2. Memory

Question 1

What is short-term memory?

Answer 1

The limited capacity memory store

Question 2

What is long-term memory?

Answer 2

The permanent memory store

Question 3

What is the coding, capacity and duration of the STM?

Answer 3

• Coding = acoustic
• Capacity = 5-9 items
• Duration = 18 seconds

Question 4

What is the coding, capacity and duration of the LTM?

Answer 4

• Coding = semantic
• Capacity = unlimited
• Duration = up to a lifetime

Question 5

What is coding?

Answer 5

The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores

Question 6

What is capacity?

Answer 6

The amount of information that can be held in a memory store

Question 7

What is duration?

Answer 7

The length of time information can be held in memory

Question 8

Describe Baddeley’s research on coding and its findings

Answer 8

• Gave different lists of words to 4 groups to remember
• Group 1: acoustically similar
• Group 2: acoustically dissimilar
• Group 3: semantically similar
• Group 4: semantically dissimilar
• Participants shown original words and asked to recall in correct order
• When done immediately, they did worse on acoustically similar
• When recalled after 20 minute interval, they did worse with semantically similar
• Information coded acoustically in STM, semantically in LTM

Question 9

Describe Jacobs research on capacity (digit span)

Answer 9

• Researcher reads out 4 digits and participant recalls out loud in correct order
• If correct, researcher reads out 5 digits and so on
• Continues until participant cannot recall order correctly
• Indicates the individuals digit span
• Mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items
• Mean span for letters 7.3

Question 10

Describe Millers research on capacity (Span of memory and chunking)

Answer 10

• Made observations of everyday practice
• Stated that the span of STM is about 7 items, plus or minus 2
• Also noted that people can recall 5 words as easily as 5 letters, through chunking (grouping sets of digits/letters into units or chunks)

Question 11

Describe Peterson and Peterson’s study on the duration of STM

Answer 11

• Tested 24 children in 8 trials each
• In each trial they were given a consonant syllable to remember, also given a 3-digit number
• Student counted backwards to prevent mental rehearsal
• On each trial they were told to stop after varying periods of time (3, 6 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds)
• After 3 seconds, average recall was 80%, after 18 seconds it was about 3%
• Findings suggest STM duration may be about 18 seconds

Question 12

Describe Bahrick et al’s study on the duration of LTM

Answer 12

• Studied 392 American participants aged 17-74
• Tested recall in various ways
• Photo recognition test: consisting of 50 photos from participants high school yearbooks
• Free recall test: participants recalled all the names of their graduating class
• Photo recognition: participants tested within 15 years of graduation were 90%, after 48 years, recall declined to 70%
• Free recall: those tested after 15 years were 60% accurate, dropped to 30% after 48 years

Question 13

AO3 for research on coding

Answer 13

1. Separate memory stores: Baddeley identified clear difference between stores, ideas of coding in STM and LTM were proved by research, important steep in our understanding of the memory, which led to multi-store memory

2. Artificial stimuli: Baddeley’s word lists had no personal meaning to participants, so findings don’t tell us much about coding in different memory tasks especially everyday life, when processing more meaningful information people may use semantic coding even for STM, findings have limited application

Question 14

AO3 for research on capacity

Answer 14

1. A valid study: study has been replicated, the study is very old and early research often lacked controls, some participants digit spans may have been underestimated as they were distracted during testing, however Jacobs findings have been confirmed by other, better controlled studies since

2. Not so many chunks: STM capacity may be overestimated, Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that STM capacity is only about 4(plus or minus 1) chunks, suggests that lower end of Millers estimate (five items) is more appropriate than 7 items

Question 15

AO3 for research on duration of STM and LTM

Answer 15

1. Meaningless stimuli in STM study: in Peterson and Peterson’s study material was artificial, recalling consonant syllables does not reflect most everyday memory where what we are trying to remember is meaningful, lacks external validity, however not completely irrelevant as sometimes people try to remember meaningless stimuli e.g phone numbers

2. High external validity: in Bahrick’s study researchers investigated meaningful memories e.g peoples names and faces, when studies on LTM conducted with meaningless pictures to be remembered recall rates were lower, Bahrick’s studies reflect a more ‘real’ estimate of duration

Question 16

What are the 3 types of LTM?

Answer 16

• Episodic memory
• Semantic memory
• Procedural memory

Question 17

What is episodic memory?

Answer 17

The ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives and of the people, places and objects involved

Question 18

What is semantic memory?

Answer 18

A LTM store that contains our shared knowledge of the world. This includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean

Question 19

What is procedural memory?

Answer 19

A LTM store for our knowledge of how to do things

Question 20

How can memories in episodic memory be retrieved?

Answer 20

Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort

Question 21

How can memories in semantic memory be retrieved?

Answer 21

These memories need to be recalled deliberately

Question 22

How can memories in procedural memory be retrieved?

Answer 22

Memories in this store can be recalled without making a conscious or deliberate effort

Question 23

What are 2 features of episodic memory?

Answer 23

• They are ‘time-stamped’ (you remember when they happened as well as what happened)
• All memories are interwoven to produce a single memory

Question 24

What is a feature of procedural memory?

Answer 24

• Includes sorts of skills we might find hard to explain to someone else

Question 24

What are 2 features of semantic memory?

Answer 24

- Less vulnerable to distortion and forgetting than episodic - Memories are not 'time-stamped'

Question 25

Who proposed that there were 3 LTM stores?

Answer 25

Tulving (1985)

Question 26

Two strengths for types of LTM

Answer 26

**Clinical evidence:** - (HM and Wearing) episodic memory in both men severely impaired due to brain damage - semantic memory unaffected - still understood the meaning of words, e.g HM could not recall stroking a dog earlier, but did not need to have the concept of dog explained - procedural memories also intact, both knew how to walk and speak - evidence supports multiple stores = one can be damaged but others are unaffected *Counterpoint: clinical studies lack control of variables, brain injuries of participants typically unexpected, researcher has no knowledge of individuals memory before injury, difficult to judge how bad it is afterwards* **Real-world application:** - understanding allows psychologists to help with memory problems - research shown aging memory loss is linked to episodic memory - becomes harder to recall memories that have occurred recently though past memories stay intact - Belleville et al (2006): created an intervention to improve episodic memories in older people, the trained participants performed better on test of episodic memory after training than a control group - distinguishing types of LTM allows treatments to be developed

Question 27

One limitation for types of LTM

Answer 27

**Conflicting neuroimaging evidence:** - Buckner and Peterson (1996); reviewed evidence of location of semantic + episodic memory - concluded semantic located on left side of prefrontal cortex + episodic on right - however research links left with encoding of episodic memories + right with episodic retrieval - challenges neurophysical evidence to support types of memory as poor agreement about where each type located