Memory

Question 1

Outline and evaluate the multi store model of memory.

Answer 1

• Atkinson and shiffrins multi store model of memory makes a distinction between the separate stores of the sensory register, short term and long term memory.
• each of these stores is different in terms of capacity, duration and coding.
• coding is transforming incoming information into a form that can be stored in memory.
• the capacity of sr is very large.in STM it is +7/-2 items whereas the capacity of LTM is unlimited.
• duration in sr is limited.in STM it is 18- 30 seconds. LTM lasts up to a lifetime.
• in terms of coding, sr has different sensory stores, STM is mainly acoustic and LTM is mainly semantic.
• MSM is a structural model and STM und LTM are unitary stores. Information passes store to store in a linear way.
• external stimuli is registered in the sensory memory.it this is given or stimulates enough attention then it will be transferred to short term memory. If this is practiced enough, and isn’t lost through decay or displacement, it will be transferred to LTM

Question 2

Strengths and weaknesses of the multi Store model of memory

Answer 2

+ contribution it has made to memory research.
The model is testable and much research conducted to test the model has led to distinctions between STM and LTM.

• oversimplified and doesn’t reflect the complexity of the human memory. The model emphasises the amount of information we can remember at the expense of the nature of things we remember.

Question 3

Outline and evaluate research related to the features of short term memory. (Petersons)

Answer 3

• Peterson and Peterson researched the duration of STM. They presented participants with a consonant trigram.
• rehearsal was prevented by asking them to count backwards in threes from a specific number.after intervals of 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds participants were asked to stop counting and to repeat the trigram.
• the percent of trigrams correctly recalled was recorded for each time interval.it was shown that about 80% of trigrams were recalled after three seconds, as time intervals lengthened progressively fewer trigrams were recalled and after 18 seconds the amount of trigrams recalled correctly was less than 10%.

Question 4

Strengths and weakness of research related to the features of short term memory (petersons)

Answer 4

Evaluated in terms of the research method that was used.
Although a casual link can be established between the variables and the experiment benefits from high levels of internal validity, the research lacks external validity and mundane realism.
Trigrams are rather artificial and May not reflect everyday memory.

Question 5

Outline and evaluate research related to the features of short term memory (Jacob)

Answer 5

Jacob measured digit span by giving participants lists of digits to recall.it was found the mean span was 9.3 items and the mean span for letters was 7.3.
Miller suggested a magic number of 7 (5-9)as he observed the things that often come in 7 such as days of the week.

Question 6

Strengths and weakness of research related to the features of short term memory (jacob)

Answer 6

• Imitation was that he conducted it a long time ago so may not have been well controlled as if it was conducted today. For example, he may have not allowed an even lapse of time which is why they could repeat 9 rather than 7.
• Cowan criticised millers research by finding that the capacity of STM was only 4 chunks.

Question 7

Outline and evaluate research related to the features of short term memory. (Baddeley)

Answer 7

Baddeley also researched encoding.in baddeleys experiment participants were divided into four groups.

Each group heard a list of words from one of four categories. They were all acoustically similar, acoustically disimilar, semantically similar and semantically dissimilar.

Participants had to repeat the words in the correct order 4 times.

It was shown that encoding in the STM is done acoustically as it was shown that the acoustically similar words were harder to recall in the correct order (55%) than words with dissimilar sounds (75%) wheras similarity of meaning only had a very slight detrimental effect.

Question 8

Strengths and weakness of research related to the features of short term memory( baddeley)

Answer 8

Research can be evaluated in terms of the research method used.
This is because recalling alist of 5 words is hardly something we would be asked to do in everyday life there fore the findings might not be generalisable to real life situations

Another criticism is that research from other studies show that STM may use other forms of encoding.

Question 9

Outline and evaluate research into the duration of long term memory.

Answer 9

In bahricks study of the duration of LTM, 392 graduates from an American high school were shown photographs from their high school year book.

The participants were split into two groups, a recognition group and a recall group.

The findings showed that in the recognition group the percentage of correct answers were 90% after 14 years from graduation, 80% after 25 years, 75% after 34 years and 60% after 47 years.therefore research shows that LTM can last a lifetime

Unlike most memory experiments this experiment used meaningful stimulus giving the research more mundane realism and ecological validity. However, the decrease in accuracy may relate more to a general decline in memory rather than reflecting the limits of duration.