THE COGNITIVE APPROACH - MEMORY MODELS

Question 1

What are the stores in the multi store model?

Answer 1

Atkinson and Shiffrin
Sensory memory store, short term memory store and long term memory store

Question 2

What are the key points of the sensory memory store?

Answer 2

It encodes in raw form, has a duration of 0-2 seconds, has a capacity of 3-4 items and if information is paid attention to it moves into the short term memory

Question 3

What are the key points of the short term memory store?

Answer 3

It encodes acoustically, has a duration of 2-15 seconds, has a capacity of 7 (plus or minus 2) items and needs to be rehearsed to move into long term memory

Question 4

What are the key points of the long term memory store?

Answer 4

It encodes semantically, has a duration and capacity that’s potentially infinite and needs to be rehearsed to stay in long term memory

Question 5

What are the strengths of the multi store model?

Answer 5

Brain scans support it - Squire et al found that the hippocampus is linked to long term memory and the prefrontal cortex was linked to short term memory
People with Alzheimers retain their long term memory but their short term memory decays supporting that they are separate stores
Murdock found the serial position effect, where words at the start and end of a list are easy to remember due to primacy and recency effect
HM’s long term memory was unaffected but his short term memory was unaffected, supporting the separate stores

Question 6

What are the weaknesses of the multi store model?

Answer 6

HM case study found that he could improve at the ‘mirror drawing’ task despite not remembering doing it before showing that memory is more complex than the MSM suggest
Brandimonte found that encoding in the short term memory isn’t just acoustic, as participants used visual encoding when their acoustic encoding was being used for something else
Clive Wearing cases study found that the long term memory is more complex as he could play the piano, despite not remembering learning it
It is too simplistic as the stores aren’t linear and information doesn’t just travel in one direction - DeGroot found that expert chess players used their long term memory to aid their short term memory when playing matches

Question 7

What are the stores of the working memory model?

Answer 7

Baddeley and Hitch
Short term memory consists of four stores that work together:
Central executive, the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer

Question 8

What are the key points of the central executive?

Answer 8

The head and ‘boss’ of the model that oversees and controls the other subsystems by filtering and allocating information depending on morality
It doesn’t actually store any information itself

Question 9

What are the key points of the phonological loop?

Answer 9

Deals with auditory information in speech form and consists of the phonological store (inner ear) and articulatory process (inner voice)

Question 10

What are the key points of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 10

Stores visual and spatial information and manipulates it and maintains and integrates information from channels using visual code

Question 11

What are the key points of the episodic buffer?

Answer 11

Integrates visual, spatial and auditory information together, whilst also transferring information into the long term memory
Maintains a sense of time sequencing

Question 12

What are the strengths of the working memory model?

Answer 12

Supported by brain scans - Smith showed that different parts of the brain are active during visual and auditory processing supporting that the phonological loop and visual-spatial sketchpad are separate
KF could process visual information but not verbal information
It has had practical applications in children with ADHD by suggesting breaking down information into chunks so the central executive can allocate small bits of information at one time

Question 13

What are the weaknesses of the working memory model?

Answer 13

Not all aspects of the model are understood
Baddeley himself said that the central executive is the most important and least understood component as it hasn’t been properly researched
It was based on a laboratory experiment, which lacks ecological validity as recalling a list of words doesn’t reflect the use of memory in everyday life
Blind people have good spatial awareness despite having no visual input, suggesting that the visual-spatial sketchpad should be two separate stores

Question 14

What are the stores of Tulving’s long term memory?

Answer 14

The episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory

Question 15

What are the key points of the episodic memory?

Answer 15

Mental diary of personal events
‘time stamped’ and declarative meaning we can recall when it happened and it needs conscious effort to recall (eg 10th birthday party)

Question 16

What are the key points of semantic memory?

Answer 16

Mental encyclopaedia containing knowledge learnt throughout life, not ‘time stamped’ (eg the sun is hot)

Question 17

What are the key points of procedural memory?

Answer 17

Actions and skills learnt throughout life, not ‘time stamped’ or declarative (eg riding a bike)

Question 18

What are strengths of Tulving’s long term memory?

Answer 18

Clive Wearing and HM both had impaired episodic memory but unaffected semantic and procedural memory, supporting that they are separate stores
Ostergaard studied a 10 year old boy after an anoxic episode and he had impaired semantic memory but unaffected episodic and procedural memory showing separate stores
Tulving used brain scans to show that different parts of the brain are active when using different stores:
Episodic memory - hippocampus
Semantic memory - frontal lobe
Procedural memory - cerebellum

Question 19

What are the weaknesses of Tulving’s long term memory?

Answer 19

The model is based on case studies which aren’t generalisable or reliable
HM was on medication for his epilepsy which could have impacted his memory after the surgery meaning results cannot be applied to the whole population
Difficult to tell the difference between the stores sometimes, suggesting they overlap - for example is a swimming lesson episodic or procedural?

Question 20

What are the key points of reconstructive memory?

Answer 20

An active process where previous schemas, based off of experiences and knowledge, get added to with new information
Bartlett used ‘ink blot tests’ where he found that participants saw images that were determined by their own interests and motivations (effort after meaning)
Each memory is made up of fragments from lots of different experiences that are all integrated together

Question 21

What are the strengths of reconstructive memory?

Answer 21

Ecologically valid as a lot of research uses digit span or nonsense letters but Bartlett used a real story which is more relevant to how we use memory in real life
Can be used to explain eye witness testimonies

Question 22

What are the weaknesses of reconstructive memory?

Answer 22

Bartlett’s research did not use a controlled method and lacked objectivity
Instructions weren’t standardised so participants had different lengths of time to recall the story making it less reliable

Question 23

What is the cognitive key question?

Answer 23

How can the cognitive approach be used to understand and help people with dementia?

Question 24

How is the cognitive key question relevant to today’s society?

Answer 24

850,000 diseased currently, and expected to reach 1 million by 2025 therefore understanding it more could help improve the quality of life or treat this huge amount of people

Question 25

How can Tulving’s long term memory relate to the cognitive key question?

Answer 25

Episodic memory linked to hippocampus in Tulving’s brain scans, which links to dementia as the hippocampus is the first part of the brain to be affected and episodic memory is what starts to become impaired first as well
This could be used to improve quality of life, as could work on building up episodic memory or target the hippocampus in treatments

Question 26

How can reconstructive memory relate to the cognitive key question?

Answer 26

Those with dementia use schemas to recall memories instead of their actual memory, for example if asked what they did on Friday night they would say had fish and chips because their schemas associates this activity with a Friday night
This also explains how they remember songs and faces as they have schemas on them
Supported by Bartlett with his inkblot tests and ‘War of the Ghosts’ study
This could help improve quality of life, as could work on creating more schemas so they could use this as their way of recalling memories instead of forgetting a lot