Psychology of Memory

Question 1

Describe the ‘multi-store model of memory’

Answer 1

By Atkinson & Shriffin 1974

Sensory input to sensory store (max 3s) to STM to LTM

Question 2

Sensory memory

Answer 2

Two types:

Auditory memory (echoic) - information lasts about 3s

Visual memory (iconic) - lasts about 0.25s

Question 3

Short term memory

Answer 3

7+/-2 - Miller 1956

Question 4

Working memory

Answer 4

Updated model to STM by Baddeley & Hitch 1974

Consists of:
Central executive = ‘attention’
Phonological loop = holds info in a speech-based form
Visuo-spatial sketchpad = holds visual and spatial information

Question 5

Retroactive interference

Answer 5

New info interferes with old information e.g. using an automatic car now, finding it difficult to recall manual

Question 6

Proactive interference

Answer 6

Old info interferes with new information e.g. giving someone your old number rather than new

Question 7

What is the primacy-recency effect or serial position effect?

Answer 7

When presented with information in order, remembering the first and last set of information more e.g. in a grocery list, remembering the first few items and last few but forgetting middle ones

Question 8

Long term memory

Answer 8

Information is transferred here via rehearsal in STM/WM - consolidation of information

Large capacity
Lifetime storage

Meaning is encoded rather than the exact representation e.g. remembering you got a letter from friend but not remembering the exact wording (Sachs 1960s)

Question 9

Retrieval

Answer 9

Recalling information from memory back into our awareness/attention

Cues are required e.g. prompts, reminders or questions
The original stimulus is reconstructed based on info from cue
The more information available, the easier the retrieval

Can be affected by retro-/proactive interference

Question 10

What factors affect retrieval?

Answer 10

Levels of processing - more something is elaborated at time of encoding = easier to retrieve

Organisation - of concepts in memory (can also be links between concepts that can help recall)

Context - being in the same physical/emotional state as the time of encoding helps recall (state-dependent memory)

Good ‘filing system’ - information can be retrieved if meaning is added to it or if its remembered using mnemonics

Question 11

Describe the case of HM (Milner 1978) in terms of dissociating function for WM

Answer 11

Had surgery to cure severe epilepsy
LTM was intact - could remember events prior to surgery
STM was normal
Encoding from STM to LTM was difficult (severe deficit)
Was able to learn motor skills but could not remember which skills he had learned (short term declarative)

Question 12

Procedural knowledge

Answer 12

Memory for how to do things/skills - practical memory e.g. tying shoelaces or writing

Question 13

Declarative knowledge

Answer 13

Memory for facts/info that can be conveyed using statements e.g. your birthday (uses semantic and episodic memories)

Question 14

Describe dissociating function between procedural and declarative memory - temporal lobe amnesia

Answer 14

Temporal lobe amnesia (Korsakoffs)

Patients are able to learn new skills but unable to learn new facts (procedural ✓ but declarative ✘) e.g. playing the piano and improving but unable to recall that they played it)

Question 15

Semantic memory

Answer 15

Type of declarative memory

Memory for facts and ideas e.g. capital of France, meaning of DOG (centred around the world)

Question 16

Episodic memory

Answer 16

Type of declarative memory

Memory for events and situations e.g. birth of ur first child (centred around you)

Question 17

Describe dissociating function in terms of semantic and episodic memory (case study KC)

Answer 17

Case of KC (Tulving 1989)

• Damage to specific brain region following a traffic accident
• Can no longer retrieve autobiographical memory (personal mems of past) but general knowledge ✓ e.g. plays chess but cant remember where he learned it
• Can learn semantic knowledge but not episodic

Question 18

What is recognition?

Answer 18

Sense of familiarity - previously encountered a stimulus
Easier than recall - information is contained in the cue

Recognition can be from a direct set stimuli or from a search of LTM store

Question 19

Recall

Answer 19

Reconstruction of a stimulus using the information available from the cue and LTM
Checked by the process of recognition
Greater cognitive demand than recognition
Can be direct from a cue or arise after problem-solving strategies have been employed

Question 20

Why can recognition and recall be inaccurate? (Eye witness, Loftus 1979)

Answer 20

Eye witness reports (Loftus 1979)
Ps watch a film of an accident inc STOP or YIELD sign.
They were asked ‘how big was the stop sign?’ - they won’t remember it said yield
They were asked how fast the cars were going when they ‘smashed’ into the other? - these ps recalled the cars were going faster than they acc were

Shows that using specific wording, you can change ppl’s memory = recall can be inaccurate

Question 21

What are the main causes of ‘forgetting’?

Answer 21

Passage of time

• rapid decay of information from WM
• cell death leads to loss of LTM capacity (can be accelerated e.g. in dementia)

Interference

• interference to storage in WM e.g. pro-/retroactive
• connections are remolded over time in LTM, influenced by retro/proactive interference

Question 22

How can amnesia arise?

Answer 22

Damage e.g. head injury, stroke

Chronic alcohol abuse e.g. Korsakoff’s syndrome

Disease e.g. Alzheimer’s (extensive damage to cortex, progressive damage to episodic memory, more general cognitive impairment)

Reversible brain disease e.g. tumours, hydrocephalus, subdural haematoma, deficiencies in B1, B6, B12

Psychogenic memory loss e.g. abuse/war

Question 23

Anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia

Answer 23

Anterograde amnesia - inability to store new information

Retrograde amnesia - inability to recall information prior to trauma (can be short duration)

Question 24

Factors affecting memory for medical information (e.g. in students)

Answer 24

• Higher IQ
• Greater medical/technical information
• Higher anxiety levels (improves memory but reduces flexibility)
• Age

Question 25

What information are patients likely to remember?

Answer 25

Primacy-recency - info at the start or end of consultation

Information thought to be important/self-relevant (episodic)

When total info provided is less

Usage of short words/sentences, organisation (into categories), repetition (to help with encoding)

When instructions are explicit and concrete

Question 26

What are the three key processes in memory?

Answer 26

Encoding, storage and retreival

Question 27

What is chunking?

Answer 27

Grouping bits of information together to make it easier to remember

Question 28

Describe consolidation and what it involves

Answer 28

This is storage and elaboration of information into LTM

Involves structural changes - pattern of neural pathways change

Long-term potentiation - strengthening synapses (cellular foundation for memory)

Requires metabolic activity for a few mins/hrs after the stimulus has been presented