Memory models

Memory models

1. MULTI-STORE MODEL

   • SENSORY MEMORY
     • Information from the 5 senses are brought in though the sensory memory
   • SHORT TERM MEMORY
     • CAPACITY: 7 +/- 2 items
       • MILLER STUDY
         • AIM: To find out the capacity of LTM
           • PROCEDURE: showed participants a list of objects and then asked them to be recalled instantly.
             • FINDINGS: The participants remembered 7+/-2 items from the list
               • CONCLUSION: The capacity is 5+/- 2 items
     • ENCODING: acoustic
       • BADDELEY STUDY
         • AIM: to find out the encoding method is most effective in STM and LTM
           • PROCEDURE: Lab experiment. Ppts were presented with one of four word lists. Two of the lists were experimental ones; one acoustically similar words (meet,sweet) and the other was semantically similar (clean, neat). Other lists were to show control. One group was told to recall the list immediately, the other after twenty minutes, testing both LTM and STM.
             • FINDINGS: words that have similar sounds are harder to recall using STM than words with less similar sounds. LTM is worse for recalling semantically similar words. Recall from LTM was the same for both words.
               • CONCLUSION: STM= acoustic LTM= semantic
     • DURATION: 18-30 seconds
       • PETERSON AND PETERSON STUDY
         • AIM: To find out the duration of STM
           • PROCEDURE: A lab experiment was conducted where 24 ppts had to recall trigrams. To prevent rehearsal ppts had to count backwards in threes or fours from a specific random number for different intervals of time: 3,6,9,12,15 and 18 seconds.
             • FINDINGS: The longer the interval preventing rehearsal the less trigrams were remembered. After 3 seconds 80% of trigrams were remembered when after 18 seconds 10% of trigrams were remembered correctly.
               • CONCLUSION: STM's duration is 18-30 seconds and is limited if rehearsal is prevented
   • LONG TERM MEMORY
     • ENCODING: Semantically
     • DURATION: Infinite
       • BAHRICK ET AL STUDY
         • AIM: To find the duration of LTM
           • PROCEDURE: Asked 392 ex high school students (american). 1. A photo recognition test where they were asked to identify former classmates from photos without names (recall group) 2. A name and photo matching group where they were given a list of names to match to the photos of their former classmates (recognition group)
             • FINDINGS: Recall group- 60% accuracy after 7 years and 20% after 47 years. Recognition group- 90% after 14 years and 60% after 47 years.
               • CONCLUSION: the recognition group has better memories due to the stimulus compared to the recall group
     • CAPACITY: Unlimited

2. WORKING MEMORY MODEL

   • Phonological loop
     • Processes auditory information and has limited capacity
       • 'Inner ear'
         • Auditory info enters memory and holds speech based information
           • is only held for about 2 seconds
       • 'Inner voice'
         • Auditory information is rehearsed silently in order to be remembered
   • Visuo-spacial sketchpad
     • 'Inner eye'
       • Visual- what things look like
         • Spacial- relationships between things (layout)
     • A sort of writing pad for what we see
       • Use it to manipulate things in head
   • Central executive
     • Allocation - decided what info receives attention and allocates it to the appropriate slave systems
     • Capacity/duration - limited in both
     • Processes - performs cognitive tasks
     • Control - controls the flow of information from other slave systems
   • SHORT TERM MEMORY
   • Baddeley et al (1975) dual visual task
     • Participants were asked to follow a visual task (following a light on a board). At the same time participants carried out another imagery visual task which required them to describe all the right angles in capital letters such as F and E.
       • When the same components were used the answers the participant's answers were impaired. When different components were used their performance was not affected.
   • Strengths
     • Influential model that most cognitive psychologists use it
     • More plausible than msm and it explains stm more
     • Explains how memory functions rather than how it stores info
     • Is supported by the dual visual task
   • Weaknesses
     • Not a complete understanding of how the memory works- doesn't explain the ltm
     • The role of the CE isn't clear; suggests it has limited capacity but can't really measure it
     • Berz (1995) criticised it because it doesn't account for musical memory

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