Memory (1)
What is a semantic memory?
memories of facts ir knowledge of the world
what is a procedural memory?
your memory of how to do something
what are episodic memories?
your memories of a time in your life
what are the 3 types of Long Term Memories?
Semantic
Procedural
Episodic
outline the theory or reconstructive memory? (4 points)
- Memory is an active process
- we remember the overall meaning of an event, not specific details
- gaps in our memory are filled by our own cultural experiences or stereotypes
- for example, Bartletts war of the ghost study
what is interference?
a piece of information damaging your ability to recall another piece of information or changing a previously held memory
what is proactive interference?
old information interfering with new information and making it harder to remember
what is retroactive interference
new information interfering with old information and making it harder to remember
when is interference more likely?
when the pieces of information are similar
what is the encoding for the long term memory?
semantic encoding : encoding based on its meaning rather than sensory input
what are the capacity and duration of the long term memory?
both are unlimited
how do you get something from the short term memory to long term memory?
prolongued rehearsal, which is thinking about it repeatedly over a long period of time
how do you get something to stay in the short term memory?
maintenance rehearsal loop, which is mentally rehearsing the information over a short period of time
what is the capacity of the short term memory?
7, give or take 2
what is the duration of a piece of information in the short term memory?
30s
what is the capacity of the sensory register?
unlimited
what is the duration of the sensory register?
half a second
what is the encoding for short term memory?
acoustic - you remember things based on how they sound
how do you move something from thw sensory register to the stm?
by payong attention to it
outline murdocks serial postition curve study
A- to see wether word order affected recall
M- participants read lists of different words and were asked to repeat them to the experimenter
R- participants recalled more words at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect)
C - stm duration is 30 sec, primacy effect happens due to the words being rehearsed in your head therefore transferred to ltm, whereas recency effect happens as theyre still in the STM
weakness of murdocks study (pea)
p - lab study
e -mundane realism, artificial task
a - no real world application
strength of murdocks study (pea)
p- lab study therefore no extraneous variables
e - we can be sure the word order affected recall as there was no other distractions
a - high internal validity, accurate
outline bartletts war of the ghost study
A- to investigate how memory of an unfamiliar story is affected by cultural experiences
M - british participants were given a native american story, then after a short time were asked to recall the story, however each participant got the recalled story of the ppt before them. this was repeated x10
R - he found that most remembered the overall plot if the story however some parts were omitted and some changed to fit their iwn culture, eg canoes was changed to boats and relative to mother
C- how stories are remembered depends on culture and schemas
weakness of bartletts study (pea)2
p- used non - numerical data
e - makes the study open to investigator bias
a- lowers internal validity
p- ppts werent given standardised instructions
e- they may habe misinterpreted the task and not tried hard to remember the original story as they may have thought theyre allowed ti rewrite it their own way
a- lowers internal validity
one strength of the MSM (pea)
p- research supports different types of encoding for stm and ltm
e- baddley's study showed people mix up acoustically similar words immediately (in stm) and semantically similar after 20min or more (in ltm)
a - stm encodes acoustically and ltm semantically which adds validity to msm
Outline the Multi-store model
- consists of 3 stages: sensory register,stm,ltm
- sensory register encodes using 5 senses, large capacity, 0.5s duration
- ATTENTION PAID causes move to stm which encodes acoustically, capacity 5-9, duration 18-30s,maintenance rehearsal loop keeps in stm longer
- PROLONGUED REHEARSAL moves info to ltm. unlimited capacity, lifelong duration, encode semantically
one weakness of the MSM
p- oversimplified
e- names the LTM as one memory store however theres 3 dif types of ltm (semantic,episodic,procedural)
ignores visual encoding & only names one type for each store
a- incomplete theory
how does context affect memory
- if you encode in one context its easier to recall in the same context
- due to context cues as they trigger recall
- diver study: learned words on land or in water. those on land who recalled on land recalled better than those who learned words in water = context affects recall
what is a false memory (explain+ study for short evaluation)
- when someone remembers something differently to how it happened, or something that never happened at all.
-this can be as a result of leading questions, as memory is reconstructive meaning we use real info as well as expectation and suggestion from others may interfere.
- Loftus& Pickrell 'lost in a mall' study aimed to see if false memories can be created thru suggestion
- 24 ppts 21F3M , relative of each was asked ab their childhood experiences, ppts were told 4 stories from their childhood, 3 true 1 false and asked to write what they remember feom each event, after 2 weeks asked about the memories
- 25% claimed the fake memory as one of their own childhood memories
- shows theory has research support
+ helped improving eyewitness testimonies and reducing use of leading questions
- unethical
what is encoding
information translated into a form so that it can be held in your brain
weakness of theory of reconstructive memory
p- underestimates the accuracy of memory- not all memories are reconstructed
e- meaningful and distinct memories are more likely to be remembered completely accurately
a- this suggests memory isnt always heavily reconstructed & theory oversimplifies memory
strength of theory of recinstructive memory
p- research support
e - bartletts war if the ghost study, unfamiliar story, details were changed to fit participants own cultural expectations
a- shows memories are rebuilt using schemas, therefore supports the validity of the theory
outline baddeleys study of encoding
A- to investigate how different memory stores encode
M- lab study, 4 independent groups of ppts
all given 2 lists of words (acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically dimilar, semantically dissimilar)
R- participants mixed up acoustically similar words during recall straight away (so in stm)
and semantically similar words after 20 min (so in ltm)
C- Stm encodes acoustically, ltm encodes semantically
strength of baddeleys study of encoding
p- lab experiment
e- replicable, iv (the way in which the words were similar/dissimilar) affected dv (how soon the participants got their words confused)
a- high internal validity
weakness of baddeleys stufy of encoding
p- artificial task
e- youll never have to remember 2 lists of acoustically similar words, not realistic day2day, lacks mundane realism
a- low ecological validity