Memory

• Encoding:

  • Sensory information is encoded/changed so that we make sense of the information
  • E.g. sounds that enter your ears are converted into waves
• Types of memory:

  • Episodic: Memory from past events from your life
  • Semantic: Meaning of things/general knowledge
  • Procedural: Muscle memory/knowing how to do something
• Storage:

  • Keeps information to access at a later date
  • Short term memory (STM):
  • Encoded acoustically
  • Limited duration and capacity – 7 + or – 2 chunks of information
  • Long term memory (LTM):
  • Encoded semantically
  • Unlimited duration and capacity
• Murdock’s serial position curve study:

  • Aim: To see if memory for words was affected by the position of words on a word list
  • Results: Likelihood of recall was related to the position of words on a word list
  • Primacy effect: Tendency to remember the first words in a word list better than later words
  • Recency effect: Tendency to remember the last words on a word list better than earlier ones
• Baddeley’s study:

  • Aim: To see if there was a difference between the type of encoding for STM and LTM
  • Results: STM is encoded acoustically; LTM is encoded semantically
• Bartlett’s war of the ghosts study:

  • Aim: To investigate how memory is reconstructed in recall and see if social and cultural expectations affect recall
  • Results: Participants kept replacing unfamiliar aspects of the story with their own expectations
  • Real-world application: Eye witness testimony
• Factors affecting memory:

  • Availability: Information may not actually be in the memory as it might not have been stored properly in the first place
  • Accessibility: Information may be stored but there is some difficulty retrieving it
  • Interference:
  • Retroactive: New memories disrupt the recall of old memories
  • Proactive: Old memories disrupt the recall of new memories
• Context study:

  • Aim: To see if context improved a person’s memory
  • Results: Those who learnt and recalled the words in the same environment recalled 40% better than those who learnt and recalled the words in a different environment
• False memory study:

  • Aim: To see if false memories can be easily implanted
  • Results: False memories are easily implanted, reducing accuracy in memory
  • Real-world application: Eye witness testimony; police may ask questions that plant false memories
• Types of encoding:


  Olfactory (smells), semantic (meaning), acoustic (sound), visual (pictures), tactile (feeling)
• Storage


  Keeps information to access at a later date
• Types of retrieval

  Free recall, recognition, cued recall
• Free recall


  Retrieving information without cues
• Recognition

  E.g multiple choice and deciding which one is correct
• Cued recall

  Retrieving information with some help (cues)
• Name of the model to describe memory

  Multi-store model of memory
• Who designed the MSM of memory?

  Atkinson and Schriffin in 1968
• Strengths of the MSM of memory


  . Research to support the model --> The case of HM, who had a surgery to cure his epilepsy and could no longer transfer information/make memories without an STM . Provides a simple explanation which helps us to understand memory
• Weaknesses of the MSM of memory


  . Model overemphasises the role of rehearsal

  . We remember some things without having to rehearse them e.g some smells and a memorable event

  . Oversimplified - memory is much more complex than the model describes

  . The case of KF challenges it - he had brain damage and could remember things with visual materials but not verbal materials
• Availability

  Went through a process and stored the information, it is there to recall
• Problem with availability


  Information may not actually be in the memory as it might not have been stored properly in the first place
• Accessibility


  Able to recall information stored without difficulty
• Problem with accessibility


  Information may be stored but there is some difficulty retrieving it