Memory

• What do the examiners look for?
• What examiners look for

  • Accurate and detailed knowledge
  • Clear, coherent, and focused answers
  • Effective use of terminology (use the "technical terms")
  • In application questions, examiners look for "effective application to the scenario," which means that you need to describe the theory and explain the scenario using the theory making the links between the two very clear. If there is more than one individual in the scenario you must mention all of the characters to get to the top band
• Difference between AS and A level answers

  The descriptions follow the same criteria; however, you have to use the issues and debates effectively in your answers. "Effectively" means that it needs to be clearly linked and explained in the context of the answer
• Read the model answers to get a clearer idea of what is needed
• The Multi-Store Model


  A structural model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin that memory consists of three stores: sensory register, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). Information passes from store to store in a linear way. Both STM and LTM are unitary stores
• Sensory memory


  The information you get from your sense, your eyes, and ears. When attention is paid to something in the environment, it is then converted to short-term memory
• Maintenance rehearsal


  Repetition that keeps information in STM, but eventually, such repetition will create an LTM
• Forgetting from STM


  If maintenance rehearsal (repetition) does not occur, then information is forgotten and lost from short-term memory through the processes of displacement or decay
• Characteristics of memory stores

  • Encoding
  • Capacity
  • Duration
• Encoding


  The way information is changed so that it can be stored in memory. There are three main ways: visual (picture), acoustic (sound), and semantic (meaning)
• Sensory register


  • Duration: ¼ to ½ second
  • Capacity: all sensory experience (v. larger capacity)
  • Encoding: sense specific (e.g., different stores for each sense)
• Short Term Memory


  • Duration: 0-18 seconds
  • Capacity: 7 +/- 2 items
  • Encoding: mainly acoustic
• Long Term Memory


  • Duration: Unlimited
  • Capacity: Unlimited
  • Encoding: Mainly semantic (but can be visual and acoustic)
• The multi-store model of memory has been criticized in many ways
• Some students read through their revision notes lots of times before an examination


  They still find it difficult to remember the information
• The same students can remember the information in a celebrity magazine


  Even though they read it only once
• This can be used as a criticism of the multi-store model of memory
• Criticism of the MSM

  The MSM states that depth of memory trace in LTM is simply a result of the amount of rehearsal that takes place. The MSM can be criticized for failing to account for how different types of material can result in different depth memory traces even though they've both been rehearsed for a similar amount of time. For example, people may recall information they are interested in (e.g., information in celebrity magazines) more than the material they are not interested in (e.g., revision notes) despite the fact that they have both been rehearsed for a similar amount of time. Therefore, the MSM's view of long-term memory can be criticized for failing to take into account that material we may pay more attention to or is more meaningful/interesting to us may cause a deeper memory trace which is recalled more easily
• Strengths of the multistore model

  • It gives us a good understanding of the structure and process of the STM. This allows researchers to expand on this model and do experiments to improve on it and make it more valid, and they can prove what the stores actually do
  • It is supported by studies of amnesiacs: For example the patient H.M. case study. HM is still alive but has marked problems in long-term memory after brain surgery. He has remembered little of personal (death of mother and father) or public events (Watergate, Vietnam War) that have occurred over the last 45 years. However, his short-term memory remains intact
• It has now become apparent that both short-term and long-term memory is more complicated than previously thought
• The Working Model of Memory proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) showed that short-term memory is more than just one simple unitary store and comprises different components (e.g., central executive, Visuospatial, etc.)
• The role of rehearsal as a means of transferring from STM to LTM is much less important than Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) claimed in their model
• Glanzer and Cunitz study

  Participants tend to remember the first few and last few words in a list and are more likely to forget those in the middle of the list, i.e., the serial position effect. This supports the existence of separate LTM and STM stores because they observed a primacy and recency effect. Words early on in the list were put into long-term memory (primacy effect) because the person has time to rehearse the word, and words from the end went into short-term memory (recency effect)
• KF case study


  KF had been in a motorcycle crash where he had sustained brain damage. His LTM seemed to be unaffected, but he was only able to recall the last bit of information he had heard in his STM
• Types of Long-Term Memory

  • Procedural memory (memory of motor skills, unconscious-automatic)
  • Semantic memory (knowledge about the world, conscious thought, declarative)
  • Episodic memory (memory of events experienced, conscious thought, declarative)
• Declarative vs Procedural knowledge

  • Procedural knowledge involves "knowing how" to do things (e.g., riding a bike). It does not involve conscious thought (i.e., it's unconscious-automatic)
  • Declarative knowledge involves "knowing that" (e.g., London is the capital of England). Recalling information from declarative memory involves conscious effort
• Evidence for the distinction between declarative and procedural memory has come from research on patients with amnesia
• Working Memory Model


  Proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) to replace the idea of a unitary STM. It suggests a system involving active processing and short-term storage of information, including the central executive, the phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad
• Central executive


  • Has a supervisory function and acts as a filter, determining which information is attended to. It can process information in all sensory forms, direct information to other slave systems, and collects responses. It has limited capacity and deals with only one piece of information at a time
• Phonological loop


  • A temporary storage system for holding auditory information in a speech-based form, with a phonological store (inner ear) and an articulatory process (inner voice)
• Visuospatial sketchpad (VSS)


  • A temporary memory system for holding visual and spatial information, with a visual cache (which stores visual data about form and color) and an inner scribe (which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field and rehearses and transfers information in the visual cache to the central executive)
• Episodic buffer


  • Acts as a "backup" (temporary) store for information that communicates with both long-term memory and the slave system components of working memory. One of its important functions is to recall material from LTM and integrate it into STM when working memory requires it
• Bryan has been driving for five years


  Whilst driving, Bryan can hold conversations or listen to music with little difficulty
• Bob has had four driving lessons


  Driving requires so much of Bob's concentration that, during lessons, he often misses what his driving instructor is telling him
• This can be explained by features of the working memory model
• Explanation for Bryan and Bob's experiences


  Because Bryan has been driving for five years it is an 'automated' task for him; it makes fewer attentional demands on his central executive, so he is free to perform other tasks (such as talking or listening to music) and thus is able to divide resources between his visuospatial sketch pad (driving) and phonological loop (talking and listening to music). As Bob is inexperienced at driving, this is not the case for him – his central executive requires all of his attentional capacity for driving and thus cannot divide resources effectively between components of working memory
• Strengths of the Working Memory Model

  • Supported by dual-task studies - it is easier to do two tasks at the same time if they use different processing systems (verbal and visual) than if they use the same slave system
  • The KF Case Study supports the model - KF's impairment was mainly for verbal information, showing separate STM components for visual and verbal information
• Evidence from brain-damaged patients may not be reliable because it concerns unique cases with patients who have had traumatic experiences
• One limitation is the fact that little is known about how the central executive works
• Another limitation is that the model does not explain the link between working memory and LTM