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MEMORY (MSM (Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) developed the MSM. The SR…
MEMORY
MSM
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) developed the MSM. The SR stores sensory information for half a second. If paid attention to it moves information to the STM for temporary storage which is encoded visually, acoustically or semantically. The STM has a capacity of 5-9 items and duration of 30 seconds. The capacity can be increased through chunking. Rehearsing information moves it into the LTM which has unlimited duration and capacty.
LTM
Unlimited but information may be lost due to decay or interference. Anokhin (1973) estimated the number of possible neural connections in a brain. 1 followed by 10.5 kilometres of noughts. Concluded “no human yet that exists can use all the potential brain”
Stronger in the LTM making retrieval easier. The deeper the LOP, the easier it is to recall, mainly semantic. Badley found participants remembered semantically similar words worst (55%) recall as they confused similar meaning words. Recall for others was 70-80%. This suggests there is semantic confusion in the LTM and information is stored on a semantic basis.
Depends on lifespan. Coded memories based on skills rather than facts last longer. Information in the LTM doesn’t have to be rehearsed to be obtained. Goldman Seaman (1992) participants identified odours of every product and odours not smelt since childhood. More recent products remembered by name. Old odours identified suggesting LTM is long lasting.
SR
Capacity in SR is large. The information stored is unprocessed, highly detailed and in an ever-changing format. Sperling (1960) flashed 3 x 4 grid of letters for 20 seconds and asked participants to recall the letters in one row, saying each row in a different tone. Recall was high.
Limited duration. Duration of each store not constant. Different rate of decay for different types of information.
Walsh and Thompson (1978) found the iconic sensory has an average duration of 500 milliseconds that decreases with age which suggests that duration is limited.
Information is stored in a raw form with separate stores for different inputs: echoic (auditory), iconic (visual), haptic (tactile) )and olfactory (smell). Information that's paid attention to goes to STM, the rest decays. Crowder (1993) found that the SR only retains information in the iconic store for milliseconds, ⅔ seconds in the echoic store. This supports the idea of information being coded in different stores
STM
Info from the SR arrives in raw form e.g. visual=image, sound=repetition, somatic=meaning. Badley found participants given acoustically similar words performed worst (10% recall) as they confused similar sounding words whereas the recall for other lists was 60-80%. This suggests that there is acoustic confusion in the STM meaning information is stored in the STM on an acoustic basis.
Maximum of 30 seconds. Extended by repetition which if done long enough goes into the LTM.
Marsh et al. (1997) found if participants weren’t expecting to recall information then STM lasts 2-4 seconds. STM is affected by amount of time taken to process.
Limited capacity; between 5-9 items held. Capacity increased by chunking. Jacobs (1987) Participants were given a long list of words/letters to recall in order. Found capacity for numbers is numbers is 9 and capacity for letters is 7 maybe due to there being 9 single numbers and 20 letters A-Z.
Types of LTM
Semantic Memory
This type of LTM contains all knowledge (facts, concepts) that an individual has learned. The strength of these types of memories are accessed with LOP during coding. In general, semantic memories seem to last longer than episodic ones. Coding of these memories is largely done within the frontal and temporal lobes. Some evidence suggests that semantic LTM is stored in the hippocampus. Vicari et al. (2007) show EM and SM are separate systems using different brain areas because an 8yr old with a tumour could not create new EM but could recall semantic ones.
Procedural memory
This type of LTM is implicit. It allows you to perform tasks without thinking of them e.g. riding a bike. They are mostly formed early life as motor skills. This is also involved in language, helping individuals to speak automatically without thinking how. It allows people to simultaneously perform cognitive tasks. Procedural LTM is associated with the neocortex brain areas, cerebellum and the prefrontal cortex. Does NOT need hippocampus to function. Finke et al. a 68 yr old with amnesia couldn't remember musical facts but could still read/play music and learn new pieces.
Episodic memory
The EM gives an account of personal events in your life e.g. your birthday. The strength of EM depends on the emotions felt at the time. Traumatic events are remembered well. This type of memory helps distinguish between reality and imagination. The prefrontal cortex is associated with the initial coding while storage is linked to the neocortex. Each episode is linked in the hippocampus to form complete memories. Tulving (1989) found a difference in cortical blood flow patterns suggesting EP and SM involve brain areas.
WMM
Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they called working memory. They argue that the picture of short-term memory (STM) provided by the MSM is far too simple. WMM is STM but instead of all information going into one single store, there are different systems for different types of information. Working memory consists of a central executive which controls and coordinates the operation of two subsystems: the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch pad.
Central Executive: The brain of the model that drives the whole system (e.g. the boss of working memory) and allocates data to the subsystems (VSS & PL).
The phonological loop is the part of working memory that deals with spoken and written material. It can be used to remember a phone number. It consists of two parts:
Primary Acoustic Store (PAS) – The ‘inner ear’ linked to speech perception holds information in speech-based form (i.e. spoken words) for 1-2 seconds.
Articulatory control process (ACP) – The ‘inner voice’ inked to speech production. Used to rehearse and store verbal information from the phonological store.
Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (inner eye): Stores and processes visual and spatial (where things are) items. The VSS is used for navigation.
Evaluation
- Little is known about the central executive. It isn’t clear how it works or what it does. This vagueness means it can be used to explain almost any experimental results.
- The CE is probably better understood as a component controlling the focus of attention rather than being a memory store, unlike the PL and the VSS, which are specialised memory stores.
- Studies of the VSS use tasks that are often not encountered in everyday life so studies can be accused of being artificial and lacking mundane realism.
- PET scans show that different brain areas are active when doing verbal and visual tasks, which suggests that the PL and the VSS are separate systems, reflected in the biology of the brain
- The PL is strongly associated with the evolution of human vocal language, with the development of the slave system seen as producing a significant increase in the short-term ability to remember vocalisations. This then helped the learning of more complex language abilities, such as grammar and expressing meaning.
- As well as showing the PL and VSS to be located in different brain areas, PET scans also show brain activation in the left hemisphere of the brain with visual tasks and activation in the right hemisphere with spatial information, which further supports the idea of dividing the VSS into separate VC and IS.
- Trojani and Grossi (1995) reported a case study of SC, who had brain damage affecting the functioning of his PL but not his VSS, suggesting the PL to be a separate system.
- Baddley (1996) discovered participants found it difficult to generate lists of random numbers while simultaneously switching between pressing numbers and letters on a keyboard, suggesting the two tasks were competing for CE resources. This supports the idea of the CE being limited in capacity and only being able to cope with one type of information at a time.
- Alkhalifa (2009) reported on a patient with severely impaired LTM who demonstrated STM capacity of up to 25 items, far exceeding the capacity of both the PL and the VSS. This suggests the existence of an EB, which holds items in the WM until they’re recalled.
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