Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
What is ‘encoding’?
How sensory input is formatted by the memory system
What is ‘capacity’?
How much information can be stored
Define ‘duration’
How long the information can be held in storage
What is the capacity of the Short Term Memory
7+-2 items (Miller)
What is the duration of the Short Term Memory
30 seconds (Peterson & Peterson)
How does the Short-Term Memory encode information?
Acoustic (Baddeley)
What is the capacity of the Long-Term Memory?
Unlimited (Brady)
What is the duration of the Long-Term Memory?
Unlimited (Bahrick)
How does the Long-term memory encode information?
Semantically (Baddeley)
Who proposed the Multi-Store model of Memory?
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
Describe the Sensory Store
- Can retain information for 1-2 seconds
- Can be encoded into the STM if the person is paying attention
- Information will decay if the person isn’t paying attention
Describe the short-term memory store
- Duration of 30 seconds (Peterson & Peterson)
- Capacity of 5-9 items (Miller)
- Acoustic encoding (Baddeley)
- If the information is not subject to rehearsal, it will be displaced or it will decay
- Transferred into the LTM by rehearsal
Describe the Long-term memory store
- Unlimited capacity (Bahrick, 48 years or more)
- Unlimited duration (Brady, 2500 pictures)
- Semantic encoding (Baddeley)
Evaluate the strengths of the Multi-Store Model of Memory
+ Supported by Glanzer and Cunitz’s empirical research
+ They asked pps to remember a series of words, and proved the primary and recency effect.
+ This research gives validity to the MSM claim that there ate distinct and separate stores
Evaluate case study support of the Multi-Store Model of Memory
+ Clive Wearing suffered from herpes encephalitis inside his brain, damaging the hippocampus and causing anterograde amnesia
+ He was no longer able to store new long-term memories
+ HM contracted herpes encephalitis after surgery to correct epilepsy
+ He could no longer store long-term memories either
+ This confirms distinct separate stores of the STM and LTM
Evaluate the other explanations of the Multi-Store Model of Memory
- Over-emphasises the role of rehearsal in memory
- Some memories don’t have to be rehearsed in order to be transferred into long-term memory
- Craik & Lockhart’s Levels of Processing Theory suggests that information doesn’t need to be rehearsed to be transferred into LTM if it’s meaningful/emotional
- This means that the Multi-Store Model of Memory is reductionist
Evaluate the debates of the Multi-Store Model of Memory
- The Multi-Store Model of Memory does not describe the complexity of the processes involved; it assumes a single STM store
- KF suffered brain damage and had problems with verbal information in his STM but his memory for visual information was largely unaffected
- This shows that there are separate STM components for visual information (VSS) and verbal information (phonological loop)
- Therefore there is more than one STM store so the MSM is reductionist
Outline the case study of Clive Wearing
- Viral infection caused brain damage to the hippocampus
- Could still use his STM but could not make new memories
- Inability to rehearse information into the LTM
Outline the case study of HM
- Brain surgery to cure epilepsy; removed his hippocampus
- Unable to make new memories
- Retained his memories from before his surgery
Outline the case study of KF
- Suffered brain injury from a motorcycle accident
- Had issues with processing verbal information but could process visual information
What is anterograde amnesia?
The type of memory loss that occurs when you can’t form new memories
What is retrograde amnesia?
Where you can’t recall memories that were formed before the event that caused the amnesia
Who proposed the Working Memory Model?
Baddeley & Hitch
Describe the Central Executive
- Monitors the whole system
- Allocates information to other sections rather than acting as a storage system
- Decides how the slave systems should function
- Problem solving
Describe the Phonological Loop
- Limited capacity and duration but can be extended if refreshed using the articulatory rehearsal system
- Relies on acoustic encoding for storage
Describe the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
Stores visual and spatial information
Visual Cache: stores material on colour and shape
Inner-scribe: spatial relations which store the arrangement of objects
- Sets up and changes mental image
- Allows us to recreate images either based on something we’re seeing in real-time or something we’ve seen in the past
- Limited capacity
Describe the Episodic Buffer
Integrates material from the central executive, visuo-spatial sketchpad, articulatory-phonological loop and the LTM when the working memory wants it
Summarise the key points about the Working Memory Model
- If 2 tasks require the same component, they can’t be performed successfully together
- LTM is a passive store; it holds previously learned material for the use of STM when needed
- STM is not a unitary store
Evaluate the strengths of the Working Memory Model
+ Baddeley and Hitch proved the existence of the WMM by using dual task research
+ They asked pps to do two tasks that would utilise the visuospatial sketchpad at the same time.
+ They found that pps were able to perform the tasks separately without any difficulty, but when they did them together their performance at both was impaired because both tasks exceeded the capacity of the VSS
Evaluate a case study supporting the Working Memory Model
+ KF suffered from brain damage and had problems with verbal information in his STM, but his memory for visual information was largely unaffected
+ This shows that there are separate STM components for visual information (VSS) and verbal information (phonological loop)
Evaluate the brain scan research surrounding the Working Memory Model
+ Paulesu et al. found whilst using a PET scan that the Broca’s area was active whilst undertaking speech-based memory tasks, whereas the parietal lobe was more active in visuospatial tasks.
+ This increases the validity of the WMM’s assumptions because it is objective, replicable, empirical research
Evaluate the credibility of the Working Memory Model
- The central executive in the WMM cannot be measured directly because of its very limited capacity
- Its function must be inferred from the performance of verbal and visual tasks
- It is not falsifiable and therefore has limited scientific credibility
Evaluate the debates of the Working Memory Model
- The WMM does not explain the complexity of the LTM
- Tulving proposed that there are three different LTM components (semantic, episodic, procedural), which the WMM does not state.
- The MSM considers LTM’s processes by including maintenance rehearsal whereas the WMM doesn’t
- Therefore it is reductionist
Describe semantic memory
- The memory of facts and knowledge, e.g. ‘Paris is the capital of France’
- Like a combination of an encyclopaedia and a dictionary
- Independent of time and spatial referencing
- Fragmented input
- Retrieval is not dependent on context to aid recall
- Retrieval is possible without learning
Describe episodic memory
- Our ability to recall events, e.g. ‘my 5th birthday party’
- Like a diary, or a record of daily happenings
- Dependent on time and spatial referencing
- Continuous input
- Uses context to aid retrieval
- Susceptible to transformations from schemas e.g. leading questions and post-event discussions
Evaluate the strengths of Tulving’s explanation of long-term memory
+ Schmolck investigated the link between damage to the medial temporal lobe and the anterolateral temporal cortex and the pps performance on tests of semantic memory
+ Findings confirmed a link between impaired semantic memory and damage to the anterolateral temporal cortex
+ This shows that there are different components to LTM, as Tulving suggested
Evaluate case study support for Tulving’s explanation of long-term memory
+ HM’s episodic memory was impaired, but his semantic memory was unaffected.
+ He could understand the concept of a ‘dog’, but couldn’t remember owning a dog
+ Shows that there are different stores in LTM