multistore model of memory Flashcards
who pioneered the multistore
model of memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin
what did they do ?
They distinguished the difference between permanent structural features of memory and its control processes
what are permanent structural features ?
can’t be altered and the basic memory stores of the brain
what are control processes?
conscious decisions about what to attend from out environment how we encode rehearse and retrieve memories - what we pay attention too , past experiences media and schemas
what is the definition of encoding ?
changing incoming information (new memory) so that it can be represented or stored in memory , format in which info is saved
what is the definition of capacity?
the amount of information that can be stored at a given time
what is the definition of retrieval?
recovering ( remembering) information from storage (recall) transferring from LTM to STM
what is the definition of duration ?
the length of time information remains within storage
how is the sensory register encoded?
via the senses
what is the duration of the sensory register ?
milliseconds, can vary slightly for each store
what is the capacity of the sensory register ?
potentially very large however most information isn’t remembered due to a lack of attention
what happens with age ?
as older duration and capacity begins to decay
how is long term memory encoded ?
it is encoded semantically
what is the duration of long term memory ?
potentially a lifetime
what is the capacity of long term memory
unlimited
what happens to recall in long term memory ?
information has to be transferred back to stm
how is short term memory encoded ?
it is encoded acoustically
what is the duration of short term memory ?
the duration is 15/18-30 seconds
what is the capacity of short term memory ?
7plus/ -2 or 5-9 items
how can duration be extended ?
it can be extended through rehearsal if rehearsed for long enough it goes into LTM
what did Miller (1956) introduce to increase capacity?
How is it useful ?
‘ chunking’ - 5-9 items can be held at any one time increasing the capacity
useful for remembering things like a stroke
Face Arm Speech Time
what happened to KF ?
he was in a motorcycle accident
how does KF contradict the model ?
memory of digits was poor when read out to him ( acoustically) however, when looking at them ( visualy) , memory improved.
shows msm is to simplistic , only accounts for acoustically encoded and stm does not account for visual
what are flashbulb memories ?
a vivid recollection of a personal/ historically significant memory e.g. 9/11 or Princess Diana death
How does it contradict the model ?
the flashbulb memories are easily retrieved without going back into stm and rehearsal. it shows the over emphasis on the role of rehearsal
Peterson + Peterson (1959)
what was the aim of the study ?
to investigate the duration of STM and provide empirical evidence for MSM
Peterson+ Peterson (1959)
what was the procedure?
a lab experiment, 24 patients (psychology students) had to recall trigrams to prevent rehearsal ppts were asked to count backwards from 3’s or 4’s from a specific random number until they saw the red light appear. Brown peterson technique asked to recall nonsense trigrams after 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds
Peterson + Peterson (1959)
what were the findings?
the longer the interval delay the less trigrams were recalled participants were able to recall 80% of trigrams after a 3 second delay. However, after 15 seconds less than 10% of trigrams were recalled correctly.
Peterson + Peterson (1959)
what was the conclusion ?
STM has a limited duration when rehearsal is prevented. this information is lost from STM due to trace decay. STM is different to LTM in terms of duration. supporting MSM
Glanzer + Cunitz
what was the experiment?
Two groups of participants were given the same lists of words. one group recalled the words immediately after presentation, while other groups recalled the words after waiting 30 seconds. these participants had to count backwards in 3’s ( brown peterson technique) which prevented rehearsal and caused recency effect to dissapear
Glanzer+ Cunitz
what were the findings?
words at end of list are only remembered if recalled first and tested immediately. delaying recall by 30secs prevented recency effect
Glanzer + Cunitz
what were the conclusions?
words at start of list are only remembered as rehearsed = primacy effect
last words = recency effect
