Memory

What are the three types of LTM proposed by Tulving?

Episodic, semantic, and procedural memory.

What is episodic memory?

Memory of personal events; time-stamped; requires conscious effort.

What is semantic memory?

Knowledge of facts and meanings; not time-stamped; conscious effort required.

What is procedural memory?

Memory for skills (e.g., riding a bike); unconscious and automatic.

What evidence supports different LTM types?

Clive Wearing—impaired episodic but intact procedural memory.

Who developed the Working Memory Model?

Baddeley and Hitch (1974).

What are the components of the WMM?

Central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer.

What does the central executive do?

Allocates attention and coordinates slave systems.

What are the two parts of the phonological loop?

Phonological store (inner ear) and articulatory control system (inner voice).

What is the visuospatial sketchpad responsible for?

Visual and spatial information.

What is the episodic buffer?

A temporary store that integrates information from all systems.

What evidence supports the WMM?

Dual-task studies: performing two similar tasks (e.g., both visual) is harder than two different ones.

What is short-term memory (STM)?

A temporary store for small amounts of information being used or thought about.

What is the typical capacity of STM?

7 ± 2 items (Miller, 1956).

What is the typical duration of STM?

Around 18–30 seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1959).

What is the primary coding of STM?

Mainly acoustic (Baddeley, 1966).

Who researched STM capacity?

Miller (1956).

What did Miller propose about STM capacity?

It holds 7 ± 2 chunks of information.

What is chunking?

Grouping information into larger units to increase STM capacity.

AO3: What is a weakness of Miller’s research?

Overestimates capacity; later changed to 4 chunks of memory

Who studied STM duration?

Peterson & Peterson (1959).

What did their study find?

Without rehearsal, STM lasts 18–30 seconds.

What technique did they use to prevent rehearsal?

A distraction task (counting backwards).

AO3: What is a limitation of this study?

Artificial task (trigrams) → low ecological validity.

Who studied coding in STM?

Baddeley (1966).

What did Baddeley find about STM coding?

STM is mainly acoustically coded; people confuse similar-sounding words.

AO3: What is a limitation of Baddeley’s coding research?

It used artificial materials (word lists), reducing real-world application.

Why is STM considered an active store?

It temporarily holds information while performing tasks (e.g., in the Working Memory Model).

How does the WMM view STM differently from the MSM?

WMM breaks STM into separate components (e.g., phonological loop, VSS), not a single unitary store.

AO3: What evidence supports STM not being a unitary store?

Dual-task studies show separate stores for verbal and visual information.