Cognitive Approach - Cognitive Processing - Models of Memory - Multi-Store Model

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

A cognitive process that allows us to record, store and later retrieve experiences and information

Question 2

Model

Answer 2

A physical representation of what a psychological phenomenon could look like (mostly based on a theory).

Question 3

Multi-Store Model of Memory

Answer 3

By Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)

Claims that information passes through different kinds of stores in order to become permanent.

Question 4

Multi-Store Model of Memory - Sensory Store

Answer 4

Information from the 5 senses

Duration < 1 sec

Capacity unlimited

Encoding modal specific

• iconic
• echoic
• haptic
• gustatory
• smells

Question 5

Multi-Store Model of Memory - Short Term Memory

Answer 5

Duration max 20-30 seconds

Capacity 7±2 items

Encoding verbal

Question 6

Multi-Store Model of Memory - Long Term Memory

Answer 6

Duration unlimited

Capacity unlimited

Encoding semantic (the meaning is encoded)

Question 7

Multi-Store Model of Memory - Evaluation - Strengths

Answer 7

Numerous studies have supported the mode

The model broke memory into components that coudl be studied individually.

Question 8

Multi-Store Model of Memory - Evaluation - Limitations

Answer 8

Descriptions of the STM & LTM are too simplistic

Effort of rehearsal is ignored
- Maintenance rather than elaborative rehearsal

Role of emotions are neglected

Information only flows in one direction

Lack description
- How does information go from acoustic to semantic

Question 9

Serial Position Curve

Answer 9

Primacy effect
- Enhanced memory for items presented first (LTM)

Asympote

Recency effect
- Enhanced memory for items presented last (STM)

Question 10

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)

Answer 10

Aim:
- To investigate the recency effect in free recall (i.e. any order)

Pps:
- 46 army enlisted men

Procedure:
Each shown 15, 15-word lists
- 1 work appeared at a time, for 1 sec
- 2 secs interval
- each word read by the experimenter
- all monosyllabic nouns

After the last word in each list, the symbol # or a digit from 0-9 was shown

• If the # symbol appeared, the pps were told to write immediately
• If a nb appeared, the pps were to count from that number until the experimenter said “write”
• Measured 10 or 30 seconds before syaing “write”
• Each conditions were tested with 5 of the lists
• Words & order of the delay conditions assigned at random
• Pps tested individually
• Each pp recieved a different set of lists and a different sequence of delay conditions
• Pps given 1-5 min to complete recall of the list

Results

• Mean nb of recalled words calculated
• 10 secs delay reduced the recency effect
• 30 secs delay eliminated the recency effect
• 10 secs & 30 secs delays - still clear primacy effect

Question 11

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966) - Evaluation

Answer 11

True experiment

Strengths
Offers evidence for two separate stores of memory ∴ supporting the MSM

High reliability

Many controlled variables

Limitations
Low ecological validity

Low generalisability (only men)
- Only one culture (some culture could teach children to memorise well) 

Ignored pps understanding of the world

Applications
Lawyers scheduling witnesses

Managers scheduling a list of speakers at a conference

Teachers

Politicians

Question 12

HM: Milner (1966)

Answer 12

Aim:
- To study the biological reasons for anterograde amnesia in patient HM

Procedure:
- Psychometric testing: IQ testing was given to HM. His results were above average

• Direct observation of his behaviour
• Interviews with HM and his family members
• Cognitive testing: memory recall tests and learning tasks (reverse mirror drawing)
• MRI scan to determine the extent of the damage done to HM’s brain

Results:

• HM could not acquire new episodic knowledge (memory of events) and new semantic knowledge (general knowledge about the world)
• The brain structures that were removed from his brain are important for long-term explicit memory
• He was able to remember his house and could draw picture of the floor plan of his new home
• HM had a capacity for working memory, because he was able to carry on a normal conversation
• HM was able to recall the number 584, 15 minutes later, apparently by means of constant verbal rehearsal.
• After the task was over, the number and HM’s strategy in remembering it were lost
• Memories in the form of motor skills (i.e. procedural memories) were well maintained
• He know how to mow a lawn
• He showed improvements on the performance of new skills such as reverse mirror-drawing in which he had to acquire new eye-hand coordination
• MRI scan showed that parts of HM’s temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, had the most damage.
• Damage to hippocampus explains the problem of transferring short-term memory to long-term memory as this is the area where the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is believed to play an important role in learning and formation of explicitly memories