Psychology Memory

• short-term memory


  coding is mainly acoustic, limited capacity between 5 and 9 items on average, duration is between 18 and 30 seconds
• long-term memory


  permanent memory store, coding is mainly semantic, unlimited capacity, can store memories for up to a lifetime
• coding


  the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores
• capacity


  the amount of information that can be held in a memory store
• duration


  the length of time information can be held in memory
• acoustic coding


  memory that is remembered through its sound
• semantic coding


  memory that is remembered through their meaning
• research on Coding

  Baddeley, gave different lists of words to 4 groups of participants and were asked to recall them in the correct order:

  group 1 =acoustically similar words (cat/cab/can)

  group 2 =acoustically dissimilar words (pit/few/cow)

  group 3 =semantically similar words (great/large/big)

  group 4 =semantically dissimilar words (good/huge/hot), found that the STM is coded acoustically because the STM got muddled when the words sounded similar, the LTM got muddled when the words meant the same thing (information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM
• research on Capacity


  Jacobs = measuring digit span, read out 4 digits, participants immediately recalled these out loud in the correct order

  (digits go up until they could not recall them anymore),

  mean digit span =9.3 items

  2. Miller= he noted that things come in 7s (7 days of the week/7 colours of the rainbow),

  span of STM is about 7±2 items, remembered through chunking
• research on


  duration of STM Peterson and Peterson,

  24 students given consonant syllables(YCG) & a 3-digit number to count backwards from (prevented rehearsal), they were told to count backwards from this number until until told to stop, intervals: 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds, 80%recalled syllables correctly after 3 seconds, only 3% recalled syllables after 18 seconds
• research on


  duration of LTM Bahrick, 392 americans, aged 17-74, told to recall 50 photos from high school yearbook photos, 15 years after graduation = 90% accurate in photo-recognition, 48 years after graduation = 70% accurate in photo-recognition (LTM may last a lifetime)
• the multi-store model


  Atkinson & Shiffrin

  
• the multi-store model


  explained a stimulus from the environment passes through the sensory register where it is either stored iconically, echoically (or in another sensory store), if this memory receives attention it moved to the STM in which it can be remembered, through maintenance rehearsal(repeating material to ourselves over and over again) the memory can be kept in the STM, if it is rehearsed long enough (prolonged rehearsal) it can pass into the LTM, memories can also be brought back to the STM through retrieval

  
• the multi-store model:


  sensory registerall stimulus from the environment passes into the sensory register, it is composed of several different registers (echoic/iconic/other sensory stores), it has a very short duration however a very high capacity
• the multi-store model:


  short-term memorycoded mainly acoustically, duration of around 18 seconds (unless rehearsed), limited capacity (7±5)
• the multi-store model:


  long-term memorypermanent memory store, coded semantically, duration up to a lifetime, unlimited capacity
• iconic memory


  store for coding visual information
• echoic memory


  store for coding acoustic information
• primacy effect


  tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well
• recency effect


  tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well.
• types of long-term memory

  Tulving, first cognitive psychologist to realise that the MSM was too simplistic & inflexible, said that there were 3 stores for LTM
• 3 types of LTM

  episodic, semantic, procedural
• episodic memory


  personal events, complexed memories,time-stamped(people, places, objects, behaviours - interwoven to to produce a single memory),have to be retrievedconsciouslywith effort(remembering a fight with a friend last week)
• semantic memory


  our knowledge & facts about the world, what words & concepts mean,not time-stamped, less personal,have to be retrievedconsciouslywith effort(knowing that paris is the capital of france) - Tulving said it's less vulnerable to distortion & forgetting than episodic memory
• procedural memory


  our knowledge ofhow to do things,muscle-memory, learned motor skills, find it hard to explain the action to someone else (you just know it),recalled unconsciously & without making a deliberate effort(knowing how to tie shoelaces/riding a bike)
• working memory model


  Baddeley&Hitch, explained how the STM is organised/functions, focuses on what happens to the memory when they are 'worked on' (temporarily storing/manipulating information)

  
• working memory model:


  central executivemonitors incoming data, focuses and divides our limited attention, allocates slave systems to tasks - verylimited capacity,does not store information(modality free - codes for all 5 senses)
• working memory model:


  phonological loopinner ear, deals withauditoryinformation (coded acoustically), preserves the order in which the information arrives through maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds/words in a 'loop' to keep them in the working memory) - capacity = 2 seconds
• working memory model:


  visuospatial sketchpadinner eye, stores visual & spatial information (if asked to work out how many windows are on house you would visualise it) -limited capacity(3-4 objects), codedvisually
• working memory model:


  episodic bufferadded by Baddeley in 2000,temporary store for information(visual/verbal/spacial information), links working memory to the LTM -limited capacity(4 chunks), modality free (codes for all 5 senses)
• interference


  forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing memories to be distorted or forgotten - more likely happens when the information is similar
• explanations for forgetting


  1. interference

  2. retrieval failure
• interference theory


  an explanation for forgetting inLTMbecause wecan't get access to them& makes itharder for us to locate them
• types of interference


  proactive & retroactive
• pro


  activeinterferenceold information interfering with new information

  
• retro


  activeinterferencenew information interfering with old information

  
• McGeoch & McDonald's


  researchresearched how interference is worse when the memories are similar
• McGeoch & McDonald's


  procedurestudiedretroactiveinterference, changed the amount of similarity between 2 sets of materials, list of 10 words, learned until they could remember them with 100% accuracy, new list was then learned:group 1: synonymsgroup 2: antonymsgroup 3: words unrelated to the original onesgroup 4: consonant syllablesgroup 5: three-digit numbersgroup 6: no new list - participants rested (control group)
• McGeoch & McDonald's


  findingswhen asked to recall original list most similar words (synonyms) produced the worst recall
• retrieval failure due to the absence of cues


  when information is initially stored in the memory, associated cues are stored at the same time, if these cues are not available at the time of recall it may appear that you have forgotten the information due to retrieval failure (not being able to access memories that are available)