Memory - The Multi-Store Model of Memory Flashcards
When was the multi-store model of memory made?
1968
What was the multi-store model the first model to do?
The first model that tried to describe how memory works
How many different memory stores were developed in the multi-store model?
3
Word to describe each memory store
Unitary
Unitary meaning
Stand alone
Different memory stores
SR - Sensory Register
STM - Short-term memory
LTM - Long-term memory
Why is the multi-store model a linear model?
Because all information goes on one direction
How is information gathered into the SR?
From all 5 senses
When will information go into the STM?
If you pay attention to the environmental stimuli
How long does information take to go into the STM?
Up to 1.5 seconds
How can information in the STM be described?
Fragile and vulnerable to interference
What must information in the STM be (verb) for it to go onto the LTM?
Rehearsed
How long is information kept in the STM?
Up to 30 seconds
What will happen to information kept in the STM after more than 30 seconds?
It will decay
How is information rehearsed?
By being repeated sub vocally (silently in your head)
How long does information stay in the LTM?
Potentially for a lifetime
What does the duration of information being kept in the LTM depend on?
How often it’s revisited
You can’t store information in the LTM if you haven’t…
Understood it
According to the cognitive approach, how do psychologists study the brain? Why?
Using theoretical models because a brain can’t be scanned for analysis of processes such as memory
Why do we use a theoretical model to explain how memory works?
Because we can’t see memory
What did Miller’s Magic Number 7 experiment aim to investigate?
The capacity of STM
When was Miller’s Magic Number 7 experiment carried out?
1956
How many items do humans have the capacity of identifying according to Miller’s Magic Number 7 experiment?
5 to 9
What does the concept of chunking state about our ability to recall 5 words according to Miller’s Magic Number 7 experiment?
States we can recall 5 words as easily as remembering 5 letters
How could the capacity of STM be significantly increased?
By combining/organising separate ‘bits’ of information into larger chunks
What was the aim of Peterson and Peterson’s study?
To investigate the duration of STM and provide empirical evidence for the multi-store model
What type of experiment was Peterson and Peterson’s study?
A lab experiment
How many participants were included in Peterson and Peterson’s study?
24 participants
Who were the participants in Peterson and Peterson’s study?
Psychology students
Potential issues with using psychology students as participants in Peterson and Peterson’s study?
Not representative of population
Possibility of demand characteristics
What were participants asked to do in Peterson and Peterson’s study to prevent rehearsal?
They were asked to count backwards from a specific random number until a red light appeared
What were participants in Peterson and Peterson’s study asked to recall?
Trigrams
What intervals were participants asked to recall trigrams after in Peterson and Peterson’s study?
Intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 seconds
What percentage of trigrams could participants recall after a 3 second delay in Peterson and Peterson’s study?
80%
What percentage of trigrams could participants recall after a 6 second delay in Peterson and Peterson’s study?
50%
What percentage of trigrams could participants recall after a 18 second delay in Peterson and Peterson’s study?
Less than 10%
Coding
The form of which information is taken into the store and then processed
What is coding in the SR via?
Our 5 senses - information is gathered by any form
Acoustic coding
The processing of information by the way it sounds
What doesn’t have to happen to information for it to enter the STM?
Information doesn’t have to be understood - it only has to be heard
What happens to the STM if lots of information is acoustically similar?
Our STM will find it difficult to process the information as there is no differentiation between the words
Who carried out a study into coding?
Baddeley
What was the aim of Baddeley’s study?
To investigate the effects of acoustic and semantic coding on the STM and LTM
What did Baddeley ask participants to do in his STM study?
He asked them to immediately (after presentation) recall in order, a list of 5 words
What categories did Baddeley split the different lists of 5 words into?
Acoustically similar
Acoustically dissimilar
Semantically similar
Semantically dissimilar
In Baddeley’s LTM study, what were participants asked to do?
Recall each word list after 10 minutes and after 20 minutes
What experiment design did Baddeley use?
Independents groups
Negative evaluation of individual groups
Doesn’t exclude individual differences
What did Baddeley find about words with similar sounds in the STM?
Words with similar sounds much harder to recall using STM than words with dissimilar sounds (acoustic confusion)
Effect of semantic words on STM according to Baddeley’s study?
Only had very slight effect on STM
What happens to acoustically similar words in the STM according to Baddeley’s study?
Acoustically similar words get confused within the STM as it can’t handle the overload of similar information
What words did participants in Baddeley’s study struggle to recall after 20 minutes and what does this show?
Semantically similar words showing semantic confusion
Conclusion of Baddeley’s study
LTM prefers to code semantically
STM prefers to code acoustically
Who carried out a study of the VLTM store?
Bahrick
What did Bahrick aim to establish and see in his study of the VLTM?
Establish existence of VLTM and see if there are any differences between recognition and recall
Participants in Bahrick’s study
Study of participants from particular American high school over 50 year period
How many participants were in Bahrick’s study and what does this show?
392 showing large sample size
What were the participants shown in Bahrick’s study?
A photo from their high school year book of their year group
What was the recognition group of participants in Bahrick’s study given and told to do?
Given a list of names of people in the photo and told to match each person in the photo with their name
What was the recall group of participants in Bahrick’s study given and told to do?
Not given list of names and told to name each person in photo
How accurate were participants in recognition group 14 years after graduation in Bahrick’s study?
90% accurate
How accurate were participants in recognition group 25 years after graduation in Bahrick’s study?
80%
How accurate were participants in recognition group 34 years after graduation in Bahrick’s study?
75%
How accurate were participants in recognition group 47 years after graduation in Bahrick’s study?
60%
How accurate were participants in recall group 7 years after graduation in Bahrick’s study?
60%
How accurate were participants in recall group 47 years after graduation in Bahrick’s study?
Less than 20%
Conclusion of Bahrick’s study
People can remember certain types of information for almost a lifetime. Accuracy of VLTM better when measured by recognition than recall
Positive evaluation of research support for the MSM
All pieces of research support the MSM
Positive evaluation of Bahrick’s use field experiments
Field experiments have a high ecological validity and no demand characteristics
What experimental technique is used by Peterson and Peterson, Miller and Baddeley?
Lab experiments
Negative evaluation for lab experiments
They may lack ecological validity
What effect does a lack of ecological validity have on the results?
It may mean that results aren’t true to everyday life as the participants could prepare for a memory test
What can participants portray in lab experiments?
Demand characteristics
What type of variables may affect the validity of a field experiment?
Extraneous variables
How do MRI scans alter the validity of the MSM?
They show that the hippocampus and the prefrontal lobes are crucial parts of the brain for memory however these aren’t mentioned in the MSM
How do MRI scans provide support for the MSM?
They produce empirical evidence as they show that different stores are used in memory
Affect on memory if there is no hippocampus
Without the hippocampus there is an inability to form new memories
What do MRI scans back up the existence of?
The existence of different stores for different memories
When is the hippocampus active according to MRI scans?
When remembering new information (transfer of information from STM to LTM)
When are prefrontal lobes active according to MRI scans?
During decision making when using your STM
Clive Wearing ‘s accident
He suffered a viral infection which attacked his brain, damaging his hippocampus and associated areas
What could Clive Wearing do which showed procedural memories were present in the LTM?
Play the piano
For the Clive Wearing study, what store remained unaffected by the accident?
The LTM which supports the MSM
Why does the fact that Clive Wearing had procedural memories refute the MSM?
Because the MSM states that all the stores are unitary, however they can’t be unitary if the LTM includes procedural memories
What type of memory didn’t Clive Wearing have?
Episodic memory
What couldn’t Clive Wearing form?
New LTMs
What couldn’t Clive Wearing remember?
His children’s names
Conclusion of the Clive Wearing case study
Memory isn’t unitary as there are more components within the stores
Memory is far more complicated than stated in the MSM
HM
Henry Molaison
CW
Clive Wearing
HM’s accident
Underwent an operation to remove parts of his brain in an attempt to control epileptic fits
What part of the brain was removed from HM?
Hippocampus
What would HM remember after his operation?
Everything that happened before the operation
What type of skills could HM remember?
Motor skills E.g. walking, drawing, running and swimming
What couldn’t HM form?
New memories
What memory type didn’t HM have?
Episodic memory
Conclusion of HM’s case study
Memory isn’t unitary as there are more components within the stores
Memory is more complicated than how it’s stated in the MSM
