 10 Words: List A: Acoustically Similar List B: Acoustically Dissimilar List C: Semantically Similar List D: Semantically Dissimilar (Lists B + D were baseline control groups for Lists A + C respectively)
What was the Procedure of Baddeley’s study?
The words were presented via projector
They were projected One Word Every Three Seconds
They were asked to recall the words within a minute, in the correct order
They repeated this over 4 learning trials, as this was a test of memory, and not learning the words
15 minute interference task
They copied down 6 lots of 8 digit sequences at their own pace
This was to block out Rehearsal
After this, they were given a surprise retest
What were the Findings of Baddeley’s study?
Recall of Acoustically Similar was Worse than Acoustically Dissimilar
These results, however, were not significant
This demonstrates that Acoustic Encoding is Initially Difficult, but didn’t affect LTM recall
Recall of Semantically Similar Words was Worse than Semantically Dissimilar
These results were significant
What did Baddeley conclude in his study?
The STM is Largely Acoustic
The LTM is Largely, but Not Exclusively, Semantic
What were the strengths of Baddeley’s 1966 study?
Internal Validity: Lab Experiment
Internal Validity: Control Group
Reliability: Standardised Procedure
Practical Application
What were the weaknesses of Baddeley et al’s 1966 study?
Ecological Validity: Lab Experiment
Ecological Validity/ Mundane Realism: Unnatural Behaviour
^^ Therefore, Generalisability is Questioned
Ethics: Participants weren’t informed about the surprise retest
What were the Aims of Schmolck et al’s study?
To investigate the effect of a damaged temporal lobe/cortex on semantic knowledge/ memory.
To see if HM’s case was a unique case, or generalisable.
Who were the participants of Schmolck et al’s study, and how many tests did they do?
8 male healthy controls (13 tests)
3 with encephalitis (13 tests)
2 with a damaged hippocampus (13 tests)
Henry Molaison (10 tests)
What is an example of the tests the participants did in Schmolck et al’s study?
E.g. Pointing to a picture which has been described to them
How were the tests in Schmolck et al’s study recorded?
Transcripts, and sound recordings
How were the results in Schmolk et al’s study Analysed?
Given an accuracy score /4
Ranked from best to worst
Compared this to how badly their temporal cortex was damaged (medial, lateral + anterolateral)
What was the conclusion to Schmolck et al’s study?
There is a direct relationship between damage to the anterolateral temporal cortex, and semantic memory.
H.M did well in some tests, but had grammatical errors – his poor education is a contribution to this.
What are the Strengths of Schmolck et al’s study?
Internal Validity: Control Group
Reliability: Standardised Procedure
Practical Application: The findings are consistent with patients with dementia; who have damage to the anterolateral temporal cortex rather than medial temporal cortex.
What are the Weaknesses of Schmolck et al’s study?
Generalisability: Small sample group
Ecological Validity: The tasks involved do not Represent Natural Behaviour
What is an Independent Variable?
The variable that the experimenter changes
What is a dependent variable?
The variable that the experimenter measures/manipulates
What is meant by Operationalisation?
Making the IV and DV measurable
What is a null hypothesis?
The experimenter predicts the IV will have no effect on the DV/ no significant effect will be found
What is an alternative / experimental hypothesis?
The experimenter predicts the IV will have an effect on the DV/ a significant effect will be found
What is a one-tailed hypothesis?
The experimenter knows what type of effect will occur
e.g. the results will be lower in category A
