psych- Memory

• Short term memory- capacity, coding, details...


  Coded acoustically, lasts 18-30 seconds and can hold 7+/-2 items (miller)

  
• Long term memory-capacity, duration, details...

  permanent memory store, unlimited duration and unlimited capacity- coded semantically

  
• Coding


  The format in which information is stored in 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 a memory store

  
• Outline Baddeley et al's (1996) procedure.

  Gave different lists of words to four groups of participants:

  1) acoustically similar words

  2)acoustically different

  3)semantically similar

  4)semantically different

  Participants were shown original words and asked to recall them in the correct order. They did this once from STM and once from LTM.
• What were Baddeley's findings?

  When recalling words from STM participants tended to do worse with acoustically similar words. This shows information in STM is coded acoustically. When recalls words from LTM participants did worse with semantically similar words which shows that LTM codes semantically.
• Outline Joseph Jacob's study

  This study was done to research STM capacity. The researcher read out 4 digits and the participants had to recall these out loud in the correct order. They then increased the number of digits by one each time and repeated the process until participants could no longer recall digits anymore.

  
• What were the findings of Joseph Jacob's study

  They found that the mean span for digits was 9.3 items and the mean span for letters was 7.3.

  
• What does George Miller (1956) theorise

  He noticed that many things come in sevens and thought that the capacity of STM is about 7+_2. He also noticed that people can remember letters and numbers equally and said this is because we group thinks which is called chunking.
• Outline Peterson and Peterson's study

  24 students were tested in eight trials. Students were given a triad to remember. They were also given a 3 digit number. To prevent mental rehearsal they counted backwards from this number. After varying seconds they were told to stop and recall the consonant syllable.
• What were the findings

  After 3 seconds Average recall was about 80%. After 18 seconds it was 3%.
• Outline Harry Bahrick et al study


  932 participants aged between 17 and 74. High school yearbooks were obtained from the participants or their schools. Recall was tested on 2 ways:

  1)photo recognition test using photos from the high school yearbooks

  2)free recall tests where participants recalled the name of their graduating class.

  
• What were the results of Bahrick et als study


  Participants tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years recall to declined to about 70% for photo recognition.

  Free recall was less accurate about 60% after 15 years, 30 after 48 years.

  This shows that LTM can last up to a lifetime for some material.
• What are the strengths of Baddeleys study

  It identified a clear difference between coding in different memory stores.

  
• Weaknesses of Baddeleys's study

  Artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. In everyday life people try to remember things which are meaningful to them therefore this may not tell us about coding in everyday life. This study has limited application.

  
• Strengths of Jacob's study

  It has been replicated by later better studies such as bopp and verhaeghen.

  
• Limitations of millers study


  STM capacity may have been overestimated. Nelson Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is only 4+_1.

  
• Limitations of Peterson and Peterson's study

  Stimulus material was artificial, however sometimes people try to remember meaningless material like phone numbers. Therefore the study lacks external validity.

  
• Strengths of bahrick et als study

  High external validity because researchers used meaningful material.

  
• What is the multi store model

  A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores.
• What are the three stores in the MSM

  Sensory register, STM, LTM
• What is the sensory register


  The memory stores for each of our senses such as iconic or echoic stores.
• What is the capacity of the sensory register?

  Huge (2 hundred million cells). Information lasts for a very short time (less then half a second).
• Describe the multi store model of memory

  Information goes into the sensory register which consists of different stores and then if it attention is payed to the information it passes into the short term memory. From then the person can invoke a response and remember or they can keep it in the rehearsal loop. Information that goes through prolonged rehearsal can move into the long term memory store. Information can move from STM to LTM through retreivel.
• Strength of the multi store model

  There is back up research such as baddeley's study that supports the theory that LTM and STM are separate.
• Weaknesses of the MSM of memory 1

  May not be relevant to every day life because most of the studies use meaningless material therefore we cannot conclude about how the stores code or how information moves between the stores.
• Weaknesses of the MSM of memory 2

  There is evidence of more than one STM store. A study done by Tim Shallice and Elizabeth Warrington studied someone with amnesia. KFs patients STM for digits was poor when he read them to himself but much better when digits were read to him. Further studies showed that there could be another short term store for non verbal sounds. This disproves the MSM saying that there is just one STM store.
• Weaknesses of memory 3

  Prolonged rehearsal is not needed to transfer to LTM. Fergus Craik and Micheal Watkins (1973) found that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount of rehearsal. Elaborating ever rehearsal is needed for information to move to LTM.
• What are the three types of long term memory?

  Episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory.
• Describe episodic memory


  Episodic memory refers to the ability to recall events from our lives. These memories are time stamped. They store Info about how events relate to each other. You have to make a conscious effort to recall these memories.

  
• Describe semantic memory?


  This store contains our shared knowledge of the world. These memories are not time stamped. Less vulnerable to distortion then episodic memory.

  
• Procedural memory


  This is our memory store for skills. We can recall these memories without conscious effort. Hard to explain natural instinct.

  
• What clinical evidence is there to support the different types of long term memory?

  There were 2 famous case studies HM and Clive wearing. They both had brain damage and episodic memory in both men were severely damaged, however their semantic memory seemed fine. Their procedural memories were also intact for example Clive wearing who used to be a musician could remember how to play the piano.
• Strength of types of LTM real world application

  Using this knowledge Sylvie bell developed a treatment to help people with damaged episodic memory.
• What is the problem with clinical studies?

  They lack control variables, the brain injuries were unexpected and what happened before or during them could not be controlled. The researcher has no knowledge of the participants memory before the brain damage and therefore cannot compare them.
• What is a limitation of the types of LTM?

  There are conflicting research findings linking the different types of LTM to parts of the brain. Buckner and Peterson concluded that semantic memory is on the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic on the right, however, other research shows the opposite.
• Weakness of types of LTM

  Tulving has taken the view that episodic memory is a specialised subcategory of semantic memory. He saw that people with Alzheimer's could not form episodic memories if they did not have a functioning semantic memory but the opposite was possible.
• What is the working memory model?

  The working model memory is an explanation for the functions of STM. It had four main components the central executive, phonological loop, Visio-spacial sketchpad and the episodic buffer.

  
• What are the functions of the phonological loop?

  It deals with auditory information so coding is acoustic. There are two parts the phonological store stores the words you hear. The articulatory process allows maintenance rehearsal, thus rehearsal loop can store 2 seconds worth of information.