types of LTM and WMM Flashcards
episodic memory
- our ability to recall personal life events
- includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved.
- time-stamped
- you have to make a conscious effort to recall them
- less resistant to amnesia
semantic memory
- contains our knowledge of the world
- includes facts and knowledge of what words and concepts mean
- not time stamped
- you have to make a conscious effort to recall them
- less resistant to amnesia
procedural memory
- knowledge of how to do things
- our memory for learned actions or motor skills
- we can recall them without conscious awareness or effort
- we find it hard to explain these verbally
- more resistant to amnesia
case of Clive Wearing
- suffers from amnesia from viral infection of brain
- prior to this he was a musician and can still play piano but cant remember his piano education
- he can remember some aspects of life prior infection e.g. he knows his children but not their names, recognises wife Deborah but greets her every time as though they have not seen each other in years
- has no problem understanding the meaning of words and can make sentences effectively
supporting evidence for types of LTM from Clive Wearing
- procedural memory is in tact
- episodic memory is damaged
- LTM stores are different and unitary and stored in different parts of the brain
supporting evidence of types of LTM from HM
- patient underwent brain surgery to remove epilepsy which damaged his memory
- when drawing a star between 2 concentric ones whilst looking through a mirror, HM improved over time
- but he still could not remember the task he did before
- so procedural memory is intact, episodic is damaged
- they are unitary stores
supporting evidence of types of LTM from Tulving et al. and multiple other studies
- participants performed memory tasks while being PET scanned
- found that episodic and semantic memories were recalled in the prefrontal cortex (right/left side)
- supports different types of LTM being in different parts of the brain- they are unitary stores
weakness of types of LTM from others disagreeing with the division of 3 LTM stores
- they accept that procedural memories represent 1 type of LTM
- they argue that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in 1 LTM store
- it is important to distinguish between them so that treatments developed are effective and the theory is valid
- so we cant be confident about the division of LTM into 3
real world application of types of LTM
- identifying different types of LTM allows psychologists to better peoples lives
- e.g. episodic memories can be improved in elderly people who have mild cognitive impairment
- enables specific treatments to be developed - external validity
what is the Working Memory Model
- representation of how STM is organised and how it functions
- proposed by Baddeley and Hitch
- has sub-units
central executive function
- coordinates the activities of the 3 sup-components (slave system)
- monitors information from senses and LTM
- makes decisions
- allocates slave systems to tasks
capacity and coding of central executive
processing capacity- very limited
storage capacity- none
coding- it can process information in any coding formality
function of phonological loop
processing and temporarily stores sound-based information and preserves the order the sounds arrive in
capacity, coding and sup-components of Phonological Loop
- capacity: 2 seconds worth of what you say
- coding: acoustic
- subcomponents: articulatory process (inner voice and maintenance rehearsal), phonological store (sound information)
episodic buffer function and capacity
- to integrate information from the other slave systems: the sound, visual and spatial information into a single memory with time sequencing.
- Also sends information to LTM
- Capacity: about 4 chunks
visuo-spatial sketchpad function
processes and temporarily stores visual and spatial information
visuo-spatial sketchpad capacity, coding and subcomponents
- capacity: 3-4 items
- coding: visual
- subcomponents: inner scribe (stores spatial information), visual cache (stores visual information)
supporting evidence of WMM from KF
- KF had brain damage
- he had poor STM ability for verbal information but good ability for visual information
- suggests phonological loop is damaged while visuo-spatial sketchpad is in tact
- supports existence of separate visual and acoustic stores of STM as proposed by the WMM
supporting evidence of WMM from dual-task performance
- Baddeley et al. found that participants had more difficulty doing 2 visual tasks than doing a visual and verbal task at the same time
- because both visual tasks compete for the same slave system but when doing a verbal and visual task, there is no competition
- supports slave systems having limited capacity and being unitary
supporting evidence for WMM from Braver et al.
- participants given task that involved the central executive while having a brain scan
- found greater activity in the prefrontal cortex and this activity increased as tasks got harder
- supports existence of central executive because as the demands increase, it has to work harder to fulfil its function which supports its function as a supervisory component
weakness of WMM from cognitive psychologists
- suggest central executive is unsatisfactory and doesnt explain anything
- it needs to be more clearly specified
- some psychologists believe it may have separate components
- this means that WMM hasnt been fully explained
