Models of Memory

Question	Answer
Explain the flow of memory	Encoding - changing information so that it can be stored Storage - holding information in the memory system Retrieval - recovering information from storage
What are the three models of memory?	Multi-Store - the idea that information passes through a series of memory stores Reconstructive - altering our recollection of things so that they make more sense to us Levels of Processing - the depth at which information is thought about when trying to learn it
What are the memory stores in the multi-store model?	Sensory Store Short Term Store Long Term Store
What is the duration and capacity of the sensory store?	Duration - less than one second Capacity - very limited
What is the duration and capacity of the short term memory?	Duration - less than one minute Capacity - approx. 7 chunks of information
What is the duration and capacity of the long term memory?	Duration - up to a lifetime Capacity - Unlimited
What was Peterson and Peterson's aim?	To see if rehearsal was necessary to hold information in the short term store
What was Peterson and Peterson's method?	Participants given trigrams (e.g. HTS) Immediately counted back in 3s for different lengths of time Recall in correct order
What were the results of Peterson and Peterson's study?	Participants had forgotten virtually all of the information after 18 seconds
What was the conclusion of Peterson and Peterson's study?	We cannot hold information in the short term store unless we rehearse it.
Evaluate Peterson and Peterson's study	Learning nonsense syllables - not normal tasks in real world so lacks ecological validity Not everything we learn needs to be rehearsed Saying things over and over again doesn't always help us remember them Maybe learning the meaning of words is more important It does help explain why it is difficult to learn telephone numbers
Explain one practical application of the multi-store model of memory	Chunking lots of data into smaller amounts Telephone numbers, postcodes and registration numbers are often about 7 chunks of information
What was Bartlett's aim?	To see if people, when given something unfamiliar to remember, would alter in the information.
What was Bartlett's method?	Participants read the 'War of the Ghosts' (Native American Legend) Retell story as accurately as possible Retelling repeated over several weeks
What was Bartlett's results?	Participants struggled to remember parts that were concerned with spirits Participants changed parts to make more sense to them Each time they retold the story it changed some more
What did Bartlett conclude from his study?	Our memory is influenced by our own beliefs
Evaluate Bartlett's study	Could suggest why people from different countries have difficulty agreeing with each other. Difficult to measure - no reliable scoring measure War of the Ghosts is confusing as well as unfamiliar Relevant - we often retell stories
Explain one practical application of the reconstructive model for memory.	Police to be careful with EWTs People may give different accounts but both believe themselves to be true.
Define the different levels of processing.	Structural - thinking about the physical appearance of words Phonetic - thinking about the sounds of words Semantic - thinking about the meaning of words
What was Craik and Lockhart's aim?	To see if the type of question asked about words has an effect on the number of words recalled.
What was Craik and Lockhart's method?	Participants presented with a list of words and asked questions with Y/N answers about each. Each question required a different type of processing. Participants had to identify the words from a longer list of words.
What were the results of Craik and Lockhart's study?	70% semantic remembered 35% phonetic remembered 15% structural remembered
What did Craik and Lockhart conclude from their study?	The more deeply information is processed, the more likely it is to be remembered.
Evaluate Craik and Lockhart's study.	Doesn't explain why semantic is a 'deeper' level of processing Maybe semantic processing just takes more time and effort to learn We don't normally learn lists of random words - lacks ecological validity
Explain one practical application of the level of processing model of memory.	Improve study skills Writing notes into own words Using semantic processing

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	Created by jmclaughlin over 10 years ago