memory psychology

memory

the process of storing and retrieving information from the brain

Encoding

turning sensory information into a form that can be used and stored by the brain

output

the stored information we retrieve

sensory memory/register

• shortest store of memory,

• sensory information from the environment input which we pay attention to(before STM) .

Multistore model of memory

• Model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin

• shows how memory works in terms of 3 stores

• describes how information is transferred from one memory to another

• how it is remembered and forgotten.

Forgetting

inability to access encoded memories

Decay

memory fades due to the passage of time and lack of rehersal

STM (capacity,duration,encoding forgetting)

capacity - 7 (+/- 2)

duration - 18-30s

encoding - acoustic(sound)

forgetting - Displacement(when STM is full and older info is pushed out) Decay-fading of the memory.

LTM (capacity,duration,encoding forgetting)

Capacitiy - limitless

duration - infinite

encoding - semantic

forgetting - Decay, Retrieval failure, Interference(overwritten by new info(distracting))

Anterograde Amnesia

• Inability to store long term memories.

• Ability to transfer from short to long term memory damaged.

• Caused by brain injury.

• Patient will remember their long term memories from before the accident.

Retrograde Amnesia

Cannot remember information from before the injury.

case study HM

had both anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Had brain sugery but didnt help he could only remember childhood memories

Iconic vs Echoic memory

Iconic - sensory register for visual info. Lasts 0.5s

Echoic - sensory register for auditory info. Lasts 2s.

others: gustatory,olfactory,tactile

STM → LTM according to multistore model

Atkins and Shiffrin - the more information is rehearsed the better it is remembered. (maintenance rehearsal)

Chunking

Miller noted that people can recall 5 words as well as 5 letters.

Grouping sets or letters into units or chunks

Peterson and Peterson Aim

to test the true duration of memory

Peterson and Peterson (1959) Procedure

• 24 psychology undergraduates

• each student did 8 trials

• Each participant was given a trigram

• student was then asked to count backwards in 3’s until told to stop (prevents rehersal

• told to stop at a different time each trial. (3s,6s,9s,15s,18s)(retention intervals)

• When red light came on student had to recall trigram 8 times.

Second experiment : the same but some had time to rehearse before starting to count backwards

Peterson and Peterson (1959) Results + Conclusion

on average

• 3s : 90% correct

• 9s : 20% correct

• 18s : 2% correct

STM has a short duration of 18s if rehearsal is prevented

Peterson and Peterson (1959) Strengths

Used fixed timings for participants to count back from. -reliabilty

Eliminated other factors that might have affected memory. e.g noise - increased validity

good control - standardised procedure to make sure all participants experienced the same thing, scientific, can be repeated.

Peterson and Peterson (1959) Weaknesses

Lacks mundane realism - not something we experience everyday

Demand characteristics - used psychology students who knew about memory and altered their behaviour to help the experimenter. - decrease validity

How do Schemas affect memory (study)

Bartlet found that people recall information differently as they are influenced by their schemas.

Omission definition Bartlet theory

When we leave out unfamiliar, unpleasant or irrelevant details when remembering something.

transformation Bartlet theory

when details are changed to make them more familiar and rational

familiarization Bartlet theory

When unfamiliar details are changed to align with our own schema

Rationalisation bartlet theory

when we add details into our recall to give a reason for something that may not have originally fitted in with our schema

Bartletts theory strengths

• Practical real-life applications - help us understand how memories become distorted

• Several pictures + real life stories - ecological validity

• Police use an interviewing technique - cognitive interview- encourages eye witnesses to avoid omissions and transformations

Bartletts theory weaknesses

• Was not scientific in his procedures as he was interested in participants unique experience

• Bartlett analysed the results himself and therefore might be biased. ( shows only his interpretation)

Bartlett war of ghosts 1932 aim

to test if personal schemas influence the retelling of a story

Bartlett war of ghosts procedure

• 20pp

• read the story war of ghosts twice

• then had to recall the story using serial reproduction where participants retell the story to each other to form a chain(15-30min later)

• and repeated reproduction where participants retell a story over and over again(after 15min,days,hours,months,years)

bartlett war of ghosts results + conclusion

using qualitative analysis

for both types of recall: PP were found making changes and connections(rationalisation) and omissions.

Conclusion: participants did not recall accurately and were influenced by schemas however recalled the overal meaning.

strengths of Bartlett war of ghosts

validity- remembering a story is a everyday task: higher ecological validity.

Reliability: study was replicated and the same results were found using various studies

Validity: results were gathered using qualitative analysis. accurate

weaknesses of Bartlett war of ghosts

Validity: story was unfamiliar,illogical and contained strange words, PP changed answers because task was difficult not because they were affected by schemas. Not accurate.

Validity- using qualitative data- unscientific because Bartlett may have been biased towards his theory.

Reliability- participants read story at own pace and recalled after different timed intervals- unscientific-people who took longer to read may have performed better as they had longer to remember it

Modality free

not linked to a specific type of sensory information

Primacy

the tendency to recall words at the beginning of a list when asked to remember it

Recency

the tendency to recall words at the end of a list when asked to remember it.

Processing

the operations we perform on sensory information in the brain

storage

the retention of information in our memory system

Input

for human memory, this refer to the sensory information we recieve from our environment.

label

A- stimulus from environment

B-Sensory register

C-Short term memory

D-Long term memory

E-Maintanance rehersal

F-Attention

G-maintanance rehersal/consolidation

H-retrival

strengths of multi store model

• there is a lot of evidence to support the theory of separate memory stores as some cases of amnesia show that long term memory becomes damadged by a brain injury however short term memory stays intact.

weaknesses of multi store model

overstates the role of rehersal as if we attach meaning to a peice of information we are more likely to remember it.

It is Unlikely that we only have one LTM as some amnesia patients demonstrate that while some long term memories are damadges some stay intact.

Reductionism + Reductionist

Reductionism- A scientific theory of describing something using its simplest/single explanation

Reductionist- the practice of reductionism

Strengths and weaknesses of reduction

strength: scientific- can be appropriate in circumstances where there is a clear single explanation.

weakness: oversimplistic, can misss other social factors that could contribute to behaviour

Holism + Holistic

Holistic- Refers to any approach or study that looks at the whole picture/ individual rather than breaking it down into components.

Holism- the practice of holism

Strength + weakness of Holism

strength - uses qualitative data- gain greater insight into causes of behaviour and try to understand the person as a whole and their beliefs.

weakness - difficult to achieve - investigating a lot of variables at the same time. Unscientific - can only apply to particular individual-cannot be generalised