Memory Store Model (MSM) Flashcards
Name the three stores in the MSM
Sensory memory
Short term memory
Long term memory
Give a diagram for the MSM
Environmental stimuli —>sensory memory —> short term memory—> long term memory
State the capacity, duration and coding for the sensory memory
Capacity = thought to be large
Duration = 1-2 seconds
Coding = 5 senses
State the capacity, duration and coding for the short term memory
Capacity= 5-9 items
Duration= up to 30s without rehearsal
Coding= acoustically (sound)
State the capacity, duration and coding for the long term memory
Capacity= unlimited
Duration= potentially forever
Coding = semantically (meaning)
In order for information to go from the sensory memory to the STM you must pay ___________
Attention
In order for information to move from the STM into the LTM you must ___________ the information
Rehearse
If information is not rehearsed it may ______ .
Decay
Information can get replaced by other more significant information. This is called___________ .
Displacement
Information goes through the model in a linear way and each store is unitary
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Miller (1956) supported the ideas of capacity in the STM. What did Miller do ?
- coined the phrase “millers magic 7”
- suggested the STM’s capacity was 7 + or - 2 because he noted that things often come in 7s, 7 musical notes, 7 days of the week, 7 deadly sins etc.
- he also discovered that people could recall 5 words just as well as 5 digits, this is by ‘chunking’- grouping sets of digits or letters
Peterson and Peterson (1959) conducted research on duration of the STM. What did they discover and how ?
- tested 24 undergraduate students
- got them to remember a trigram but they were given a 3 digit number and had to count back from in 3s and then had to recall the trigram.
- this was done to prevent rehearsal
- in each trial they were asked to stop counting after a different amount of time— 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18
- their findings suggest that our STM has a very short duration without any mental rehearsal
Baddeley (1966) did research on coding of the STM. What were their findings and how did they get there ?
Gave different lists of words to four groups of participants.
Group 1 = acoustically similar
Group 2 = acoustically dissimilar
Group 3 = semantically similar
Group 4 = semantically dissimilar
Results showed that participants did worse with acoustically similar words, due to acoustic confusion.
Baddeley’s study on the coding of STM also had groups that explained coding in the LTM, what were they and what did he find ?
2 groups - semantically similar and semantically dissimilar
Found that people recalled less semantically similar words.
This supports that the LTM is coded semantically
Outline Bahrick et al. (1975)
A field experiment in which Us graduates were asked to recall the names and faces of classmates almost 50 years after graduating.
Recall tested through two ways- recognition and free recall.
Results showed that when given a prompt, after 15 years recall was 90% accurate and after 48 years it was 70% accurate.
Shows LTM can last up to a lifetime and that when given a cue/prompt it can help people access their LTM
Outline Clive wearing case study and how it supports MSM
- hippocampus was damaged from the herpes virus which attacked his brain
- he had a fairly normal STM but LTM was affected
- SUPPORTS MSM as it suggests different memory stores are in different areas of the brain otherwise brain damage would destroy all memory
- HOWEVER, does suggest MSM is too simplistic as it can’t explain Clive’s full case
- he could no longer form any new LTM
What are the types of LTM
- semantic
- procedural
- episodic
what is episodic memory
- refers to our ability to recall events (episodes of our lives)
-they are time stamped - details of the memory e.g. who was there, places, objects
- you make a conscious effort to recall them
what is semantic memory
- refers to the knowledge of the world
- NOT time stamped
- usually start as an episodic memory but over time lose their meaning and the knowledge remains
what is procedural memory
- refers to the memory of actions
- recalled without conscious awareness
- memories are automatic
how has brain scan research supported the type of LTM (episodic, semantic and procedural)
episodic memory- associated with hippocampus and temporal lobe
semantic memory- relies on the temporal lobe
procedural memory- relies on the basal ganglia and the motor cortex
therefore brain scans indicate that the three types of LTM are found in different parts of the store and are separate ( not unitary like the MSM model suggests)
outline Joeseph Jacobs’ research into capacity of the STM
- developed the digit span technique
- this is when participants of the experiment are asked to recall a string of digits in serial order, with the number increasing until no more can be remembered
- mean span for digits was 9.3 and the mean for letters was 7.3
evaluate Peterson and petersons research
- lab experiment was highly objective, this makes it replicable and more reliable
- one criticism is that the task to count backwards in threes to prevent recall actually displaced the information (the trigram)
- the task could be said to lack mundane realism as people don’t get asked to remember trigrams in real life
evaluate Joeseph jacobs’ research into the capacity of STM
+ lab experiment with standardised procedure
- many possible confounding variables, age (memory gets worse as people get older), Intelligence etc.
what is a criticism of baddeley’s research into coding in the STM and LTM
- the task to recall a list of words lacks mundane realism
- this is because the words in the task aren’t meaningful to the participant or doesn’t have context attached to them like they would in real life
- therefore it could be argued that the findings extrapolated from Baddeley’s research lack external validity as they can’t be applied outside of the lab they were conducted in
AO3 evaluation of the MSM
+ supporting research
+ Case studies of KF and Clive Wearing suggest that STM and LTM are separate stores
- however the MSM can’t fully explain KF’s, he could recall words better when he read them when compared to them being read out loud, suggesting STM might need more explanation
- LTM is also too simplistic, how can a procedural memory like riding a bike be coded semantically
- lack of research into the capacity of LTM
how do Clive Wearing and HM support LTM having different stores
- both of them suffered major impairments to their episodic memory as they couldn’t remember events from their past but their semantic memories were mostly unaffected
- their procedural memories were also unaffected, they could both tie shoe laces, talk, walk etc.
