General Cognitive

General Cognitive

1. Working Memory Model (Baddeley and Hitch 1974)

   • Central Executive
     • Modality free
     • controls attension and coordinates the actions of the other components
   • Phonological Loop
     • Articulatory Control System (inner voice)
       • rehearses information verbally
       • capacity of around 2 seconds
     • Phonological Store (inner ear)
       • uses sound based code to store information
       • decay after around 2 seconds
       • decays unless rehearsed
   • Visuo-spatial sketchpad
     • holds information we see
     • used to manipulate spatial information
     • limited capacity of three or four objects
   • Episodic Buffer
     • provides time sequencing for visual, spatial and verbal information
     • might also bring in information from the long-term store
     • limited capacity
     • central executive controls the attension
     • buffer is perhaps a storage space for the central executive

2. Multi-Store Model of Memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968)

   • Capacity - STM - 7+-2 (millers magic number) -LTM - Unlimited
   • Duration - STM - 15-30 seconds - LTM - possibly a lifetime
   • Encoding - STM - Accoustically - LTM - Semantic
   • Mode of Representation - STM - Auditory - LTM - Semantic
   • Strengths
     • Supports HM case study (couldn't make new memories because his STM was affected
     • It was the first model of memory to identify the differences between STM and LTM
     • Supports evidence from brain damaged patients
   • Weaknesses
     • model is too simplistic (complexity of brain damaged patients goes against the model
     • capacity needs to be defined more accurately
     • KF had affected his digit span but he remembered meaningful sounds
   • Primacy Effect
     • information learning first is well remembered probably because it has gone through the rehearsal loop
   • Recency Effect
     • information that is learnt last is well remembered probably because it is still in the rehearsal loop. It is available for immediate recall
   • Interference Theory
     • Proactive Interference - something learned earlier interferes with current learning
   • Retroactive interference
     • something learned later gets in the way of something learned previously

3. Reconstructive Memory (Bartlett 1932)

   • memory is a reconstruction from previous knowledge and memories (schemas)
     • Mental schemas - an organised package of information that stores our knowledge of the world. We each have a schema for every part of our lives.
   • Confabulation - making up bits to fill in the memory so that it makes sense
   • Rationalisation - means making something make sense
   • Episodic Memory - memory for episodes/events that have happened
   • Semantic memory - memory for meanings such as words or symbols

4. Episodic and Semantic Memory

   • Episodic
     • memory for events (when,where)
     • unlikely to operate without semantic memory
     • Input is continuous
     • retrieval using cues which are encoded at the point of learning
     • forgetting due to retrieval cue failure
     • memory trace can be transformed/changed
   • Semantic
     • mental encylopaedia
     • independent of time referencing
     • retrieval possible without learning - not cued
     • memory trace more robust and less susceptible to transformation

5. Experiments

   • Independent and Dependent Variables
   • Experimental and Null Hypotheses
   • Directions and Non-Directional tests/hypotheses
   • Experimental and Research Designs
   • Operationalisation
   • Couterbalancing, Randomisation and Order Effects
   • Situational and Participant variables
   • Objectivity, Reliabilty and Validity

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