1 Memory

• STM Capacity


  HOW MUCH
• STM Capacity


  • Jacobs- Digit span test- more digits= worse recall
• STM Duration


  HOW LONG
• STM Duration


  • Peterson and Peterson- Trigrams longer delay recall worse
  • Bahrick- supports holding information for significant periods of time- 15 years later could recall
• STM Coding


  WHAT FORM
• STM Coding


  • KF- doesn't only code by sound- multiple subdivisions- separate store
  • Baddeley puts that coding is but by sound- similar
  • Baddeley- coding, supports coding is by meaning, confused when have similar meanings
• LTM Coding


  • Bower et al- To investigate whether LTM recall is improved by semantically ordering words
• Multi Store Model


  • Atkinson and Shiffrin: Linear processing model
  • Each store has a different way of coding, duration and capacity
  • STM and LTM are unitary stores that cannot be subdivided
  • STM and LTM are separate stores
  • Information is transferred from STM to LTM by rehearsal
• Multi Store Model


  1. Sensory

  2. Pay attention = into STM

  3. STM

  4. Rehearsal = into LTM

  5. LTM
• Sensory Store


  • All sensory experience
  • High capacity
• STM


  • 7 +/- 2 (increased by chunking)
  • 18-30 seconds
• LTM


  • Unlimited capacity
  • Unlimited duration
• Coding in Sensory Store

  • Iconic - visual information is coded visually
  • Echoic - sound is coded acoustically
• Coding in STM


  Phonological (auditory/sound based)
• Coding in LTM


  Semantic (based on meaning)
• Holding more than 7-9 items: Amount of information that can be stored in any given store
• Miller (1956) published a famous article entitled 'The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two'
• Old information gets displaced by new information in STM
• Short-term memory stores 'chunks' of information rather than individual numbers or letters
• We can remember more if we chunk information
• This can explain why we are able to recall items like mobile phone numbers, which contain more than 7 digits
• Types of Long Term Memory

  • Procedural
  • Semantic
  • Episodic
• Procedural Memory


  • Action based memory
  • 'knowing how to...'
  • Non declarative = not easily explained/ put into words
  • Not usually conscious can usually carry out the act unconsciously
• Semantic Memory


  • Information about the world - facts - knowledge
  • 'Knowing that...'
  • General knowledge
  • Can be used without reference to when and where you first learned the information
  • Thought to be hierarchically organised, semantically linked
  • Declarative: can put it into words easily
• Episodic Memory


  • 'knowing when...'
  • Memory for events or episodes you have experienced
  • Could be things you've heard about from other people
  • Declarative
  • Known as 'autobiographical memory'
• Procedural


  • Annie can recall 'how to skateboard' which is an action based memory
• Episodic


  • Germaine can remember 'his first day of university' which is an event in his life
• Semantic


  • Billy can remember the 'names of the tools' which is knowledge-based memory
• Henry Molaison and Clive Wearing had issues with their short term memory
• HM could complete a star drawing activity with greater accuracy day to day but had no knowledge of having done it before
• Clive Wearing could play piano but could not remember ever learning
• Brain scans show that different areas of the brain are active when performing tasks that are using the different types of LTM
• We have been able to help people suffering from cognitive memory impairments by giving them techniques to train their episodic memory
• Most evidence is based on clinical case studies with various issues
• Some critics argue we should classify LTM as declarative and nondeclarative (those memories we can consciously recall and those we cannot) and not in 3 terms of 3 distinct types
• Working Memory Model


  • Baddeley and Hitch (1974) criticise the MSM as they argue that the picture of short-term memory (STM) provided by the Multi-Store Model is far too simple
  • STM should be referred to as a 'working memory' and is not a unitary store
  • Working memory is short-term memory but viewed as being more active
  • Instead of all information going into one single store, there are different systems for different types of information
• Components of Working Memory

  • Central executive
  • Visuo-spatial sketchpad (inner eye)
  • Phonological Loop
  • Episodic Buffer
• Central Executive


  • Deals with information entering the system from the sense organs
  • Sends to appropriate sub system
  • Overseas the activity of his 'workers'/'sub systems'
  • Switches attention
  • Controller
  • Co-ordinates the 'job'
  • Modality free/can process info. from any sense
  • Limited capacity- can store for a brief period
• Visuo-spatial Sketchpad


  • Responsible for setting up and manipulating mental images
  • Helps us to monitor where we are in relation to other objects in our environment
  • Has limited capacity
  • Visual: deals with objects and features such as shapes
  • Spatial: deals with locations and movements in space
• Phonological Loop


  • Involved in the storage of speech based sound
  • Limited capacity: brief periods
  • Phonological store (inner ear): Allows sound based info to be stored briefly
  • Articulatory rehearsal process (inner voice): Verbal rehearsal component