memory 1.1

Question 1

who founded the MSM?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

Question 2

what is the MSM?

Answer 2

a linear model consisting of unitary stores

the model depicts how memory flows from the first instance of seeing something to permanently remembering it

Question 3

what does the flow of the MSM suggest?

Answer 3

it suggests that stimuli enters through the sensory register (sensory memory)

if we pay attention to this stimulus, it will be placed in short term memory

if we rehearse information, it will enter our long term memory

Question 4

how do we describe each store?

Answer 4

encoding
capacity
duration

Question 5

encoding

Answer 5

how sensory input is represented by the memory system

Question 6

capacity

Answer 6

how much information can be stored

Question 7

duration

Answer 7

how long the information can be held in storage

Question 8

how can we forget information?

Answer 8

displacement
decay
interference

Question 9

displacement

Answer 9

other memories taking the original memories place due to limited capacity

Question 10

decay

Answer 10

losing a memory because it is not used

Question 11

interference

Answer 11

other memories being recalled instead of the desired memory

Question 12

capacity of the sensory memory

Answer 12

large

Question 13

duration of the sensory memory

Answer 13

0.5-2 seconds

Question 14

encoding of the sensory memory

Answer 14

iconic
echoic
haptic

Question 15

forgetting of the sensory memory

Answer 15

unknown

Question 16

research into the sensory memory

Answer 16

Sperling (1960)

Question 17

capacity of stm

Answer 17

7 + or - 2 items

can be referred to as chunks of information

we use chunking to remember more info in our stm

Jacobs (1887)

can investigate capacity using digit span test

Question 18

duration of stm

Answer 18

up to 30 seconds without rehearsal
Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Question 19

who researched into duration of stm?

Answer 19

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Question 20

what was Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) aim?

Answer 20

to investigate duration of stm

Question 21

what was Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) procedure?

Answer 21

asked participants to remember nonsense trigram
gave a distractor task (count back in 3s from 100)
tested p’s recall after 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds for perfect recall

Question 22

was were Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) results?

Answer 22

after 3 seconds, participants could recall about 80% of trigrams correctly

after about 18 seconds only about 10% were recalled correctly

Question 23

what was Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) conclusion?

Answer 23

when rehearsal is prevented, very little can stay in stm for approximately 18 seconds

Question 24

encoding of stm

Answer 24

mainly acoustic

easier to rehearse in your head as a sound rather than a picture

Baddeley (1956) - participants confused acoustically similar words as they sound the same in your head

Question 25

forgetting of stm

Answer 25

displacement

Question 26

who researched into capacity of stm?

Answer 26

Jacobs (1887)

Question 27

what was Jacob’s (1887) aim?

Answer 27

to find out capacity of stm

Question 28

what was Jacob’s (1887) procedure?

Answer 28

participants were given a series of words, digits, etc.

they were instructed to recall immediately and accurately in the correct order

list gets progressively longer as the test goes on

Question 29

what were Jacob’s (1887) results?

Answer 29

participants could remember lists up to the limit of 9 items with the average being 7 and the lower bound being 5

Question 30

what was Jacob’s (1887) conclusion?

Answer 30

stm capacity is 7 + or - 2 items

Question 31

who researched into encoding of stm?

Answer 31

Baddeley (1956)

Question 32

what was Baddeley’s (1956) aim?

Answer 32

investigate encoding style of stm

Question 33

what was Baddeley’s (1956) procedure?

Answer 33

participants shown a random sequence of 5 words from one of four categories:
- acoustically similar words (cap/can)
- acoustically dissimilar words (mud/computer)
- semantically similar words (made/created)
- semantically dissimilar words (poster/mouse)

participants were asked to write the lists down 20 seconds after

Question 34

what were Baddeley’s (1956) results?

Answer 34

participants confused acoustically similar words compared to other words

this suggests because they are similar and easily confused, they must be represented acoustically as part of our processing

10% AS words
80% AD words
64% SS words
71% SD words

Question 35

what was Baddeley’s (1959) conclusion?

Answer 35

in the stm we convert visual material into an acoustic code and find it difficult to distinguish between information that sounds the same

Question 36

capacity of ltm

Answer 36

unlimited

no research study

Question 37

duration of ltm

Answer 37

limitless but subject to decay or interference
Bahrick (1975)

Question 38

who researched into duration of ltm?

Answer 38

Bahrick et al (1975)

Question 39

what was Bahrick et al (1975)’s aim?

Answer 39

establish duration of ltm

Question 40

what was Bahrick et al (1975)’s procedure?

Answer 40

investigators tracked down the graduates from a high school in America over a 5o year period

392 graduates were shown photographs from their high school year book

2 groups

one group was asked to select name which matched the person in the photo and were given a list of names to choose from

other group was asked to name the people in the photos without a list of names

Question 41

what were Bahrick et al (1975)’s results?

Answer 41

in the name matching condition:
14 years after 90% correct
25 years after 80% correct
34 years after 75% correct
47 years after 60% correct

in the identification condition:
7 years after 60% correct
47 years after 20% correct

Question 42

what was Bahrick et al (1975)’s conclusion?

Answer 42

people can remember certain types of info for almost a lifetime

accuracy can diminish over time due to decay and may be affected by the task

Question 43

encoding of ltm

Answer 43

mainly semantic
Baddeley (1966)
we have greater recall of memories after a long period of time that have meaning to them

Question 44

who researched into encoding of ltm?

Answer 44

Baddeley (1966)

Question 45

what was Baddeley (1966)’s aim?

Answer 45

investigate encoding style of ltm

Question 46

what was Baddeley (1966)’s procedure?

Answer 46

participants were shown a random sequence of 5 words from one of four categories:
acoustically similar (cap/can)
acoustically dissimilar (mud/computer)
semantically similar (made/created)
semantically dissimilar (poster/mouse)

Question 47

what were Baddeley (1966)’s results?

Answer 47

acoustically similar and dissimilar words were equally poor in recall
85% semantically similar word were recalled
55% semantically dissimilar words were recalled

participants were better at recalling semantically similar words

Question 48

what was Baddeley (1966)’s conclusion?

Answer 48

when storing info in ltm, it is better recalled if encoded semantically

Question 49

forgetting of ltm

Answer 49

decay and interference

Question 50

how does information get from sensory memory to stm?

Answer 50

paying attention

Question 51

how does information get from stm to ltm?

Answer 51

rehearsal

Question 52

explain how the primacy and regency effects support the msm

Answer 52

researchers found that when p’s are presented with a lists of items to recall in order, p’s often begin by recalling items at the end of the list (regency effect) because these items are still in stm

then people recall items at the beginning of the list (primacy effect) because these are thought to have been transferred to ltm with some rehearsal,

however items in middle have been forgotten (displaced) because stm has limited capacity and new, more recent items push out middle items from stm

primacy and regency effect demonstrate idea of separate stores for short term and long term memory

therefore supports the msm

Question 53

explain how patient HM supports the msm

Answer 53

HM was in a bicycle accident which resulted in development of epilepsy

his seizures worsened and medication had little impact so he needed surgery

HM had hippocampus removed and couldn’t form new long term memories but could remember things from before surgery

his stm was fine, couldn’t transfer info to ltm

therefore HM’s case demonstrates there are separate stores for stm and ltm

Question 54

explain how problems with research question the ecological validity of the msm

Answer 54

artificial tasks in lab experiments are different from how our memory typically functions

e.g Peterson and Peterson (1959) stm duration study using nonsense trigrams and counting back in 3s from a 3 digit number isn’t a task done on a day-to-day basis

this limits the extent that findings from research can be generalised to beyond lab setting

therefore the msm can be questioned as it is based on research which lacks ecological validity

Question 55

explain how the oversimplified ltm questions the msm

Answer 55

the msm presents ltm as a unitary store

further research has demonstrated that there are separate parts to ltm:
- procedural memories (actions and motor skills)
- episodic memories (personal events)
semantic memories (fact based and not personal)

therefore because msm lacks detail about ltm its ability to fully explain memory can be questioned

Question 56

explain how the oversimplified stm questions the msm

Answer 56

case study of KF, invovled in motorcycle accident, resulted in damage in stm (verbal recall)

when tested, he could only recall 2 items verbally from stm (e.g being read shopping list)

however when visually tested his recall was normal

research suggests that the stm has more components to it, unlike the msm shows

therefore the msm’s ability to explain memory is questioned