Evaluate one model of memory

Question 1

One model of memory

Answer 1

the multi store model of memory

Question 2

proposed by

Answer 2

proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968

Question 3

The model is based on a number of assumptions

Answer 3

First, the model argues that memory consists of a number of separate locations in which information is stored.

Second, those memory processes are sequential.

Third, that each memory store operates in a single, uniform way.

Question 4

Short term memory in the MSM

Answer 4

In this model, short-term memory (STM) serves as a gateway by which information can gain access to long-term memory.

Question 5

How is the MSM seen as?

Answer 5

The various memory stores are seen as components that operate in conjunction with the permanent memory store (LTM) through processes such as attention, coding, and rehearsal.

You need to pay attention to something in order to remember information.

Question 6

Positive of MSM

Answer 6

This model had gotten a lot of positive feedback back in the time it was proposed as it was one of the first models proposed and it went well with what psychologists knew at the time about memory.

Question 7

Negative of MSM

Answer 7

However, certain psychologists started to describe the model as overly simplistic and that it required more detail. Therefore this essay will explore the strengths and limitation of the model.

Question 8

STM memory capacity and duration

Answer 8

The capacity of STM has traditionally been assumed to be limited to around seven items (7+/-2) and its duration is normally about 6–18 seconds.

With rehearsal, information may stay in STM for up to 30 seconds.

Information in STM is quickly lost if not rehearsed.

Question 9

Rehearsal for STM

Answer 9

Rehearsal of material in STM plays a key role in determining what is stored in long-term memory in the multi-store model of memory.

Question 10

What did Miller find and do?

Answer 10

The number 7 plus or minus 2 was proposed by Miller in 1956, who proposed this number after a study where he asked participants to memorise a string of numbers each time increasing by one digit and determined that at 7 plus or minus two, participants could not longer remember anymore.

Question 11

Critisism of Miller findings

Answer 11

This was implemented to the model, however Can (2010) argued that Miller’s magic number was overly optimistic as he argued that the set of tasks used in his study did not reflect the actual use of short term memory on a day to day basis and therefore does not have a high ecological validity.

Question 12

Cowan found that

Answer 12

Instead, Cowan had participants listen to a list of numbers but without them knowing in advance how long the list would be.He found that participants recalled a range of 3 - 5 digits, not 5 to 9.

Cowan’s findings are supported by biological research as well and therefore severely undermined the beliefs that psychologists had when creating the MSM and instead supports that the MSM is not sufficiently well researched to be reliable.

Question 13

However, even though the capacity might not be clear or well supported by research, the different stores and their duration is. Who supports this?

Answer 13

Glanzer and Cunitz

Question 14

What did Glanzer and Cunitz demonstrate?

Answer 14

Demonstrated that there was a U-shape of the serial position curve which is caused by two separates stores.

Question 15

Procedure of Glanzer and Cunitz

Answer 15

The study was conducted by having participants being shown 15 lists each containing 15 words.

There were three conditions of the independent variable that participants were separated in.

Immediate recall after being shown the list.

Recall after a 10 second interference task.

And finally recall after a 30 second interference task as outlined above.

Question 16

Results of Glanzer and Cunitz

Answer 16

The results were that participants in the immediate recall condition showed the expected ‘U’ curve of the serial position effect meaning that more items were recalled from the beginning and the end of the list.

Participants in the 10 second delay condition showed a similar primacy effect to the immediate recall group but much less of a recency effect.

The biggest difference between the immediate recall and the 30 second delay condition was that the primacy effect was high for both groups but the 30 second delay condition, out of all the conditions, showed that the recency effect had disappeared with fewest items recalled from the end of the list

Question 17

Conclusion of Glanzer and Cunitz

Answer 17

By preventing rehearsal with a 30 second interference task items from the end of the list have not been rehearsed in the STM so cannot pass into the LTM and so the recency effect is prevented. In other words, there appears to be two separate memory stores at work which supports the multi store model of memory.

Question 18

Peterson and Peterson

Answer 18

A study that further supports the key aspect of the MSM which is that to transfer memory from the STM to the LTM, it requires rehearsal is Peterson and Peterson

Question 19

Aim of Peterson and Peterson

Answer 19

To investigate the duration of short term memory

Question 20

Procedure of Peterson and Peterson

Answer 20

Participants had to recall trigrams and the trigrams were presented one at a time and had to be recalled after intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds. To prevent rehearsal participants were asked to count backwards in threes or fours from a specified random number until they saw a red light appear.

Question 21

Results of Peterson and Peterson

Answer 21

there was a rapid increase in forgetting as the time delay increased. It therefore supports short term memory having a limited duration when rehearsal is prevented.

Question 22

Conclusion of Peterson and Peterson

Answer 22

It is thought that this information is lost from short-term memory from trace decay.

The results of the study also show theshort-term memoryis different fromlong-term memoryin terms of duration.

Thus supporting themulti-store model of memory. If a person is not able to rehearse information it will not transfer to theirlong-term memorystore.

Question 23

Evaluation of Peterson and Peterson

Answer 23

A limitation of thisexperimentis that is has a low ecological validity as it lacks realism and external validity as they used very artificial stimuli. In addition, they also only considered short-term memory duration for one type of stimuli. They did not provide information about other types of stimuli such as pictures and melodies.

Question 24

Milner

Answer 24

Another study that strongly support the multi store model of memory is Milner who studied the biological reasons for anterograde amnesia in patient HM.

Question 25

What does Milner support?

Answer 25

This study is supports the MSM strongly as it has biological evidence which could be argued as being the strongest evidence as it cannot be interpreted or contradicted due to it being physical.

Question 26

Procedure of Milner

Answer 26

In the study, Milner tested HM’s intelligence, observed his behaviour, interviewed his family, Cognitive testing such as memory recalling and learning tasks.

Question 27

Results of Milner

Answer 27

The results were that HM could not acquire new episodic knowledge and he could not acquire new semantic knowledge.

This suggests that the brain structures that were removed from his brain are important for long-term explicit memory.

The researchers also found that he was able to remember his house and could draw a picture of the floor plan of his new home therefore supporting that long term memory was not affected.

HM also had a capacity for working memory, since he was able to carry on a normal conversation.

This requires a minimal level of retention of what has just been heard and said.

On being asked to recall trigrams, HM was able to do so even 15 minutes later, apparently by means of constant verbal rehearsal.

However, after the task was over, the number and HM’s strategy in remembering it were lost.

This further supports the concept of the working memory but that he could not transfer information to his long term memory.

Question 28

Conclusion of Milner

Answer 28

Therefore, Milner’s study supports that The memory systems in the brain constitute a highly specialised and complex system.

The hippocampus plays a critical role in converting memories of experiences from short-term memory to long-term memory.

However, researchers found that short-term memory is not stored in the hippocampus as HM was able to retain information for a while if he rehearsed it.

Since HM was able to retain some memories for events that happened long before his surgery it indicates that the medial temporal region is not the site of permanent storage but rather plays a role in the organisation and permanent storage of memories elsewhere in the brain.

Question 29

Counterargument of Milner findings

Answer 29

However, the results also suggest that the storage of memory is more complicated than what the multi store model of memory might suggest as it presented implicit memory containing several stores for example, procedural memory, emotional memory and skills and habits.

Each of these areas is related to different brain areas. This therefore suggests the MSM as being simplistic and might require more description.

Question 30

Evaluation of Milner

Answer 30

A key strength of the study is that it was a case study was longitudinal over 50 years and therefore means that change could be observed over time making the results more accurate and have more ecological validity.

However, the limitation of case studies is that they cannot be easily replicated.

However, there are several other case studies of patients like HM for example, Clive Wearing which confirm the findings.

Question 31

Conclusion and evaluaton MSM

Answer 31

In conclusion, the MSM supported by evidence through studies with the strongest one being Milner’s study due to its biological evidence.

However, the study has many issues such as studies contradicting each other and therefore reducing the validity of the model. In addition, even though there is strong support for the STM and LTM, there is very little evidence for the sensory store which is due to it being difficult to research on due to its short duration, however it shows that certain aspects cannot be strongly supported.

Another issue is that as presented by Milner, even the model might be correct, there is evidence for it not being detailed enough as there are different memories.

It also does not take into account other aspects such as flashbulb memories or schema theories which are supported by research of its own into account and how memory can be therefore distorted or vividly remembered and therefore presents once again the model as being overly simplistic.