Multistore Model Flashcards
How long does information stay in sensory memory for
1-2 seconds
What is the first memory store?
Sensory memory
What is the job of sensory memory?
To process all information at an unconscious level and select the most important information to be passed on to the second memory store
What two stores is sensory memory divided into?
The echoic store (processes sounds) and the iconic store (processes images)
What is the second memory store?
Short term memory
What is the capacity of short term memory?
5-9 items
What is encoding?
Encoding is the way information is formatted and processed in order to be stored
Who did research on the capacity of STM?
Miller
How does STM prefer to encode information?
Acoustically
What is the third memory store?
Long term memory
What is the duration of STM?
18 seconds.
What is the capacity of LTM?
Unlimited
What is the duration of LTM
Potentially a lifetime
How does information get from STM to LTM?
Through rehearsal
What is the preferred encoding method of LTM?
Semantically
Who proposed the multistore model?
Atkinson and Shiffron
What fashion do the memory traces move in through the three different stores?
Linear fashion
Describe Miller’s research into the capacity of STM
He gave people sets of random numbers and the amount of numbers in a set increased by one by each set. The majority of people could remember between 5-9 items
Describe Bahrick et al’s research into the duration of LTM
Bahrick et al gathered 392 participants between the ages of 17 and 72. He wanted to see how many class mates they could recall after a long period of time. After 34 years participants could recall 90% of their classmates. After 48 years participants could recall 80% of class mates on name recognition and 40% on face recognition this suggests that information in long term memory can last a lifetime
Describe research into the preferred encoding method in LTM
Participants were given a list of words to remember. After a set amount of time the list was taken away and replaced with a list containing the right words, homonyms and synonyms. Participants often chose the synonym over the homonym which suggests that LTM encodes semantically
Describe Conrad’s research into the preferred encoding method of STM
We know this because Conrad showed participants 6 consonants for 3/4 of a second and then asked them to recall the letters immediately. Participants would make substitution errors for the letters that sounded similar. For example participants mistook v for p 82 times, but only mistook p for s twice.
Describe Peterson and Peterson’s research into the duration of STM
Peterson and Peterson gave participants groups of three random consonants (a trigram) to learn, then were asked to recall them after 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds. To prevent rehearsal the participants also had to count back in threes from a three digit number. 80% of participants could remember the trigram after 3 seconds, but after 18 seconds only 10% of participants could recall the trigram. Therefore it is believed that the duration of STM is 18-30 seconds
Who did research on the duration of STM?
Peterson and Peterson
Who did research on the duration of LTM?
Bahrick et al
