Psychology Edexcel A level > Topic 2 Cognitive - Content > Flashcards

Topic 2 Cognitive - Content Flashcards

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1
Q

Who created The Multi Store Model?

A

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)

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2
Q

What are the 3 components in The Multi Store Model?

A
  • Sensory Memory
  • Short-term Memory
  • Long-term Memory
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3
Q

What is the Sensory Memory?

A
  • Info arrives from 5 senses - by intaking its environment
  • Large capacity
  • Short duration (less than a second) - info immediately lost
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4
Q

What is the Short Term Memory?

A
  • Encoding:
    Acoustically encoded.
  • Retrieval:
    Rapid Sequential Scan of stored info.
    Rehearsal maintains info in the STM (strengthens memory trace).
    More info enters, old info (with a weak memory trace) decays.
  • Info has to be attended to enter
  • Duration is 15-30 seconds & then decays (if not rehearsed)
  • 5-8 items capacity
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5
Q

What is The Long Term Memory?

A
  • Encoding:
    If info is linked to prior knowledge, easier to search for.
    Encoded semantically.
    If you understand info, more likely to remember
  • Unlimited capacity & duration
  • Info recalled from LTM to STM when needed
  • Retrieval:
    Not stored as one memory trace but multiple copies.
    ‘Tip of the tongue’ - can recognise a correct answer (recognise first letter of a word but not the entire word) but can’t recall
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6
Q

What is evidence for the Sensory Memory?

A

Sperling (1960, 1963):
- visual array of letters is presented via tachistoscope
- recall is precise but decays if there’s a delay
( participants stared at a screen and rows of letters were flashed very briefly—for just 1/20th of a second. Then, the screen went blank. The participants then immediately repeated as many of the letters as they could remember seeing.)

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7
Q

What is evidence for Short Term Memory?

A

Peterson & peterson (1959):

  • Recall a trigram with an interference task
  • Performance dropped after 15-18 sec -> info decays rapidly if not rehearsed
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8
Q

What is evidence for Long Term Memory?

A

Bahrick et al (1975):

  • Memory test using face & names in school yearbook
  • 15 years after leaving school: 90% face & age recalled
  • 48 years: 70-80% recall
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9
Q

Explain the overall process of The Multi Store Model (all components, from beginning to end)

A

1st Stage: Sensory Memory -> Info comes from the senses & lasts up to 2 seconds. If attended to, passed onto STM, if not attended, info decays.
2nd Stage: Short Term Memory -> Info lasts up to 15-30 sec & needs rehearsal for info to maintain. If info rehearsed, passed onto LTM, if not rehearsed, info decays.
3rd Stage: Long Term Memory -> Unlimited duration & store of info. Info stored is Semantic. Info lost through decay or interference.

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10
Q

What are the Strengths of the Multi Store Model?

A

Brain damaged patient - Henry Molaison:

  • Supports the distinction of STM & LTM - located in diff regions of the brain?
  • He had a functioning STM but LTM was damaged (couldn’t make LTM memories)

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966):
- Serial Position curve shows that we remember words at the beginning and end of a list better than words in the middle. Because beginning info chance to be rehearsed, strengthened & transferred to LTM.
Words at the end (the most recent) displaced the middle words, transferring the end words into the STM.
-Shows memory have different stores

Clive Wearing: Damage to Hippocampus
- Could still use STM to remember things for 20 seconds - but forget it - couldn’t make new memories
- Supports MSM - suggests an inability to rehearse info in LTM & the idea of separate stores
[counterpoint] - Couldn’t recall past events but could recall how to play piano - LTM too simplistic, more than 1 component

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11
Q

What are the Weaknesses of the Multi Store Model?

A
  • Victim motorbike accident (K.F.) -> Still add memories to LTM even though STM was damaged
  • MSM cannot explain this

Oversimplified:
- STM is more than one simple unitary store but is comprises with diff components (central executive, episodic buffer - from the Working Memory Model)

Model is based on lab experiments & artificial tasks (e.g. meaningless trigrams) when in real life we use our memory to remember important things, not applicable to real life -> lack ecological validity -> conclusions invalid

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12
Q

Who created the Working Memory Model?

A

Baddeley & Hitch (1974)

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13
Q

What are the components in the Working Memory Model?

A
  • Central Executive
  • Phonological Loop
  • Episodic Buffer
  • Visuospatial Sketchpad
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14
Q

What is the Central Executive?

A
  • Limited Capacity
  • Monitors overall system (incoming data)
  • Decides how slave systems should function (allocate tasks)
  • Deal with all sensory info & cognitive tasks
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15
Q

What is the Phonological Loop?

A

Temporarily stores verbal info

Split into 2 subsystems:
Phonological Store (inner ear):
- Holds limited verbal info for a few seconds - decays rapidly - can be extended using articulatory rehearsal system

Articulatory Rehearsal System (inner voice):
- Rehearses & stores verbal info from the phonological store

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16
Q

What is the Visuospatial Sketchpad?

A
  • Stores and processes visual info

- Used for navigation

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17
Q

What is the Episodic Buffer?

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A
  • Limited Capacity storage system

- Integrate info between the subcomponents & retrieve info from LTM

18
Q

What extra info is there for the Working Memory Model?

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A
  • Doing 2 tasks using the same component means means they can’t be performed successfully together
  • STM is not a unitary store
19
Q

What are the strengths for the Working Memory Model?

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A

Model expands on the Multi Store Model, giving more info & refining it
- E.g. some dual tasks were more difficult than others (needed an explanation), WMM explains the features by the inner ear, inner voice & inner eye.

KF case study - damaged STM - struggled to process verbal info but his visual memory was unaffected
- Shows that visual info (visuospatial sketchpad) is processed separately from verbal info (phonological loop)

Applied to real life tasks:

  • reading (phonological loop)
  • problem solving (central executive)
  • navigation (visual & spatial processing)
20
Q

What are the weaknesses for The Working Memory Model?

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A

New findings been made on the Model:

  • Inadequate & not a valid explanation
  • Episodic buffer was an addition to the model & needs further explanation

Central executive “most important but least understood”

Experiments are artificial tasks:

  • e.g. learning word lists & remembering stories
  • These tasks depend on either visual or sound info
  • Real life tasks involve many sense
  • Lack validity

Lieberman (1980):

  • States blind people have spatial memory (can remember when things are, not bump into them) even though they have never had visual info
  • Says to split Visuospatial sketchpad into visual memory & spatial memory as the whole component is too simple
21
Q

Who created the explanation of Long Term Memory?

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A

Tulving (1972)

22
Q

What is the explanation of the Long Term Memory?

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A

LTM divided into 2 memory stores:
Episodic:
- recall events (episodes) from our lives
- mental diary
- memories associated with other facts that link concepts together

Semantic:

  • stores our knowledge of the world (facts):
  • mental encyclopedia
  • info about experiences & events
23
Q

What’s Time Referencing?

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A
  • Episodic memory dependent on time-referencing (events linked to the time they occured)
  • Semantic not needed
24
Q

What’s spatial referencing (where smth occured)?

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A
  • Input into episodic memory is continuous
  • Input into semantic memory is fragmented -> learn info at diff times & piece together -> stored independently & pieced together in a temporal form
25
What is retrieval as an explanation of LTM?
- Context (when event was learnt/experienced) helps the retrieval of Episodic Memory - retrieval causes change of transformation - Semantic memory uses inferences, generalisation, rational/logical thought - retrieval leaves memory trace unchanged
26
Are Episodic & Semantic interrelated?
Episodic: - uses semantic (uses prev knowledge of ppl to understand) Semantic: - doesn't use episodic (don't need to remember a lesson to remember equation)
27
What are the strengths for the explanation of LTM?
Ostergaard (1987): 10 yr old boy - brain damage to his episodic & semantic memory - But made educational progress & stored info in semantic KF: Motorbike accident - damaged episodic (can't form or recall personal events) - but his recollection of factual info is intact (semantic) - shows the distinction between the stores HM & Clive Wearing: unable to retain & recall episodic - But both remember how to perform tasks (playing piano) - another LTM store? Tulving added procedural memory in newer version (doing tasks without awareness or automatic)
28
What are the weaknesses for the explanation of the LTM?
- Semantic & Episodic both rely on each other (e.g. learning a list of words) -> can't research them as separate stores -> damage to temporal cortex affects both -> can't distinguish between two -> goes against theory of both being distinctions - Studies lack ecological validity -> learning list of similar sounding words is not an ordinary activity - Learning word lists -> don't take into account guesses when recalling -> guesses would account for semantic recall (not episodic) -> high semantic recall in episodic memory test -> separate stores independently becomes problematic
29
Who proposed the Reconstructive Memory?
Bartlett 1932
30
What is Reconstructive memory about?
- Memory is not perfectly formed, encoded & retrieved | - It doesn't play back our experiences perfectly, but reconstructs them
31
What is perception in Reconstructive Memory?
- How you perceive an object is shaped by how it's remembered - Verbal label/name assigned to an object influences how it's drawn after
32
What is imaging?
- Ink blots - PPs search their memory for images that fit the ink plot rather than describing - 'effort after meaning' - connect a stimulus they are given with past knowledge/experience - After stimulus has meaning to the individual, can be easily encoded & stored
33
What experiments did Bartlett do on Reconstructive Memory?
- Focused on images of faces & stories that Ps had to describe & repeat (wanted to move away from artificial tests) - Story used -> War of the ghosts: - Ps read story twice - Repeated production was used - to test the effect of time lapse on recall - After recall - Story became shorter, phrases used reflected modern concepts, words were changed to more familiar words ('canoe' -> 'boat'). Concl: Memory is reconstructed each time its recalled
34
What is the theory of memory & schema theory?
Theory of memory: - Memory is constructive, use variety of info (beliefs, perceptions, attitudes) to fill in gaps in our memory - retrieval of memories are reconstructed from past knowledge/experiences Schema theory: - Parcel of stored knowledge - Contains fixed info & variable info - We don't remember all we perceive -> use schemas when we recall to fit in the gaps - recall is an active reconstruction of events, influenced by prev knowledge, beliefs - can explain effort after meaning (trying to find the correct schema that offers some meaning to an object)
35
What are the strengths for Reconstructive memory?
The war of the ghosts - conducted his repeated reproduction exps using 8 diff stories on diff participants -> found the same overall, shortening, transformation & familiarisation Clive Wearing - dementia: - Can't remember most things - amnesia - but still remember important schemas & could be used to calm & focus them E.g. Still loved his wife & music which he could still play - Use validation therapy by going along with beliefs that are meaningful to them - to not cause distress when their schema conflicts with the real world Tulving - Semantic & Episodic: - schemas -> semantic stores - tulving suggests that semantic memory causes episodic memory to change -> exactly what schemas do
36
What are the weaknesses for Reconstructive Memory?
War of the ghosts: - little relevance to everyday memory - deliberately trying to pull evidence - even though story had to be strange (about ghosts) -> lacks ecological validity Bartlett states memory is inaccurate & flawed (can be seen in eyewitness research) BUT Steyvers & Hemmer (2012) argues that exp conditions of ewt research deliberately causes recall errors (leading to the view of unreliable memory). In real context (without manipulated material), schematic recall can be accurate. Bartlett's study not scientific -> not standardised (getting pps to reproduce the story as & when). no scoring system for measuring changes in recall (other than counting the number of words) -> results subjective
37
What is 'processing speed' in terms of individual differences?
- Speed we process info differs between individuals & the capacity at STM - Processing speed & capacity affected by age: younger=shorter digit span, memory capacity increases with age
38
What is schemas & episodic memory in terms of individual differences?
Schemas: - We all have similar schemas but can heavily be influenced by experiences -> affects how we perceive info from senses & retrieve info from memory Episodic: - Collection of memories of their own life; an autobiography of personalised events - Daniela Palombo (2012) -> divided autobiographical memory into 4: episodic, semantic, spatial, prospective - High episodic = High semantic, Low episodic = Low semantic = good/poor memory overall - Palombo et al. men scored higher on spatial memory - Depression (self-report) = low episodic & semantic [pps could have made inaccurate judgment one self even though its more natural than lab exps]
39
What's a case study of a brain damaged patient?
Henry Molaison (HM) - suffered brain injury due to a surgery that was supposed to relieve him from seizures caused by epilepsy - surgery did reduce his seizures but caused memory loss - Removed a brain structure within the temporal lobe called hippocampus (part of the brain responsible for learning, emotion & memory) - Had anterograde amnesia (loss of ability to make new memories, while memories before injury remain intact) - after surgery - Also had retrograde amnesia (loss of ability of recall events prior to injury) - prob due to his seizures before his surgery
40
How is qualitative data used in HM case study? FINISH
- Qualitative data are used in case studies of brain damaged patients -
Psychology Edexcel A level
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