Multi Store Model Of Memory

Question 1

Research for coding in SM

Answer 1

Crowder (1993)
Found info is only stored in the iconic store for a few milliseconds, but for about 2 seconds in the echoic store, supporting the fact that there are different sensory stores.

Question 2

Capacity of SM

Answer 2

Very large

Eg. There are over 100 million cells in each eye, each storing data.

Question 3

Study for capacity of SM

Answer 3

Sperling (1960)
Flashed 3x4 grid of letters for participants to remember. When each row was associated with a tone, recall of letters from the indicated row was high. This shows the info was originally there and the capacity is quite large.

Question 4

Duration of SM

Answer 4

Limited however different for each sensory store. Different info decays at different rates. Usually less than half a second.

Question 5

Study for duration of SM

Answer 5

Treisman (1964)
Played identical auditory messages in both ears of participants with a slight delay between them. The participants noticed the message was identical if the delay was 2 seconds or less, suggesting the echoic store has a limited duration of 2 seconds.

Question 6

Coding in STM

Answer 6

Info payed attention to in the SM is passé to the STM. It is coded on several ways
•visually- (eg think of image)
•acoustically- (repeating word)
•semantically- (understanding)

Question 7

Study for coding in STM

Answer 7

Baddeley (1966)
For STM participants he found acoustically similar words were recalled worst, as similar sounding words were confused.
For LTM participants semantically similar words were recalled worst as words with similar meanings were confused

Question 8

Capacity of STM

Answer 8

Limited, only holds a small amount of information. About 5-9 items. Can be increased by chunking.

Question 9

Study for capacity of STM

Answer 9

Jacobs (1887)
Participants had to recall increasingly long lists of numbers or letters. He found for letters the capacity was about 7, and 9 for numbers. This could be because there are less digits.

Question 10

Duration of STM

Answer 10

Maximum of 30 seconds. Can be extended by rehearsal of information, if done long enough the info will transfer to LTM.

Question 11

Study for duration of STM

Answer 11

Peterson & Peterson (1959)
Participants had to remember trigrams after counting backwards. After 3 second of counting 90% of recall was correct, but only 5% after 18 seconds. This suggests STM has a duration between 20-30 seconds.

Question 12

Coding in LTM

Answer 12

How they are stored. Coding will be stronger of the level of processing of the stimulus is deeper at the time it is being experienced.

Question 13

Study for coding in LTM

Answer 13

Frost (1972)
Gave participants 16 drawings in 4 categories, differing is visual orientation. The order of recall of items suggested participants used visual and semantic coding, implying both are used to code in LTM

Question 14

Capacity of LTM

Answer 14

Unlimited. Info may be lost due to decay over time.

Question 15

Study for capacity of LTM

Answer 15

Anokhin (1973)
Estimated the number of possible neuronal connections in the brain is 1 followed by 10.5 million km of zeros. He concluded no human can use all the potential of their brain, suggesting the capacity is unlimited.

Question 16

Duration of LTM

Answer 16

Depends on an individual’s lifespan, as memories can last a lifetime. Items will last longer if originally well coded, and certain LTMs have longer duration, like those based on skill no knowledge.

Question 17

Study for duration of LTM

Answer 17

Bahrick et al. (1975)
Showed 400 participants a list of names and and some photos, they had to identify those who were ex school friends. Those who’d left high school in 15 years identified 90% of faces and names. Those who’d left 48 years previously, identified 80% of names am 70% of faces, suggesting memory for faces is long lasting.

Question 18

Coding in the SM

Answer 18

Info stored in a raw unprocessed form. Different store for each sense.
Echoic store- auditory information
Iconic store- sensory information