AQA A-Level Psychology: Memory Already Passed

AQA A-Level Psychology: Memory Already Passed Define Encoding the process of changing sensory input into a memory trace for storage Define Storage The process of maintaining a record of the memory trace so it can be retrieved Define Retrieval The process of accessing and recovering stored information so it can be recalled Define Capacity The amount of information that can be held in a memory store Define Duration How long information can be held in a memory store What is the Multi-Store Model An explanation of how the memory works in terms of 3 stores: Sensory Register STM LTM Describe Sensory Memory Modality specific Large capacity - at least 9 items Short Duration - 0.5 seconds Will lose information via spontaneous decay if attention is not paid Describe Short-Term Memory Encodes Acoustically Limited Capacity 7 +/- 2 items (5-9) Short Duration - 18-30 seconds How can information be held for longer in STM Maintenance Rehearsal - If rehearsed enough, information is transferred to LTM for potentially permanent storage How and why is information lost from Sensory Memory? via spontaneous decay if attention is not paid How and why is information lost from STM? Via trace decay if it isn't rehearsed Via displacement when capactiy is reached Describe Long-Term Memory Encodes semantically Unlimited Capacity Infinite Duration - 40+ years for names and faces Flashbulb memories last a lifetime How is information lost from LTM? Interference Retrieval Failure Name the types of Long-term memories Episodic Semantic Procedural Describe Episodic Memories Memories of life events Expressed verbally - declarative, conscious Describe Procedural Memories Memories of motor skills/actions/muscle memories Difficult to express verbally - non-declarative, unconscious Describe Semantic Memories Memory of general knowledge/meaning Expressed verbally - declarative, conscious Give two weaknesses of the Multi-Store Model of Memory X - Baddeley and Hitch (1974) - the model is over simplistic on view of STM as a passive and unitary store. They renamed STM 'Working Memory' as an active store of sub-systems, specialising in different tasks with different capacity and duration limitations. X - Criticisms of the emphasis on rehearsal as it i snot a complete explanation of transfer to LTM. Real life leaves little room for maintenance rehearsal yet we constantly store information in LTM. The type of rehearsal/ depth of processing is more important than the quantity. (levels of processing model). What is the Working Memory model? An explanation of STM as an active store that holds several different types of info in different sub-units Describe the Central Executive Controls 3 slave systems (Coordinates system - MOST IMPORTANT) Used in problem solving tasks and decision making Attention System - decides which information the sense organs should pay attention to Flexible - modality free - processes information from all senses Describe the Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad Deals with visual and spatial information - using a visual code e.g. layout of a house Represents information in the form of its visual feautures e.g. size and shape Describe the Phonological Loop Verbal rehearsal loop - holds words to be spoken in an articulatory code. Called 'Inner Speech/Voice' Concurrent Verbalisation - repeating a phrase while learning a list of words. If a task is performance impaired, it usually uses the phonological loop. What is Articulatory suppression? the process of inhibiting memory performance by speaking while being presented with an item to remember Give two weaknesses of Working Memory X - Evidence comes from laboratory studies with high experimental control. The artificial environment lacks mundane realism as it may not generalise to complex real-life situations. Therefore the studies providing evidence for the model lack ecological validity. X - It is over-simplistic to think that one mechanism (Central Executive) controls STM. Give two strengths of Working Memory Rehearsal plays a small part in the WMM in contrast to MSM - in everyday life we don't rehearse everything. Therefore, the Working Memory model better reflects the operation of memory in everyday life so is higher in external validity. The model can explain why only some STM functions are damaged in amnesiac patients such as KF. His impairment for verbal information can be explained in terms of damage to the phonological loop only. What did Miller (1956) discover? 'Magic number' for STM capacity - 7+/- 2 or 5-9 items. There are only a certain number of 'slots' available to store items. 'Chunking' enables us to store more. What did Peterson and Peterson (1959) discover? Length of dealy affects recall - The longer the delay, the less information is recalled. There is rapid memory loss when rehearsal is prevented - indicating limited duration of