Memory flashcards

Define memory

the term given to the structures and processes involved in the storage and subsequent retrieval of information

What is our short term memory

• temporary memory store

• our ‘working memory’ - we hold things here for a short amount of time

• limited capacity and duration

What is the coding of our STM

the way that memory is encoded describes the format that ‘raw’ information is converted to when storing and retrieving pieces of information

• acoustic

• visual

• semantic

Who researched the coding of our STM

Baddeley

Describe Baddeley’s research

• gave participants a list of words within different categories (4 lists)

  • Similar sound/different sound/similar meaning/different meaning 

• participants made more mistakes on words that sounded alike e.g. cat and cap 

• concluded that in the STM, information is encoded acoustically due to the participants remembering words that sounded different, and confusing words that sound alike 

• encoding acoustically is generally thought to be the dominant method for coding info in the STM 

Who researched the capacity of the STM

• Jacobs

• Miller

Describe Jacob’s research

• Jacobs (1887) conducted an experiment using a digit span test, to examine the capacity of short-term memory for letters and numbers 

• Sample - 443 female students (age 8-19) from the North London Collegiate School 

• Procedure – participants had to repeat back a string of numbers or letters in the same order and the number of digits/letters was gradually increased, until the participants could no longer recall the sequence 

• He used the digit span test with every letter and number apart from ‘w’ and ‘7’ because they have multiple syllables and are arguably harder to remember 

• Findings: 

• Average span for letters = 7.3 

• Average span for numbers = 9.3 

• 8-year-olds average = 7 

• 19-year-olds average = 9 

Describe Miller’s research

• Found out how many random numbers the average adult could hold in their short-term memory 

• Published an article ‘the magical number 7 + or – 2’ 

• If we can ‘chunk’ information together we can store a lot more information in our STM 

• Miller believed our STM stores ‘chunks’ of info rather than individual numbers or letters 

• Limitation – unable to conclude exact capacity of STM - ‘magical number 7 + or – 2' fails to identify how large each chunk of information could be 

Who researched the duration of the STM

Peterson & Peterson

Describe Peterson & Peterson’s research (1959)

• aimed to test the hypothesis that information which is not rehearsed is quickly lost from STM 

• lab experiment with a sample of 24 psych students 

• Students had to recall meaningless three letter trigrams (e.g. THG, XWV) at different intervals (3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds) 

• Vowels avoided so words cant be constructed 

• To prevent rehearsal the students had to count backwards in threes or fours from a specific number, until they were asked to recall the letters 

• At 3 seconds, 80% of trigrams were correctly recalled 

• At 18 secs only 10% were correctly recalled 

Who put forward the idea of three types of long term memory

Tulvig

What are the three types of LTM

• Semantic memory

• Procedural memory

• Episodic memory

What two categories can the three types be categorised under

• declarative memory - consciously recalled

• non-declarative - unconsciously recalled

Describe semantic memories

• Our stores of information about the world 

• They need to be explicitly/consciously recalled - declarative 

• Semantic memories include: 

  • Knowledge of facts that have meaning 

  • Knowledge of the meaning of words 

  • General knowledge 

Describe episodic memories

• These are lifetime events that can be recalled by a person 

• They can be explicitly inspected and are consciously recalled - declarative 

• e.g. the time, the place, the people, the name/purpose of event 

episodic also umbrellas autobiographical episodic memories, experimental episodic memories and flashbulb memories

Describe procedural memories

• Our implicit knowledge of tasks, usually motor skill 

• It is unconsciously recalled – non declarative 

• Procedural memories are so rehearsed that the process becomes mechanical – sometimes referred to as ‘muscle memory’ e.g. riding a bike 

What is the multi-store model and who developed it

• Developed by Atkinson and Shriffin (1968)

• it describes the flow of information between three storage systems of memory:

  ~ the sensory register

  ~ the short term memory

  ~ the long term memory

• this model sees the STM as one passive unitary store

• information flows in a linear way through each component

• suggests there are functional processes involved with the flow of info (attention/maintenance rehearsal/retrieval)

• suggests the process of memory is comparable to that of a computer (input/process/output)

What is the sensory register

• where info from senses is stored

• 0.5 secs

• modality specific - whichever sense is registered will match the way it is consequently held

• we have to pay attention to the info for it to move past the sensory register to the STM

What is the STM

• capacity of 5-9 items

• approx 15-30 secs

• capacity increased through chunking

• info coded acoustically

• rehearsal loops helps maintain info in the STM and consolidate it to the LTM

What is the LTM

• info encoded semantically

• unlimited capacity

• unlimited time

What is the Working Memory Model

• created by Baddely and Hitch - believed memory is not just one store but a number of different stores

• focuses on STM - believe it’s not a unitary store

• LTM as a passive store that holds previously learned material for use by the STM when needed

• includes ‘slave systems’ to deal with incoming information

  
  

What is the central executive

• data arrives from senses and doesn’t stay long

• determines how resources are allocated

• it can only do a limited number of things at the same time

• modality free - can hold information from all the senses

• used for reasoning tasks, questions, quizzes, puzzles where you must make a decision

What is the Phonological Loop (1st slave system)

• deals with auditory information and preserves word order

• limited capacity

• modality - acoustic/auditory

• Baddely (1986) further divided it into:

  ~ phonological store (holds words held)

  ~ articulatory process (words silently repeated)

What is the Visuo-spatial Sketch Pad (2nd slave system)

• visual and/or spatial information stored here

• referred to as the inner eye

• limited capacity: 3-4 objects

• modality - visual

• Logie (1995) suggested subdivision

  ~ visuo-cache (store) - colour, formation, size, transparency

  ~ inner scribe for spatial relations - physical relationships with items, spatial and movement info

What is the Episodic Buffer (3rd slave system)

• Baddely (2000) added the episodic buffer as he realised the model needed a more general store (added 20 years later)

• the buffer is an extra storage system that integrates information from all other areas, but with limited capacity of 4 chunks

• modality free

• multi-dimensional store

• fed by the slave systems on either side of it