Memory AQA

Question 1

What is the definition of memory?

Answer 1

The process by which the mind stores and remembers information

Question 2

What are the 3 types of memory?

Answer 2

Sensory memory (SM), short term memory (STM) and long term memory (LTM)

Question 3

What is sensory memory (SM)?

Answer 3

It is the initial contact for stimuli and its only capable of retaining information for a very short time

Question 4

What is short term memory (STM)?

Answer 4

It is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about right now.
Information found in STM comes from paying attention to SM

Question 5

What is long term memory? (LTM)?

Answer 5

It is the continual storage of information for an extended period of time

Question 6

What is capacity?

Answer 6

This measures how much can be stored in memory

Question 7

What is duration?

Answer 7

This measures how long a memory lasts before it can no longer be remembered

Question 8

What is coding?

Answer 8

The way information is stored in memory. For example, it can be written, acoustic (sound), semantic (meaning) or pictured (images)

Question 9

What is rehearsal?

Answer 9

This refers to the things that we remember due to practicing them in our memories

Question 10

What is retrieval?

Answer 10

This refers to things that are stored in our LTM and that we ‘retrieve’ when we need it

Question 11

What is decay?

Answer 11

This refers to memories being forgotten over time

Question 12

What is displacement?

Answer 12

Memories which were forgotten for a while but still can be remembered

Question 13

What is the Multi-store model of memory?

Answer 13

It was first described by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. It represents how memory works in terms of short term memory and long term memory

• Explains how our memories work based on STM, LTM and SM
• Describes how information is transferred from one memory store to another

Question 14

What does the sensory register (SR) do and what are the characteristics?

Answer 14

It firstly gathers information from our sensory organs and each sense is encoded differently

• It has a large capacity
• Has a limited duration of less than 0.5s
• If we pay attention to sensory information then it will pass to STM

Question 15

STM VS LTM - Capacity

Answer 15

• Joseph Jacobs presented numbers and asked for immediate recall to test STM capacity
• Found average recall to be 5-9 numbers
• Concluded that we could hold 7 bits of information in STM

Question 16

What is the coding in STM?

Answer 16

It’s based on acoustic information or sounds

Question 17

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 17

It is the constant repeating which allows information to be held in STM (e.g, repeating a phone number)

Question 18

What is prolonged rehearsal?

Answer 18

It transfers information from STM to LTM by processing the information semantically (gives it meaning)

Question 19

What are the characteristics of LTM?

Answer 19

• Has unlimited capacity
• Has the duration of a few minutes to a lifetime
• LTM encodes information semantically (meaning)