Topic 2 Cognitive - Content Flashcards
Who created The Multi Store Model?
Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)
What are the 3 components in The Multi Store Model?
- Sensory Memory
- Short-term Memory
- Long-term Memory
What is the Sensory Memory?
- Info arrives from 5 senses - by intaking its environment
- Large capacity
- Short duration (less than a second) - info immediately lost
What is the Short Term Memory?
- Encoding:
Acoustically encoded. - Retrieval:
Rapid Sequential Scan of stored info.
Rehearsal maintains info in the STM (strengthens memory trace).
More info enters, old info (with a weak memory trace) decays. - Info has to be attended to enter
- Duration is 15-30 seconds & then decays (if not rehearsed)
- 5-8 items capacity
What is The Long Term Memory?
- Encoding:
If info is linked to prior knowledge, easier to search for.
Encoded semantically.
If you understand info, more likely to remember - Unlimited capacity & duration
- Info recalled from LTM to STM when needed
- Retrieval:
Not stored as one memory trace but multiple copies.
‘Tip of the tongue’ - can recognise a correct answer (recognise first letter of a word but not the entire word) but can’t recall
What is evidence for the Sensory Memory?
Sperling (1960, 1963):
- visual array of letters is presented via tachistoscope
- recall is precise but decays if there’s a delay
( participants stared at a screen and rows of letters were flashed very briefly—for just 1/20th of a second. Then, the screen went blank. The participants then immediately repeated as many of the letters as they could remember seeing.)
What is evidence for Short Term Memory?
Peterson & peterson (1959):
- Recall a trigram with an interference task
- Performance dropped after 15-18 sec -> info decays rapidly if not rehearsed
What is evidence for Long Term Memory?
Bahrick et al (1975):
- Memory test using face & names in school yearbook
- 15 years after leaving school: 90% face & age recalled
- 48 years: 70-80% recall
Explain the overall process of The Multi Store Model (all components, from beginning to end)
1st Stage: Sensory Memory -> Info comes from the senses & lasts up to 2 seconds. If attended to, passed onto STM, if not attended, info decays.
2nd Stage: Short Term Memory -> Info lasts up to 15-30 sec & needs rehearsal for info to maintain. If info rehearsed, passed onto LTM, if not rehearsed, info decays.
3rd Stage: Long Term Memory -> Unlimited duration & store of info. Info stored is Semantic. Info lost through decay or interference.
What are the Strengths of the Multi Store Model?
Brain damaged patient - Henry Molaison:
- Supports the distinction of STM & LTM - located in diff regions of the brain?
- He had a functioning STM but LTM was damaged (couldn’t make LTM memories)
Glanzer & Cunitz (1966):
- Serial Position curve shows that we remember words at the beginning and end of a list better than words in the middle. Because beginning info chance to be rehearsed, strengthened & transferred to LTM.
Words at the end (the most recent) displaced the middle words, transferring the end words into the STM.
-Shows memory have different stores
Clive Wearing: Damage to Hippocampus
- Could still use STM to remember things for 20 seconds - but forget it - couldn’t make new memories
- Supports MSM - suggests an inability to rehearse info in LTM & the idea of separate stores
[counterpoint] - Couldn’t recall past events but could recall how to play piano - LTM too simplistic, more than 1 component
What are the Weaknesses of the Multi Store Model?
- Victim motorbike accident (K.F.) -> Still add memories to LTM even though STM was damaged
- MSM cannot explain this
Oversimplified:
- STM is more than one simple unitary store but is comprises with diff components (central executive, episodic buffer - from the Working Memory Model)
Model is based on lab experiments & artificial tasks (e.g. meaningless trigrams) when in real life we use our memory to remember important things, not applicable to real life -> lack ecological validity -> conclusions invalid
Who created the Working Memory Model?
Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
What are the components in the Working Memory Model?
- Central Executive
- Phonological Loop
- Episodic Buffer
- Visuospatial Sketchpad
What is the Central Executive?
- Limited Capacity
- Monitors overall system (incoming data)
- Decides how slave systems should function (allocate tasks)
- Deal with all sensory info & cognitive tasks
What is the Phonological Loop?
Temporarily stores verbal info
Split into 2 subsystems: Phonological Store (inner ear): - Holds limited verbal info for a few seconds - decays rapidly - can be extended using articulatory rehearsal system
Articulatory Rehearsal System (inner voice):
- Rehearses & stores verbal info from the phonological store
What is the Visuospatial Sketchpad?
- Stores and processes visual info
- Used for navigation
What is the Episodic Buffer?
- Limited Capacity storage system
- Integrate info between the subcomponents & retrieve info from LTM
What extra info is there for the Working Memory Model?
- Doing 2 tasks using the same component means means they can’t be performed successfully together
- STM is not a unitary store
What are the strengths for the Working Memory Model?
Model expands on the Multi Store Model, giving more info & refining it
- E.g. some dual tasks were more difficult than others (needed an explanation), WMM explains the features by the inner ear, inner voice & inner eye.
KF case study - damaged STM - struggled to process verbal info but his visual memory was unaffected
- Shows that visual info (visuospatial sketchpad) is processed separately from verbal info (phonological loop)
Applied to real life tasks:
- reading (phonological loop)
- problem solving (central executive)
- navigation (visual & spatial processing)
What are the weaknesses for The Working Memory Model?
New findings been made on the Model:
- Inadequate & not a valid explanation
- Episodic buffer was an addition to the model & needs further explanation
Central executive “most important but least understood”
Experiments are artificial tasks:
- e.g. learning word lists & remembering stories
- These tasks depend on either visual or sound info
- Real life tasks involve many sense
- Lack validity
Lieberman (1980):
- States blind people have spatial memory (can remember when things are, not bump into them) even though they have never had visual info
- Says to split Visuospatial sketchpad into visual memory & spatial memory as the whole component is too simple
Who created the explanation of Long Term Memory?
Tulving (1972)
What is the explanation of the Long Term Memory?
LTM divided into 2 memory stores:
Episodic:
- recall events (episodes) from our lives
- mental diary
- memories associated with other facts that link concepts together
Semantic:
- stores our knowledge of the world (facts):
- mental encyclopedia
- info about experiences & events
What’s Time Referencing?
- Episodic memory dependent on time-referencing (events linked to the time they occured)
- Semantic not needed
What’s spatial referencing (where smth occured)?
- Input into episodic memory is continuous
- Input into semantic memory is fragmented -> learn info at diff times & piece together -> stored independently & pieced together in a temporal form