memory Flashcards
What does information input refer to?
Information that we have to process
What is output in relation to memory?
The stuff we recall
What are the main different ways of encoding memory?
Acoustic encoding. Semantic encoding, visual encoding.
What is semantic encoding?
Storing in terms of meaning
What is visual encoding?
Storing in terms of sight
What is acoustic encoding?
Storing in terms of the sound
What is retrieval?
The recall of stored memories
What is the duration of STM?
18 seconds
What is the capacity of STM?
5- 9 items
What is the duration of LTM?
Up to a life time
What is the capacity of LTM?
Potentially limitless
How is memory encoded in STM?
Acoustic
How is memory mainly encoded in LTM?
Visual or semantic
How is information maintained in STM?
Through maintaing rehearsal
How is information forgotten from STM?
By not maintaining rehearsal, or displacement
How is information forgotten from LTM?
Interference and decay
What is amnesia?
Loss of memory
What are the symptoms of anterograde amnesia?
A memory condition where new long term memories cannot be made
What are the symptoms for retrograde amnesia?
That affects old memories (e.g. anything from before the accident)
Describe a case study of an individual with amnesia. What can we learn from this case study?
The Clive Wearing case study showed us that there is more than one type of long term memory. Because he could remember how to conduct an orchestra but couldn’t remember other things like his wife.
What are the different components of the Multi-store model?
The components are sensory memory,short term memory, long term memory.
What is the sensory register?
The information you register with your senses (the first component of the multi-store model)
What is the role of attention in the Multi-store model?
When we pay attention to information it enters our short term memory
What is the role of rehearsal in the Multi-store model?
To help the information stick and go into the long term memory
What are the strengths of the Multi-store model?
There is supportive evidence. For example, the serial position effect, and evidence from case studies suggesting separate STM and LTM stores (e.g. HM had global amnesia but still performed well on tests of short term memory, suggesting different stores)
What are the weaknesses of the Multi-store model?
It is overly simplistic- e.g. they didn’t take into consideration there may be more than one type of long term memory.
What is the serial position effect?
The tendency to remember the words at the beginning or end of a word list
How does the serial position effect support the Multi-store model?
Seems to support the model because if we rehearse the material we are more likely to remember, and we are more likely to remember the material at the end as it is in our short term memory
What is a schema?
Is a mental representation of an event, thing or place that helps us to understand the world. It also affects how we perceive the world and how we remember.
How are schemas formed?
Experience
What does active reconstruction refer to?
Memory is not an exact copy of what we experienced but a interpretation/ reconstruction of of events that are influenced by our schema when we remember them again
What are the four ways Bartlett found that schemas influenced memory?
Omissions, transformations, familiarisation, rationalisation
What does ‘omissions’ mean?
We leave stuff out
What does ‘transformations’ refer to?
We change stuff
What does ‘familiarisation’ mean?
We change the unfamiliar to make it more familiar
What does ‘rationalisation’ refer to?
We provide reasons for why things happen
What are the strengths of Bartlett’s theory of reconstructive memory?
1) Real world practical application . shown through in relation to techniques used for eye witnesses- police now use a specific interviewing technique called the cognitive interview to try and improve the quality of eyewitness testimony. 2) Research evidence from the War of the Ghosts study
What are the weaknesses of Bartlett’s theory of reconstructive memory?
The research methods used to investigate it (War of the Ghosts study) could be considered unscientific
What was the aim of Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study?
How schemas would affect participants memory
What was the procedure of Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study?
Participants were asked to read the war of the ghosts twice and then later asked to recall it. He used both serial and repeated reproduction to test the recall of the story.
What is serial reproduction?
They had to tell the story to someone else
What is repeated reproduction?
They were are to write the story out in as much detail as possible over the course of years
What were the findings of Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study?
Participants used transformation, familiarisation, rationalisation, and omission to ‘make sense’ of the story. E.g. a ‘canoe’ became a ‘boat’.
What did Bartlett conclude from his War of the Ghosts study?
That people used their schemas to make the story more relatable to them. This provided evidence for the active and reconstructive nature of memory.
What were the strengths of Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study
Its realistic nature due to its length of time (for repeated reproduction, participants were asked to recall the story months and even years later).
What were the weaknesses of Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study?
How uncontrolled the experiment was.
Why might the use of a story as recall material be said to be both a strength and a weakness of Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study?
It’s a strength because it adds realism and validity compared to e.g. nonsense trigrams, but lacks it also lacks validity.
What was the aim of Peterson and Peterson’s study?
The duration of short term memory when rehearsal is prevented.
What was the procedure of Peterson and Peterson’s study?
24 students were given a nonsense trigram and a number to count backwards in 3s from (this was an interference task to prevent rehearsal). When a red light flashed, the student had to recall the trigram. They did this after set intervals of 3, 6,9 , 12, 15, and 18 seconds. The procedure was carried out 48 times.
What is a nonsense trigram?
3 random consonants
What is an interference task?
A task to prevent participants from rehearsing the trigram.
What were the results of the Peterson and Peterson study?
It seems to show that when rehearsal is prevented short term memory lasts for a maximum of about 18 seconds
What was the conclusion of the Peterson and Peterson study?
Without rehearsal information held in our short term memory fades rapidly.
What were the strengths of the Peterson and Peterson study?
Good control due to the standardised procedure
What were the weaknesses of the Peterson and Peterson study?
Lacks ecological validity, lack of mundane realism
Why can the Peterson and Peterson experiment be said to lack mundane realism?
Due to the interference task and the nonsense trigram- it was not an everyday kind of task.
What is one practical application of Peterson and Peterson’s findings?
It suggests that we should avoid distraction if we want to retain information we need no distractions.
Why can the Peterson and Peterson study be said to have high scientific credibility?
Due to its standardised procedure
