pack 2 - models of memory - MSM, WMM and baddeley

how does the sensory memory enocde

it encodes items through one-five sensory registers - sight, hearing, tough, taste and smell

what is the capacity and duration of the sensory memory

3/4 items for half a second

how do we retrieve information from the sensory memory

we scan through our sensory memory to retrieve the information we need

how do we forget information from the sensory memory and how is it transferred

items are forgotten after half a second as they decay however we can transfer information to the STM through attention

how does the short term memory encode

it encodes items in an acoustic and auditory (verbal) forms

what is the capacity and duration of the short term memory

5-9 items for 30 seconds

how is information retrieved from the short term memory

information is retrieved from the short term memory through a sequential search

how do we forget information from the short term memory and how is it transferred

items are forgotten through displacement or decay however we can transfer them to the LTM through rehearsal

how does the long term memory encode

encodes items semantically and temporally - meaning and order

what is the capacity and duration of the long term memory

limitless for potentially a lifetime

how does the long term memory retrieve information

retrieve by doing a semantic or temporal search - grouped my meaning and order

how can info be forgotten from the long term memory

information can be forgotten because of interference with information or failure when retrieving it

what is the evidence for MSM

henry molaison was unable to transfer new information from STM to LTM and evidence from primary recency effect

what is the primary recency effect and why does it occur

• remembering things at the beginning and end of a list but displacing things in the middle

• we remember things at the beginning of the list because of LTM and rehearsal and things at the end because of STM

what is evidence against MSM (2)

bekerian and baddeley and morris et al

describe bekerain and baddeleys research

people didn’t know BBC radio wavelengths were changing despite hearing the information around 1000 times on the radio

describe morris et als research

people who were interested in football made up scores more accurately than those who weren’t interested in football

what do these studies suggest

• that rehearsal doesn’t necessarily transfer information to the LTM

• so there may be other processes involved

• and that prior knowledge can be used to help STM

• so it suggests that memory isn’t linear

methodology strengths of the MSM

use of lab experiments which have highly standardised procedures so the researcher can manipulate the IV and allow us to infer cause and effect, the experiments can be replicated in different circumstances, increased scientific credibility

methodology weakness of the MSM

reductionist, use of laboratory experiments can lower ecological validity and mundane realism due to artificial setting and tasks

what are advantageous applications of the MSM

the idea that rehearsal helps memory is widely accepted and used in educational practises such as revising for exams

what is the role and uses of the working memory

the role of the working memory is to temporarily store and manipulate information being used and can be used for remembering phone numbers, lists, mental maths, thinking of an answer to questions, understanding the sequence of words in a sentence

why is the working memory fragile and why can things go wrong (3)

distraction, overload and overwork

what are a number of problems with the MSM (3)

• far too simplistic,

• emphasis on rehearsal being critical to learning was incorrect,

• the short term memory isn’t a unitary/single store

what are three components of the WMM

• central executive,

• visuo-spatial sketchpad,

• phonological loop

  • phonological store

  • and articulatory process

what is the role of the central executive (4)

• runs the memory system,

• deals with cognitive tasks such as problem solving,

• decides what information to pay attention to and ignore,

• allocates the information to the slave systems

what is the role of the visual spatial sketchpad (2)

• slave system that stores and processes visual and spatial information

• and displays and manipulates visual and spatial information that is held in our LTM

what is the role of the phonological loop

• slave system that stores and processes spoken and written information,

• there are two parts

  • phonological store (inner ear) that is linked to speech perception and holding information in speech bases forms for 1-2 seconds,

  • articulatory process (inner voice) that is linked to speech production, used to rehearse and store verbal information and converts written material into a spoken code

what is evidence for the WMM

• evidence from robbins

• evidence from KF case study

• neurophysiological evidence like PET scans have shown that different areas of the brain whilst undertaking verbal and visual tasks so makes the model valid

describe robbins research

found testing a task involving visuo-spatial sketchpad - remember and replicate chess positions and a verbal task didn’t effect performance

how does KF’s case study provide evidence for the WMM

• after being in a motorcycle accidence and suffering damage to his parietal lobe

• his digit span was 1 whilst his visual store was intact - impaired phonological store

methodology strengths of the WMM

laboratory experiments have standardised procedures so the experiments can be replicated in different circumstances and allow us to infer cause and effect so increases scientific credibility

methodology weaknesses of the WMM

laboratory experiments that use artificial tasks have an artificial nature and setting so it doesn’t reflect how memory works in everyday life - reductionist

methodology weakness of the WMM

what are advantageous applications of the WMM

suggests strategies to improve memory such as not attempting to do two tasks that use the same slave system simultaneously

what is the aim the baddeleys classic study

to investigate the influence of acoustic and semantic word similarity on learning and recall in STM and LTM

what was the sample of the baddeley classic study

72 men and women recruited from the applied psychology unit subject panel at cambridge university

describe the word lists used to test the STM in baddeleys classic study

• a - acoustically similar words, 15p,

• b - acoustically dissimilar words, 20p,

• c - semantically similar words, 16p,

• d - semantically dissimilar words, 21p

describe how the STM is tested in baddeley classic study

• each word list had 10 words which were presented on a projector for 3 seconds (then a two second change over),

• then task involving 6 sequences of 8 digit which were read out a 1 second rate and where given 8 seconds to write them out,

• then given 1 minute to write out the 10 word list in order,

• then above repeated four times,

• 15 mins of copying 8 digit sequences at their own pace

describe how the LTM is tested in baddeleys classic study

then attempted to recall the word list in order which was a surprise retest

what were the results of acoustic similar word lists

there was a tendency for the similar list to be harder during early learning and neither group showed any evidence of forgetting between test 4 and the retest

what were the results of the semantic similar word lists

showed slower learning/impairment as by trial 4 scores were significantly higher on list D than in C but neither lists showed any forgetting

conclusions of baddeleys study

• semantically encode for the LTM

• and acoustically encode for the STM

what are strengths of baddeleys study (4)

• internal validity is high - control extraneous variables so cause and effect links can be established between the IV and DV,

• reliability - as they use the same word lists, same equipment used,

• applicable - semantically encode for the LTM and acoustically encode for the STM

• helped other researchers investigate LTM in greater depth

weaknesses of badeleys study (2)

reductionist, mundane realism and ecological validity - as word lists are artificial and not an everyday task people would ordinarily do

what is the generalisability like in baddeleys study (4)

• both men and women so we can generalise to both sexes,

• cambridge university applied psychology unit so allows participants from all the UK

• however are they brighter/better memory than the average population so isn’t representative

• however it isn’t likely that there is something inherently different about the UK then other cultures

what is the reliability of baddeleys study

high, lab experiment using standardised procedures as they used the same word lists for all participants and same timings - shown for 3 secs, 1 min to write out so we can replicate the research easily to obtain consistent results

what is the applicability of baddeleys study

findings semantically in LTM, acoustically in STM helped other researchers investigate LTM in greater depth and we can findings to suggest/promote best learning strategies to increase memory, use interference tasks to control STM has been useful in future research

what is the validity of baddeleys study like

high internal validity - control of extraneous variable so we can see cause and effect link IV - type of word lists and the DV - correct sequential order of word lists, having to recall word order rather than just the actual words to reduce the risk of some words being easier to recall than others

what is ecological validity of baddeley study of

low as the word lists are artificial and don’t represent real life memory situations so isn’t natural behaviour and lacks mundane realism so we can’t generalise findings about memory to everyday life

baddeley and hitch dual task experiment (1976)

• A = to investigate if ppt can use diff parts of WMM at the same time

• P = ppt had to repeat a list of numbers and a verbal reasoning task

• R = as the number of digits incr. ppt took longer to answer to the reasoning q

• C = verbal reasoning task made the use of central executive and the digit span task made use of the phonological loop

WMM - the episodic buffer

• added in 2000

• acts as a “backup” store which communicates with long term memory and components of the WMM