Multi-Store-Model (AO1)

Question 1

Describe the MSM

Answer 1

• environmental input goes into sensory register
• then info is either forgotten or if you pay attention then it goes into the short-term memory
• to remain in the STM you must do maintenance rehearsal or you can recall info
• for information to transfer to the long-term memory you must do elaborative rehearsal
• once in the LTM info is either forgotten or can transfer back into the STM through retrieval

Question 2

What is capacity?

Answer 2

refers to the amount of info that can be held in a memory stores

Question 3

What is duration?

Answer 3

refers to how long info lasts in each memory store

Question 4

What is coding?

Answer 4

refers to the format in which info is stored in the different memory stores

Question 5

Capacity of the Sensory Register

Answer 5

potentially unlimited (millions of receptors)

Question 6

Duration of the Sensory Register

Answer 6

very brief (less than half a second)

Question 7

Coding of the Sensory Register

Answer 7

raw (no processing)

Question 8

Capacity of the STM

Answer 8

7 +/- 2

Question 9

Duration of STM

Answer 9

18-30 seconds

Question 10

Coding of STM

Answer 10

acoustic

Question 11

Capacity of LTM

Answer 11

potentially unlimited

Question 12

Duration of LTM

Answer 12

potentially a life time

Question 13

Coding of LTM

Answer 13

semantic (the meaning of smth)

Question 14

What is the Sensory Register?

Answer 14

SR is the entry point for all incoming sensory information
- there is a SR for each sense
- very little of what goes into SR passes further unless you pay attention

Question 15

What is the Short-Term Memory?

Answer 15

It’s a limited capacity store where information is recalled from

Question 16

What is the Long-Term Memory?

Answer 16

Where a potentially unlimited amount of info is stored for a potentially unlimited amount of time until it needs to be retrieved

Question 17

Sperling - describe experiment

Answer 17

Capacity of Sensory Register
- showed ppts 12 letters on a screen for 50 milliseconds (in a 3x4 table)
- ppts had to recall letters from a row when tone sounded
- high tone = top row etc.

(sperling = squares)

Question 18

Sperling - results

Answer 18

• when 50 milliseconds recall = 100%
• when delay was more than 1/4 of a second ppts struggled to recall

shows SR capacity is potentially unlimited but SR duration is very brief

Question 19

Jacobs - describe experiment

Answer 19

Capacity of STM
- 443 female ppts asked to read digits/words + then recall them out loud
- number of digits increased each time (like a pyramid)

(jacobs = jenga
jacobs = jacobs ladder)

Question 20

Jacobs - results

Answer 20

• when ppts would incorrectly recall a digit/word this determined their digit span
• average was 5-9 (7 +/-2)

shows STM capacity is 7 +/-2

Question 21

Peterson & Peterson - describe experiment

Answer 21

Duration of STM
- 24 student ppts took part in eight trials
- each trial they were shown a triagram followed by the distractor task of counting back in 3s (to prevent rehearsal)
- each trial increased from 3 seconds up to 24 seconds

(letters & numbers
ZFG 781
RTV 432)

Question 22

Peterson & Peterson - results

Answer 22

• when distractor task lasted over 18 seconds ppts struggled to recall the triagram

shows STM duration is about 18 seconds

Question 23

Bahrick - describe experiment

Answer 23

Duration of LTM
- 392 american ppts aged between 17-74 took part in 2 tasks
- photo recognition from skl yearbooks
- free recall test of students in their graduating class

(baaahh, I recognise them!)

Question 24

Bahrick - results

Answer 24

• 15 years after graduation, recognition was 90% and recall was 60%
• 48 years after graduation, recognition was 78% and recall was 30%

shows LTM duration is potentially a life time/unlimited

Question 25

Baddeley - describe experiment

Answer 25

Coding of STM + LTM
- 20 ppts were shown four lists of words
- list 1 was acoustically similar (cat,bat,rat)
- list 2 was acoustically dissimilar (tree,rug)
- list 3 was semantically similar (big,huge)
- list 4 was semantically dissimilar (pig,car)
- they were asked to recall the lists straight away + then 20 mins later

(baddeley, maddeley, paddeley)

Question 26

Baddeley - results

Answer 26

• immediate recall was better for list 2 (ad) than list 1 (as), little difference between 3/4
• 20 min delay recall better for list 4 (sd) than list 3 (ss), little difference between 1/2

shows recall of acoustically similar words was worse from STM + recall of semantically similar words was worse from LTM
= we code acoustically from STM vs. semantically from LTM