Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
Describe and evaluate Multi-store model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968)
Multi-store model was proposed by Attkinson and Shiffrin in 1968 and it suggested that memory was made up of three, unitary stores which transferred information between one another.
The sensory store is the first store, it’s modality free and retains information from all senses which is gained due to stimuli. It is suggested that the sensory store has a limited duration (1/10th of a second) and a limited capacity. Sperling (1960) supports the idea of limited capacity and duration using whole or partial report techniques, in which he used visual arrays/ arrangements of letters, showing them for 1/10th of a second before removing them and instructing participants to recall letters. There was a delay between the instruction and removal of letters, when the delay was longer, recall dropped due to sensory store having a limited duration (1/10th of a second), he also noticed that participants (on average) recalled 4.32 letters which supports limited capacity.
Attended sensory information is transferred to short-term memory, short-term memory has a 15-30 second duration, acoustic encoding and a capacity of 5-9 items as it temporarily stores info to be transferred or decayed. The duration is supported by Peterson and Peterson (1959) trigram experiment, in which they used an interference task which would last 3-18 seconds, when the task exceeded 15 seconds, recall dropped, they concluded that STM duration was 15-30 seconds. The limited capacity is supported by Miller’s digit span experiments which suggests that participants can successfully hold 7 numbers/items but struggle after 9 items, which supports idea that capacity is 5-9 items.
Rehearsed STM information will be transferred to long-term memory. Long-term memory encodes acoustically and semantically and is believed to have a potentially unlimited capacity and lifetime duration. Bahrick (1975) provides supporting evidence for the capacity as he showed participants 2,500 objects over course of 5.5 hours and then asked them to differentiate them from another object. Identification for original and different object was 92%, identification for original and similar object was 88%, original object at different angle led to recall of 87%, this suggests that the LTM can hold large amounts of images and has unlimited capacity. Clive Wearing case study objects LTM and employs an idea about how unitary it is, he suffered retrograde amnesia, and struggled to remember past memories and events however he still knew how to play piano.
To conclude, the MSM is a strong, research-based idea, however case studies such as Clive Wearing, and others object the idea of the stores being unitary
Describe and evaluate working memory model
Baddeley and Hitch 1974
Was proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974 and suggested that the short-term memory was non-unitary and that it worked on and retained information until it needed to be transferred to long-term memory or it decays.
The central executive was the first component, it was said to control the slave systems by focusing, dividing, and switching their attention, it has a limited capacity. Baddeley supported this in 1991 when he conducted a dual-task experiment on alzheimers patients, adults and children involving visual and verbal tasks, he found that the Alzheimer’s patients had only struggled on simultaneous (Visual and Verbal) tasks due to impaired central executive which means that the two slave systems weren’t properly controlled, resulting in difficulty processing.
The phonological loop is a slave system which processes auditory information, and has a limited capacity, it consists of phonological store, which processes heard words (Struggles with acoustically similar words) and the articulatory process which processes seen and heard words but struggles with longer words.
Baddeley Thompson Buchannan 1975 provided supporting evidence for this when they investigated word-length effect. They predicted that monosyllabic words will be more easily recalled that multisyllabic words due to taking less time to say and accommodating for limited capacity. The effect was proved. When the experiment was repeated with an interference task, effect slightly differed as phonological loop was prevented from being remembered.
The visuo-spatial sketchpad temporarily stored visual and spatial info (spatial info may be directions), it may gain info from images or LTM. Baddeley and Hitch conducted a supporting, dual-task paradigm experiment, which involved visual and verbal tasks, they noticed that participants struggled more with simultaneous visual tasks due to competition for visuo-spatial sketchpad.
Baddeley (2000) introduced the episodic buffer as a more general store which stores visual and auditory information, it can retrieve information from everywhere including LTM but still suffers limited capacity.
To conclude, the WMM has good experimental and case study (KF) evidence to support it however it fails to highlight how individual differences such as learning disability may affect capacity and duration and the components of the model.
Describe and evaluate types of long-term memory
Tulving 1972
partially related stores (semantic and episodic memory).
The semantic store is a mental encyclopaedia of information, it doesn’t rely on cued or context-dependent recall and instead relies on inferences, generalisation, and rational and logical thought. It is independent of time referencing however uses fragmentary spatial referencing where it pieces small ideas into a whole concept.
Ostergaard (1987) provided supporting evidence when he described a case of 10-year-old boy suffering brain damage following an anoxic episode (Lack of oxygen) , he suffered impairment to episodic and semantic memory, he made educational progress and was able to store some information in semantic memory. Cognitive tests were used to assess recall of events (Episodic), and recall of facts (Semantic), noticed that episodic memory recall was lowered. Proves existence of Semantic memory.
The episodic memory focused on events and experiences, its nature was similar to that of a mental diary, it relies more on cued and context-dependent recall as well as having more assistance from referencing. The episodic memory uses continuous spatial referencing and place events in a timeframe from start to finish, it also uses time referencing and relates the time the event took place to how it happened. The KC case study provides supporting evidence for this as he suffered brain damage after a motorcycle accident, but he could still recall facts, however he struggled to recall or form events and/or memories, suggesting that he had an impaired episodic memory, but not an impaired semantic memory.
The stores are interrelated since the episodic memory uses semantic memory (Names, faces, objects) and without it, it may be impaired, however semantic memory is independent from using episodic memory. The stores are difficult to separately research due to being interrelated, therefore effects such as individual differences cannot be measured which is a limitation.
The idea has a large amount of research evidence that supports Tulving’s theory of two types of long-term memory, in particular, case studies provide strong evidence for episodic and semantic memory being separate LTM stores, therefore supporting the nature of long-term memory and the credibility, however case studies also object the nature of long-term memory by highlighting that semantic memory may be split further into knowledge and procedural memory.
Describe and evaluate reconstructive memory
(Bartlett 1932)
- Bartlett (1932) states that the process of memory is an active reconstruction of bits of information that are stored, Reconstructions are made by combining real elements of the memory with existing knowledge. In his inkblot tests, he got participants to interpret what they saw, he said that people tended to describe what they saw based on their own interests and experiences. shows that perception is an active reconstruction of what we see using prior knowledge/ Schemas to guide our judgements.
- Bartlett conducted the War of the ghosts study and tested people over different time periods with the longest being 6 ½ years. He found that story was simplified (shortened), transformed (words changed), distorted (Bits were rearranged), transformed (Abnormal parts explained)Even after a few minutes. Research to test reconstructive memory and how we recall repeated many times – high level of reliability of results (Replicated with different groups and found consistent results) – pps consistently transformed, rationalised, simplified, and distorted information. Adds to credibility of reconstructive theory and schema theory. Bartlett’s research had low internal validity due to lack of standardised procedures, control in the fact that participants had different experiences. The research also had low mundane realism since the story was not culturally equal to how we tell stories.
- According to Bartlett, we fill in gaps using schemas , which will become more specific with ageing, within these schemas, some information is fixed (Unchangeable) and some is variable (Changeable). A schema of a dog may be having four legs and a tail, it may be assimilated (Adding new information) to having sharp teeth, the schema may be accommodated if child is bitten, may develop schema of new dog. Barlett suggests schemas are used to reconstruct memory when we try to recall an event – others suggest we also use schemas when we experience the event itself because we must understand what has happened.
- Bartlett’s theory has high application value – can be applied to our judicial system as the use of eyewitness testimony has be questioned. According to Bartlett memory is unreliable and any recall of events will be influenced by schemas and perception.
