The Nature Of Memory

Question 1

What is memory

Answer 1

The cognitive process which encodes, stores and retrieves information.

Question 2

Encoding

Answer 2

Is when a memory trace is created. Information can be encoded in different forms: acoustic, visual, semantic etc.

Question 3

Storage

Answer 3

Our ability to keep a memory in our minds. We hold memory in 3 main memory facilities: sensory, short term and long term memory.

Question 4

Retrieval

Answer 4

Involves recognition, recall and reconstruction.

Question 5

Sensory memory
- Duration
- Capacity
- Evidence

Answer 5

Duration: 1/2 - 2 seconds (Sperling)
Capacity: limited
Retains info for seconds after the physical stimulation has gone.
Evidence: Baddeley (1988) suggested that one function of this kind of storage is to retain information for long enough to allow for consolation information from minute eye movements.

Question 6

Short term memory
- Duration
- Capacity
- Encodes
- Evidence (2)

Answer 6

Duration: 30 seconds unless information is retained through rehearsal
Capacity: limited
Encodes: acoustically
Evidence: Jacob’s (1887) found that people can hold seven ‘items’ in STM, plus or minus two (7+/-2)
Peterson and Peterson (1959) found through trigrams that STM has a limited duration when rehearsal is prevented. Also found that decay is the cause of forgetting from STM.

Question 7

Long term memory

Answer 7

Duration: 48 years + (Bahrick0
Capacity: unlimited
Encodes: somatically
Types of LTM: episodic (past events) semantic (details or factual information), procedural (how to do things)

Question 8

Schema
- Confabulation
- Evidence

Answer 8

Unit or template (fruit, stationary)
Confabulation is when our brains fill in the gaps in our memory.
In the War Of The Ghost experiment the story becomes shorter and the details change.

Question 9

Reconstructive memory

Answer 9

Involves levelling (dumb it down) and sharpening (exaggerate) to accommodate.
Assimilate is when we change our schemes to fit what we have learned.

Question 10

False memories
- Explanation
- Evidence

Answer 10

When your brain fills in the gaps (confabulation).
Memories can be planted in the brain, given a piece of information and then you create the whole picture.
Evidence: Loftus et al (2012) had 800 military personal experience prisoner of war simulation (highly stressful) and then the individuals were provided misinformation about the person who tortured them which led to the wronged person being accused (more than half falsely identified). This suggests that leading questions lead to false memories.