Memory Flashcards
Who proposed the Multi-Store-Model?
Atkinson and Shiffrin
When was the Multi-Store-Model proposed?
1968
Define the Multi-Store-Model
Representation of how memory works in terms of three stores: sensory register, STM and LTM, including how info is stored, transferred, remembered and forgotten
Describe how info is transferred through the MSM
- Info (stimuli) reach SR through receptor cells of the 5 senses.
- Most info forgotten, some passed to STM if we pay attention.
- STM is limited, but if info rehearsed, consolidated and passed to LTM.
- LTM is full of unlimited, lifetime info that can be recalled into STM by retrieval (to remember it).
- At any point, info can leave the model via forgetting.
Give 2 positive evaluation points of MSM
- Research support for being diff types of stores that have diff properties, through studies (e.g. Baddeley 1966 - types of coding)
- Case study support for being diff types of stores that have diff properties (HM) and importance of moving through linearly to form memories (Clive Wearing)
Who is patient HM and what does his case support?
- Amnesia patient, part of hippocampus removed to relieve epilepsy.
- Supports THEORY OF 3 SEPARATE STORES IN MSM
In 1955 had impaired LTM (thought it was ‘53) but functioning STM (could remember string of digits). - Supports THEORY OF 3 TYPES OF LTM
Impaired episodic (couldn’t remember stroking dog an hr ago), functioning semantic (what dog was) and procedural (shoelaces)
Who is patient Clive Wearing and what does his case support?
- Amnesia from viral infection
- Supports THEORY OF SEQUENTIAL + SEPARATE STM AND LTM IN MSM
Couldn’t form any new LTMs, but had functioning STM so transfer was damaged, cutting off sequence between stores - Supports THEORY OF 3 TYPES OF LTM
Destroyed episodic, partially intact semantic (remembered certain people), intact procedural (play piano)
Who was Shallice and Warrington’s patient K.F and what does his case support?
- Amnesia after motorbike accident
- Supports STM NOT BEING UNITARY IN THE WMM (REFUTES MSM THEORY OF UNITARY STORE)
Functioning visuo-spatial sketch pad (process and recall visual info) but damaged phonological loop (couldn’t process and recall acoustic info)
Give 2 negative evaluation points of MSM
- Simplifies STM (case of Shallice and Warrington’s K.F suggests it isn’t unitary as suggested)
- Simplifies LTM (Tulving, 1985, suggested 3 types not unitary, backed up by brain scans)
What is capacity of the SR and a study to support?
Very high, millions of receptors
- Sperling (1960)
What is the coding of the SR and a study to support?
Sensory specific.
Main are: ICONIC (visual info stored visually), ECHOIC (auditory info stored acoustically)
- Crowder (1993)
What is the duration of the SR and a study to support?
Brief, less than half a second
- Triesman (1964)
What is the capacity of the STM and a detailed study to support?
Limited.
5-9 chunks of info
- Jacobs (1887) measured digit span (9.3) and letter span (7.3) of 443 female students. Concluded STM capacity was limited to <10 items. Criticised for long ago, less variable control.
- Miller (1956) did similar work to Jacobs, and observed many things in sevens. Suggested ‘magic number 7’ - 7 chunks in STM plus or minus 2. Criticised (Cowan 2001, for overestimating no. Of chunks)
What is the coding of STM and a detailed study to support?
Mainly acoustic
- Baddeley (1966) Used independent groups of 4 conditions, acoustically similar/dissimilar and semantically similar/dissimilar. Struggled with acoustically similar for immediate STM recall (PHONOLOGICAL SIMILARITY EFFECT). Criticised for using artificial stimuli, hard to generalise
What is the coding of LTM and a detailed study to support?
- Baddeley (1966) Used independent groups of 4 conditions, acoustically similar/dissimilar and semantically similar/dissimilar. Recall after 20 mins (LTM) struggled with semantically similar. Criticised for using artificial stimuli, not generalisable.
What is the duration of STM and a detailed study to support?
Brief (18-30 secs) as spontaneous decay occurs if not rehearsed
- Peterson and Peterson (1959) 24 psych students in lab had to recall diff trigrams at diff intervals between 3 and 18 secs. Rehearsal prevented by counting back. Longer interval, less accurate recall. 3 secs=80%. 18 secs=10%. Criticised for using artificial materials - consonant syllables, so no generalisability.
What is capacity of LTM and study to support?
Unlimited
-Ramscar (2014) suggested may slow with age
What is duration of LTM and detailed study to support it?
Unlimited/lifetime
- Bahrick et al (1975) 392 ex students of Ohio school tested (age 17-74). Tested photo recognition (90% after 15yrs, 70% after 48 yrs). Tested free recall of names (60% after 15 yrs, 30% after 48yrs). LTM still working after long time. Criticised for no control of confounding variables.
What did Tulving propose about LTM in 1985?
MSM had over-simplified it by saying its unitary. It is made up of 3 stores of memory: episodic, semantic, procedural.
What is episodic memory?
A LTM store of personal events (episodes) from our lives.
Likened to a diary, e.g. memory of first day at school
What is episodic memory made up of?
Time stamp and several elements regarding what happened (people, places, etc).
Where is the episodic memory located?
Hippocampus
What is semantic memory?
A LTM store of our knowledge of the world.
Likened to a dictionary/encyclopaedia, e.g the meaning of a word
What is semantic memory made up of?
Ever-growing collection of less personal info that isn’t time stamped
Where is the semantic memory located?
Temporal lobe
What is procedural memory?
A LTM store of how to complete actions/skills
E.g. how to walk
What is procedural memory made up of?
Unconscious knowledge of skills that we may find hard to explain
Which LTM stores are consciously/unconsciously recalled?
Consciously recalled = Episodic + semantic
Unconsciously recalled = Procedural
Give 3 positive evaluation points of 3-part LTM
- Research support from case studies (HM and Clive Wearing, both only had episodic memory damage)
- Neuroimaging (brain scans) by Tulving (1994), found activity of diff types of LTM in diff parts of brain
- Real life applications. Beneville et all (2006) found old people with mild cognitive impairments could be trained to improve their episodic memory
Give 2 negative evaluation points of 3-part LTM
- Case study support is a one-off case lacking generalisability
- Argued by Cohen + Squire (1980) that LTM is 2-type: consciously recalled DECLARATIVE (episodic + semantic), unconsciously recalled NON-DECLARATIVE (procedural)
Which type of LTM tends to be taught?
Semantic
What type of neuroimaging did Tulving do in 1994 to support his 3-part LTM theory?
PET scans
Where is the procedural memory located?
Cerebellum and motor cortex
Who proposed the Working Memory Model?
Baddeley and Hitch
When was the WMM proposed?
1974
Why did Baddeley and Hitch propose the WMM?
Alternative to MSM’s unitary STM, as thought it was too simplistic
Define the WMM
A representation of STM. Suggests STM is a dynamic processor of diff types of info using sub-units coordinated by a central system
What are the 4 components of the WMM?
- Central executive
- Phonological loop (phonological store + articulatory control process)
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad (visual cache + inner scribe)
- Episodic buffer
Describe the central executive and its role in the WMM
- ‘Boss’ that acts as an attentional process, monitoring incoming info and allocating it to slave sub-systems
- Also does cognitive tasks
- Limited capacity
Describe the phonological loop and its role in WMM
- Slave sub-system that deals with auditory info
- Phonological store: ‘inner ear’, storing words heard for 1-2 secs
- Articulatory control process: ‘inner voice’, repeating 2 secs worth of info to keep it in STM (maintenance rehearsal)
What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad and its role in WMM?
- Slave sub-system that deals with visual info
- Logie (1995 subdivided it)
- Visual cache: stores visual data
- Inner scribe: records spatial arrangement of objects in visual field
What is the episodic buffer and its role in the WMM?
- Added by Baddeley in 2000
- Temporary store
- Combines data from stores to produce time stamped episodes
- Provides bridge between STM and LTM
What are the three slave systems in the WMM?
- Phonological loop
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad
- Episodic buffer
What is articulatory suppression?
Participants vocalise irrelevant materials, to prevent the maintenance rehearsal completed by the articulatory control process (‘inner voice’). This stops words being stored in the STM.
Give 4 positive evaluation points for WMM
- Research support using case study patient KF (functioning visuo-spatial sketchpad but damaged phonological loop).
- Physiological evidence (PET scans). Braver et al (1997). Diff parts of brain lit up after being given diff info using STM .
- Research support using dual task studies (Baddeley and Hitch -1976). Condition 1=visual+acoustic task. Condition 2=visual+visual. Better performance when task types are diff, don’t compete for space in same sub-system.
- Research support for phonological loop using word length effect (Baddeley et al - 1975). Proved limited duration of 2 secs - harder to remember long words. Effect stops when given articulatory suppression task - articulatory process important in keeping info in WM by rehearsal.
What part of the brain was shown in a PET scan to hold the central executive?
Prefrontal cortex