Memory

Memory

1. Encoding, Capacity, and Duration

   • Short-Term Memory
     • Memory for immediate events. Limited Duration (18-30 seconds). Limited Capacity (7+/-2 chunks of information). Encoded acoustically.
       • Research: Baddeley 1966.
         • Participants were given one in four lists. acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, and semantically dissimilar. Results: when asked to recall immediatley (testing STM) those with the list acoustically similar did worse. Therefore coding is auditory.
   • Long-Term Memory
     • Memory for events that have happened in the past. Unlimited duration (30 seconds - lifetime). Unlimited capacity. Encoded semantically.
       • Research: Baddeley 1966.

2. Model of Memory

   • Working Memory Model
     • Baddeley and Hitch (1974).
       • Evaluation of WMM
         • Strengths: effectively explains our ability to carry out tasks such as mental arithmetic - storing and processing simultaneously. Empirical research supporting existnce of phonological loop and visuo-spatial store.
           • Weaknesses: central executive is most important component, yet it is the one we know least about. It has a limited capacity, but no one has been able to quantify it experimentally. Only considers STM.
   • Multi-Store Model
     • Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). Key Point: emphasises the flow of information from one store to another. Memory traces in STM are fragile. Lost within 30 seconds unless rehearsed. Information moves from STM to LTM through rehearsal - can then remain in LTM for a lifetime. Encoded semantically. Direct relationship between rehearsal in STM and strength in LTM.
       • Research: Clive Wearing - Baddeley (1990).
         • Virus destroyed his hippocampus and parts of his cortex. No STM, cannot transfer into LTM. Can learn new skills - LTM (procedural memory). Indicates a seperate store for experiences (episodic) and facts (semantic). Has some memory of life before the virus.
       • Evaluation of MSM.
         • Strengths: it distinguishes between STM and LTM stores in terms of capacity, duration and encoding.
           • Weaknesses: too simplistic and inflexible to explain the entire memory system. Seperate stores for different kinds of LTM (episodic/procedural). Fails to take into account factors which can improve memory e.g. memory techniques/strategies.

3. Theory of Forgetting

   • Forgetting in STM.
     • Trace Decay. Duration of STM. Displacement. Capacity of STM
       • Trace Decay: (research support - peterson & peterson) if decay did occur, then we'd expect poorer recall of information with the passage of time, which is wha the Petersons reported. Displacement: forgetting in STm is due to a new set of information physically overwriting the older set of information, this happens as STM has a limited store.
         • Clive Wearing.
   • Forgetting in LTM.
     • Trace Decay. Interference. Cue-dependent Forgetting.
       • Interference occurs when something gets in the way of something else. It refers to the tendency for one memory to 'interfere with' the accurate retrieval of another (similar) memory.
         • Proactive interference: past learning interferes with current attempts to learn something. Retroactive interference: current attempts to learn something, inference with past learning.
       • Cue- dependent forgetting: this occurs when informtation may be stored in memory but may be inaccessile unless there is a specific cue to help retrieve it.
         • Context-dependent forgetting: remember information in the same context, external cues - enviroment. State-dependent forgetting: remember if in the same physical/emotional state, internal cues - state.

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