Memory - Cognitive psychology Flashcards
What is the role of the sensory register in the MSM?
-A store for our five senses
-High capacity
-Low duration
What is the role of short-term memory in the MSM?
-Contains a limited number of things before forgotten again from the rule 7+-2
-Lloyd and Margaret Peterson found the duration of short-term memory can be extended by maintenance rehearsal by repeating words in our head
-Baddeley discovered information is encoded acoustically in short-term memory
What is the role of long-term memory in the MSM?
-The permanent store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time
-Unlimited capacity
-Baddeley found long-term memory was coded semantically
-Bahrick found many participants were able to recognise the names and faces of school classmates 50 years later
Evaluation of the MSM
MSM is supported by research studies about short term and long term memory
-Baddeley and Bahricks findings support this
-However, Guillermo Campitelli argues the short term and long term memory is integrated
A weakness is that contrasting with the MSM, there is more than one short term memory proven through a condition called Amnesia
-Tim Shallice and Elizabeth Warrington studied a patient who when the digits were read aloud to him, he struggled. However, he was able to read the digits himself.
-This shows there are separate stores for auditory and visual information
The MSM has been applied to improving memory
-e.g. research shows the limited capacity of the short term memory can be increased through “chunking”
The MSM has become outdated because it couldn’t explain new research findings. This shows how knowledge has changed direction overtime
What is the WMM used for?
The WMM is an explanation of how short term memory is organised and how it functions
What does the central executive do in the WMM?
Focuses, divides and switches our limited attention
Allocates slave subsystems to tasks
What is the episodic buffer in the WMM?
Integrates different information processed by other subsystems
Maintains sense of time sequence
What does the visual spatial sketchpad do in the WMM?
Temporarily stores information when required
This has a limited capacity
What does the phonological loop in the WMM?
Deals with auditory information
Evaluation of WMM?
A strength is that dual-task performance studies support the WMM
-When participants perform a visual/verbal task together, performance on each was no worse than when they carried it out separately
-This shows there must be separate subsystems that process input
A weakness is that central executive doesn’t really explain anything
-Baddeley realised it needs to be more specified and there are separate subcomponents
WMM has been used in amnesia
-Tim Shallice and Elizabeth Warrington conducted a study of patient “KF” who experienced Amnesia. He had poor short-term memory for sound but could process visual information normally. This means the phonological loop is damaged, but the VSS was intact
Lieberman (1980) criticises working memory by pointing out out that blind people have spatial memory (they can remember where things are and not bump into them) even though they have never had any visual information. Lieberman argues that the VSSP should have two different components: visual memory and spatial memory.
What is episodic memory in Tulving’s long term memory?
-Ability to recall events from our lives
-Timestamped memories so you remember what happened
-These memories are linked to context
What is semantic memory in Tulving’s long term memory?
-Stores knowledge of the world
-Not timestamped
-Memories don’t link to context
-Like a mental encyclopaedia which stores knowledge learned at a time you won’t remember
-Mostly accurate
Evaluation of Tulving’s long term memory
Strength is that distinction between episodic and semantic memory are supported by case study HM and Clive Wearing
-HM’s episodic memory was damaged but his semantic memory was unaffected. This supports Tulving’s views that there are different stores of LTM
-a weakness of this study is that they lack control of
variables. The study involved brain damage, which is
unexpected. This means the researcher has no
knowledge of patients memory before damage.
Weakness is that types of LTM overlapping
-Tulving showed it’s possible to have a fully functioning semantic memory with damaged episodic memory. However it’s not possible to have a functioning episodic memory and damaged semantic memory
-This shows the LTM is more complex than Tulving originally believed
This model is used in real life application
-Sylvia Bellarille worked with older people with mild memory impairment. She undertook a training programme for them to improve their episodic memory. The fact it is possible to improve one type of LTM rather than another argues in favour of there being different types
What is reconstructive memory?
Sir Bartlett says our memory is reconstructive which means he saw memory as an active process where we store fragments of our information. When we need to recall something we piece the fragments together.
What is the “War of the ghosts” study in reconstructive memory?
This was an unfamiliar folk tale where the participants listened to the story and had to reproduce the story 15 minutes later. As a result, he found the participants shortened the story and left gaps which created reconstructions. For example, “seal hunting” became “fishing”
What are schemas?
Schema is a mental structure in the brain, storing all knowledge of aspects of the world. It allows us to process information efficiently. Its made based off new experiences and knowledge.
Evaluation of Reconstructive Memory
A criticism of Reconstructive Memory compared to the other theories is that it doesn’t explain how memory is reconstructed. The other cognitive theories of memory describe the processes at work in rehearsing, retrieving and recalling. Reconstructive Memory is much more vague about how schemas work and where they are located.
A weakness is that it is wrong to suggest all memories are inaccurate of affected by schemas. Other studies show memory can be very accurate in situations personally important. However this lacks ecological validity as its unusual to ask Cambridge Uni students to rehearse native American tales.
-e.g. War of Ghosts study, most people remembered the line “black came out of his mouth” because its unusual
Theory can be used to explain problems with eye-witness testimony. It is used in court trials to give an accurate picture of the crime scene.
Strength is the idea of schemas has been supported in a lot of studies since the 1930s. Loftus carried out a range of lab experiments into reconstructive memory, all of which had tight experimental controls, standardised procedures and collected quantitative data, making them quite objective and reliable.
