Memory Flashcards

Question

What is procedural information?

Answer 1

- Knowing ‘how’ - These memories are automatic so that attention can be focused elsewhere. They are also known as muscle memories e.g how to ride a bike or how to drive a car. - Typically learnt through repetition and practice.

Answer 2

Episodic. Semantic. Procedural. Declarative. Declarative. Non-declarative Explicit. Explicit. Implicit Time stamped. Not time stamped. Not timestamped Autobiographical. Not. Not Easiest to forget. Medium. Hardest PFC—>hippocampus. Parahippocampal cortex. Motor cortex and cerebellum.

Answer 3

Baddeley and Hitch 1974. They argued that the STM portrayed in the MSM was far too simple. They argued that the STM was not a unitary system with no sub systems and that the working memory is a multi component system that has multiple subsystems (auditory and visual) and that it can retain and process information. They argued that it did not hold limited amounts of information for short periods of time with little processing and that its purpose was not just to pass information to LTM.

Answer 4

It monitors and co-ordinates all mental functions in the working memory and directs attention to particular tasks by allocating resources (the slave systems) to specific tasks. It has a very limited capacity and no capacity for storage.

Answer 5

Phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.

Answer 6

It deals with auditory information and preserves the order of information. Baddeley 1986 proposed that it should be broken down into: 1. Phonological store= the ‘inner ear’ which holds words most recently heard 2. Articulatory process= the ‘inner voice’ which repeats words heard and seen in a loop like a form of maintenance rehearsal. Limited capacity of whatever can be said in 2 seconds.

Answer 7

Codes visual information in terms of separate objects as well as the spatial relationships between objects within the visual field. It temporarily stores visual and spatial information and is used when performing a spatial task like getting from one room to another. Logie 1995 suggested it should be further broken down into: 1. Visual cache= passive store of form and colour and details of an object. 2. Inner scribe= active store holding relationships between objects in a 3D space.

Answer 8

Baddeley 2000 realised that a general store was needed to integrate information from the central executive, visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop. This was because of the limited storage and processing abilities of the other subsystems and the CE having no storage. Somewhere needs to be able to hold both visual and acoustic.

Answer 9

The main reason that the central executive was developed was to account for dual task performance which Baddeley and Hitch 1976 used to support it. Participants were asked to perform 2 visual tasks such as following a moving light at the same time as describing the angles of the letter F. Or they were given a visual and verbal task such as drawing a map of their home at the same time as singing a song. They found that tasks were performed much better when using 2 separate processing systems like visual and verbal. This suggests that there is one store for visual information (visuospatial sketchpad) and one for verbal information (phonological loop). This demonstrates the dual task performance effect and how the central executive exists as a component of the WMM by allocating tasks to separate systems.

Answer 10

Studies of brain damaged individuals can be used as support for the WMM. For example, Shallice and Warrington 1970 investigated the case of KF, an individual who suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident which damaged his STM. They found that his impairment was mainly verbal tasks but visual information was unaffected. His auditory problems were limited to letters and digits but not meaningful sounds like the phone ringing which therefore related to the phonological loop. Additionally, another patient known as LH studies by Fareh et al 1988, was involved in a road accident and performed better on spatial tasks rather than visual imagery. Therefore, this supports the theory of the STM being made up of separate components for visual (visuospatial) and verbal information (phonological loop) and that they are located in different brain regions.

Answer 11

Some psychologists feel that the concept of the central executive is far too vague and it doesn’t really explain anything. All it seems to do is allocate resources and essentially do the same things as attention. Critics also feel that the notion of a singular central executive is wrong and it is probably made up of several components. Eslinger and Damasio 1985 studies EVR, a patient with a cerebral brain tumour that was removed. They found that he performed well on tests requiring reasoning which suggests that his central executive was intact. However, he had very poor decision making skills and would spend hours deciding where to eat, which suggests that in fact his central executive was not wholly intact. Therefore, the concept of the central executive has been found unsatisfactory as it is more complex than Baddeley and Hitch originally proposed.

Answer 12

Interference theory and retrieval failure.

Answer 13

Interference is an explanation of forgetting in terms of one memory disrupting the ability to recall another. It is most likely to occur when the memories are similar and get disrupted by other information when being coded.

Answer 14

When you cannot learn a new task because of an old task already learnt. When old memories already stored disrupt the formation of new ones.

Answer 15

Underwood 1957 and Keppel and Underwood 1962

Answer 16

He analysed the results of a number of studies where they either had to learn a series of word lists or one word list. He found that when they had to learn a series of word lists, they could not recall/ learn the word lists encountered later in the sequence as well as word lists from the beginning. Participants with 10+ word lists, after 24 hours could only recall 20% Participants with just one word list after 24 hours could recall 70%.

Answer 17

Similar to Peterson and Peterson’s study they gave participants meaningless 3 letter consonant trigrams at different intervals 3,6,9.. and to prevent rehearsal they had to count backwards in 3’s. They found that trigrams presented first were typically remembered, irrespective of interval length. This suggests that PI did occur as the earlier consonant trigrams which were already in LTM, disrupted and interfered with the learning and formation of new memories due to similarity of information.

Answer 18

Postman 1931: - Participants were split into groups of 2 in a lab study. - Both groups were given a word list of word pairs to learn like cat-tree, jelly-moss. - The experimental group was also given another word list where the second word of the pair was different e.g cat-glass, jelly-time. Findings: 1. All participants were

Answer 19

Postman 1960: - Participants were split into groups of 2 in a lab study. - Both groups were given a word list of word pairs to learn like cat-tree, jelly-moss. - The experimental group was also given another word list where the second word of the pair was different e.g cat-glass, jelly-time. Findings: 1. All participants were asked to recall the first word list and the control group who were not given the second word list were much more accurate.

Answer 20

McGeoch and McDonald 1931: - They gave participants a list of 10 adjectives which were list A, to learn and they then had a 10 minute resting interval where they also had to learn list B and were then asked to recall them. Findings: 1. If list B were synonyms of List A, recall was very bad- 12% 2. If list B were nonsense syllables, recall was 26% 3. If list B were numbers, recall was 37%. Showing that interference is strongest the more similar the items are.

Answer 21

One issue with research into both pro and retroactive interference is the methodology of studies. For example, the majority of research into the role of interference in forgetting have been conducted in a laboratory using word lists and or nonsense syllables which are likely to occur fairly infrequently in everyday life. In addition, participants may have lacked motivation to remember these links in such studies and this may allow interference effects to seem stronger than they actually are. Finally, Baddeley 1990 suggests that the tasks given to subjects were too close together and that in real life, these kinds of events are more spaced out. Therefore, this suggests that research into interference lacks ecological validity. Nevertheless, recent research has attempted to address this by investigating ‘real life’ events and has provided support for the interference theory. For example, Baddeley and Hitch 1977 investigated interference in an everyday setting using rugby players. They asked them to recall the names of the players they had played during the rugby season. Some players had attended all games whereas some had missed a couple. The time interval was the same however. Those players who had attended the most games forgot proportionately more names, suggesting that the interference theory is correct as there were more similar memories to disrupt other memories. This suggests that decay theory is wrong and shows evidence for interference theory in the real world.

Answer 22

1. Encoding specificity principle 2. Context dependent forgetting 3. State dependant forgetting

Answer 23

Tulving and Thomson 1973. They said ‘The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory.’ When memories are encoded, their context like where you were or what you were feelings is encoded with them, these are known as cues.

Answer 24

When information is in the long term memory but lacks accessibility due to absence of necessary retrieval cues.

Answer 25

Tulving and Pearlstone 1966 They asked participants to learn 48 words that belonged to 12 categories. Each word was presented with its category. E.g fruit-apple, fruit-orange. There were 2 recall conditions: one where they asked participants to recall as many words as they could (free recall) and one where they gave participants cues in the form of the categories (cued recall). Findings: 1. Free recall condition recalled 40% of words on average 2. Cued recall condition recalled 60% of words on average. 3. This is evidence of cues being explicitly or implicitly encoded at the time of learning and having meaningful links to the learning material.

Answer 26

Forgetting is due to aspects of external environment being different to when memory was encoded. E.g smell, place, weather.

Answer 27

Abernathy 1940 and Godden and Baddeley 1975

Answer 28

They recruited scuba divers as participants and arranged for them to learn word lists either on dry land or under the water. They were then asked to recall the words in 4 experimental conditions: those who learnt the words underwater half had to recall underwater and half had to recall on land, those who learnt the words on land half had to recall on land and half underwater. Findings: 1. The highest recall occurred when the initial context matched the recall environment e.g if learnt underwater, were best recalled underwater. 2. This suggests that being in the same environment for both learning and recall aids the retrieval of the memory due to contextual cues.

Answer 29

Used a group of students and arranged for them to be tested before a course began. They were then tested each week in 4 experimental conditions: some were tested in their teaching room with their usual instructor, some had different instructors, some were tested in a different teaching room with the same instructor, some had different instructors. Findings: 1. Those who had the same teaching room and same instructor performed the best as presumably the familiar environments acted as memory cues.

Answer 30

Forgetting is due to aspects of internal environment being different to when the memory was encoded. E.g emotional state, physical state, drunk, drugs.

Answer 31

Goodwin et al 1969 - Asked male participants to learn a list of words either while drunk or sober. Those in the drunk condition consumed 3 times the UK drink driving limit. - They were then asked to recall the words 24 hours later when some were sober but some had to get drunk again. Findings: 1. Recall was worse if they had a different internal state to when they encoded the memory and best if it was the same e.g those who learnt it drunk recalled it better drunk.