The Multi-store Memory Model

Question 1

How do things transfer into the sensory memory?

Answer 1

First there is environmental input and then sensory input (sights and sound)

Question 2

How do things leave the sensory memory?

Answer 2

They are forgotten or transferred to short term memory

Question 3

How do things transfer into the short term memory?

Answer 3

By attention

Question 4

How do things stay in the short term memory?

Answer 4

They are brought back from the long term memory by elaborate rehearsal or maintained in the short term memory by maintenance rehearsal

Question 5

How ado things leave the STM?

Answer 5

They are forgotten through decay or displacement or are transferred into the long term memory by retrieval

Question 6

How do things leave the long term memory?

Answer 6

They are forgotten through interference or retrieval failure

Question 7

What is cognition?

Answer 7

Internal mental processes we are aware of, e.g, perception, judging, reasoning, learning, evaluating and remembering

Question 8

What is memory?

Answer 8

The process of coding, storing and retrieving information

Question 9

What are the stages of memory?

Answer 9

1. Encoding - putting information in a form so it can be stored
2. Storage - holding it in the system
3. Retrieval - recovering it

Question 10

What is the WMM

Answer 10

It was created in 1968 and suggests memory is a flow of information through a system and each memory is made of 3 stores linked by cognitive processes but each store varies in term of capacity, duration and coding

Question 11

How many sensory registers are there?

Answer 11

5, one for each of the senses

Question 12

What is duration?

Answer 12

How long information can be held

Question 13

What is capacity?

Answer 13

How much information can be stored

Question 14

What is the duration of information in the sensory memory?

Answer 14

Less than 0.5s

Question 15

What is the capacity of the sensory memory?

Answer 15

Very high - possibly unlimited

Question 16

What is the coding of the sensory memory?

Answer 16

Modality specific - coding for the visual information is iconic and coding for the acoustic store is echoic

Question 17

Why do the sensory registers have such a large capacity but short duration?

Answer 17

So you can take in your surroundings but not everything remembered otherwise you would be overwhelmed

Question 18

What was Sperling’s experiment?

Answer 18

Sterling investigated sensory registers and participants were shown a grid of digits for 0.5s. They were asked to either write down the whole grid or hear a tone and write down the indicated row.

Question 19

What were the results of Sperling’s experiment?

Answer 19

When asked to recall the whole thing, the recall was poorer with an average of 42% having 5 items whereas when asked for only one row, an average 75% had 3 items

Question 20

What were the conclusions of Sperling’s experiment?

Answer 20

That information in the sensory register decays quickly, showing information is taken in then forgotten

Question 21

What is the capacity of the STM?

Answer 21

5-9 items

Question 22

What is the duration of the STM?

Answer 22

18 seconds

Question 23

What is the coding of the STM?

Answer 23

It codes acoustically

Question 24

What is the capacity of the LTM?

Answer 24

Unlimited

Question 25

What is the duration of the LTM?

Answer 25

Up to a lifetime

Question 26

What is the coding of the LTM?

Answer 26

It codes semantically

Question 27

What was the Jacobs experiment?

Answer 27

It was an experiment on the capacity of STM and the researcher read out 4 digits, and if the participant repeats them back correctly , the researcher reads out 4 and this continues until the numbers are read incorrectly. The correct dumber of digits indicates the individuals digit span

Question 28

What were Jacob’s findings?

Answer 28

The mean digit span was 9.3 digits and the mean letter span was 7.3 letters

Question 29

What was the conclusion of Jacob’s study?

Answer 29

That the capacity of the STM is 5-9 items

Question 30

What was Peterson and Peterson’s experiment?

Answer 30

It was an experiment on the duration of the STM. The experimenter prepared and showed a trigram containing 3 consonants for 2s to a participant then the participant recalls it. This was repeated several times but after the trigram is shown, the participant has the count backwards for 3s. This is then repeated and the time is increased by 3s each time. The counting prevented mental rehearsal

Question 31

What were Peterson and Peterson’s findings?

Answer 31

The percentage of correct response decreases in % as the time interval increases

Question 32

What were Peterson and Peterson’s conclusion from their experiment?

Answer 32

Their findings suggested that the STM duration was about 18 s unless we repeat the information over and over

Question 33

What was Bahrick’s experiment?

Answer 33

It was an experiment of the duration of LTM with 392 American participants aged 17-74 using high school yearbooks. There were two tests, the photo recognition test and the free recall test. The photo recognition test was when participants were asked to pick out who they know and the free recall test was when participants were asked to recall the names of their graduating class.

Question 34

What were Bahrick’s findings?

Answer 34

Photo recognition - participants tested within 15 years of graduation had a 90% accuracy rate and participants tested after 48 years had a 70% accuracy rate. Free recall - participants tested after 15 years had a 60% accuracy rate and participants tested after 48 years had a 30% accuracy rate

Question 35

What were Bahrick’s conclusions?

Answer 35

That the LTM has an unlimited, lifetime capacity

Question 36

What is coding?

Answer 36

The format in which information is stored by the various memory stores and the STM and LTM use one primary form of coding, unlike the sensory memory

Question 37

What was Baddeley’s study?

Answer 37

It was a study in coding where different lists of words were given to 4 groups. The 1st group had acoustically similar words (words that sound similar), the 2nd group had acoustically dissimilar words, the 3rd had semantically similar words (words with similar meanings) and the 4th has semantically dissimilar words. The participants were then asked to recall them

Question 38

What were Baddeley’s findings?

Answer 38

When they were asked to recall the words immediately (recalling from the STM), participants did worse with acoustically similar words but when they were asked to recall words after 20 minutes, (recalling from the LTM), participants did worse with semantically similar words

Question 39

What was the conclusion from Baddeley’s experiment?

Answer 39

Suggests that the STM codes acoustically so the STM relies on speech-based or acoustic code, even when terms are present visually and suggests that LTM codes semantically

Question 40

What studies support the MSM?

Answer 40

Peterson and Peterson - duration of STM, Baddeley - capacity of STM and LTM, Jacobs - capacity of STM and Bahrick - duration of LTM

Question 41

What studies are limitations of the MSM

Answer 41

Patient KF) - stores of the STM and Craik and Watkins - transfer of information to the LTM

Question 42

What was the study of patient KF?

Answer 42

KF’s STM was very poor when digits were read out loud but recall was much better when he read the digits to himself. This suggests there is another store in the short term memory and it does not just code acoustically so there is more than one store

Question 43

What was Craik and Watkins study?

Answer 43

Found that the type of rehearsal is important and elaborating rehearsal (linking information to pre-existing knowledge) needed for long term storage. This limits the MSM and as it does not fully explain how long term storage is achieved