Memory Flashcards
What is the threefold process of remembering information?
registering/acquiring info - coding
retaining
retrieving
But what three sections of memory do we study?
Capacity, duration and coding
What is capacity?
how much our memory can hold
What is duration?
How long our memories can last
What is coding?
The way info is changed so it can be stored- e.g. acoustic or visual form
What is the capacity of the sensory register?
Very large
Who studied the capacity of the sensory register?
Spirling- Flashed a 3x4 grid to for 1/20th sec, pps asked to recall rows or entire grid.
Recall was high no matter which row- suggests all info was in the sensory register
What is the capacity of Short term memory?
7 +/- 2 items
Who studied the capacity of short term memory?
Jacobs: pps given strings of letters and no.s to remember, length of string increased until they couldn’t remember
Pps recalled approx. 9.3 no.s & 7.3 letters
What is chunking?
We divide strings of letters/ no.s into chunks to remember them more easily
What is the capacity of Long Term Memory?
unknown/extremely large
Who studied the capacity of LTM?
Wagenaar: created a diary of 2400 words over 6 years, excellent recall of all events
What is the duration of the sensory register?
approx. 500 milliseconds for iconic sensory store
limited duration/different rates of decay for different info
Who studied the duration of the sensory register?
Walsh and Thompson- found that the iconic sensory store is approx. 500 milliseconds
What is the duration of STM?
very short/ up to 30 seconds
Who studied the duration of STM?
Peterson and Peterson: pps shown a nonsense trigram, asked to count backwards in 3s from a 3 digit no. to prevent rehearsal, repeated for various intervals
80-90% letters recalled after 3secs, 10% after 18secs
Who studied the duration of LTM?
Bahrick et al: 400pps from a high school asked to name people in yearbook, (recall) 60% after 15yrs, recognition 90% after 15 yrs
What is the duration of LTM?
indefinite- very long/lifelong
What is the coding of the sensory register?
Separate stores for different senses; verbal info- stored acoustically, pictures/faces- stored visually
Who studied the coding of the sensory register?
it was found biologically (although Crowder did study it)
What is the coding of the STM?
coded acoustically- affected by acoustically similar information
What is the coding of the LTM?
coded semantically- affected by semantically similar info
Who studied the coding of LTM and STM?
Baddely: gave pps 4 sets of words: acoustically similar/dissimilar and similar in meaning/not similar in meaning. pps had to recall immediately or after 20mins
found LTM- semantic and STM- acoustic
Who created the multi store memory model?
Atkinson and Shiffrin
Why is the multistore memory model important?
1st model to suggest multiple stores
How can the multistore memory model be described?
How is info stored/lost according to model?
info from senses flows into SR (here can decay quickly), if attention paid flows into STM (here can be displaced or decay) info can be kept here or sent to LTM by maintenance rehearsal. In LTM can be lost by interference/retrieval failure/decay
How can the multistore memory model be described?
How can info be retrieved?
info can be retrieved from the STM,
to retrieve info from LTM it flows from LTM into STM to be retrieved
What are the strengths of the MSM?
1st model to suggest different stores, research support: duration- Peterson+Peterson, coding- Baddely, capacity- Jacobs. Glanzer and Cunitz
What are the weaknesses of the MSM?
there is more than one STM- Shallice and Warrington
There is more than one LTM- Clive Wearing
Different ways of getting LTM- flashbulb memory
What did Glanzer and Cunitz study?
Found Primary and recency effect
pps remembered words at the beginning and end of lists
What is the primary and recency effect?
Primary effect: first words are remembered as they’re rehearsed so go into LTM
Recency effect: last words stay in STM so are remembered
What did Shallice and Warrington study?
Studied KF- he had amnesia after motorbike accident which caused brain trauma- His STM was damaged
Couldn’t remember info read out loud to him but was able to read info and remember it
Suggests multiple STM stores for visual and verbal info
What is the case of Clive Wearing?
Was a world class musician; virus caused brain damage; damaged LTM and stopped him moving STMs to LTM Still has procedural memory (play piano) but can't remember children's names (semantic memory) or wedding day (episodic memory)
What does Clive Wearing’s case suggest?
That there are multiple LTM stores (for procedural, semantic a episodic memory)
What is flashbulb memory?
Info goes straight into LTM (can be due to heightened emotion, but can be unexplained)
What is a criticism of maintenance rehearsal?
Some things we can repeat a lot but do not make it into the LTM
What is semantic memory?
Knowledge about the world/facts. Not time stamped. Are declarative (you can use conscious effort to recall these memories).
What parts of the brain are involved with semantic memory?
Hippocampus, Temporal lobe