multi store model of memory

Question 1

who was this created by and when?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

Question 2

what is the MSM?

Answer 2

a linear model of how memory operates with information moving through a series of separate stores

Question 3

brief overview of the msm stores

Answer 3

sensory registers - STM - LTM

Question 4

parts of the sensory register

Answer 4

•iconic (visually)
•echoic (acoustically)
•other sensory stores (taste, touch,smell)

Question 5

draw the MSM of memory

Question 6

what is the process that moves information from the sensory register to the STM

Answer 6

attention

Question 7

what is the process that moves information from the STM to the LTM

Answer 7

prolonged rehearsal

Question 8

what is the process that moves information from the LTM to the STM

Answer 8

retrieval

Question 9

what is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 9

when we repeat (rehearse) material to ourselves over and over again to keep it in our STM- if done for long enough it passes into the LTM

Question 10

what is prolonged rehearsal?

Answer 10

something is repeated so much it gets stored in the LTM store

Question 11

what is retrieval?

Answer 11

in order to retrieve/ recall information it must be passed back into the STM

Question 12

coding of the sensory register

Answer 12

•according to the sense that is stimulated
•visually (iconically)
•acoustically (echoically)
•modality specific (touch, taste, smell)

Question 13

duration of the sensory register

Answer 13

momentary (half a second)

Question 14

capacity of the sensory register

Answer 14

very large capacity

Question 15

coding of the STM

Answer 15

•mainly acoustically, however it depends on the information from the sensory register

Question 16

duration of the STM

Answer 16

•about 18 seconds unless it is rehearsed

Question 17

capacity of the STM

Answer 17

between 5 and 9 items (7+-2)
(Cowan’s research suggests it may be more like 5 than 9)

Question 18

coding of the LTM

Answer 18

mostly semantic

Question 19

duration of the LTM

Answer 19

potentially up to a lifetime

Question 20

capacity of the LTM

Answer 20

practically unlimited

Question 21

two reasons why information is lost in the STM

Answer 21

•it hasn’t been rehearsed so it decays
•it is pushed out by new information due to the capacity being exceeded. This is Displacement

Question 22

three evaluation points of the MSM

Answer 22

•strength: research support
•limitation: there is more than one type of STM
•limitation: there is more than one type of rehearsal

Question 23

MSM strength: research support

Answer 23

it is supported by research studies that show the STM and LTM are different stores.
Baddeley’s study found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar in our STM, but mix up one’s with similar meanings in our LTM, showing that one is coded acoustically and the other semantically.
This supports the view that the two memory stores are separate and independent

Question 24

MSM limitation: there is more than one type of STM

Answer 24

The MSM states that the STM is a unitary store
This is questioned by studies involving amnesiac patients, for example shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a patient known as KF
KF’s STM for digits was very poor when they were read aloud to him, however regally improves when he was able to read the digits to himself.
Further studies suggest there could even be another STM store for non-verbal sounds (like noises)
Concluding there must at least be one STM store to process visual information and another for auditory

Question 25

MSM limitation: there is more than one type of rehearsal

Answer 25

according to the MSM, what matters in rehearsal is the amount that you do, the more you rehearse it the more likely it is to go/ stay in your LTM
Craik and Watkins think that what matters is the type
•maintenance rehearsal does not transfer info into the LTM
•elaborative rehearsal does and it better for long term remembering
This research findings cannot be explained by the MSM

Question 26

who conducted research on coding?

Answer 26

Alan Baddeley

Question 27

what were the words the 4 groups were asked to recall?

Answer 27

1- acoustically similar
2- acoustically dissimilar
3- semantically similar
4- semantically dissimilar

Question 28

method of Baddeley’s study

Answer 28

participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order

Question 29

results of Baddeley’s study

Answer 29

•when they recalled the word’s immediately, they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words
•when asked to recall the word list 20 minutes later (from the LTM) they did worse with the semantically similar words
•these similarities add confusion
•these findings suggest that information is coded acoustically in the STM and semantically in the LTM

Question 30

who conducted research on capacity?

Answer 30

Joseph Jacobs

Question 31

methods and findings of Jacob’s research on capacity

Answer 31

participants were read aloud 4 digits and were asked to recall them, if they were all recalled in the correct order then he read out 5 words and so on.
•the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items
•the mean span for letters was 7.3

Question 32

who conducted research on duration?

Answer 32

Margret and Lloyd Peterson (Peterson & Peterson)

Question 33

how was research on the duration of the STM carried out?

Answer 33

•Peterson & Peterson tested 24 students in 8 trials
•they exposed the participants to a trigram (such as YCG) for a moment then distracted them by telling them to count backwards from a number
•they were asked to recall the trigram after varying lengths of time

Question 34

what was the results of the research on the duration of the STM?

Answer 34

•after 3 seconds average recall was 80%
•after 18 seconds it was about 3%

Question 35

who carried out research on the duration of the LTM?

Answer 35

Harry Bahrick

Question 36

how was the research on the duration of the LTM store carried out?

Answer 36

•harry bahrick studied 392 American participants
•participants were shown photos of people from their high school yearbook and asked to remember their names or recognise photos of them

Question 37

what were the results of the research into the duration of the LTM?

Answer 37

participants seeing photos and recalling names:
•15 years - 60% accuracy
• 48 years - 30% accuracy
photo recognition (which people they went to school with, which they didn’t)
• 15 years - 90% accuracy
• 48 years - 70% accuracy

Question 38

what are the 3 types of long term memory?

Answer 38

episodic, procedural, semantic

Question 39

characteristics of episodic memories

Answer 39

•ability to recall events (epidodes) from our lives.
•they are ‘time stamped’ - you can remember when and what happened
•these memories include several elements
•you have to make a conscious effort to recall these memories

Question 40

characteristics of semantic memory

Answer 40

•contains our knowledge of the world, including the meanings of words
•they are not ‘time stamped’
•it is constantly being added to, however is less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic memories

Question 41

characteristics of procedural memory

Answer 41

•our memory for action and skills
•does not require conscious effort, our ability becomes automatic through practice
•things like walking or playing the piano

Question 42

evidence for separate LTM stores

Answer 42

•there is support from neuroimaging
•Tulving’s Gold study found that different parts of the brain were active when participants were recalling knowledge (semantic memories) compared to life events (episodic memories)
•the study found that episodic memories were triggered brain activity in the front of the brain, and semantic memories in the back of the brain

Question 43

two case studies supporting different LTM stores

Answer 43

H.M - he kept his procedural memory, but could make no new episodic or semantic memories
Clive Wearing - he kept his procedural memory but lost his semantic memories and could no longer move memories from the STM to the LTM