Memory Flashcards
What is the flow of information in memory?
Encoding -> storage -> retrieval
What is the multistore explanation?
Memory has more than one store.
What is the flow of information in the multistore model?
Sensory store -> short term store -> long term store
What is the capacity and duration of the sensory store?
Very limited, for less than a second
What is the capacity and duration of the short term store?
Approx. 7 chunks of information, for less than a minute
What is the capacity and duration of the long term store?
Unlimited, up to a lifetime
Recall the Peterson and Peterson study into the short term store.
Aim: is rehearsal necessary to hold info in the short term store?
Method: participants given sets of 3 letters to remember, then asked to count back in 3’s for different lengths of time. (This was to prevent rehearsal). They then had to recall the letters.
Results: participants forgot virtually all of the information after 18 seconds.
Conc: we can’t hold info in the short term store without rehearsing it.
Recall the Murdock study into the multi store model.
Aim: to provide evidence to support the multistore model
Method: participants shown a list of words, 1 at a time for 2 seconds each. then had to recall the words in any order.
Results: Words at the end recalled first (the recency effect). Words from beginning also recalled well (the primacy effect). Middle words not recalled very well.
Conc: Murdock decided this was evidence of separate short term and long term stores. Recency effect is evidence that the last few words are still in short term store. Primacy effect is evidence that the first few words had flowed into the long term store.
Evaluate Peterson and Peterson study.
-Had to learn nonsense syllables. Not what people do in the real world. Lacks ecological validity
-Not everything we learn has to be rehearsed. Many everyday events are easily remembered.
+Study help us to understand why it’s so difficult to remember the registration no. of a passing car or telephone no.
Evaluate Murdock Study.
- Had to learn a list of words. Not something people do in the real world. Lacks ecological validity.
- Not everything we learn has to be rehearsed. Many everyday events are easily remembered.
- Study helps us to understand why it’s difficult to remember the registration no. of a passing car or someone’s telephone no.
Practical implications of the multistore model?
Knowing that the short term store holds approx. 7 seven chunks of information explains why car registration no’s and postcodes never exceed that number- makes them easier to remember
What is reconstructive memory?
Altering our recollection of memory so that they make more sense to us
Recall Bartlett’s study into reconstructive memory.
Aim: to see if people, when given something unfamiliar to remember, would alter the information.
Method: participants asked to read a Native American legend, ‘War of the Ghosts’. Then were asked to recall the story. This was repeated several times over the following weeks.
Results: participants found it difficult to remember bits of the story to do with spirits and changed other bits of the story so it made more sense to them. Each time they retold it, they changed it a bit more.
Conclusion: our memory is influenced by our own beliefs
Recall Wynn and Logie’s study into reconstructive memory.
Aim: to see if the recall of familiar stories changed like Bartlett found with unfamiliar stories
Method: They asked uni students to recall their first week at university. They were asked to do this several times over a year.
Results: The accuracy of their descriptions didn’t change, no matter how many times they recalled it. This is unlike Bartlett’s participants.
Conc: Memories for familiar events will not change over time.
Evaluate the reconstructive memory studies.
+this model is important because it emphasises the importance of people’s prior knowledge and background on the way they remember things
+perhaps this is why people of different cultures have difficulty in agreeing with each other
-difficult to measure the accuracy of the retellings
-Bartlett’s stories isn’t similar to our everyday experiences
-we don’t know how accurate Wynn and Logie’s stories were to begin with
+these studies are more relevant to our everyday experiences
Practical applications of reconstructive memory model?
+this model explains two people recalling the same events with have different versions. it doesn’t mean they’re lying.
-this model teaches us we should be careful giving or listening to eyewitness accounts. They might think they’re being accurate, but alter the facts.
What is the levels of processing model?
The depth at which information is thought about when trying to learn it
What are the three levels of processing?
Structural, phonetic and semantic
What is structural processing?
thinking about the physical appearance of words to be learnt
What is phonetic processing?
thinking about the sound of words to be learnt
What is semantic processing?
thinking about the meaning of words to be learnt
Recall the Craig and Lockhart study into levels of processing.
Aim: does the type of question asked about words have an effect on the number of words recalled?
Method: participants were given a list of words, one at a time, and asked yes/no questions about each word. the questions required structural, phonetic or semantic processing of the word. they were given a longer list of words and had to pick out the ones they’d answered questions about.
Results: participants identified 70% of the semantic words, 35% of the phonetic words and 15% of the structural words.
Conc: The more deeply information is processed, the more likely it is to be remembered.
Evaluate Craik and Lockhart’s study.
- doesn’t explain why deeper levels of processing helps memory
- you don’t often have to learn a list of words. lacks ecological validity
What are the practical implications of the levels of processing model?
Can improve study skills- writing it down in your own words requires semantic processing, so you’re more likely to remember it.
What is interference?
things that we have learnt make it difficult to recall other information we have learnt
What is retroactive interference?
NEW things we learn making it hard to recall OLD information
What is proactive interference?
OLD information making it hard to learn NEW information
Recall the Underwood and Postman study into interference.
Aim: to see if new learning interferes with previous learning.
Method: participants were split into 2 groups. Group A had to learn a first list of word pairs, then a second list of word pairs. Group B had to learn the first list only. Both groups were then asked to recall the first list of words pairs.
Results: Group B’s recall was more accurate than Group A’s.
Conc: New learning will cause people to recall previously learned info less accurately.
What are the practical applications of interference?
- study skills. if you have to revise more than one subject in one evening, avoid studying similar subjects or put some space between study sessions.
- sport. skills learned for one sport might interfere with developing skills for a different sport.
What is context?
The general setting or environment in which activities happen
Recall Godden and Baddeley’s study into context.
Aim: will people who learn and are tested in the same environment recall more than people who learn and are tested in different environments?
Method: participants were deep sea divers, divided into 4 groups, given a list of words to learn. Group 1 learnt underwater and recalled underwater. 2 learnt underwater and recalled on the shore. 3 learnt and recalled on the shore. 4 learnt on the shore and recalled underwater.
Results: Groups 1 and 3 recalled 40% more words than groups 2 and 4.
Conc: Recall of information is better if it happens in the same context that learning takes place.
