Memory - psychology

• encoding


  transforming information so it can be stored in the brain
• storage


  information kept in the brain memory is stored in different areas depending on the memory
• retrieval


  recognition- remembering through identifying

  cue- remembering info with the help of a hint

  free recall- able to retrieve info without cues
• types of encoding


  visual- thinking through images

  acoustic- through sound

  semantic- through meaning

  tactile- how things feel

  olfactory- how things smell
• what is a declarative?


  requires conscious recall
• what is a non declarative?


  doesn't requite conscious recall
• episodic memory


  - memories of a specific event

  - it requires conscious recall and are declarative

  -has a time stamp of when it happened
• sematic memory

  - general knowledge of the world

  - requires conscious recall and is declarative

  - not time stamped

  - temporal lobe is responsible
• procedural memory


  -the ability to learn and remember how to preform a motor skill - doesn't require conscious recall and are non declarative

  - the motor cortex and cerebellum are areas responsible
• Evaluation of LTM types


  strength- Clive Wearing suffers from amnesia and his episodic memory is damaged but his procedural memory is fine and he can play the piano. This shows there's different types of LTM

  -scans showed the different locations of LTM which increases validity and supports that there are different LTM

  weakness- low population validity, Clive was the only ppt and suffers from an unusual illness so its hard to generalise the findings
• what is the MSM?


  1. info from environment is received by sensory

  2. once individual pays attention to info it registers to STM

  3. individual must rehearse info so it sticks to STM

  4. once prolonged rehearsal occurs info moves to LTM
• what is coding?


  how info is stored
• what is a capacity?


  how much info can be held in memory
• what is duration?


  how long info can be stored for
• what are is the coding, capacity and duration of the MSM


  sensory- memories coded by sense, unlimited capacity, duration of 0.5

  STM- coded acoustically, limited capacity of 7 +/-2, duration of 30secs unless rehearsed

  LTM- coded semantically, unlimited capacity, can store info for a long period of time
• Evaluation of MSM


  weakness- too simplistic, LTM isn't just one store

  - most studies were conducted in a lab, lacking ecological validity. Difficult to generalise to real life setting

  strength- research support is Baddeley, ppts have poor recall when immediately recalling acoustically similar words, suggests that STM is acoustic. Ppts had poor recall to semantically dissimilar words suggesting LTM is semantic. supports that STM and LTM is separate.
• serial position curve


  the tendency for people to recall the primary and recency effect, the position of the word influences recall
• primacy effect


  items that appear at the start of a list enter LTM bcs they have more time to rehearse
• recency effect


  items at the end of the list are easy to remember, they enter STM bcs they are more recent in their memory
• Murdock study


  aim - to investigate if memory of words is affected by number of words people had to remember

  method- 103 ppts get a list to recall, they listened to 20 words but the length varied from 10-40 words, after each list they were asked to recall words

  results- ppts were more likely to remember first and last words than the middle.
• evaluation of Murdock


  strength-

  - high control over extraneous variables since its a lab study, he controlled time and speed. Increases validity since nothing could affect finding.

  - high reliability since its done in a lab

  weakness-

  - low ecological validity, the study was an artificial task which doesn't reflect real life memory
• reconstructive memory


  memory is an active process, information is reassembled during recall. The gaps are filled by our expectations so we make the story make sense.
• Bartlett war of ghost study


  aim- to see how memory of unfamiliar story is affected by cultural difference to see how memory is reconstructed

  method- British ppts were given a native American story and after 15 mins were asked to wretell the story

  results- ppts remembered key events and theme but it was shortened and ppts missed some info out. Ppts changed words to fit their experience
• evaluation of Bartlett


  weakness- researcher bias, he analysed the ppts recall and decided what counts. He could have changed the result to fit his hypothesis

  demand characteristics, it was a lab study and ppts could have picked up the aim and changed the answer, low validity

  strength-

  supports reconstructive memory, memory is altered to fit an individuals culture which is why we don't accurately recall info
• what is the theory of reconstructive memory?


  memory is an active process, individuals record small pieces of info and when recalling the event we combine those pieces to tell a whole story.
• what is effort after meaning?


  we focus on the meaning of events, afterwards we make an effort to interpret the meaning into more familiar terms, individuals may alter memories in order to fit cultural expectations.
• AO3 of reconstructive memories


  weakness-

  - some memories are accurate, when a memory is personal and unambigous the recall is more accurate

  strength-

  - Bartlett supports this, ppts altered the study to fit their expectation which shows memory is an active process

  - explains why eyewitness testimonies in court arent always accurate
• what factors affect accuracy of recall?


  context, false memory, interference
• how does interference affect accuracy of recall?


  forgetting occurs when two pieces of information are similar and get confused in the LTM.
• what are the two types of interference?


  - proactive- when an old memory interferes with remembering new info

  - retroactive- when a new memory interferes with remembering an old memory or info we learnt before
• AO3 of interference


  strength-

  -McGeoch and McDonald gave ppts list of 10 words, then list b. ppts were asked to recall list a, if list b was a list of similar meaning to list a recall was poor. Interference is stronger wit similar items

  weakness-

  - McGeoch and McDonald's study lacks ecological validity, took place in an artificial environment and lacks real life example

  - an alternative factor is context, interference is not the only factor
• how does context affect accuracy of recall?


  external cues are encoded in the memory at the time of experiencing it, each memory is associated with these cues. The association are recreated to help memory recall,
• AO3 of context affecting accuracy of recall


  strength-

  - Godden and Baddeley study on scuba divers, were given a list of learn on land or water, When asked to recall words in the same setting they could remember it, but in the opposite it was hard

  weakness-

  - artificial task, not reflective on memory in real life so hard to generalise results

  - another factor that affects recall accuracy is interference, meaning that context isn't the only factor to be considered
• how does false memory affect accuracy of recall?


  false memory is when individual remembers something that didn't happen due to reconstructive memory
• AO3 on false memory affecting accuracy of recall


  strength-

  - Loftus and Pickrell questioned ppts abt their childhood using info from their parents, they desrcibed a true event then a fluse event (getting lost in mall) 25% of ppts believed the false memory

  weakness-

  - ethical issues, ppts were manipulated into believing the false memory, getting lost in the mall may have brough traumatic feelings which ppts think is real

  - false memory is not the only thing that could affect accuracy of recall
• Working Memory Model


  it was made as a weakness against to MSM because it was too simplistic.

  central executive system in control

  visual sketchpad - inner eye, visual info it helps us understand where things are

  phonological loop- deals with listening and speaking, has the phonological store for storing words we hear for a sec and articutory store allows us to rehearse verbal info

  episodic buffer- backup storage, linked to LTM

  
• evaluation of WMM


  strength- more indepth than the MSM

  case study of KF who damaged his stm in an accident

  weakness- not much said about the central executive. only explains STM and lacks ecological validity