Memory Flashcards - A Level Psychology AQA

• Who came up with the Multi-store model?

  Atkinson and Shiffrin
• What is the multi-store model?

  Sensory Information -> Sensory Register- (Attention) -> Short-term memory (maintenance rehearsal)- (Elaborate rehearsal) -> Long-term memorySTM <- (Retrieval) - LTM
• Two components of the multi-store model

  1. Each store is unitary2. Each store is distinct
• Capacity meaning


  The quantity of information that can be stored
• Duration meaning


  The amount of time information can be stored for
• Coding meaning


  The format in which information is stored
• Who came up with Capacity of STM?

  Jacobs
• What is the capacity of STM?

  7 +/- 2 chunks
• Who came up with Duration of STM?

  Peterson + Peterson
• What is the duration of STM?

  - remember 3 letter consonant and count back in threes from number given- need to recite letters after time (secs)- Duration of STM = 20 seconds
• EVALUATE capacity and duration of STM studies

  + lab experiment so high control, and removes extraneous/cofounding variables+ chunking is used in real life - lacks mundane realism and therefore lacks ecological validity
• Capacity of LTM

  Potentially infinite
• Who came up with Duration of LTM?

  Bahrick et al
• What is the Duration of LTM?

  - used 392 participants and showed them high-school yearbook- after 48 years, 70% of names were given correctly- Duration of LTM = potentially infinite
• EVALUATE Duration of LTM study

  + large sample size so high population validity+ remembering people's names is normal for everyday so high mundane realism so high ecological validity- cofounding variable: - can't control when they last looked at the yearbook - may have seen the people in person - personality/sociability may effect- recognition is not free-recall, memory is probably much worse for free-recall
• Who coded STM + LTM?

  Baddeley
• STM Coding

  Acoustically (sound)
• LTM Coding

  Semantically (meaning)
• Who is Clive Wearing?

  - suffered damage to his hippocampus due to a virus- no new memories + lost old memories amnesia- but he can still play the piano
• Clive Wearing supports...

  + supports idea that the stores are distinct as his STM works but not LTM- can play piano so LTM isn't unitary
• Who came up with the Types of LTM?

  Tulving (1985)
• What are the types of LTM?

  episodic, semantic, procedural memory
• Episodic memory

  refers to our ability to recall events that have happened to us personally -> these events are time-stamped, meaning we have a sense of how long ago an event happened -> declarative, easily described
• Semantic memory


  refers to our knowledge about the world, this includes facts and what words/phrases mean -> NOT timestamped -> declarative
• Procedural memory


  refers to knowledge of how to do things, memories are formed through practice/repetition, can be retrieved without conscious effort -> NOT timestamped-> NON-declarative
• EVALUATE Types of LTM

  + Clive Wearing has procedural memory as can play piano but doesn't have episodic memory- it is rare case study so can't generalise to others+ by identifying different types of LTM we can target specific memory treatments
• Who came up with the Working Memory Model?

  Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
• What is the Working Memory Model?

  The Central Executive -> The Phonological Loop -> The Phonological Store -> The Articulatory Process-> The Episodic Buffer -> LTM-> The Visuo-spatial Sketchpad
• Central Executive


  directs out attention to incoming sensory information, carries out cognitive tasks but have very low capacity
• Phonological Loop


  deals with auditory information (2 seconds worth)
• Phonological Store


  acts like an inner ear and stores speech based information
• Articulatory Loop


  acts like inner voice responsible for rehearsing auditory information on a loop
• Visuospatial Sketchpad


  acts like inner eye, processes visual and spatial information (4 objects), allows us to navigate through space without walking into objects
• Episodic Buffer


  combines information from the other stores to create an episodic memory, acts as general storage unit for the central executive, (holds 4 chunks)
• Who investigated KF?

  Shallice + Warrington
• What was Shallice + Warrington's study with KF?

  - KF is a man who suffered brain damage due to a motorcycle accident- found KF's STM was impaired for verbal but not visual information
• What was D'Espasito et al study?

  - neuroimaging- found: -> Central Executive occupies Frontal Lobe -> Phonological Loop occupies Temporal Lobe -> Visuospatial Sketchpad occupies Occipital Lobe
• EVALUATE Working Memory Model

  + KF's Phonological Loop doesn't work but his Visuospatial Sketchpad works- but lacks population validity+ D'Espasito shows parts of WMM are physically separate like in the brain - LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF Central Executive {Baddeley} said "The Central Executive is the most important, but least understood component of the Working Memory Model."
• Interference


  occurs when two pieces of information in memory are too similarthis causes them to conflict with each other leading to:- one information being lost entirely- memory becoming distorted
• Proactive interference


  when old memory interferes with forming a new memory