Memory Flashcards
What is a memory?
Refers to the processes that are used to acquire, store, retain and then retrieve information
What is the definition of coding?
The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores
What is the definition of capacity?
The amount of information that can be held in a memory store
What is the definition of duration?
The length of time that information can be held in the memory
What was Jacob’s study?
.Jacobs was measuring the digit span of a persons memory.
.The researcher read out 4 digits and the participant had to repeat them back out loud to the researcher. If they got them correct then the researcher would read out 5,6,7 etc until the person failed.
What were the findings from Jacob’s study?
.Mean digit span-9.3
.Mean letter span-7.3
What is a strength of Jacobs study?
Even though it was carried out in 1887, latter research has proved Jacob’s findings to be correct.
What is a limitation of Jacob’s study?
Findings may lack validity as he didn’t take into account factors such as age (8 years-6.6 digits. 19 years-8.6 digits)
What was miller’s study?
Muller claimed the STM could hold 7+-2 pieces of information.
He said that by ‘chunking’ long numbers into short pieces they would be easier to recall (phone numbers etc)
What is a strength of Miller’s study?
None
What are limitations of millers study?
Cowan (2001) showed that the capacity of the STM was 4 chunks of info
Simon(1974) showed the STM could hold 5 chunks of information.
What’s is the capacity of the STM
9.3 digits and 7.3 letters
What is the capacity of the LTM
Limitless
What was Peterson and Peterson’s study?
They have 24 undergraduate students a consonant trigram (CVC) to remember and a random 3 digit number to count back from for 3,6,12,15,18 seconds
What were the findings of Peterson and Peyerson’s study?
Correct recall after 3 seconds- 80%
Correct recall after 6 seconds- 50%
Correct recall after 18 seconds- 3%
What is a strength of Peterson and Petersons study?
Good ‘generalisability’ - We do have to try to remember some ‘meaningless’ things in life such as phone numbers
What’s a limitation of Peterson and Petersons study?
Lacks ‘mundane realism’- the information that the students were asked to recall was ‘artificial’ and does not show him memory works in the real world
What was Bahricks study?
A longitudinal study where he got 392 Americans between the ages of 17 and 74 to remember high school classmates through free recall and identifying photos.
What were the results of bahricks study?
Photo recognition:
.90% accurate within 15 years
.70% accurate after 48 years
Free recall
.60% accurate within 15 years
.30% accurate after 48 years
What is a strength of bahricks study?
High mundane realism- a meaningful stimuli was used that reflects how memory works irl
What is a limitation of bahricks study?
Failure to control ‘confounding variables’- some participants may look through their yearbook regularly while others never did
What were the findings of Baddelys study?
Info in STM coded acoustically
Info in LTM coded semantically
What was a strength of Baddelys study?
Important step in understanding the memory system, helped to develop MSM
What’s a strengths of the MSM?
Good supporting evidence- Baddely proved STM is coded acoustically and LTM is coded semantically
More supporting evidence- HM had hippocampus removed and lost LTM but STM was fine-could not transfer info from LTM to STM- could remember his parents etc but if he met a new person they would always remain a stranger to him.
What are limitations of the MSM?
Evidence that proves it wrong- KF had amnesia and proved the STM had separate stores for auditory and visual information.
Lacks mundane realism- most of the evidence used to support it used random letters and numbers.
What are the different types of LTM (Tulving 1985)
Declarative- semantic, episodic
Implicit- procedural
What is the episodic memory?
-the ability to recall events from our lives
-they are time stamped
- Includes many details
- have to make a conscious effort to recall them
What is the semantic memory?
-memories that relate to knowledge of the world
-not time stamped
- less personal
- have to make a conscious effort to recall.
What is procedural memory?
-memories of how we do things (ride a bike etc)
-acquired through repetition and practice
-doesn’t involve conscious thought
What are strengths of the types of LTM (Tulving 1985)?
Supporting evidence- HM proves there are separate stores in LTM
Physical evidence- Tulving used PET scanners when testing participants
What’s a limitation of types of LTM (Tulving 1985)?
Unreliable evidence- lots of case studies used (HM) which may be unique
What are the Strengths of WMM?
Supporting evidence- KF could not process auditory info but could process visual info.
Supporting evidence- Baddelys dual-performance task- two visual talks at once=hard, visual + auditory take at once = easy.
What is a limitation of WMM?
Not properly understood- ‘the CE is the most important but least understood component of the WMM’ Baddely.
What is interference
The idea that one memory has been blocked by another causing one or both to be forgotten or distorted. (Proactive and reteroactive)
What is proactive interference?
Post learning interferes with current learning (calling partner by ex’s name)
What is retroactive interference
When current learning interferes with past learning (not being able to remember new teachers name after getting a new one)
What are the strengths of the theory of interference?
Real world evidence- baddely and hitch asked rugby players which teams they played that season, players which played less games remembered more.
Supporting evidence- multiple highly controlled lab studies showed this theory to be correct.
What is a limitation of the theory of interference?
Other explanations can be used for forgetting- for interference to be a problem two pieces of information must be very similar, which is not common.