MSM

what are the 3 components

sensory memory

short term memory

long term memory

what is needed to put into the sensory memory

environmental stimuli

how do you go from sensory memory to stm

attention

how do you go from STM to LTM

elaborative rehearsal

how do you go from LTM to STM

retrieval

what is the duration, coding and capacity for SM

duration: 0.25 seconds

encoding: sense-specific

capacity: virtually unlimited

what is the duration, coding and capacity for STM

duration: 18-30 seconds

encoding: acoustic

capacity: 5 to 9 items of info (limited)

what is the duration, coding and capacity for LTM

duration: forever

encoding: semantic

capacity: extremely large

SM duration research

WALSH AND THOMPSON (1978)

flashed images of the letter “O” twice with a very brief interval

they found the iconic sensory store has a average duration of 500 ms, which decreases with older age, suggesting SM is limited and dependent on age

SM capacity research

SPERLING 1960

ppts were to recall as many letters from a grid of 12 displayed for 50ms, found only 4 were recalled in time given, shows attention is needed to recall

STM duration research

PETERSON AND PETERSON 1959

given consonant trigrams with a 3 digit number they were asked to count backwards from. after 3 seconds there was 90% recall. after 18 seconds there was 2% recall. low ecological validity

STM encoding research

BADDELEY 1966

four sets of wordlists with 10 in each eg. set 1- acoustically similar, set 2- acoustically dissimilar, set 3- semantically similar, set 4- semantically dissimilar.

STM capacity research

JACOBS 1887

gave ppts serial of number where ppts were presented with increasingly longer digits. capacity for numbers was 9.3 items and words were 7.3

MILLER 1956

STM holds “magic number 7, plus or minus two”

LTM duration research

BAHRICK ET AL 1975

sample of 392 american ex-high-school students between 17 and 74. tested by free recall, recognition and more. results show recognition group was 90% accurate after 14 years and 60% after 47 years. useful practical applications

LTM encoding research

BADDELEY 1966

four sets of wordlists with 10 in each eg. set 1- acoustically similar, set 2- acoustically dissimilar, set 3- semantically similar, set 4- semantically dissimilar.

LTM capacity research

WAGENAAR 1986

created diary of 2400 events over 6 years and tested himself on recall (rather than dates), he had excellent recall, suggesting LTM capacity was large

why are memory studies unrealistic/ have low ecological value

artificial lab settings lack realism

unnatural tasks cant be generalised

unrealistic stimuli

same methodology/ data collection methods

HM research support

• male patient suffering with severe epilepsy and underwent major surgery to relieve symptoms

• temporal lobes and hippocampus removed

• unable to form new LTM memories but had very good STM

strengths

• research support (HM)

• practical evaluations

• scientifically adaptable

weaknesses

• alternative theories eg. WMM

• only a partial explanation, lacks explanatory power with vague “boxes”

• mechanically reductionist

• only deals with structure not how it works

• parochial