Memory Flashcards
STM and LTM
- What is STM?
- What is LTM?
- We look at two types of memory, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM)
- STM, limited memory capacity (5-9 items), codes acoustically (sounds), duration of about 18 seconds
- LTM, permeant memory store (unlimited), codes semantically (meaning), duration of a lifetime
Coding, Capacity and Duration of Memory
- What is Coding in relation to memory?
- What is Capacity in relation to memory?
- What is Duration in relation to memory?
- Coding is the format info is stored in the memory stores
- Capacity is the amount of info that can be held in memory stores
- Duration is the length of time info can be held in memory
Research on coding (Baddeley 1966)
- Describe the procedure of Baddeley (1966)
- Describe the findings of Baddeley (1966)
- What conclusions can be made?
- Process of converting info between forms is called coding
- Baddeley (1966), gave different list of words to 4 groups ppts to remember
- Group 1, acoustically similar, sound similar (cat, cab, can)
- Group 2, acoustically dissimilar, sound different (pit, few, cow)
- Group 3, semantically similar, similar meanings (great, large, big)
- Group 4, semantically dissimilar, different meanings (good, huge, hot)
- When ppts told to recall immediately after learning lists (recall from STM), did worse with acoustically similar words
- When ppts told to recall list 20 minutes after learning lists (recall from LTM), did worse with semantically similar words
- Suggests info coded acoustically in STM, semantically in LTM
Evaluation for research on coding
- BS|BA
- Separate memory stores (Baddeley 1966)
- Artificial Stimuli (Baddeley 1966)
Separate memory stores (Baddeley 1966)
- Strength, Baddeley identified difference between two memory stores
- STM mostly acoustic coding, LTM mostly semantic coding stood test of time
- Important step in understanding of memory, led to MSM
Artificial Stimuli (Baddeley 1966)
- Limitation, Baddeley study very artificial, meaningful material not used
- List had no personal meaning to ppts, findings may not tell us much about coding in everyday life
- When processing meaningful info, people may use semantic coding even in STM tasks
- Suggests findings from Baddeley have limited application
Research on capacity
- What are the three things that are researched upon?
Three things that are researched upon, digit span the span of memory and chunking
Digit Span (Jacobs 1887)
- Describe the procedure of Jacobs (1887)
- Describe the findings of Jacobs (1887)
- What conclusions can be made?
- Jacobs (1887), measured digit span (num of digits ppt could recall correctly) to determine capacity of STM
- Researcher read out n digits, ppt recites n digits, continues to failure, indicates ppts digit span
- Jacobs found mean span of digits for all ppts was 9.3 items, mean span of letters was 7.3 items
Span of memory and chunking (Miller 1956)
- What did Miller (1956) observe?
- What did Miller believe about the span of STM?
- What is chunking?
- Miller (1956), observed everyday practice, noted things come in sevens (7 days of the week, 7 deadly sins etc)
- Miller believed span of STM 7+-2 (5 to 9 items
- He also noted we recall fives words as easily as five letters through chunking
- Chunking is the grouping of sets of digits or letters into units/chunks
Evaluation for research on capacity
- JV|C
- Valid study (Jacob 1887)
- Not so many chunks (Miller 1956, Cowan 2001)
Valid study (Jacob 1887)
- Strength, Jacob’s study has been replicated
- Jacob’s findings have been confirmed by better controlled studies that are more recent
- Suggests Jacob’s study is a valid test of digit span in STM
Not so many chunks (Miller 1956, Cowan 2001)
- Limitation, Miller may have overestimated STM capacity
- Cowan (2001), reviewed other research, concluded capacity STM 4 chunks (+-, 3 to 5 chunks)
- Suggests lower end Miller suggested (5 items) more appropriate than 7 items
Research on duration
- What are the two things that are researched upon?
Research is performed on the duration of STM and LTM
Duration of STM (Peterson and Peterson 1959)
- Describe the procedure of Peterson and Peterson (1959)
- Describe the findings of Peterson and Peterson (1959)
- What conclusions can be made?
- Peterson and Peterson (1959), 24 students 8 trials (tests), each trial ppt given consonant syllable (YCG, ERF etc), also given 3-digit number
- Ppt count backwards from this number (prevent mental rehearsal of consonant syllable)
- Told to stop after varying periods on each trial (3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds), retention interval
- Findings, after 3 seconds recall 80%, 18 seconds recall 3%
- Findings suggest STM duration about 18 seconds, unless info repeated over and over (verbal rehearsal)
Duration of LTM (Bahrick et al 1975)
- Describe the procedure of Bahrick et al (1975)
- Describe the findings of Bahrick et al (1975)
- What conclusions can be made?
- Bahrick et al (1975), 392 American ppts aged 17-74
- Recall tested, photo recognition test, 50 photos, some from ppts yearbooks
- Free recall test, ppts recalled names from graduating class
- Ppts tested within 15 years of graduation, 90% accurate photo recognition, 60% free recall
- Ppts tested 48 years after graduation, 70% accurate photo recognition, 30% free recall
- Shows LTM may last a lifetime for some material
Evaluation for research on duration
- M|EV|CP
- Meaningless stimuli in STM study (Peterson and Peterson 1959)
- High external validity (Bahrick et al 1975)
- Counterpoint (Use of Yearbooks)
Meaningless stimuli in STM study (Peterson and Peterson 1959)
- Limitation, Peterson and Peterson (1959), stimulus material artificial
- Not completely irrelevant (try to remember phone numbers, realistically meaningless)
- Stimulus used (consonant syllables) not used in everyday life
- Study therefore lacked external validity meaning generalisation is difficult
High external validity (Bahrick et al 1975)
- Strength, Bahrick et al’s study, high external validity
- Meaningful memories researched on
- Suggests findings reflect more “real” estimate of duration of LTM
Counterpoint (Use of Yearbooks)
- Limitation, people may have recently looked at yearbooks
- Not measuring memory of years ago, possibly months or days even
- Low internal validity, confounding variable that has not been controlled
The Multi-store Model of memory (MSM)
- What does the MSM describe?
- What are the three stores of the MSM?
- Richard and Richard’s (1968, 1971) multi-store model (MSM)
- Describes how info flows through memory system
- Suggests memory made up of three stores linked by processing
- The three stores are The Sensory Register, STM and LTM
Sensory Register (SR)
- What is passed into the SR?
- What does the SR contain, how many of these are there?
- What is coding dependent on, what is the name of this?
- What is the store for coding visual info?
- What is the store for coding auditory info?
- What is the capacity and duration of SR?
- What causes the info to pass further through the MSM?
- Stimuli form environment (sound, sight etc) passed into sensory register (SR)
- SR contains registers (sensory memory stores), one for each of the 5 senses
- Coding modality-specific (depends on sense)
- Store coding for visual info is iconic memory, store coding acoustically is echoic memory
- Duration is very brief (less than half a second), very high capacity (millions of cells in one eye, each store data)
- Info passes further through memory system if you pay attention (attention is a key process)
Short-term memory (STM)
- How is info coded?
- Describe the capacity and duration of STM
- What is the two types of rehearsal, how do they relate to each other?
- What is the condition for info to be stored in STM?
- What happens if the info is not stored in STM?
- When does info get passed to the LTM?
- Info mainly coded acoustically, duration of about 18 seconds unless info rehearsed, STM is a temporary store
- Capacity of 5 to 9 items, more like 5 rather than 9 according to Cowan’s research
- Maintenance rehearsal, repeat material to ourselves over and over again
- Info kept in STM so long as its rehearsed, if done for long enough (prolonged rehearsal) it passes into LTM
- If info not rehearsed then it is forgotten
Long-term memory (LTM)
- How is info coded?
- Describe the capacity and duration of LTM
- How is info recalled?
- Potentially permeant memory store for ingo that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time
- LTM mostly coded semantically, duration may be up to a lifetime according to Bahrick et al
- Capacity is practically unlimited, according to MSM if we recall info from LTM, has to be transferred back to STM though process called retrieval
Evaluation for MSM
- B|CP|KF|FM
- Research support (Baddeley 1966)
- Counterpoint (Meaningful stimuli)
- More than one STM store (Shallice and Warrington 1970, KF)
- Elaborative rehearsal (Fergus and Michael 1973)
- Usefulness of MSM