Memory 4.1.2 Flashcards
What is memory ?
The process of acquisition / storage (encoding) and retrieval of information.
What is the capacity, duration,encoding?
Capacity - how much can be held
Duration - How long information can be retained
Encoding - the way information is transformed to a storage within memory
Capacity STM
7+- 2 things
Capacity test
participants are presented with number lists of increasing lengths and then are asked to recall them.
Durations STM
18-30 seconds
Encoding STM
acoustically
What was the Peterson and Peterson study?
Tests duration
Presented participants with trigrams and asked them to recall after varying intervals
As the intervals increased the memory rate reduced
Evaluation of P&P (strengths)
- standardised method
-Aid to revision and learning - lab ( controls extraneous variables)
Evaluation of P&P (limitations)
Lacks ecological validity
Lacks population validity
Demand characteristics
LTM capacity, duration,encoding
capacity - potentially infinite
Duration - potentially infinite
encoding- semantically (meaning)
What was the yearbook research into LTM
Condition One - recognition had to match the yearbook photo to the name chosen from a list
Condition Two - recall - asked to name the people from memory
What was the findings of the yearbook research
Recognition was more successful when recognising rather than recall
Long term memory potentially lasts decades
What was the LTM encoding research
Participants presented with list of words that sound semantically similar
They were asked to recall immediately or after 20 minutes
Findings of the LTM encoding research
After 20 minutes the words became jumbled up - recall was lower -Ltm encodes semantically
AO3 of the LTM encoding research
S - lab study - control of distractions
L - artificial task
- Only measures LTM for 20 minutes
Who created the trip article model and when?
Tulving - 1985
What is the procedural part of the LTM
Memory of how we do things/skill
able to recall without conscious awareness –> implicit
’ not available for conscious inspection’
- turning right at a junction
What is the Episodic part of the LTM
For personal event
Explicit
‘available for conscious inspection’
- breakfast you ate this morning
What is the semantic part of the LTM
Knowledge of the world/ facts and knowledge
explicit / non declarative
’ available for conscious inspection’
evaluation for the trip article model
STRENGTHS
Clive Wearing –> Amnesia
He could still play piano but not recall life
Neuro imaging
Episodic/Semantic –> prefrontal cortex
Procedural –> Cerebellum
evaluation for the trip article model
LIMITATIONS
Clive wearing –> Only one person –> lacks population validity
Brainscans are based on blood flow which is not direct measure of brain activity
Strengths of the multi-store memory model
Wearing case study - shows LTM + STM are unitary stores
Serial position technique
- separate store
Limitations of the Multi store memory model
Wearing - piano (procedural) could not life events (episodic)
LTM not unitary
Flashbulb memories
what are flashbulb memories
are vivid and resistant to forgetting without maintenance rehearsal
what was the serial position technique?
PPT given list of words and then were asked to recall
middle was forgotten
First words travelled to LTM ( primary effect)
Last words still in STM ( regency effect)
What is the central executive?
Attentional process that monitors incoming data and allocates tasks to slave systems.
Limited in capacity / how much information it can hold at one time - can only hold on to one type of information at one time
WMM What is the phonological loop?
deals with auditory information
2 seconds of what you can say capacity
what is the phonological store?
stores words you hear
What’s the articulatory process?
allows maintenance rehearsal
What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
stores visual and spatial information
what is the visual cache?
stores visual data
what is the inner scribe?
records the arrangement of objects in the visual field
what is the episodic buffer?
integrating visual/spatial/verbal information in a sequence of time
Strengths of working memory model
Patient KF
Dual task performance - gave two visual task and one visual one verbal ( done better)
must be separate slave systems
Brain scanning - prefrontal cortex activity increases during logic task
Limitations of the Working memory model
case study - not generaliseable
Dual task lacks mundane realism - hmm is doubtful
Brainscans measure bloodflow but we think in electrical impulses
