The Multi-store Memory Model Flashcards
How do things transfer into the sensory memory?
First there is environmental input and then sensory input (sights and sound)
How do things leave the sensory memory?
They are forgotten or transferred to short term memory
How do things transfer into the short term memory?
By attention
How do things stay in the short term memory?
They are brought back from the long term memory by elaborate rehearsal or maintained in the short term memory by maintenance rehearsal
How ado things leave the STM?
They are forgotten through decay or displacement or are transferred into the long term memory by retrieval
How do things leave the long term memory?
They are forgotten through interference or retrieval failure
What is cognition?
Internal mental processes we are aware of, e.g, perception, judging, reasoning, learning, evaluating and remembering
What is memory?
The process of coding, storing and retrieving information
What are the stages of memory?
- Encoding - putting information in a form so it can be stored
- Storage - holding it in the system
- Retrieval - recovering it
What is the WMM
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
How many sensory registers are there?
5, one for each of the senses
What is duration?
How long information can be held
What is capacity?
How much information can be stored
What is the duration of information in the sensory memory?
Less than 0.5s
What is the capacity of the sensory memory?
Very high - possibly unlimited
What is the coding of the sensory memory?
Modality specific - coding for the visual information is iconic and coding for the acoustic store is echoic
Why do the sensory registers have such a large capacity but short duration?
So you can take in your surroundings but not everything remembered otherwise you would be overwhelmed
What was Sperling’s experiment?
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.
What were the results of Sperling’s experiment?
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
What were the conclusions of Sperling’s experiment?
That information in the sensory register decays quickly, showing information is taken in then forgotten
What is the capacity of the STM?
5-9 items
What is the duration of the STM?
18 seconds
What is the coding of the STM?
It codes acoustically
What is the capacity of the LTM?
Unlimited
What is the duration of the LTM?
Up to a lifetime
What is the coding of the LTM?
It codes semantically
What was the Jacobs experiment?
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
What were Jacob’s findings?
The mean digit span was 9.3 digits and the mean letter span was 7.3 letters
What was the conclusion of Jacob’s study?
That the capacity of the STM is 5-9 items
What was Peterson and Peterson’s experiment?
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
What were Peterson and Peterson’s findings?
The percentage of correct response decreases in % as the time interval increases
What were Peterson and Peterson’s conclusion from their experiment?
Their findings suggested that the STM duration was about 18 s unless we repeat the information over and over
What was Bahrick’s experiment?
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.
What were Bahrick’s findings?
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
What were Bahrick’s conclusions?
That the LTM has an unlimited, lifetime capacity
What is coding?
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
What was Baddeley’s study?
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
What were Baddeley’s findings?
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
What was the conclusion from Baddeley’s experiment?
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
What studies support the MSM?
Peterson and Peterson - duration of STM, Baddeley - capacity of STM and LTM, Jacobs - capacity of STM and Bahrick - duration of LTM
What studies are limitations of the MSM
Patient KF) - stores of the STM and Craik and Watkins - transfer of information to the LTM
What was the study of patient KF?
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
What was Craik and Watkins study?
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
