Multistore Model of Memory (Memory) Flashcards
(Sperling’s investigation of the sensory register) Method
Participants were shown a grid with three rows of four letters for 50 milliseconds.
They had to immediately recall either the whole grid or a randomly chosen row indicated by the pitch of a tone.
(Sperling’s investigation of the sensory register) Results
When recalling the whole grid they only recalled an average of 4 or 5 letters.
When a particular row was indicated, an average of 3 items were recalled, no matter which row was selected.
(Sperling’s investigation of the sensory register) Conclusion
They did not know which row was to be selected, so we can assume that 3 items from any row could be recalled. Therefore the entire grid was in their sensory register.
They could not recall the whole grid because the trace faded before they could finish recall.
(Sperling’s investigation of the sensory register) Evaluation
Lab experiment was highly scientific but lacked ecological validity. People do not normally have to recall letters so it might not represent what would happen in the real world.
Controlled variables make the study repeatable.
Glanzer and Cuntiz
showed participants a list of 20 words, presented one at a time and then asked them to recall.
This is called the serial position effect: “When asking people to remember a list of words which is greater than the capacity of short term memory they have a tendency to remember words from the beginning and end of the list”
(Glanzer and Cunitz) primacy and recency effect
-Primacy: the tendency for people to remember the first 5 or so words from the beginning of the list. Occurs because the first words are best rehearsed and transferred to LTM.
-Recency: the tendency for people to remember the last 5 or so words from the end of the list. Occurs because here are the last words to be presented and are still in the STM at the start of recall
Shallice and Warrington 1970
Studies a patient known as KF who had amnesia.
-found that KF’s short term memory for digits was very small when they were reading out loud to him
-but recall was much better when he could read them to himself
Supports the idea that there are different stores for short term memory.
(Evaluation) There is more than one type of STM
KF case study:
-short term memory store for non-verbal sounds
-at least one STM store to process visual information and another for auditory information
-Working Memory Model
(Evaluation) There is more than one type of rehearsal
The amount of rehearsal affects memory
However, Craik and Watkins 1973 found that this is no true and that is the type of rehearsal that really matters:
-Maintenance (only maintained in STM)
-Elaborative rehearsal (linking existing knowledge or meaning)
(Evaluation) Artificial materials
Research uses digits, letters or words
Consonant syllables without meaning
(Evaluation) There is more than one type of LTM
There is a lot of research to suggest that, similarly to STM, it is not a unitary store. We have different LTM stores for facts and memories of events.
When revising…
…refer to diagram.
