Memory

Question 1

working memory

Answer 1

small amounts of information that can be held in the mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks over a small amount of time

allows manipulation of information
allows focus of attention

Ebbinghouse - first person to test memory (capacity - 7 items)

Question 2

behaviourism

Answer 2

all human behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning

Question 3

information processors

Answer 3

encode, store and retrieve information before producing behaviour

information moves through stores serially

cognition has a limited capacity, processing falls on a continuum (automatic to effortful)

Question 4

Atkinson and Shiffren

Answer 4

first information processing model - series of parts that work together

sensory store
STM
LTM

Question 5

Baddely and Hitch

Answer 5

STM split into 2 (WM)
responsible for holding information temporarily, executing operations and has limited capacity

executive control function - helps organise info between LTM and WM

visuospatial sketchpad - deals with visual information
phonological loop - auditory process

Question 6

hardware

Answer 6

capacity of memory, speed of processing

Question 7

software

Answer 7

ability to use strategies

Question 8

Brainerd (1983) - encoding limitations

Answer 8

encoding limitations

• selective attention - attending to the wrong part
• encoding strategies - rehearsal (cant use repetition), organisation (don’t group items under 10 yo), elaboration (poor at association between words)

Question 9

Brainerd (1983) - retrieval limitations

Answer 9

children may know the strategy but retrieve wrong information as they lack knowledge and experience
10 years - can name one strategy
5 years - only 1/2 can

Question 10

Brainerd (1983) - storage/capacity limitations

Answer 10

WM capacity increases with age - usually 2 items less in children (tested with span test - random items recalled in specific order)

Chi (1978) - experience effects LTM
- children (chess experts) could remember more chess positions than non-expert adults

Question 11

Brainerd (1983) - metacognitive limitations

Answer 11

develops with age
influences LTM
children overestimate their memory as they have poor metacognition

Question 12

identifying memory limitations

Answer 12

Piaget and Inhelder’s (1951) probability judgment task

4 + 5 years - shown 10 tokens (7 blue, 3 of another)
children predict which token will be pulled
first - children predict blue
next - either of the colours

Brainerd (1983) - retrieval error (originally thought storage) - when the information was repeated before each pick they chose blue every time

Question 13

individual differences in WM

Answer 13

language - WM important for learning new vocabulary (correlated)

academic skill - causally underpins their achievments
WM age 4 - predicts writing skills age 7
age 5 - better predictor of maths and litracy age 6 compared to IQ

WM and maths - visuospatial associated with maths in younger children

• phonological memory in older children
• different types of memory involved in different problems

Question 14

helping poor WM

Answer 14

cognitive profile - ADHD can be confused with poor WM

teacher help - auditory and visual support, use checklists and instructions

psychologist help - test interventions to help poor WM, improve training (target metacognition or domain related skill)