Psychology > Memory Psychology Alevel YR12 > Flashcards
Memory Psychology Alevel YR12 Flashcards
Multi-store model is made up of 3 stores…
Sensory register
Short term memory (STM)
Long term memory (LTM)
Multi-store model is made by…
Atkinson and Shiffrin
Information passes from each store in a ______ way
Linear
Sensory memory is…
Information you get from your senses (sight, taste, smell, sound) after it’s observed using these, it gets moved to STM.
Sensory register capacity
Very large, potentially unlimited.
Sensory register duration
Limited to 250 - 500 miliseconds
STM capacity
Limited to 7 +/- 2 chunks of information
STM duration
20-30 seconds on average
LTM duration
Unlimited
Sensory register encoding
sense specific (different stores for each sense)
STM encoding
acoustic
LTM encoding
semantic (but can be visual and acoustic)
LTM capacity
Unlimited
Encoding definition
By which information is represented in the memory
Capacity definition
The amount of information whcih can be stored at a time
Duration definition
How long can information be stored for.
Evaluation of MSM
Strength - Gives us a good understanding of the process of the STM. This is good because this allows researchers to expand on this model. Means researchers can do experiments to improve on this model and make it more valid and they prove what the stores do.
Lots of research for evidence of seperate notes.
Supported by case studies.
HOWEVER:
Oversimplified
Better to measure what is stored rather than how much
Too much on structure not enough on the process.
Types of LTM
- Procedural memory - Part of the implict long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things. Doesn’t require active recall.
- Semantic memory - Responsible for storing information about the world, like general knowledge. Requires recall and conscious thought to remember.
- Episodic memory - Responsible for storing information about previous events that we have experienced in out lives. Requires conscious thoughts and recall.
Maintenance rehersal
Reptition that keeps information in STM but eventually the repitition will create a LTM.
Types of LTM
- Procedural memory = Part of the implicit long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things. I.e., memory of motor skills. This type of memory does not require active recall to do things.
- Semantic memory = Stores information about the world. General knowledge, meanings of words etc. Requires recall and conscious thought to recall.
- Episodic memory = Stores information about previous events that we have experienced in our lives. Requiress recall and conscious thought.
Cohen and Squire (1980) LTM
- Made a distinction between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge.
Procedural knowledge means knowing how to do things (tying shoes, playing piano) Doesn’t require conscious thought on how to do it.
Who made the working memory model?
Baddeley + Hitch (1974)
What does the WMM include?
Central executive = Oversees and co-ordinates WMM.
Phonological loop = Deals with auditory info.
Visuo-spatial sketchpad = Deals with visual. information and the physical relationship of items.
Episodic buffer = Temporary store of intergrated information from the WMM and LTM. (ADDED IN 2000)
WMM research Baddeley + Hitch
Participants were asked to perform two tasks at the same time (dual task technique.) As the number of digits increased, participants took longer to answer the reasoning questions. They didnt make any more errors in the verbal reasoning tassks as the number of digits increased.
KF case study Shallice + Warrington
- Suffered brain damage from motorcycle acciddent
- This damaged his short-term memory.
- Impairment was mainly for verbal information, his visual memory was unaffected.
- This shows that there are seperate STM components for visual info and verbal info.
WMM evaluation
Strengths
- WMM provides an explanation for parallel processing unlike MSM.
- KF case study.
The model was developed bassed on evidence from lab experiments, conditions were controlled and can be replicated.
Weaknesses
- Too simplistic and vague.
- Lab experiment results = low ecological validity.
3 Explanations for forgetting
Interference - Two sets of info get confused in the LTM
Proactive interference - Old info prevents recall of recent info (old > new)
Retroactive interference - New info precents recall of old info (new > old)
Postman (1960) paired words + interference
Lab exp, participants in two groups.
Both groups had to remember a list of paired words.
The experimental group also had to learn another list of words where the second paired word is different.
All participants were asked to recall the first list.
Control group was more accurate than the exp group. This suggests that learning items in the second list interferred with participants ability to recall the list (retroactive interference.)
Retrieval failure
Information is avalible in LTM but can’t be recalled because of the absence of the right cues.
Retrieval cues
When we store a memory, we also store info about the situation it happened in.
Context = Cues in environment (smell, place etc) Encoding will be more likely if the context matches when the retriveal is tried.
State = Bodily cues (physical, emotional, mood etc) When the body is in the same state, retrival will be easier.
Organisation = Retrieval can be improved if the organisation gives a structure which provies cues.
Retrieval cues study (Baddeley 1975)
Asked divers a list of words. One group on beach, other land.
Half of the underwater group remained there, and others had to recall on beach.
Results showed that the group that recalled in the same environment (context) had recalled 40% more words than the others which recalled in a different context.
EWT experiment Misleading info Loftus and Palmer
45 american students (oppertunity sample, lab exp)
Participants were shown videos of car accidents involving multiple cars and asked to describe what happened.
They were asked questions like ‘how fast was the car going when they bumped/smashed/hit each other’
The speed estimate was affected by the verb that was used.
People who were asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed said faster speeds than those who were asked with the verb bumped.
Evaluation of EWT Missleading info study
Strengths - Lab exp, easy to replicate
Weaknesses - Lacks realism, watching a clip and being an actual EW at a car crash are very different.
Sample isn’t representative of general population. Some of them might not be experienced drivers either, might find it hard to estimate speeds.
Anxiety EWT
Yerkes-Dodson effect - when anxiety is at low and high levels, EWT is less accurate than if anxiety was at a medium level. We tend to focus on what makes us anxious and exclude other info. If a weapon is envolved then the victims’ attention is drawn to it.
Clifford + Scott (1978) EWT - Movie
People who saw a film of a violent attack rememvered fewer of the 40 items about the event than a control group who saw a less stressful version. (However, hard to relate as watching a film and being real EWT is very different)
Yuille + Cutshall EWT (1986) + EVAL
Witnesses observed a shooting incident where one person was killed. All witnesses were interviewed by the police at the time and then 4-5 months after. Even after the time, their accounts of the event didn’t really change. This indicated that stress had hardly any effect on their accounts.
Eval -
Strength - High ecological validity compared to lab experiments as this was a real situation.
Weakness - Extraneous variables. The witnesses who had experienced the highest level of stress were actually closer to the event and this may have helped with the accuracy of the EWT.
Cognitive interview
A police technique for interviewing witnesses of crime which encourages them to recreate the original context in order to access the info.
CI techniques (4)
Context reinstatement - Trying to recreate the image of the situation (environment, weather and emotional state at the time etc)
Recall from a changed perspective - Trying to mentally recreate the situation from a different point of view, disrupts schemas
Recall in reverse order - Recalling the event in choronological order from end to beginning
Report everything - Enouraged to report everything, even if they aren’t important details.
Evaluation of CI
Limit - time consuming
Expensive
