memory

Question 1

define encoding

Answer 1

how information is stored

Question 2

define capacity

Answer 2

the amount of information you can remember

Question 3

define duration

Answer 3

how long you can remember information for

Question 4

what are the two models of memory

Answer 4

multi store model
working memory

Question 5

what is the main idea behind the multi store model

Answer 5

it is made up of separate and unitary (singular) stores such as long term and short term

Question 6

according to the multistore model, how does information process from environmental stimuli to the long term memory ( basically what are the stages for the MSM)

Answer 6

environmental stimuli enters the sensory memory, if attention is payed it reaches the short term memory. here maintenance rehearsal is used to maintain the memory in this store. elaborate rehearsal allows information to reach long term memory. retrieval is the process of restoring long term into short term

Question 7

what is the duration, encoding and capacity of sensory memory

Answer 7

duration - 1/2 a second
encoding - sensory registers such as iconic register, echoic register and haptic register
capacity - unlimited

Question 8

what research evidence is there to test the duration of sensory memory

Answer 8

Sperling
he asked participants to remember as many letters as they could from a four by three grid he displayed for half a second. they could only recall around 4 letters.

Question 9

what is the duration, encoding and capacity of short term memory

Answer 9

duration - 18-30 seconds
encoding - acoustically
capacity - 7+/- 2

Question 10

what research evidence is there to test the duration of short term memory

Answer 10

Peterson and Peterson
participants read nonsense trigrams to participants and then got them to count backwards in threes from a random 3 digit number. they found that after a 3 second, 80% of participants could recall the trigram. but after 18 seconds only 10% could

Question 11

what research evidence is there to test the capacity of short term memory

Answer 11

Jacobs
used a digit span, where participants were showed a sequence of letters and had to recall the correct order, started with three items up until they couldn’t recall the whole sequence - found that participants averagely recalled between 5 and nine items
Miller - confirmed it was 7+/-2 and that capacity could be increased by chunking.

Question 12

What research is there that tests the encoding of short term memory

Answer 12

Baddeley
Participants learnt a list of words with two conditions for STM
- they learnt words that sounded the same and were asked to recall immediately - words were forgotten
- they learnt words that meant the same and were asked to recall immediately- memory is fine

Question 13

What is the duration, encoding and capacity of LTM

Answer 13

Duration - unlimited
Encoding - semantically
Capacity - unlimited

Question 14

What research is there that tested the duration of long term memory

Answer 14

Bahrick
- used a sample of ex high school students between ages 17 and 74
- participants were tested by doing a photo recognition test, asked to identify their former classmates from 50 photos
- found that 90% of participants were from a different able to correctly match names and faces 14 years after graduation and 60% after 47 years

Question 15

What research is there that tested the encoding of long term memory

Answer 15

Baddeley
- given two more conditions
- participants learnt words that sounded the same and asked to recall after 20 minutes - memory is fine
- participants asked to learn words that meant the same thing and asked to r call after 20 - gets forgotten

Question 16

What research is there that tested the capacity of LTM

Answer 16

wagenaar
- created a diary of 2400 events over 6 years and tested himself on the recall of the events. He did really well

Question 17

Give a strength of the multi store model

Answer 17

• There is a lot of evidence to suggest the existence of separate memory stores
• researchers showed participants a slideshow of words one at a time and then asked them to write down as many as they would. Participants were more likely to remember words from the beginning ( in LTM) and then end ( STM) and not the middle
• suggesting MSM is made of multiple stores as participants couldn’t recall information that wasn’t in long term or short term

Question 18

Give a weakness of the MSM

Question 19

Give another strength of the MSM

Question 20

Give another weakness of the MSM

Question 21

What are the four sections of the Working memory model

Answer 21

Central executive
Phonological loop
Visuo-spatial sketch pad
Episodic buffer

Question 22

what is the main idea behind the working memory model and what case study highlights this

Answer 22

focuses on the short term memory
- it was clear from the multi store model short term memory isn’t one singular separate store
- case study of KF - he had a digit span of two when the numbers were read out to him but it was normal when he saw them visually - suggesting how there must be multiple stores.

Question 23

Give a description of the phonological loop and what two things it contains

Answer 23

• It is the “inner voice”
• is a temporary storage system for holding verbal information in a speech base form
• contains the phonological store and a he articulatory loop

Question 24

What is the phonological store

Answer 24

Hold / stores spoken words - it is passive storage

Question 25

What is the articulatory loop

Answer 25

Rehearses informed information from phonological stores via subvocal rehearsal - it is active

Question 26

what is the capacity and encoding of the phonological loop

Answer 26

capacity - limited - 2 seconds

Question 27

what evidence is there for the phonological loop

Answer 27

Baddeley
- gave participants brief visual exposure of 5 words and asked them to recall them in the same order
- condition one used single syllable
- condition two used polysyllabic
- he found that participants recalled more short words therefore concluding the capacity of the phonological loop is determined by word length not number of items

Question 28

give a description of the visuo-spatial sketchpad and what are the two things it contains

Answer 28

referred to as the inner eye, it deals with visual and spatial information. visual cache and inner scribe