Coding, capacity, duration
A01
There are 2 main types of memory:
- STM – this is your limited capacity memory store, memories are
brief and quickly forgotten
- LTM – this is your perm memory store, they can last a lifetime
- Coding – format which info is stored in various memory stores
Baddeley
- gave diff lists of words to 4 groups of ppts to remember, these were
acoustically/semantically similar and dissimilar
- those recalling right after done worse w acoustically similar
- recalling after 20 mins done worse with semantically similar
- capacity – amount of info held in memory store
- Jacobs investigated digit span – ppts given 4 digits to recall in
correct order, continue until can’t recall correctly – determines digit
span
- Duration – length of time info can be held in memory
Peterson and Peterson
investigated duration of STM using a trigrams study
- Students were given consonant syllables to remember and a 3 digit
number to count back from
- He concluded that STM can have a short duration of 18 seconds ,
unless we repeat it over and over
- Bahrick investigated duration of LTM using a photo recognition test
and free recall test
- He found that duing free recall after 15 years it was 60% accurate
- Using photo rec after 15 yrs it was 90% accurate
A03
Multi store model
A01
- Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed
- Rep of how memory works in terms of 3 stores: sensory register,
STM, LTM
- Describes how info is transferred from one store to another w
function maintenance rehearsal
- All stimuli from the environment pass into the sensory register, this
part comprises of several registers – one for each of our 5 senses.
- Coding in each store is modality-specific
, - Iconic memory – coding for visual information
- Echoic memory – coding for acoustic information (sound)
- Duration of the sensory register was investigated by
Sperling – he let ppts see a grid of digits and letters for 50 ms
- One condition would write down all 12 items, another would hear a
tone after exposure and write down row indicated
- He found that those reporting the whole thing had poor recall and
reporting one row was better
- Suggests the info decayed before it could be written down,
indicating a brief duration.
- STM is coded acoustically and is a limited capacity store (7+-2)
- Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to
ourselves - we can keep info in our STM if it is rehearsed - If it is
rehearsed long enough it passes into LTM, which is prolonged
rehearsal
- LTM is a permanent memory store for info that has been rehearsed
for a prolonged time
- MSM suggests when we want to recall info from LTM it has to be
transferred back to STM through a process called retrieval.
- Henry molaison - underwent brain surgery to relieve his epilepsy,
hippocampus was removed from his brain – he could not form new
LTM - However, he performed well on tests of immediate memory
span – supports the idea that there is 2 independent memory
stores
A03
S – research support
P - there is research support for MSM from studies showing that STM and
LTM are distinct stores.
E - Baddeley found that we to mix up words that sound similar when we
are using our STM. This is due to the fact that we use semantically
similar words when using our LTM.
E - This suggests that STM and LTM are distinct stores which are coded
differently.
L - the independent memory stores corroborate the flow of info and
memory claimed by the MSM
L – research support
P - However, it is arguable that the supporting research for MSM lacks
mundane realism.
A01
There are 2 main types of memory:
- STM – this is your limited capacity memory store, memories are
brief and quickly forgotten
- LTM – this is your perm memory store, they can last a lifetime
- Coding – format which info is stored in various memory stores
Baddeley
- gave diff lists of words to 4 groups of ppts to remember, these were
acoustically/semantically similar and dissimilar
- those recalling right after done worse w acoustically similar
- recalling after 20 mins done worse with semantically similar
- capacity – amount of info held in memory store
- Jacobs investigated digit span – ppts given 4 digits to recall in
correct order, continue until can’t recall correctly – determines digit
span
- Duration – length of time info can be held in memory
Peterson and Peterson
investigated duration of STM using a trigrams study
- Students were given consonant syllables to remember and a 3 digit
number to count back from
- He concluded that STM can have a short duration of 18 seconds ,
unless we repeat it over and over
- Bahrick investigated duration of LTM using a photo recognition test
and free recall test
- He found that duing free recall after 15 years it was 60% accurate
- Using photo rec after 15 yrs it was 90% accurate
A03
Multi store model
A01
- Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed
- Rep of how memory works in terms of 3 stores: sensory register,
STM, LTM
- Describes how info is transferred from one store to another w
function maintenance rehearsal
- All stimuli from the environment pass into the sensory register, this
part comprises of several registers – one for each of our 5 senses.
- Coding in each store is modality-specific
, - Iconic memory – coding for visual information
- Echoic memory – coding for acoustic information (sound)
- Duration of the sensory register was investigated by
Sperling – he let ppts see a grid of digits and letters for 50 ms
- One condition would write down all 12 items, another would hear a
tone after exposure and write down row indicated
- He found that those reporting the whole thing had poor recall and
reporting one row was better
- Suggests the info decayed before it could be written down,
indicating a brief duration.
- STM is coded acoustically and is a limited capacity store (7+-2)
- Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat material to
ourselves - we can keep info in our STM if it is rehearsed - If it is
rehearsed long enough it passes into LTM, which is prolonged
rehearsal
- LTM is a permanent memory store for info that has been rehearsed
for a prolonged time
- MSM suggests when we want to recall info from LTM it has to be
transferred back to STM through a process called retrieval.
- Henry molaison - underwent brain surgery to relieve his epilepsy,
hippocampus was removed from his brain – he could not form new
LTM - However, he performed well on tests of immediate memory
span – supports the idea that there is 2 independent memory
stores
A03
S – research support
P - there is research support for MSM from studies showing that STM and
LTM are distinct stores.
E - Baddeley found that we to mix up words that sound similar when we
are using our STM. This is due to the fact that we use semantically
similar words when using our LTM.
E - This suggests that STM and LTM are distinct stores which are coded
differently.
L - the independent memory stores corroborate the flow of info and
memory claimed by the MSM
L – research support
P - However, it is arguable that the supporting research for MSM lacks
mundane realism.
