Memory

• Working memory model 


  Baddeley and Hitch

  1974

  For short term memory only
• Phonological Loop


  Auditory information

  Confusion can occur with similar sounding words

  Capacity of 2 seconds

  Phonological store- Stores words you hear

  Articulatory process- Allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds on loop to keep them in our memory)
• Central executive 


  Filters which information in the environment is addressed

  Processes the information and directs it to the slave system

  Limited capacity and can't deal with a lot at once
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad 


  What information looks like and how it's set out

  Visual and spatial information

  Subdivided by Logie in 1995

  Visual cache- Storing Visual material about form and colour

  Inner scribe- Handling spatial relationships allowing people to interact well with their environment
• Episodic buffer 


  Added in 2000 by Baddeley

  3rd slave system

  Links information across the two other domains

  Extra storage space for both types of information
• Coding


  The format or type of information which is stored in each memory store.

  Acoustic in STM and semantic in LTM.

  Baddeley (1966)- more mistakes were made when recalling acoustically-similar words straight after learning them, whilst more mistakes are made when recalling semantically-similar words 20 minutes after learning them(LTM recall).
• Capacity 


  Volume of information which can be kept in any memory store at any one time.

  Capacity of STM is 7+/-2 whilst Capacity of LTM is limitless.

  Based on Miller's idea that things come in groups of 7, suggesting we are predisposed to remembering this quantity and that such a 'chunking' method can help us recall information. Jacobs also demonstrated that the mean letter span was 7.3 and the mean didgit span was 9.3.
• Duration 


  Amount of time that information can be stored in each memory store.

  Duration of STM is 18-30 secs.

  Petersen et al (1959) found that increasing retention intervals decreased accuracy of recall of constant syllables in 24 undergraduates, when counting down from 3 digit number.

  Duration of LTM is unlimited.

  Bahrick et al (1957) found the photo recognition of graduating classmates of the 396 participants decreased from 90% to 70% between 15 years and 46 years of graduating.
• Disadvantage of historical psychological research

  Particularly concerning Jacobs, is the lack of standardisation and appreciation of scientific methods.

  Current laboratory experiment methodology produces highly reliable and valid data through removing the effects of extraneous and confounding variables.

  This is unlikely to be said of Jacobs, where confounding variables such as noisy rom may have had a greater influence on accuracy of recall,leading to unreliable results.
• Advantage of Bahrick et al's 1975 study

  Use meaningful stimuli and a methodology wh8ch 8s high in mundane realism.

  Suggests that the findings have high ecological validity as the can be easily generalised to real-life, due to stimuli reflecting those which e would often try to learn and recall in our daily lives: information with personal and meaningful value.
• Disadvantage of Petersen et al and Miller et al

  Feature methodology with low mundane realism, thus producing findings with little ecological validity.

  Due to the use of artificial stimuli which has little personal meaning to the participants and so doesn't accurately reflect everyday learning experiences.

  Limits generalisability of such findings.
• Disadvantage of Miller et al

  May have over-exaggerated the capacity of STM and that the capacity is more similar to 4 chunks as opposed to the original 5-9 limit.

  May reflect the outdated methodologies adopted by Miller and specifically the lack of control over confounding variables which may have contributed to this inaccurate estimate.
• Types of LTM pt.1

  Episodic- Memories which have some kind of personal meaning to us alongside details as to when and how these events occurred, as well as the associated people and places. [Memory of wedding dy or firt time meeting partner.]

  Procedural- Memories of 'learned skills'. [Swimming and driving.]
• Types of LTM pt2

  Semantic- Memories of the world and the associated knowledge e.g. an understanding of what words, themes and concepts mean.[Ability to use information related to one concept to help us understand another].

  Episodic and Semantic memories must be recalled consciously, whereas Procedural memories are recalled unconsciously.
• Petersen et al- LTM

  Semantic memories were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex.

  Episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex.

  Supports the idea that there are different types of LTM and shows that they each have a different neurological basis as they are recalled from different parts of the brain.
• Belleville et al- LTM

  There's particular application in being able to differentiate between different types of LTM.

  Mild cognitive impairments most commonly affect episodic memories and so an increased understanding of episodic memory, alongside the differences between types of LTM may lead to improved, increasingly targeted treatments for mild cognitive impairments.
• Cohen and Squire. Tulving- LTM

  Distinguished between declaritive and non-declarative memories.

  Declarative memories must be recalled consciously (episodic and semantic).

  Non-declaritive may be recalled unconsciously (procedural).

  Different classification and organisation system as the one used by Tulving, suggesting that his depiction of LTM is not entirely accurate.
• HM and Clive Wearing-LTM 


  One type of LTM may be impaired (episodic in their cases), but other types of LTM will be unaffected (procedural and semantic).

  Clive Wearing was able to play piano and understand the concept of music (procedural and semantic) but was unable to remember his wife voting him 5 minutes ago (episodic).

  Gives support to the idea that different areas of the brain are involved in the different types of LTM and confirms the classification of different types of LTM as separate.
• Multi - store Model of Memory

  How memory is stored, transferred between different stores, retrieved and forgotten. 3 stores:sensory register STM, LTM. SR contains one subsection for each of the 5 senses, huge capacity, duration of less than half a second. SR → STM. STM is acoustically encoded, maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat new things to ourselves allowing it to be kept in STM. prolonged maintenance rehearsal allows it to pass to LTM, a lack of rehearsal causes forgetting.
• MSM Pt.2


  LTM is semantically encoded. For things to be remembered retrial must occur, when information is transferred back into STM and will continue to pass through the maintenance loop afterwards.
• Disadvantages of MSM


  Different types of LTM, Tulving et al. MSM sees LTM as a unitary store. Doesn't represent types of LTM that are retrieved unconsciously when others are retrieved consciously which isn't seen in the universal process of info being consciously transferred to STM during process of retrieval.

  Amount of MR determines likelihood that it'll pass into LTM, Craik and Watkins suggested this rehearsal is more important. Elaborative rehearsal is needed to transfer information from STM→ LTM, by making links with existing knowledge.
• Advantages of MSM 


  Acknowledges the qualitative differareas between STM and LTM by representing them as seperate stores. Eg. STM is encoded acoustically and has a shorter duration. MSM portrays an accurate view of differences between the 2 types of memory, as supported by Baddeley and Miller.
• Interference theory


  Once information has reached LTM its more or less permanent meaning that 'forgetting' in the LTM likely occurs because we can't access the memories.

  This theory states that forgetting occurs because memories interfere with one another and end up disrupting each other which leads to forgetting.
• Retroactive and proactive interference

  Retroactive interference-When recent information hinders the recall of older information. Eg-calling your gf by your exgf name.

  Proactive interference-When past information hinders the recall of new information. Eg-Trying to recall new phone number, old one you've had for years proactively interference.
• Retrieval failure


  When we store a new memory we also store information about the situation-retrieval cues.

  When encountering a similar situation in the future, these retrieval cues can trigger the memory of the situation.

  Retrieval failure is when the information is present in LTM but can't be accessed because the retrieval cues aren't present.
• Encoding specificity principle


  An individuals recall of information is enhanced when th environment in which they originally learned something is similar to the environment in which they're attempting to recall it.
• State dependent forgetting 


  Forgetting which occurs because the emotional or physical state (internal cues) at recall is different to that of the time of learning.
• Context dependent forgetting 


  Occurs when our external cues at the time of encoding don't match those present at recall.

  Smell can act as a context related cues to memory.
• Disadvantages of interference 


  Artificial stimuli used, interference study findings have low mundane realism as the information isnt meaningful to the participants.

  Often conducted in very short spaces of times. This doesn't reflect normal passage of time in everyday life meaning its unlikely to be a valid explanation for forgetting from the LTM.
• Advantages of interference 


  Consistently demonstrated in several studies but particularly lab experiments. Increases the validity due to high controlled conditions, standardised instructions alongside removal of biasing effects of extraneous and confounding variables.
• Advantage of Baddeley and Hitch 1999

  In a group of rugby players who had to recall their last game and number of games they'd played that season. The number of games they'd played since was more important than the total time they'd played for.

  Interference-the more games each player had played, the more likely the memories of these newer games would interfere the recall of older games.
• Disadvantage of retrieval failure

  Golden and Baddeley 1975 asked divers to learn a list of words either underwater or on land. They were then asked to recall the words either in the same place they learnt the the list of opposite place. Accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions.

  Tested for recognition of learnt words as opposed to recall and found no significant difference in accuracy of recognition. Retrieval failure only explain forgetting for some types of memory, tested in specific ways. Poor generalisability.
• Disadvantages of retrieval failure

  Studies on retrieval failure may lack ecological validity. Baddeley argued its difficult to find conditions in real life which are as polar of water and land thus questioning the existence of context effects in normal life. Retrieval failure may be best suited to explaining cases of forgetting where the cues associated with encoding and retrieval are uncommonly distinct thus not providing an accurate depiction of forgetting in day to day life
• Advantage of retrieval failure

  Eysenck suggested that retrieval failure may be one of the main reasons that we forget information from the LTM. Alongside the strictly controlled conditions of a lab experiment,reducing the biasing effects of extraneous and confounding variables, increasing validityof retrieval failure as a explanation for forgetting, due to more confidence being placed in these conclusions on the basis of such experimental designs.
• State depending forgetting Carter and cassady 1988

  Aimed to test this being giving participants an antihistamine tablet which has mild seductive effect, making participants drowsy. Participants were required to learn lists of words and passages and recall the information either while in the same state or not. Mismatching conditions performance on memorytest were worse, cues are absent, more forgetting occurs.
• Aggleton and Washett 1999

  Smell is a context related cue. They used a museum in York in viking times. The smell of food helped people recall details from their trip.
• Misleadin information affecting EWT

  Account given by people of an event they have witnessed.

  Leading questions are worded to suggest a particular answer.

  Response bias factors: may have influenced the answer but didn't actually lead to a false memory of the event.

  Or memory representation is actually altered.
• Loftus and Palmer 1974

  Students watched a 1 minute video of a car accident and were asked "How fast were the carsgoing when they x eachother?" X being a different critical verb.

  Smashed was estimated 8.7mph greater to contracted.

  Later asked about broken glass.

  Smashed was estimated 20% more saw broken glass than the control group who weren't asked about speed.
• Post event discussions 


  Misleading information in the real world can come from other sources like other witnesses when they discuss th details of a crime of accident, following the incident.

  Also demonstrates the idea of 'memory conformity' where we more likely to pick up upon incorrect ideas or details because we believe that we are wrong and the other person is right.
• Gabber et al. 2003

  Used matched pairs design. They watched a video of the same crime from a different perspective. Meaning each participant saw different elements. The pairs discussed what they saw before individually completing a recall test.

  71% mistakenly recalled aspects they didn't see in the video, compared to the 0% control group who had no discussion.