Memory

Memory

1. Multi-Store Explanation of Memory

   • Encoding: changing information so that it can be stored
   • Storage: holding information in the memory system
     • Sensory Store: holds information received from the senses for a very short period of time
     • Short-term Store: holds approximately seven chunks of information for a limited amount of time
       • Peterson and Peterson
         • To see if rehearsal was necessary to hold information in the short-term store
     • Long-term Store: holds a vast amount of information for a very long period of time
   • Retrieval: recovering information from storage
   • Murdock
     • To provide evidence to support the multi-store explanation of memory
       • Recency effect: information received later is recalled better than earlier information
       • Primacy effect: the first information received is recalled better than subsequent information

2. Reconstructive Memory

   • Bartlett
     • The War of the Ghosts
     • To see if people, when given something unfamiliar to remember, would alter the information
   • Wynn and Logie
     • To see if the recall of unfamiliar stories changed in the same way that Bartlett found with unfamiliar stories

3. Levels of Processing

   • Structural Processing: thinking about the physical appearance of words to be learnt
   • Phonetic Processing: thinking about the wound of words to be learnt
   • Semantic Processing: thinking about the meaning of words to be learnt
   • Craik and Lockahrt
     • To see if the type of question asked about words have an effect on the umber of words recalled

4. Interference

   • Retroactive Interference: when information we have recently learnt hinders our ability to recall information we have learnt previously
   • Proactive interference: when information we have already learnt hinders our ability to recall new information
   • Underwood and Postman
     • To see if new learning interferes with previous learning