Psychology a level - PART 1 memory

AO1 and AO3

what are the 3 features of STM and LTM

coding, capacity, duration

what is coding

information is stored in memory in different forms, and the process of converting between these forms is called coding

who researched into coding

Baddeley

what were the 4 conditions of Baddeley’s study into coding

acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, semantically dissimilar

what did Baddeley find

recalling acoustically similar words from STM is the most difficult, while recalling semantically similar from the LTM is the most difficult

what did Baddeley conclude

information coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM

what is capacity

the amount of information that can be held in a memory store

who researched the capacity of the STM through digit span

Jacobs

describe Jacob’s procedure when investigating STM capacity

the researcher read out 4 digits then the participant recalled in order, the researcher read out 5 digits etc. this continued until the participant could not recall correctly

what are Jacob’s findings

mean digit span 9.3, mean letter span 7.3

who researched the capacity of the STM through chunking

Miller

describe Miller’s procedure and findings

observed everyday practice, and noticed things tend to come in chunks of 7 e.g. 7 deadly sins, 7 days of the week

describe Miller’s conclusion

the capacity of the STM is about 7 items, plus or minus 2. we can group digits or letters into chunks; remembering 5 chunks is just as easy as remembering 5 letters

what is duration

the length of time information can be held in memory

who investigated the duration of STM

Peterson and Peterson

describe Peterson and Peterson’s procedure in investigating duration of STM

24 students in 8 trials (conditions). in each trial the student was given a consonant syllable to remember and a 3 digit number. They had to count backwards from the number to prevent mental rehearsal of the syllable, and the amount of time they had to count back for was varied between the trials

describe Peterson and Peterson’s findings

after 3 seconds recall was 80%. after 18 seconds, recall was 3%

what did Peterson and Peterson conclude

STM duration is about 18 seconds unless information is rehearsed

who investigated the duration of LTM

Bahrick et al

Describe Bahrick’s procedure in investigating the duration of LTM

392 American participants aged between 17 and 74. recall of people in their graduating class in high school was tested in two ways: a photo-recognition test using 50 photos, some of which were from their yearbook, and a free recall test of names

Describe Bahrick’s findings and conclusion

15 years after graduation recall of photos was 90%. after 48 years, recall of photos was 70%. free recall was 60% after 15 years and 30% after 48 years. duration of LTM is potentially up to a lifetime

a strength of Baddeley’s study

identifies a clear difference between the LTM and STM, which lead to the development of the multi-store model

a limitation of Baddeley’s study

artificial stimuli means limited application

a strength of Jacobs’ study

has been replicated in a more controlled way and findings were the same

a limitation of Miller’s study

overestimated STM capacity, Cowan concluded that the capacity is 4 plus or minus 1 chunks

a limitation of Peterson and Peterson’s study

artificial stimuli causes low external validity

a strength of Bahrick et al’s study

high external validity because meaningful memories were investigated

what are the three stores of the multi-store model

sensory register, STM, LTM

what is the sensory register

stores for each of the 5 senses. e.g. hearing is in the echoic store and is coded acoustically. the capacity is huge but the duration is less than a second

how is information kept in STM in MSM

maintenance rehearsal

how is info transferred from STM to LTM in MSM

prolonged rehearsal

how does the MSM suggest we recall things from the LTM

retrieval transfers it back from the STM

a strength of the MSM

research support that STM and LTM are distinct

3 limitations of the MSM

research suggests there are multiple LTM stores, WMM gives better explanation for STM, prolonged rehearsal is not needed to transfer info to LTM

3 types of LTM

episodic, semantic, procedural

what is episodic memory

our ability to recall events, has been likened to a diary. these memories are ‘time-stamped’ and a memory of a single episode encompasses multiple elements. have to make a conscious effort to recall

what is semantic memory

our shared knowledge of the world, likened to an encyclopaedia/dictionary. includes the meaning of words and concepts. memories not ‘time-stamped’. less vulnerable to distortion than episodic. needs conscious effort to recall

what is procedural memory

memory for actions or skills. can be recalled without conscious awareness most the time. skills stored in this memory are often difficult to explain

2 strengths of defining types of LTM

supporting evidence from HM and Clive Wearing, real world application in helping those with memory problems, such as older people

2 limitations of defining types of LTM

conflicting neuroimaging evidence, Tulving takes the view that episodic memory is a subcategory of semantic memory

who proposed the working memory model

Baddeley and Hitch

what type of memory does the working memory model explain

short term memory

what does the central executive do in the WMM

has a ‘supervisory’ role, monitoring incoming data, focusing and dividing attention, and allocating subsystems to task. it has a very limited capacity and does not store information

what two components is the phonological loop composed of

the phonological store, the articulatory process

what is the role of the phonological loop

deals with auditory information, so the coding is acoustic, and preserves the order in which information is received

what is the role of the phonological store

stores words heard

what is the role of the articulatory process

allows for maintenance rehearsal

what are the two components of the visuo-spatial sketchpad

the visual cache, the inner scribe

what is the role of the visuo-spatial sketchpad

stores visual and spacial information. has limited capacity of 3-4 objects

what is the role of the visual cache

stores visual data

what is the role of the inner scribe

records the arrangement of objects in visual field

what is the role of the episodic buffer

a temporary store, integrating the different kinds of information from different stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing. has a capacity of about 4 chunks. links working memory to long term memory

2 strengths of the WMM

clinical evidence from KF, studies of dual-task performance support the separation between visual cache and inner scribe

2 limitations of the WMM

confounding variables in clinical studies such as the cognitive consequences of trauma, lack of clarity of the nature of the CE