Memory Flashcards
short term memory
Temporary store that holds limited amounts of info for short periods of time
Long term memory
Permanent store holding unlimited amounts of info for long periods of time
What’s the difference between capacity and duration
Capacity: The amount of information that can be held in memory
Duration: The length of time information can be held in memory
What is coding
The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores
Key Researcher: Baddley 1966
What was the Aim and Procedure of his research
[HINT: CODING, GROUPS, WORDS]
Aim: To investigate which words could be stored better in STM/LTM -> Acoustically or Semantically similar words
Procedure: Gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember
Group 1: acoustically similar - words that sound similar
Group 2: acoustically similar - words that sound different
Group 3: semantically similar - words with similar meanings
Group 4: semantically dissimilar - words with different meanings
Participants were asked to show the original words and recall them in the correct order
Key Researcher: Baddley 1966
What was the Results and Conclusion of his research
Results:
1. When participants had to recall the words immediately, they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words
- When participants were asked to recall the words after 20 minutes, they did worse with semantically similar words
Conclusions
- STM: Information is encoded acoustically (according to sound)
- LTM: Information is encoded semantically (according to meaning)
What is the working model of memory (WMM)
An explanation of how one aspect of memory (short term) is organised and how it functions
Key Researcher of the Working memory model (WMM)
Baddley & Hitch1974
What Is the central executive
The CE has a supervisory role like a CEO I’m a business.
It monitors incoming data, controls attention and assigns tasks to different subsystem.
However it has limited processing capacity and doesn’t store information
What is the phonological loop
Processes auditory information and keeps the order when information arrives. It has two parts
- One of the slave systems for the CE
- PL stores words we hear
- Articulatoey process which allows maintenance rehearsal.
What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad
Stores and records visual and spatial information.
For example, when recalling how many windows are in your house, you visualise it
Limited capacity of 3-4 objects
- Another slave systems of the CE
- Visual cache -> stores visual data
- Inner scribe -> records object positions in the visual field
What is the Episodic buffer
Added by Baddley 200 as a temporary store that combines visual, spatial and verbal info while keeping track or time
Acts as storage part of the CE, has capacity of 4 chunks and links working memory to long term memory and perception
what is the capacity of the PL (how long can information be held)
2 seconds
What is interference
Lots of information become confused in memory/one memory blocks another
What are the two types of interference
- Proactive interference -> a cause of forgetting by which previously stored information prevents learning and remembering new info
- Retroactive interference -> occurs when newly learned information interferes with and impedes the recall of previously learned information
What is proactive interference
Forgotten by which previously stored info prevents learning and remembering new info
Retroactive interference
Occurs when newly learned info interferes with and impedes recall of previously learned info
Key Researcher: McGeoch and McDonald
What was the Aim and Procedure of his research
(Hint: Retroactive interference, Groups, Synonyms/Antonyms etc)
Aim: To see the effect of retroactive interference
Procedure: Give participants a list of 10 adjectives. Once they were learned, they were given a second list
Divided into 6 groups
1. Group 1: Synonyms - words with the same meaning
- Group 2: Antonyms - words with opposite meanings to original
- Group 3: Words unrelated to the original ones
- Group 4: Nonsense syllables
- Group 5: Three-digit number
- Group 6: No new list - participants rested
Key Researcher: McGeoch and McDonald
What was the Results and Conclusion of his research
Recall was worst for synonyms at 12%
Explanations of the effects of similarity (McGeoch & McDonald)
Similarity affects recall for two reasons
1. PI - Previously stored information makes new similar information more difficult to store
- It could be due to RI - new information overwrites previous similar memories because of the similarity
Which key researcher investigated coding
Baddley (1966)
Key Researcher: Baddley
What was the Aim and Procedure of his research
Aim: To investigate which words could be stored better in long term and short term memory: semantically
Procedure: Gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember
Group 1: acoustically similar - words that sound similar
Group 2: acoustically dissimilar - words that sound different
Group 3: semantically similar - words with similar meanings
Group 4: semantically dissimilar - words with different meanings
Participants shown words and given task to recall them in the same order
Key Researcher: Baddley
What was the Results and Conclusion of his research
Results:
Immediate recall for Participants that did worse with acoustically similar words
Recall after 20 minutes: Participants did worse with semantically similar words
Conclusion
STM: Information is encoded acoustically
LTM: Information is encoded semantically (according to meaning)
Which Researcher investigated capacity
- Jacob using Digit Span tests on STM
- Miller with Chunking
Key Researcher: Jacob
Aim & Procedure
Aim:
Procedure:
Researcher readss out 4 digits and Ps are asked to recall numbers in order out loud
If numbers recalled are done in order, the researcher reads out 5 digits then 6, 7, 8 etc until participants cannot remember the order correctly
Key Researcher: Jacob
Results & Conclusion
The results from individual participants on the experiment determine the individuals digit span
Mean digit = 9.3
Mean letter spam = 7.3
Key researcher: Miller
What were his beliefs of capacity
Miller suggested that capacity of the short term memory is around 7 + or - 2 items
Miller also suggested that people can recall more items if they group sets of digits/letters into separate units/chunks
Which researchers investigated into duration
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
-> Married pair
Behrick et al (1975) -> Long term memory
Key researcher: Peterson and Peterson (1959)
What were the aim and procedure of their research
Aim
Procedure:
24 undergraduate students take part in 8 trials (tests)
On each trial, the student was given a constinant syllable to remember in addition to a 3 digit number
The student was then asked to count backwards from the number until told to stop to prevent rehearsal
On each trial, they were told to stop counting after a different amount of time -3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds (AKA THE RETENTION INTERVAL)
Key researcher: Peterson and Peterson (1959)
What were the results and conclusion of their research
% of correct responses decreased as retention intervals increased
STM has a very short duration unless we repeat something over and over again
- SEE GREEN FOLDER FOR RESULTS ON SCATTER GRAPH
Key researcher: Bahrick et al (1975
What were the aim and procedure of their research
Aim: To investigate how long info could be helf in the LTM
Procedure: 392 participants selected from Ohio aged 17 - 24
- High School Textbooks obtained. Recall tested in 2 ways:
- Photo recognition test consisting of 50 photos some of which from Ps yearbook
- Free recall where participants recalled all names of graduating class
Key researcher: Bahrick et al (1975
What were the results and conclusion of the research
- Participants who were tested within the 15 years of graduation were 90% accurate in photo recognition
- Recall declined to 70% if recalling after 48 years
Free recall was less accurate: 60% accuracy for 15 years after graduation adn 30% after 48 years
Conclusion
This suggests LTM may last up to a lifetime for some material
