Memory Flashcards
What is meant by duration of memory?
The length of time information can be stored in memory
What is meant by capacity of memory?
The amount of information that can be stored in memory
What is meant by coding of memory?
A process by which the sensory information is modified and stored in the brain. The most common forms are visual, acoustic and semantic
What is the capacity of sensory memory?
Unknown, but very large
What is the capacity of STM?
Limited (7+/-2 ‘chunks’ of information)
What is the capacity of LTM?
Unlimited
How is STM often assessed?
Using a digit span task
What did Jacob’s research find on capacity?
He found the average span for numbers to be 9.3 items
For letters the average decreased to 7.3 items
What did Miller’s research find on capacity?
‘the magic number is 7 plus or minus two.’ He found we are good at remembering between 5-9 items
He found people could recall around 7 dots, 7 letters, 7 musical notes
What did Miller suggest about chunking?
Miller argued that our capacity for remembering information can be increased if we chunk items together
If we find links between things things and group them together then we will remember more
What is the duration of memory in the sensory store?
Less than one second
What is the duration of STM?
Approximately 18-30 seconds unless information is rehearsed
What is the duration of LTM?
Potentially lasts infinitely
What was the procedure of Peterson & Peterson?
To investigate the duration of STM
24 university students
On each of the 8 trials p’s were given a consonant trigram and a three-digit number. They were asked to recall the consonant syllable after intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18 seconds. To prevent rehearsal ppts were asked to count backwards from their 3-digit number
What were the findings of Peterson & Peterson?
3 secs - 80% successful recall
9 secs - 20% successful recall
18 secs - less than 10% successful recall
Conclusion : The duration of STM is less than 18 seconds
What was the procedure of Bahrick et al?
To investigate the duration of LTM
392 ppts from the US aged 17-74
Tested photo recognition and free name recall from the participant’s high school yearbook
Had to recall the names of students from 50 photos in the high school yearbook
Asked to list the names they could remember from their graduating class
What were the findings of Bahrick et al?
PHOTO RECOGNITION
Ppts tested within 15 years go graduation were 90% accurate
After 48 years recall declined to 70%
FREE RECALL
After 15 years 60% accurate
After 48 years 30% accurate
Conclusion: This suggests that the duration of LTM can last a very long time
How is information encoded in the SS?
Modality specific (encoded in the same way it is received)
How is information encoded in the STM?
Acoustically
How is information encoded in the LTM?
Semantically
What was the procedure of Baddeley (1966)?
Ppts were shown a list of words and asked to recall them in the correct order.
To test STM ppts recalled the words immediately after hearing them, whereas a time interval of 20 minutes was given for LTM recall
What were the findings of Baddeley (1966)?
Participants had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words when tested immediately (STM) but had no difficulty remembering acoustically similar words after 20 minutes (LTM)
Participants had difficulty remembering semantically similar words when tested after 20 minutes (LTM) but had no difficulty remembering semantically similar words when tested immediately (STM)
Conclusion: This suggests that information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM
What is a model?
A representation of how something works and allows predictions to be made about human behaviour
What does the Multi-store Model of Memory (MSM) suggest?
Memory is made up of three separate and distinct stores. Each differs in coding capacity and duration.
It is a linear, sequential model which means information passes through the stores in order. Information passes from store to store if certain conditions are met.
Information can be lost in each stage of storage.
How does information transfer to the STM store?
Stimulus from the environment –> sensory memory/register –> short-term memory store (STM
What stores are with the sensory register/memory?
Iconic & Echoic
How can information get lost in the STM store?
Information here will decay if not rehearsed
New information can ‘push out’ old information due to STM’s limited capacity
How does information enter the LTM store?
Moved from STM to LTM via the maintenance rehearsal. When information needs to be recalled it is retrieved back to STM
What is the Iconic store?
Where visual images are kept for a short period (visual encoding)
What is the Echoic store?
Where auditory senses are kept for a short period (acoustic encoding)
What is the Haptic store?
The form of sensory memory specific to touch stimuli
Define working memory
A limited capacity store for retaining information for a brief period while performing mental operations on that information
Who created the WMM?
Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
Why was the WMM created?
As a way of explaining some of the research findings that could not be accounted for by the multi-store model (MSM), for example, dual-task studies
What does the WMM state?
It suggests that STM is not unitary, but compromises multiple components (central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad)
STM is an active processor with each of the three different components playing their own parts and working together
What is the main role of the Central Executive (CE)?
The CE has a supervisory role. It does not store information. It has very limited processing capacity
What three things does the CE do?
Directs attention to tasks and makes decisions
Allocates tasks to the slave-systems (sub-components)
Data arrives from the senses or from the LTM
What capacity does the CE have?
Limited capacity
What is the main role of the Phonological Loop (PL)?
Processes auditory information. It codes information acoustically and has a limited capacity of 2 seconds worth of information.
What did Baddeley divide the PL into?
Phonological store: holds words heard
Articulatory control process: inner voice
What capacity does the PL have?
Limited capacity
What is the word length effect?
Immediate memory span is better with short words rather than with long words. This is explained by the fact that short words can be articulated faster, so that more words can be silently articulated before they decay
What is the role of the VSS?
The VSS processes visual and/or spatial information. Visual refers to what things look like and spatial refers to relationships between things.
What capacity does the VSS have?
Limited capacity of 3-4 items
What is the dual-task technique?
Dual-task techniques are ones in which performance is measured as participants perform two tasks at the same time
Baddeley’s model found that if one store is utilised for both tasks then task performance is poorer than due to the store’s limited capacity
What is the role of the Episodic Buffer (EB)?
The EB is a temporary store which integrates information from other slave systems
Baddeley added EB as he realised model needed a more general store as the slave systems deal with specific types of information and the CE has no storage capacity
What is the capacity of the EB?
Limited capacity of approximately 4 chunks and it maintains a sense of time sequencing - recording events that are happening.
It also sends information to the LTM store
Who proposed that there are 3 different types of LTM?
Tulving (1967)
What are the three different types of LTM?
Episodic, semantic & procedural
Describe episodic memory
Knowledge of personal events
Give an example of episodic memory
Memory of your first day at school
What 3 elements are involved in episodic memory?
Details of the event
The emotion
The time-stamped event
Is episodic memory time stamped?
Yes
What region of the brain is the episodic memory associated with?
Hippocampus and right prefrontal cortex
Describe semantic memory
Responsible for storing information about the world. This includes knowledge about the meaning of words, as well as general knowledge
Give an example of semantic memory
That London is the capital of England
Is semantic memory time stamped?
No
What region of the brain is semantic memory associated with?
Left prefrontal cortex
Describe procedural memory
Responsible for knowing how to do things and carry out complex motor tasks. These memories are hard to verbalise
Give an example of procedural memory
Knowledge of how to ride a bike
Is procedural memory time stamped?
No
What region of the brain is procedural memory associated with?
Cerebellum and motor cortex
What does interference theory suggest?
Interference theory suggests we forget because our long term memories become confused by other information while it is coded
Proactive interference
Old information disrupts new
Retro-active interference
New information disrupts old
How does similarity affect interference of memory?
Interference is more likely to occur when two pieces of information are similar this is due to response competition
How does time sensitivity affect interference of memory?
Interference is less likely to occur when there is a large gap between the instances of learning
Outline the case study / AO3 point for retro-active interference
Schmidt et al investigated retroactive interference using the memory of childhood street names. 11-79 year olds were sent a questionnaire containing a map of the area around their school without street names. The more times an individual moved home, the fewer street names recalled.
Outline the case study / AO3 point for pro-active interference
Greenberg & Underwood (1950) asked participants to learn 10 paired word lists. Then gave the participants 48 hours before recall. This was repeated four times. The number of correctly recalled word pairs decreased the more word pairs had been learnt previously.
Cue dependent forgetting
Information in long term memory but forgetting happens due to absence of appropriate prompts
What are context dependent cues?
Aspects of the external environment work as cues to memory
Outline the case study / AO3 point for context dependent cues
Godden & Baddeley (1975) studies divers, asking them to learn new materials either on dry land or water. It was discovered recall was worse if in different context and best if same
What are state dependent cues?
Aspects of our internal environment work as cues to memory (emotions, drugs)
Outline the case study / AO3 point for state dependent cues
Overton (1972) asked participants to learn material either drunk or sober. Then tested them on this information when they were drunk or sober. Recall was worse in different internal states
What are category dependent cues?
Providing cues that relate to the organisation of memories may aid recall, as it’s easier to find a file if the drawers are labelled
Outline the case study / AO3 point for category dependent cues
Tulving & Pealstone (1966) asked participants to learn 48 words. The participants either used free recall or recall to match 12 4 word categories. Particpants recalled more in the category condition
