Multi store model of memory Flashcards
(13 cards)
What is semantic memory?
-Knowledge of the world and what words and concepts mean
-Not time stamped
-Contains huge amounts of information that is constantly added to
-needs to be consciously retrieved
What is procedural memory?
-Memory store of how to do things like skills and actions
-Might find difficult to explain to someone else
-usually retrieve without conscious effort
What is Episodic memory?
Memory store for personal events
-Time stamped
-memory of single element includes several elements e.g people, places, objects etc…
-Has to be retrieved consciously and with effort, although you may be able to do so quickly e.g what you have eaten for breakfast
What is the sensory register?
Holds information for a very brief period (approx 500 miliseconds)
-Without attention will be rapidly lost
-Codes the information based on the stimuli
-Two main sub stores/iconic processing and Echoic processing
What is iconic processing?
Visual stimuli
What is echoic stimuli?
Auditory stimuli
What is short term memory?
-If significant attention has been paid to the information it will transfer to STM
-Store limited by capacity (about 7+/-2 items
-Duration=approx 18 seconds
-Without rehearsal information will be displaced or decay.
What is maintenance rehearsal?
-Occurs when material is repeated constantly to oneself
-If material is rehearsed enough times it is transferred to long term memory.
What is long term memory?
-Vast store
-Semantic code and potentially infinite capacity and duration
-If similar information enters the store it can interfere with original information causing it to be either lost or changed
Evidence from primary and Recency effect?(glanzer and cunitz 1966)
-Supports MSM
-Results will mirror those on the graph as the first and last words will be easier to recall then the middle words
-Words at the beginning have gone into the LTM and words at the end are in the STM.
-Middle of lists are poorly recalled as they do not have a chance to be rehearsed into LTM or enters into STM as its capacity is full
-Provides support for the MSM shows that our memory is split into different stores rather than just one
Supporting evidence from Brain damaged patients.
-Provides strong evidence for MSM’s distinction between STM and LTM
-e.g HM had good LTM for events before his accident but couldn’t create new memories as he was transferring information from his STM to LTM which meant he was trapped in a world that was only as long as his STM
-Supports idea that our memory is split into different stores which is likely to have different Locations, rather than one thereby offering further support for the claims of the MSM
MSM too rigid and simplistic(limitation)
-Processes involved memory are much more complex than this model suggests
-MSM consists of three stores, yet there is evidence for the existence of more than one type of STM and LTM stores
-Working memory suggests STM is an active store that can process sound and visual information (more than one store)In addition, incidental learning suggests that it is not rehearsal which creates LTM’s
-Therefore, it can be argued that the model ignores other factors.
Lack of ecological validity(limitation)
-Much of the research that supports this model is conducted in lab based settings using artificial tasks
-e.g words lists/artificial stimuli used in the studies into coding, capacity and duration
-Therefore, it is hard to know whether the processing which occurs to form memories of everyday information suggested by the MSM applies in the same way
-Therefore argued that as research lacks ecological validity, it is difficult to use these findings to offer support for the MSM as an explanation of our memory.
