MODELS OF MEMORY

  • Promt: Define/Explain 1 memory model


Intro

  • Define memory: Memory is a cognitive process which is used to encode, store, and retrieve information. State there are two types of models

  • Multi-Store Memory Model

    • Proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968.

    • Represents memory as three components: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Each component is characterized by a set duration and capacity, and the model includes conditions which have to be met for memory to move between stores.

    • Sensory memory does not process information. It detects and holds information until it is either transferred into short-term memory or lost forever. There are two main subcomponents of sensory memory: iconic memory (for visual inputs) and echoic memory (for auditory inputs). The capacity of sensory memory is limited merely to the perception of a person, and thus may be unlimited. However, the duration of sensory memory is short, as information leaves after a range of 1 - 3 seconds.

    • In order for information to travel between sensory memory to short-term memory, attention must be given to it.

    • In the short-term memory store, the capacity is defined as 7 plus/minus two chunks of information. The duration of short-term memory is about 30 seconds.

    • If information in short-term memory is unattended, it will fade away. However, if it is rehearsed, then the information will transfer to the long-term memory store.

    • Long-term memory store is described as being unlimited, both in terms of capacity and duration. However, not all information in the LTM is easily retrievable.

  • Working Memory Model (further explains and focuses on STM bc its much more active then seen in multi-store: active)

    • Developed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. This model focuses on the structure of the short-term memory store.

    • Working memory consists of the central executive, which coordinates the two subsystems of the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop. In 2000, the episodic buffer was also added as a component.

    • The visuo-spatial sketchpad holds visual and spatial information. It is associated with the occipital and parietal lobe.

    • The phonological loop holds sound information, and can be further divided into the phonological store and the articulatory rehearsal component. The phonological loop is associated with the left temporal lobe.

      • The phonological store is the inner ear, which holds sound in a passive manner. 

      • The articulatory rehearsal component performs functions such as turning visual stimuli into sounds, and allowing for the rehearsal of information held in the inner ear.

    • The episodic buffer (2000) is a component that integrates information from other components as well as linking the information from long-term memory stores. It is distributed across the hemispheres.

    • The central executive is a system that allocated resources between the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop. It is associated with the frontal lobe.


Study: 


Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)  : For Multi-Store memory model

A: The researchers wanted to test the hypothesis that short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) are 2 separate memory stores in a free recall (meaning they could recall the words in any order) experiment.

M: Lab experiment

P: 240 army-enlisted men

P: Participants (in groups of 2) were presented with the same list of words. There were two conditions in the study. First group: Participants were presented with recordings of 20-word lists consisting of common one-syllable nouns. Immediately after hearing the words they were required to recall as many words as they could for two minutes. Second group: Researches introduced a filler task between the list of words and the recall task. Participants were told to count backwards in threes to prevent any furthur rehearsal.

R: Firs groupt: participants in group 1 demonstrated serial position effect in both aspects: participants were better at remembering words at the start of the list (primacy effect) and at the end of the list (recency effect) (bc they had time to rehearse the words at the beginning and still remember the ones at the end). Second group: participants were still successful at recalling the words from the start of the list which meant that the primary effect was still reserved (those words had been encoded), but were no longer able to recall the words from the end of the list which meant the recency effect disappeared (no time to encode w/o rehearsal)
C: This shows that STM and LTM are separated because of how easy it was for the participants to recall their words when they had just heard it but also how difficult it was for participants to remember their words after they had time in between their recalling.Why recency went away: not enough time to rehearse due to the filler task (connection to model MUST be mentioned to explain so what factor: rehearsal is important)
E: Strengths: A lot of control for the researchers since this experiment was a lab experiment. Limitations: the experiment had a lack of generalization and natural environment because the participants were only men that were in the military which is less than 1% of America’s population that were given a task by researchers, meaning that may not be good for applying this study to the real world


Conrad and Hull (1964) : repetition of letterers using syllables. Found that when letter where phenoticallysimilar more easily confused. Meaning somewher in the phonological loop there is some sort of confusion 

A: to investigate the nature of encoding in STM using the phonological loop

M: Independent measures. 

P: N/A

P: I group was asked to recall a list of phonologiclly similar letters, while the other was given letters tht didn’t rhyme at all

R: Rhyming words we're harder to remember bc of confusion

C: Researchers concluded that we convert visual material acoustically in the STM and we find it difficult to distinguish things that sound the same (acoustic confusion).

- Supports the idea that memory for speech material uses a sound based storage system, which we know as the phonological store.

E: Strength: controlled environment meaning high internal validity. Limitation: low ecological validity bc its in a lab