Memory 😱 Flashcards
Paper 1
what is memory?
- process of retaining information after the original material is no longer present
- refers to the mental processes used to encode, store and retrieve information
what are the three types of long term memory?
- episodic
- semantic
- procedural
what is episodic memory?
- autobiographical memory
- ie. first day of school
what is semantic memory?
- knowledge/ facts
- ie. revision
what is procedural memory?
- action/ skill or muscle based
- ie. riding a bike
what are the three stages of memory?
- encoding
- storage
- retrieval
what is encoding?
- creating a chemical trace in the brain
- transforms sensory input into a form that can be registered and stored in the brain
- 3 types
what is storage?
- holding/ retaining information
what is retrieval?
- recovering stored information
what are the three types of encoding?
- visual
- acoustic
- semantic (meaning)
what is the multi store model (MSM) of memory?
- linear model
- information is transferred to the sensory memory
- then it decays or is transferred (through attention) to the short term store
- this is then displaced/ decays or (through rehearsal) transferred to the long term store
- in the long term store, retrieval failure or interference can occur
- both the LTM and STM are unitary
what are the properties of the sensory memory (MSM)?
- has many sensory registers (AKA passive stores)
- non unitary
what are the sensory registers in the sensory memory (MSM)?
- iconic register
- echoic register
- haptic register
what does the iconic register do (MSM)?
- deals with visual information
what does the echoic register do (MSM)?
- deals with auditory information
what does the haptic register do (MSM)?
- is concerned with touch
what is the duration of the sensory memory (MSM)?
- limited
- 250 milliseconds
what is the capacity of the sensory memory (MSM)?
- very large
- potentially unlimited
what is the encoding used by the sensory memory (MSM)?
- limited
- modality specific
why are the sensory registers also known as passive stores (MSM)?
- we cannot control our sensory registers consciously
what mechanism is used by the sensory memory (MSM)?
- attention
- enables us to select the relevant information
what is the capacity of the short term store (MSM)?
- limited
- 7+/ - 2 items
what is the duration of the short term store (MSM)?
- 18-30 seconds
what is the encoding used by the short term store (MSM)?
- acoustic
what is the capacity of the long term store (MSM)?
- unlimited
what is the duration of the long term store (MSM)?
- 30 seconds to always
what encoding is used by the long term store (MSM)?
- semantic
what is duration?
- how long you can hold the input for
what is capacity?
- how much input you can hold
who researched iconic memory?
- Sperling (1960)
what was the procedure of Sperling’s study into iconic memory?
- presented participants with visual array of 3 rows of 4 letters each
- for 50 milliseconds
what was the finding of Sperling’s study into iconic memory?
- participants could only recall four or five letters
what were the reasons behind Sperling’s findings from his study into iconic memory?
- memory for many of the letters had decayed before they could be reported
who researched echoic memory?
- Darwen et al
what did Darwen et al suggest about echoic memory?
- duration may be slightly longer than iconic memory
what was the procedure of Darwen et al’ study into echoic memory?
- carried out a similar experiment to Sperling
- participants listened to spoken recordings of letter and numbers
- wore headphones and were asked to recall one of the 3 lists
what were the findings of Darwin et al’s study into echoic memory?
- a delay between presentation of the stimuli and the recall varied between 0 and 4 seconds
- duration of echoic memory is very limited
- information is only held in an unprocessed ‘raw’ form before it is transferred
who researched encoding within the short term memory store (MSM)?
- Baddeley (1966)
what did Baddeley find when investigating encoding in short term memory (MSM)?
- if participants were presented with words to recall from the short term memory, they didn’t confuse words with similar meanings
- instead they confused words which sounded similar
- suggests short term memory uses acoustic encoding
what are the two types of long term memory that are explicit?
- episodic
- semantic
what is the one type of long term memory that is implicit?
- procedural
what does explicit mean?
- knowing ‘that’
what does implicit mean?
- knowing ‘how’
where is episodic memory associated?
- hippocampus
- other parts of the temporal and frontal lobes
where is semantic memory associated?
- temporal lobe
where is procedural memory associated?
- cerebellum
- involved in control of fine motor skills and the motor cortex
- basal ganglia
- limbic system
what case studies can be used to evaluate the MSM?
- HM (Scoville and Miller)
- KF (Warrington and Shallice)
what was the case study of HM about?
- underwent a brain surgery to prevent severe epileptic seizures
- removed hippocampus which caused amnesia
- HM was able to form STM but his ability to create LTM was impaired
- difficulty creating LT semantic and episodic memories
- could create procedural memories
what the case study of KF about?
- brain damage from a motorcycle accident
- LTM appeared unimpaired
- digit span of STM of 1/2 items
- more likely to forget auditory than visual stimuli
- problems centred in ‘auditory- verbal short-term store’
how can the primary and recency effect be used to evaluate the MSM?
- demonstrates the existence of separate memory stores
- as STM is represented by the recency effect and LTM is represented by the primary effect
- words in the middle of the list are usually forgotten due to displacement
what is the primary effect?
- superior recall of the earlier items in a list
what is the recency effect?
- superior recall of the items at the end of a list
how can the MSM be criticised as over simplified?
- suggests both LTM and STM are unitary stores
- working memory model shows STM is divided into a number of qualitatively different stores
- lots of research suggests LTM is non unitary and each aspect of it behaves differently, ie. this can explained through maintenance rehearsal
what is maintenance rehearsal (MSM)?
- repetition of information in the STM creates a LTM
- more information is rehearsed, the better it is remembered
what is the working memory model?
- model based on the short term
- more accurate representation
- concerned with active processing and short term storage
what are the components of the WM model?
- visuo spatial sketchpad
- central executive
- phonological loop
- episodic buffer
what is the central executive?
- monitors and coordinates mental functions
- involved in planning, reasoning and decision making
- no storage but does have limited attentional capacity
what is the visuo spatial sketchpad (VSS)?
- ‘inner eye’
- visual encoding
- capacity of 3/4 items (limited)
- has two subcomponents
what are the two subcomponents of the VSS?
- visual cache
- inner scribe