Memory Flashcards
What are the three types of memory?
- Sensory register
- Short term memory
-Long term memory
What is the sensory register?
-type of memory that temporally stores info from our senses eg light
-unless paid attention to the memory can disappear quickly due to spontaneous decay
-has a limited capacity
-very limited duration
-information is coded depending on the sense it has picked up on eg visual, auditory, tactile
What is Short term memory
-type of memory with a limited capacity
-limited duration
-coding is typically acoustic
What is long term memory?
-type of memory with unlimited capacity
-can hold information forever
-coding is typically semantic
What are the three types of long term memory?
1) Episodic memory
-stores info about events in your life
-these can be constantly recalled
2) Semantic memory
-stores facts and knowledge that you’ve learnt
- can coconsciously recall
3) Procedural memory
-stores knowledge on how to carry out tasks eg tie your shoes
-this info can’t be consciously recalled
Studies into the duration of the sensory register memory?
1)
- Sperling investigated the sensory register using brief displays
-used a lab experimenter were ppts were shown a grid of three rows of 4 letters for 50 milliseconds
-they were then to recall either the whole grid or a row of what they had just seen.
-when ppts had to recall the whole grid they could only recall 4 or 5.
-when asked for one row the recall was much higher
-concluded that they couldn’t recall the whole grid as trace faded before they could finish recalling the whole grid.
Evaluation of Sperling
Strength
-due to being a lab experiment it was highly scientific meaning that the variables were controlled. All of this makes the study easy to replicate
Weakness
- Study lacks ecological validity as it’s an artificial setting
Research into the STM by Peterson and Peterson
-ppts were shown nonsense trigrams and asked to recall them after 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds
-during the pause they were asked to count back from a certain number in threes in order to prevent them repeating the trigram internally
-After 3 seconds, the ppts could recall about 80% of the trigrams correctly
-After 18 seconds, ppts could only recall 10% correctly
- It can be concluded that when rehearsal is prevented only a small amount of info can stay in the STM for no longer than 18 seconds
Evaluation of Peterson and Peterson
Strength
-the results of the study are very likely to be reliable as it was a lab experiment meaning variables were controlled allowing for easy replication
Weakness
-lacks ecological validity as the task is artificial
Weakness
-Only one type of stimulus was used
-The ppts saw many trigrams which could have lead to confusion.
Research into the LTM by Bahrick et al
-329 ppts were asked to list a name of ex classmates (free-recall)
-then shown photos and asked to recall the names of people shown ( photo-recognition test)
-or given names and asked to match them to a photo of the classmate (name recognition)
- Found that within 15 years of leaving school, ppts could recognise 90% of names and faces
- Found that after 48 years name -recognition was about 48% accurate .
-As ppts got older their ability to free recall names declined from 60% to 30%
- This study shows that recognition is greater than recall so there may be a larger store of information.
Evaluation of Bahrick
Strength
-has very high ecological validity as it was a field experiment
Weakness
-Hard to control all the variables which makes the findings less reliable as there is no way of knowing why the information was recalled so well
Name the two models of memory
-multi-store model of memory
-working memory model
What is the Multi-store model of memory?
-model of memory that proposes the idea that memory consists of 3 stores: a sensory register, a STM store and a LTM store
-information must pass through these stores to become a memory
-information from our environment will first go into the sensory register
- if this info is paid attention to the it will pass into the STM
- if this information is then rehearsed it can be moved into the LTM.
Evaluation of the MSM (multi store model)
Strength
-many studies support the MSM and the idea that memory is made of separate stores.
-The primary effect is an example of this
-research shows that people are able to recall the first few items of a list rather than the middle.
-MSM explains that this is due to earlier items being rehearsed better and been transferred to the LTM.
Strength
-The recency effect also supports the MSM
-Research has shown that ppts tend to remember the last few items on a list better then the middle ones
-As the capacity of STM is only 7 items then if the items in the middle of the list are not rehearsed then they are lost
- the items at the end are still in the STM at the end of the experiment so can then be recalled.
Evaluation of the MSM pt2
Weakness
-The model is over simplified
-it assumes that there is only one STM store and only one LTM store
-there is evidence to disprove this from brain damaged patients suggesting that there are multiple short and long term stores
Weakness
-the model suggests that rehearsal is needed for information to passed from one store to another
-but in real life people don’t spend time rehearsing info yet it is still transferred into their LTM.
-Some items eg smell can’t be rehearsed
