Memory Case Studies Flashcards
What is the Multi Store memory Model?
The multistore model of memory was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin and is a structural model. They proposed that memory consisted of three stores: sensory register, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). Information passes from store to store in a linear way. Both STM and LTM are unitary stores.
What is sensory Memory
Sensory memory is the information you get from your sense, your eyes, and ears. When attention is paid to something in the environment, it is then converted to short-term memory.
How is information transferred to the LTM from the STM?
And how can it be lost from both?
Information from short-term memory is transferred to long-term memory only if that information is rehearsed (i.e., repeated).
Maintenance rehearsal is repetition that keeps information in STM, but eventually, such repetition will create an LTM.
If maintenance rehearsal (repetition) does not occur, then information is forgotten and lost from short-term memory through the processes of displacement or decay.
What are the three primary components of each store - Sensory register, STM, LTM?
Encoding is the way information is changed so that it can be stored in memory. There are three main ways in which information can be encoded (changed): 1. visual (picture), 2. acoustic (sound), and 3. semantic (meaning).
Capacity concerns how much information can be stored.
Duration refers to the period of time information can last in-memory stores.
How long can the sensory register retain information?
Sensory register
- Duration: ¼ to ½ second
- Capacity: all sensory experience (v. larger capacity)
- Encoding: sense specific (e.g., different stores for each sense)
How long can the STM retain information?
Short Term Memory
- Duration: 0-18 seconds
- Capacity: 7 +/- 2 items
- Encoding: mainly acoustic
How long can the LTM retain information?
Long Term Memory
- Duration: Unlimited
- Capacity: Unlimited
- Encoding: Mainly semantic (but can be visual and acoustic)
