AQA Psychology - Memory

How long does the sensory register hold information?

0.5 seconds

How does the sensory register code information?

sense-specific

What is the capacity of the sensory register?

(very) large

What does STM stand for?

short-term memory

How long are information held in the STM?

18-30 seconds

How does the STM code information?

acoustically

What is the capacity of the STM?

7 +/- 2; 5-9 items

What does LTM stand for?

long-term memory

How does the LTM code information?

semantically

How long can information be held in the LTM?

up to a lifetime

Who did research into the coding of STM and LTM?

Baddeley

Who did research into the duration of STM?

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Who did research into the capacity of STM?

Miller

What is the effect of chunking on the STM?

It increases our ability to memorize the items

In Peterson and Peterson research, the 24 students were asked to listen to what?

consonant trigram (a random strung of 3 letters)

In Peterson and Peterson research, students were asked to recall the trigram after how many seconds?

3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18

What was the distraction task in Peterson and Peterson’s research?

count backwards in 3s from a random 3-digit number

In Peterson and Peterson research, when was level of recall the highest?

after 3 seconds (90%)

Who did research into the duration of LTM?

Bahrick et al

What are the two tests tat Bahrick required his participants to do?

Free Recall and Recognition tests

When was research into the duration of LTM carried out?

1975

Who provided evidence for the capacity of the LTM?

Anokhin

What is the number of possible neuronal connections in the human brain?

1 followed by 10.5 million kilometres of noughts

Do participants remember more words in the acoustically similar or acoustically different word list when tested for STM?

acoustically different

Which type of experiment do most of studies into memories use?

lab experiment

What is a strength of research into memory?

* highly controlled
* easy to replicate

What is a weakness of research into memory?

* low ecological validity
* low mundane realism

Name a model of memory

Multi-Store Model (MSM)/Working Memory Model (WMM)

Who developed the multi-store memory model?

Atkinso and Shiffrin

In which year was the MSM developed?

1968

What are the 3 stores of the MSM model?

sensory register, short-term memory (STM), long-term memory (LTM)

How does information get from the sensory register to the short-term memory?

attention

How does information stay in the STM, according to the MSM?

maintenance rehearsal

How does information go from the STM to the LTM, according to the MSM?

elaborative rehearsal

What happens when the information is not paid attention to in the sensory register?

decay

What happens to the old information when new information entered the STM?

displacement

What is the term used to describe memory going from the LTM to the STM?

retrieval

Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed a direct link between rehearsal in the short term memory and what?

strength of the LTM

Which part of memory was damaged in patient KF case study?

verbal STM

Which parts of memory remained intact in patient KF case study?

visual STM and LTM

How does patient KF case study supports the MSM?

separate STM and LTM stores

How does patient KF case studies opposes the MSM?

the STM is not unitary

What is the name of Murdock's research in 1962?

serial position research

What is the name of the effect that suggests that items at the beginning of the list is better recalled?

primacy effect

What is the name of the effect that suggests that items at the end of the list is better recalled?

recency effect

At which position of word in the word list is there the least recall?

middle

How does the primacy effect supports the MSM?

rehearsed information passes into LTM

How does the recency effect supports the MSM?

items have not yet decayed

Who did research into the features of the sensory register? When was it done?

Sperling (1960)

How does Sperling's research supports the features of the sensory register?

participants had no problem holding memory of the entire image which fades in milliseconds

Which case study suggests that the LTM is non-unitary?

Clive Wearing

Which LTM of Clive Wearing was damaged?

episodic memory

Which LTM of Clive Wearing remained intact?

procedural memory

Who proposed the Working Memory Model?

Baddeley and Hitch

When was the WMM proposed?

1974

How many components does the WMM have?

4/four

Which component is the supervisory component of the WMM?

central executive (CE)

How does the central executive code information?

any modality

Name the three slave systems that are controlled by the Central Executive?

phonological loop (PL), visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS), episodic buffer (EB)

How does the phonological loop code information?

acoustically

Name the two sub-components of the PL.

phonological store and articulatory process

What does the phonological store (inner ear) do?

rehearses sounds

What does the articulatory process (inner voice) do?

silently repeats words

What is the overall role of the PL?

hold acoustic/auditory information

Does the PL hold preserve the order in which information arrive?

yes

What is the capacity of all the stores in the WMM?

limited capacity

What is the role of the VSS?

codes visual and spatial information

What is the role of the EB?

* integrates information from the other stores
* forming one single memory
* link the WMM to the LTM

When was the EB added to the WMM?

2000

How does the EB code information?

any modality

Can the EB maintain time sequence of memory?

yes

How does patient KF supports the WMM?

the STM is not unitary

Who carried out the dual task research?

Baddeley et al (1975)

Which dual task is easier: two visual tasks, two verbal tasks or one visual and one verbal task?

one visual and one verbal task

State another strength of the WMM?

real-life applications

What is a criticism of the WMM?

limited research about the CE

Which type of memory does the WMM fail to explain?

musical memory

Who came up with evidence to demonstrate that participants could listen to instrumental music without impairing performance on other acoustic tasks?

Berz (1995)

Who proposed that there are three LTM stores?

Tulving (1985)

What are the three types of LTM?

episodic, semantic, procedural (memory)

Name the type of LTM that is time-stamped (coded with reference to context and emotion)?

episodic

Name the types of LTM that requires a conscious effort to recall?

episodic and semantic

What is episodic memory?

personal experiences/autobiographical memories

What is semantic memory?

factual knowledge/general knowledge

What can semantic memories be categorized into?

concrete and abstract (memories)

What is another term for procedural memory?

muscle memories

Is procedural memory implicit or explicit?

implicit

Name a case study that supports the idea that there are different types of LTM?

Clive Wearing/patient PM

Which memory remained intact in both case studies (of Clive Wearing and patient PM)?

procedural

How does these case studies of Clive Wearing and patient PM support Tulving's idea?

the LTM is not unitary

What is the problem with case studies?

* low population validity
* difficult to generalise to everyone

How do PET scans support the idea that there are multiple LTM stores?

different areas of the brain were active when participants were required to use different types of memory

What is the fourth type of LTM?

priming

What is a strength of all research into types of LTM?

real-life applications

What are the two explanations for forgetting?

Interference Theory and retrieval failure

What are the two types of interference theory?

retroactive and proactive (interference)

What is retroactive interference (RI)?

when newly-learned information interferes with our recall of older memories

What is proactive interference (PI)?

when old information interferes with our ability to learn and recall new information

What is a piece of research that support retroactive interference?

* Postman (1960)
* McGeogh and McDonal (1931)
* Schimdt et al (2000)

What does Schmidt et al research into RI involved?

recalling of street names