Memory

Front 1

Outline the MSM

Back 1

There are three main components - the sensory register, STM and LTM. Stimuli reach the sensory register from the senses. Most information is lost instantly, however the stimuli which we pay attention to are passed on to the STM. If this information is maintained in the STM by rehearsal, it is passed to LTM and passed back to the STM when it is needed.

Front 2

How is information coded in the sensory register?

Back 2

Information in the SR is coded by the nervous system as action potentials stimulating different parts of the brain depending on which sense has received it.

Front 3

What is the capacity of the sensory register?

Back 3

Each sensory memory store has a large capacity

Front 4

What is the duration of the sensory register?

Back 4

Almost all memory stores have short durations, as the brain needs to constantly respond to new stimuli

Front 5

How is information coded in the STM?

Back 5

Information is coded three ways: Visually (remembering images), acoustically (remembering sounds and words), and semantically (remembering the meaning of things)

Front 6

What is the capacity of the STM?

Back 6

The capacity of the STM is limited to five to 9 items. However this can be increased by chunking. For example instead of remembering 9 individual numbers, remembering 3 sets of 3 numbers.

Front 7

What is the duration of the STM?

Back 7

The duration of the STM is very brief (about 30 seconds) however this can be increased by repetition and rehearsal.

Front 8

How is information coded in the LTM?

Back 8

Information is coded in three ways: Visual (remembering places, faces), acoustic (remembering songs, voices) and semantic (the main way information is remembered in LTM is through its meaning)

Front 9

What is the capacity of the LTM?

Back 9

Thought to be unlimited. However, decay interference and illness may result in loss of information.

Front 10

What is the duration of the LTM?

Back 10

There appears to be no upper limit and many people remember things for a whole lifetime.

Front 11

Evaluate the MSM.

Back 11

P: A weakness of the MSM is that it is too simplistic.

E: Research has shown that STM and LTM is far more complex than shown to be in the MSM.

E: For example, Clive Wearing lost most of his LTM but he could still play piano. This suggests there are different types of LTM and this is not suggested by the MSM.

P: A strength of the MSM is that the existence of different stores is supported by research.

E: For example, a brain damaged patient by the name of HM lost his hippocampus in an operation and was unable to learn new things in LTM but he could still remember short strings of digits suggesting a distinction between the stores. Furthermore brain scanning techniques have showed that different areas of the brain are active when someone is using STM or LTM.

E: This supports the MSM as it suggests the presence of multiple memory stores.

P: A weakness of the MSM is that some studies that support the MSM have design problems.

E: For example, Sperling's study of having participants recall grids has low mundane realism as this is not an everyday task.

E: This mundane realism lowers the internal validity of the research and could mean that the results are flawed and a result of design problems.

Front 12

Outline the Working Memory model

Back 12

The WMM is a model of short term memory proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. They believed that STM was more complex then proposed in the MSM. They believed that STM had a component called the Central Executive, a coordinator which attends to and filters stimuli. They suggested that different types of stimuli were stored in different STM stores before being sent to the LTM. These stores were known as 'slave systems' of the central executive. Acoustic/auditory information was sent to the Phonological loop, a tempory acoustic storage system which contained two further sub-systems, the inner ear and the inner voice. Visual information was sent to the Visuo-spatial sketchpad, which was also divided into two sub-systems - the Visual cache and the inner scribe. Finally, the episodic buffer temporarily stores and integrates the information before sending in to LTM.

Front 13

Evaluate the WMM

Back 13

P: A weakness of the WMM is that the idea of a 'central executive' is vague and not yet supported by research.

E: Brain scans have failed to allocate an area of the brain that could hold the CE and research from a brain damaged patient showed that he could direct his attention in some situations but not others, suggesting that if the CE does exist it is more complex and is composed of multiple components.

P: A weakness of the WMM is that a lot of evidence that supports it comes from brain damaged patients.

E: There are problems associated with this. For example, brain damaged patients may differ cognitively as a result of their incident, therefore generalizing their results to the wider public could be problematic. Furthermore, brain damage is very traumatic and this in itself may have affected their ability to perform tasks that they were asked to perform

E: Therefore, because of these problems, one may argue that the results from these case studies are flawed, and the WMM may not be as accurate as it seems

P: A weakness of the WMM is that it is machine reductionist.

E: The WMM simplifies human memory to 4 components. Although there is evidence supporting the existence of these components, the reality may be that many more variables are involved and simplifying memory to only these components may be inaccurate

E: If things were seen from a more holistic viewpoint, psychologists may obtain a more accurate view of memory

Front 14

What are the three types of LTM?

Back 14

Episodic memory - memories of events in life. Usually processed deeply as they have meaning and emotional content. Requires some conscious effort to recall

Semantic memory - Memories that make up our knowledge. Requires some conscious effort to recall.

Procedural memory - memory for how to do things, such as how to ride a bike. Most of the time they do not require conscious effort to recall

Front 15

Evaluate the types of LTM

Back 15

P: The existence of different types of LTM are supported by brain scans

E: Brain scans suggest that episodic memory is associated with the hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe. Furthermore the scans show that procedural memory is associated with the cerebellum.

E: The fact that different brain regions are active when different types of LTM are being used suggest that there are definitely different types of LTM

P: Furthermore, there is also clinical evidence that supports the distinction between different LTM stores.

E: For example, Clive Wearing suffered a viral infection of his brain which damaged his hippocampus. He is unable to remember lots of events and people in his life but retains the ability to play the piano.

E: This suggests that his episodic memory was damaged, but his procedural memory wasn't suggesting a distinction between the types of LTM.

P: There are problems associated with using evidence from brain damaged patients to support the existence of different types of LTM.

E: Brain damaged patients are unlike the rest of the population. Furthermore, brain trauma is traumatic and this may affect their ability to perform certain tasks. Finally, individual differences heavily affect the results.

E: Because of these factors, one can say that these studies have low external validity and that it is problematic to generalize results from brain damaged patients to the rest of the population

Front 16

What are the two main explanations for forgetting?

Back 16

Interference and retrieval/cue - dependent forgetting.

Front 17

What are the two types of interference?

Back 17

Retroactive interference - Learning something new disrupts information already stored.

Proactive interference - Something already learned disrupts something you are trying to learn

Front 18

Discuss research into interference as an explanation of forgetting

Back 18

P: Research is quite artificial

E: Studies often have participants memorize lists of words or phrases, such as the study by McGeoch and McDonald

E: These studies are highly artificial and lack mundane realism. Because of this it can be hard to apply them to everyday situations (they lack external validity

P: A weakness of this explanation is that it is not that common.

E: Rather special conditions are required for interference to lead to forgetting, the memories must be similar enough for the person to confuse them.

E: For this reason, some may argue that it is a relatively unimportant explanation and that other explanations are more useful.

P: There is evidence that individual differences heavily affect the extent to which someone is affected by interference.

E: A study showed that those with a greater Working Memory span were less susceptible to proactive interference

E: This shows that interference may not affect everyone equally