MSM Flashcards
Define the term Input
Information received from our senses
Define the term Processing
Making sense of the information
Define the term Output
Our behavioural reaction to the information we receive
Define the term encoding
Turning sensory information into a form that can be used
and stored by the brain
Define the term Storage
The retention of information in our memory system.
Define the term Retrieval
Recalling the stored memory
What are the 3 ways of encoding information?
a) Acoustic encoding – sound information
b) Visual encoding – holding images
c) Semantic encoding – holding meaning
Why do we need to encode (understand) information?
The brain processes information we receive from our senses, it pays
attention to the important information and makes decisions based on it.
We need to encode (understand) the information so we can store it in
our memory which can last from a few minutes to a lifetime.
More meaningful the memory is, the more likely we are to remember it.
Some memories may just last for as long as they are useful.
e.g remembering what I need from the shop that day.
Define Short Term Memory
Our initial memory store that is temporary and limited
Define Long Term Memory
A memory store that holds potentially limitless amounts of information for a lifetime
Define Displacement
When the short-term memory becomes ‘full’ and new information pushes out older information
Define the term Interference
When new information overwrites older information.
E.g when a new
phone number takes the place of an old number in your memory.
Define Rehearse
when we repeat information over and over again to make it stick
Define the term Capacity
How much your memory can hold
Define the term Duration
How long it can hold it for
(length of time)
Define the term Encoding
Turning the information
into something we understand
State the capacity, duration and the way of encoding for the LTM
C - potentially unlimited
D - few mins to lifetime
E - mainly semantic
State the capacity, duration and the way of encoding for the STM
C - around 7 items (Miller)
D - 18 secs
E - Acoustic (sound)
Exam question:
Explain two differences between short-term and long-term memory. You should refer to the Multi-store Model of memory in your answer. (4marks)
Short term memory has a capacity of 7 plus or minus 2 items, whereas
long term memory has a potentially infinite capacity.
Short term memories last around 18 seconds, whereas long term
memories lasts potentially a lifetime.
Short term memory uses acoustic encoding, whereas long term memory
What is sensory Memory?
We need to pay attention to our environment to register the
information.
The sensory memory receives all the information from our
senses, it gets gets transferred to our STM if we pay attention,
if not, the information decays.
We have different ways of registering the information:
Iconic Memory: Visual information (lasts around 1 second)
Echoic Memory: Auditory information (sound) (few seconds)
State the role of attention and rehearsal
Role of attention
Depending on how much attention is given to information can affect the processing
of that information.
Role of rehearsal
Repeating information helps it stay in the STM for longer, if rehearsed for long
enough, it will transfer to the long-term memory store.
State the strengths of the MSM
Lots of evidence
Cases of amnesia show how brain injury can damage LTM, whereas STM stays in tact.
Ben Murdock (1962)
Ben Murdock - experiment to provide evidence for the multi-store model of memory.
Discovered the ‘Serial Position effect’, (you recall more information from the beginning
(primacy) and end (recency) of a word list.)
First few words are rehearsed and go to the LTM and
the last few words are still in the STM. The words in the middle get displaced.
State the weaknesses of the MSM
Overstating rehearsal
MSM - exaggerating the role of rehearsal as a means of transferring information into
long-term storage.
We do not always needs to repeat information to remember it,
sometimes we just remember it as it is more meaningful.
Not only one type of LTM
Must be more than one type of long-term memory.
Cases of amnesia patients demonstrate that while some long-term memories are
damaged, others remain intact. E.g. Clive wearing – suffered damage to the part of his
memory that stored personal events, such as going to university, but others parts
were still intact, such as playing the piano.
This suggests that we do have one LTM store, but possibly several different types.
One strength and One weakness of The MSM (4)
Peterson and Peterson found that over 90% of trigrams were forgotten when rehearsal was prevented. This supports the MSM as the MSM states that rehearsal is important for things to go from your STM to LTM.
The MSM could be considered reductionist. This is because it oversimplifies human memory and other encoding processes and does it not consider other memory types such as muscle memory.
