Memory Booklet 1: Models of Memory Flashcards
Who proposed the multistore memory model?
Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968
What are the main three features of the multi store model?
Sensory Register - Short Term Memory - Long Term Memory
What are the three things you need to know for each store in the MSM?
-Capacity
-Duration
-Coding
What passes into the first store of MSM: sensory register?
Environmental stimulus, such as the sound of someone’s name or other sights, smells and tastes (5 senses)
What is the coding of the MSM: Sensory Register?
Iconic - Memory of visual stimuli
Echoic - Memory of auditory info
What is the duration of the MSM: Sensory Register?
Less than half a second
What is the capacity of the MSM : Sensory Register?
Over a million cells in one eye, each storing data
How is info passed onto the STM from the sensory register?
Through our attention
What research is there on MSM: STM capacity?
Jacobs 1887 - Resarchers read out 4 digits aloud and asked participants to immediately recall these digits in order (serial recall). This was done in an increasing amount of digits, and it was found that the mean span for digits was 9.3 and for letters it was 7.3
What is the capacity of the STM in MSM? and what did Miller suggest?
The capacity of the STM is on average between 5 and 9 pieces of information at any one time, Miller spoke of the magice number 7, with either plus or minus two
Through which process can the capacity of the STM in MSM be increased?
Chunking
What research is there on MSM: STM coding?
Baddeleys (1966)- Baddeleye gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember:
-Acoustically similar
-Acoustically dissimilar
-Semantically similar
-Semantically dissimilar
When STM recall was tested, when recalling words straight away: participants remembered fewer of the acoustically similar words
According to Baddeleyes 1966, the STM in MSM is encoded through…
Acoustic information
What research is there on MSM: STM duration?
Peterson and Peterson’s (1959) - Participants were tested over eight trials, on each trial participants given a trigram to remember and asked to count backwards.
Participants on average were 90% correct after 3 seconds, 20% correct after 9 seconds and only 2% correct after 18 seconds
According to Peterson and Petersons (1959) The duration of STM in MSM is…
Up to 18 seconds
What process is used to keep information in the STM in MSM?
Maintenance rehearsal
What is the capacity of MSM: LTM?
Potentially unlimited capacity
What research is there on MSM: LTM duration?
Bahrick (1975) -Bahrick tested 400 people of various ages on their memory of classmates, in a free recall test participants were asked to list the names they could remember of their class.
Within 15 years of graduation, participants were about 90% accurate and after 48 years this declined to about 70% for photo recognition
According to Bahrick (1975) the duration of LTM is…
up to a life time, therefore potentially unlimited
What research is there on MSM: LTM Coding?
Baddeleys 1966 - Different lists of words to remember, same as other study
But when LTM recall was tested, recalling words after 20 minutes, participants remembered fewer of the semantically similar words
According to Baddeleys 1966 information is coded in the MSM: LTM…
Semantically
What are the strengths of the Multi-Store Model? (IEC’s)
-There is evidence to support from case studies of brain damage (HM)
…There are literally no other strengths
What are the weaknesses of the Multi-Store Model? (IEC’s)
-The Multi-Store model is too simple
-LTM involves more than maintenance rehearsal
-Evidence to contradict (Clive Wearing)
-Evidence to contradict (KF)
What happened in the case of KF?
His short term memory for verbal information was much worse than that of visual information. He had difficulty with sounds but not letters or digits
What happened in the case of HM?
Suffered severe epilepsy, at age of 27 underwent major surgery to relieve epileptic fits. Temporal lobes on both sides of his brains were removed. Since surgery was unable to form new LT memories, STM was relatively normal but couldn’t extend his STM and wasn’t able to transfer to the LTM.
What two evaluations can be used for MSM if you are asked to evaluate the studies used?
-Research into capacity, duration and coding of each store is artificial
-Participants may have been influenced by demand characteristics
What is the Working Memory Model?
A model of short term memory to refer to parts of your memory that you use when you are working on a complex task, which requires you to store info as you are going along
Who proposed the Working Memory Model?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
Why do Baddeley and Hitch suggest that STM is not just one store but a number of different stores? (as opposed to MSM)
-Because if you do two things at the same time and they are both visual tasks, you perform them less well than if you perform them separately
-If you do things at the same time and one is visual, whereas the other is sound, then there is no interference. You do them just as well as you would if they were separate tasks.
What does the Working Memory Model itself look like? (The diagram)
Input - Central executive = Phonological Loop / Visuo-Spatial sketchpad + Episodic buffer - LTM
What is the function, coding and capacity of the central executive?
Function - Delegate information, determines what is attended to and directs info to other slave systems
Coding - Processes info in all sensory forms
Capacity - Can only cope well with one strand of info at one time
What is the function, coding and capacity of the Phonological Loop (Slave system)?
Function - An acoustic store that deals with auditory info and order of info
Coding:
Phonological store- “Inner ear” stores words that have been heard
Articulatory process- “Inner voice” stores words that have been heard or seen. Words will be slightly repeated to keep in memory whilst needed
Capacity - Limited, it is determined by amount of info spoken out loud in two seconds
What is the function, coding and capacity of the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (Slave system)?
Function - Temporary store for visual and spatial items + relationships between them
Coding:
Visual cache - Stores info about form, shapes and colour
Inner scribe - Handles spatial relationships and transfers info from visual cache to central executive
Capacity - Limited, three or four objects
What is the function, coding and capacity of the episodic buffer?
Function - Temporary store for info, integrating visual, spatial and verbal info. Maintains a sense of time sequencing events that are happening. Can be seen as the storage component of the central executive and links STM to LTM
Coding - Both auditory and visual
Capacity - Limited, about four chunks of info
What are the strengths of the Working Memory Model?
-There is evidence to support the WMM from case study - KF
-There is supporting experimental evidence for the working memory model (Baddeley et al 1975a)
-There is further supporting experimental evidence for the working memory model (Baddeleye et al 1975b)
-Evidence to support the idea of central executive (Braver 1997)
What is the weakness of the Working Memory Model?
-The idea of central executive is abstract and over simplified
What are the three LTM memory stores and who proposed them?
Proposed by Tulving 1985:
-Episodic memory
-Semantic memory
-Procedural memory
What is episodic memory? (AO1)
Our ability to recall personal events from our lives, likened to a diary. These memories are time stamped and include several elements:
-Specific details of event
-Context of the event
-Associated emotions
You have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories
What is Semantic Memory? (AO1)
Our knowledge of the world which is shared by everyone. Likened to a combination of an encyclopaedia and a dictionary. These are not time stamped and is a vast collection constantly being expanded.
What is procedural memory? (AO1)
Our memory for skills, actions - knowing how to do things without conscious awareness. These often become automatic and are difficult to describe. These are not time stamped.
What are the strengths of Proposed Types of Long Term Memory?
-Evidence of Tulvings view that there are different memory stores in the LTM is supported by case study HM
-Evidence from brain scans to support Tulvings view that theres different memory stores in the LTM (Tulving et al 1994)
-There are real life applications of research into different types of LTM (Belleville et al 2006)
What are the weaknesses of Proposed types of long term memory?
-There is evidence to suggest that LTM is two stores not three (Cohen and Squire 1980)
-There are problems using case studies of individuals with brain injuries (HM and Clive Wearing)
