Memory Flashcards
What is coding?
The format in which info is stored
Who did research on coding?
Baddeley (1966)
He gave different lists of words to 4 groups of participants to remember
What is capacity?
The amount of time info can be held for
What is the duration?
Length of time info can be held
How is STM coded?
Acoustically
How is LTM coded?
Semantically
What is the capacity of the STM?
7+/-2 seconds
What is the capacity of the LTM?
Unlimited
What are some characteristics of the LTM?
- potentially permanent memory store
- unlimited capacity
-can last up to a lifetime
-info is coded semantically
What are some characteristics of STM?
- limited capacity
- info coded acoustically
- lasts about 18-30 secs unless rehearsed
- if we rehearse it long enough, it’ll pass to LTM
What is maintenance rehearsal?
when we repeat material to ourselves over and over again
Who developed the MSMoM?
Atkinson and Shiffin
What is the MSMoM?
- Describes how info flows through the memory system
- Suggests memory is made up of 3 stores, linked by processing
- It also describes how info is remembered and forgotten
MSMoM
What is the sensory register?
- The environmental stimulus will pass through into the sensory register
- It has high capacity, a duration less than a second and very little info that enters goes any further
What are the 2 stores within the sensory register?
Iconic - coded visually
Echoic - coded acoustically
Who came up with the idea of there being 3 LTM stores?
Tulving (1985) realised the view of LTM was too simplistic and flexible
What are the 3 LTM stores?
Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Procedural memory
What is episodic memory?
- memories of events from our lives
- memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort
- Memories are time stamped
Eg what you ate for breakfast this morning
What is semantic memory?
- Our knowledge of the world (facts)
- Memories aren’t time-stamped
- Usually need to recall these memories deliberately
Eg knowing the taste of an orange
What is procedural memory?
- Actions, skills, how we do things
- Can be recalled without conscious awareness or a great deal of effort
Eg driving a car, changing gear without thinking about it
Who was the working memory model proposed by?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
What is the working memory model?
- Explains how STM is organised and how it functions
-Looks at the part of the mind which is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating info
What are the different components in the WMM?
Central Executive
Phonological loop
Visio spatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer
What is the central executive?
- Directs attention and makes decisions
-Allocates slave systems to tasks - Info arrives from senses or the LTM
- Very limited capacity
- Modality free loading
What is the phonological loop?
- Deals with auditory info
- Preserves order of info
- Limited capacity
- Coded acoustically
What is the phonological loop further divided into?
Phonological store
Articulatory Process
What does the phonological store do?
Holds the words we hear
What does the articulatory process do?
Used for maintenance rehearsal
Words we read or hear are silently repeated in a loop
Capacity of ~2 seconds worth of words
What does the episodic buffer do?
Temporary overspill for info received by the CE
Integrates info from all the stores
Limited capacity - approx 4 chunks
What does the visuospatial sketchpad do?
Holds static images and manipulates them
Deals with visual and spatial info
Limited capacity ~3-4 objects
Coded visually
What is the VSS further divided into?
Visual cache
Inner scribe
What does the visual cache do?
Holds colours, shapes and quantities
What does the inner scribe do?
Deals with spatial info e.g distances
What are the stages of a cognitive interview?
- Report everything
- Reinstate the context
- Reverse the order
- Change perspective
What is retrieval failure?
When info is initially placed into memory cues and stored at the same time
If the cues aren’t present at the time of recall, it may appear info is forgotten
In fact, the info is still there, but it can’t be accessed
What is an eye witness testimony?
The ability for people to remember details of events which they have observed. Accuracy can be affected by factors such as leading questions, misleading info or anxiety
What is misleading info?
Incorrect info given to eyewitnesses in forms like leading questions and post-event discussion
What is a leading question?
Question which suggests a certain answer because its phrased in a particular way
What is post-event discussion?
More than one witness to an event may influence accuracy of recall
What is a piece of research surrounding leading questions?
Loftus and Palmer (1974) - students watched clips of a car accident and were given questions about the accident however, there were different verbs in each question
What were the different questions asked in the Loftus and Palmer research?
- How fast were the cars travelling when they hit each other?
- contacted
- bumped
- collided
- smashed
What were the findings of the Loftus and Palmer research?
Mean speed was calculated for each group
Contacted was the slowest speed- 31.8
Smashed was the highest- 40.5
What happens when interference takes place as an explanation for forgetting?
It occurs when 2 pieces of info conflict which can result in forgetting one or distortion of the memory]
Interference is mainly concerned with LTM
What are the two types of interference?
Proactive: interferes with a newer memory
Retroactive: new memory interferes with an older one
Who did research on interference?
McGeoch and McDonald
What did McGeoch and McDonald do?
Measured retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between 2 sets of materials
Participants had to remember a set of words so they could recall all of them, then learned a new list - 6 lists
What were the 6 groups in McGeoch and McDonalds research?
- synonyms
- antonyms
- words unrelated to others
- consonant syllables
- 3-digit numbers
- no new list to learn
What were the findings of McGeoch and McDonalds research?
Recall was worse when 2 lists were similar in meaning - synonyms
Who is the research by for misleading info?
Gabbert et al - participants in pairs watched a video of the same crime but from different points of view
What were the findings of Gabberts research?
71% mistakenly recalled aspects of the event they didn’t see but picked up in discussion
0% for the control group
What was the conclusion for Gabberts research?
Witnesses go along with each other
