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A level psychology: Memory - Models of memory

Terms in this set (25)

Who created the multi-store model of memory?
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
What does the multi-store model of memory propose?
The multi-store model of memory proposes that memory consists of three stores: a sensory register, a short term store and a long term store. Information has to move through these stores to become a memory.
What are the 3 stores in the multi-store model of memory?
Sensory register, short term memory, long term memory
Where does information from our environment go?
Initially goes into the sensory register. However if you pay attention to it, it passes into the short term memory
How does short term memory information pass into the long term memory?
Short term memory has a finite duration and capacity. If info is rehearsed it can be transferred into the long term memory.
What are the strengths of the multi-store model of memory?
- Support from studies showing that STM and LTM are different
- e.g. Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound familiar when using our STMs. But we mix words that have similar meanings when we use our LTMs.
- Also research for capacity and duration - further support
- Gives us a good understanding of the structure and process of STM - allows researchers to expand
- The case study of H.M by Milner : brain damaged and suffered from epilepsy: he had short term memory but no new long term memories, proving they are different parts of the brain, separate stores.
What are the weaknesses of the multi-store memory?
- Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a client referred to as KF who has amnesia. KFs STM for digits was very poor when they were read out loud, however his recall was much better when he read the digits to himself. Shows there could be another short term store for non-verbal sounds. MSM is therefore wrong for claiming there is just STM store.
- Case study of Clive Wearing - memory span only about 10 seconds, but can remember music. Therefore his procedural LTM is intact but his episodic LTM was not intact. Thos proves there are at least two types of LTM, proving the MSM wrong.
- Another limitation, prolonged rehearsal is not needed for transfer to LTM. Craik and Watkins found that the type of rehearsal is more important than the amount. Elaborative rehearsal is needed for long term storage. Occurs when you link the info to your existing knowledge or you think about what it means.
- Model is oversimplified - assumes there is only one LTM and STM store. Disproved by brain damaged patients.
Who developed the working memory model and when?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
What did the working model of memory propose?
Baddeley and Hitchs working model of memory proposed that STM, rather than being a single store, is an active processor which contains several different stores.
Draw the Working Model of Memory
What are the 4 components of the working model of memory?
- Central executive
- Phonological loop
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad
- The episodic buffer
What the role of the central executive?
The central executive has a 'supervisory role'. The central executive is a key component and can be described as attention. It has a limited capacity and controls 'slave' systems and allocates them to tasks. It has a very limited processing capacity and does not store information.
What the role of the phonological loop?
The phonological loop holds speech-based information - Its made up of a phonological store, which stores the words you hear (inner ear) and an articulatory process, which allows maintenance rehearsal (the inner voice, which rehearses info by repeating it).
What the role of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
The visa-spatial sketchpad deals with the temporary storage of visual and spatial information.
What the role of the episodic buffer?
The episodic buffer briefly stores information from the other subsystems and integrates it together, along with information from LTM, to make complete scenes or 'episodes'. - basically recording events that are happening.
Where did age Working Memory Model come from?
The working memory model came from experimental evidence (Baddeley and Hitch:
- if participants were asked to perform two tasks simultaneously that use the same system they struggled more, their performance was affected
- If participant were asked to perform two different tasks that involve different systems, performance isn't affected
What are the strengths of the Working Memory Model?
- Shallice and Warrington case study of KF supported this. After KFs injury, he suffered poor STM ability for auditory (sound) information but could process visual information normally. KFs phonological loop was damaged but his visual-spatial sketchpad was intact. Findings strongly support the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores. (however its unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments which may have affected his performance in memory tasks.)
- Studies of dual-task performance support the separate existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad. When Baddeley et als (1975) participants carried out a visual and verbal task at the same time, their performance on each was similar to when they carried out the tasks separately. But when both tasks were visual, performance on both declined substantially. this is because both visual tasks compete for the same slave subsystem (the VSS). This shows there must be a separate slave system (the VSS) that processes visual input, and one for verbal processing.
What are the weaknesses of the Working Memory Model?
- One limitation is that there is a lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive.
- Baddeley even pointed out and recognised himself that "the central executive is the most important but least understood component of the model". CE needs to be more specified than just being simply 'attention'. CE is therefore an unsatisfactory component, challenging the integrity of the WMM. Too simplistic and vague.
- Model only explains how info is dealt with in short term memory. Doesn't explain how info is transferred to long term memory.
- Much of the research are lab studies, reducing the ecological validity of the evidence, therefore not representative of the real world.
How does information pass into the LTM (MSM)?
rehearsal
What are the 3 coding in the sensory register?
Iconic memory- store coding for visual information
Echoic memory- store coding acoustically
Other sensory stores for: touch, smell and taste
What did Glanzer and Cunitz show?
Glanzer and Cunitz showed that when participants are presented with a list of words, they tend to remember the first few and last few words and are more likely to forget those in the middle of the list, i.e. the serial position effect.
This supports the existence of separate LTM and STM stores because they observed a primacy and recency effect.
Words early on in the list were put into long term memory (primacy effect) because the person has time to rehearse the word, and words from the end went into short term memory (recency effect).
What was the method of Glanzer and Cunitz study?
240 US Army enlisted males were presented lists of words one at a time. They were asked to recall the words and could do so in any order (free recall)
Independent variable: Presence or absence of a 30 second "distraction task"
Dependent variable: Number of words correctly recalled from different positions in the list
(beginning, middle, end)
Condition 1 - Half of the participants were asked to recall the words immediately after memorizing
them (immediate recall)
Condition 2 - The other half of the participants counted backwards for 30 seconds before recalling
the words (recall after distraction)
However, the participants were not randomly allocated to the conditions above
What was the results of Glanzer and Cunitz?
Delaying recall by 30 seconds destroys the recency effect causing recall of later words to be similar to ones in the middle, however it does not influence primacy effect.
Participants had a higher probability of recall on items that were near the start of the list (i.e. early serial position). This is called the primacy effect.
Participants had a higher probability of recall on items that were near the end of the list (i.e. late serial position). This is called the recency effect.
• Examine the whether the position of words influences recall (primacy & recency effects) and see if there are two separate stores of memory (STM & LTM)
What reattach supports the MSM?
- Baddeley (1966)
What does the MSM depict?
The multi-store model depicts the STM and LTM as being unitary (single
units).
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