Models of memory

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• Models of memory
• The Multi-Store model including the concepts of
  encoding capacity and duration.
• Strengths and Weaknesses of the model
• The working memory model
• Strengths and weaknesses of the working memory
  model
• Memory in everyday life
• Eyewitness testimony
• factors affecting the accuracy of EWT, including
  anxiety, age of witness
• Misleading information and the use of the
  cognitive interview
• Strategies for memory improvement

2
AS AQA A Cognitive Psychology

• Lesson FOUR
• Factors affecting encoding and Evaluating the
  Multi-Store Model!

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Lesson Objective

• By the end of this lesson, you should be able to
• Describe what is meant by encoding in LTM
• Evaluate the Multi-Store Model of Memory

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Key Words

• Encoding
• Acoustic
• Visual
• Semantic

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Link to last lesson

• Answer the following questions
• How are the concepts of capacity and duration
  applied to STM stores?
• What factors affect capacity and duration in STM?
  
• How have they have been measured?

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Link to last lessonEye on the exam

• Below is a table summarising the main differences
  between short term memory and long term memory.
  Complete the table.
  (2 marks)

STM LTM
Capacity
Duration
Encoding Mainly acoustic Mainly semantic
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Discuss with the person next to you

• The photo/item that you have brought in.
• What do you think are the main details that help
  you remember your first memory?
• Our brain has a few different ways of
  transferring information from STM to LTM

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When information arrives in sensory memory

• E.g. Visual image or acoustic sound
• Sensory store has separate stores for different
  modalities (sensory experience such as vision,
  sound, touch)
• Atkinson Shiffrin STM as a unitary store (no
  separate compartments)
• So what happens to the stimulus once it arrives
  in STM.

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Likely that it is recoded..

• Into a form that STM can recognise and manipulate
• Three main types of encoding used in STM
• Acoustic Coding (hearing/sounds) (main way)
• Visual Coding (seeing/pictures/shapes)
• Semantic Coding (meaningful experiences)

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Much of the evidence on encoding

• Comes from studies into substitution errors
• When using a particular code, people may confuse
• items that sound alike acoustic code
• Items that look similar visual code
• Items that mean the same thing semantic code

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Evidence for types of Coding in STM Conrad (1964)

• Consonants flashed very quickly in random
  sequence onto a screen
• Two conditions
• Acoustically similar B, G, C, D, T, V
• Acoustically dissimilar F, J, X, M, L, R
• Participants asked to write down consonants in
  the correct serial order

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Evidence for types of Coding in STM Conrad (1964)

• Findings
• Ps made errors in substituting similar-sounding
  letters in the similar condition
• So.
• Conclusion
• We convert visual information into acoustic code
  in STM and we then find it difficult to
  distinguish between words that sound the same
  there is acoustic confusion

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Methodological Issues in Conrad (1964)

• Lab Experiment Strengths Weaknesses?
• Artificial stimuli
• Ethics Informed consent and debriefing

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Posner Keele (1967)Do the letters have the
same name?

• B
• b
• B
• B
• A
• B
• A
• a

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Condition 2

• D
• d
• G
• G
• H
• H
• I
• J

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Posner Keele (1967)

• People took longer to respond to B b than B B
  if the delay between the two letters was less
  than 1.5 seconds.
• Conclusions Visual code had been stored in STM
  for a brief period and is soon translated into an
  acoustic code
• So STM codes.

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Encoding in LTM

• Remember the first memory task at the beginning
  of the lesson?
• What helped you remember this?
• What does this memory mean to you?
• Encoding in LTM mainly semantic based on the
  meaning of what is experienced

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Baddeley (1966) Try and memorise the following
words

• Then write down in serial order
• List 1 man map can cap
• List 2 try pig hut pen
• List 3 great big huge wide
• List 4 run easy tug end
• Did you notice anything?
• Whose research does this support?

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Baddeley (1966) modified to test LTM

• He extended word lists from 5 to 10 and prevented
  rehearsal by interrupting Ps after each
  presentation.
• Each list presented x4 and recall tested after 20
  minute interval
• FINDINGS Acoustic similarity had no effect on
  recall. Words similar in meaning were poorly
  recalled
• CONCLUSION LTM codes..

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Methodological Issues

• Laboratory experiment S Ws
• However familiar words rather than consonants
  (like who used)!
• Ethics informed consent and debriefing

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Application to real life

• Peter was trying to remember the name of his
  first teacher at primary school without success.
  Then his mother managed to find a class photo
  which she showed Peter. The name of his teacher
  then popped into his mind. Explain why was Peter
  was suddenly able to remember.
• 5 minutes

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Test your LTM

• Can you imagine what this might sound like?
  (Acoustic)
• Can you imagine this place? (Visual)
• So this suggests that semantic coding is not the
  only type in LTM.

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Evaluating the Multi-Store Model of Memory sort
task

• The strengths and weaknesses on the handout have
  been jumbled up
• You need to put them into the correct category
  (strength or weakness) and
• Match the evidence to each point!

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Check you understanding

• Using your textbook write a response to the
  following claim
• The multi-store model was very influential at
  one time but it has outlived its usefulness.
• Do you agree, if so what evidence is there?

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Eye on the exam

• The multi-store model of memory has been
  criticised in many ways. The following example
  illustrates a possible criticism.
• Some students read through their revision notes
  lots of times before an exam but still find it
  difficult to remember the information. However
  the same students can remember the information in
  a celebrity magazine even though they read it
  only once.
• Explain why this can be used as a criticism of
  the multi-store model. ((((((((4 marks))))))))

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M-SM Memory fill in the blanks

• The model arose from the information processing
  approach where memory is characterised as a flow
  of information through a system. The system is
  divided into a set of stages and information
  passes through each stage in a fixed sequence.
• There are capacity and duration limitations at
  each stage.
• Transfer of information between stages may
  require re-coding.
• External stimuli from the environment first enter
  sensory memory, where they can be registered for
  very brief periods of time before decaying (i.e.
  fading away) or (if given attention) being passed
  onto the short term store.
• STM contains only the small amount of information
  that is actually in active use at any one time.
  Information is usually encoded acoustically at
  this stage.
• Memory traces in STM are fragile and can be lost
  within about 30 seconds, through displacement or
  decay, unless they are repeated (rehearsed).
• Material that is rehearsed is passed onto the
  long term store where it can remain for a
  lifetime, although loss is possible from this
  store through decay, retrieval failure or
  interference.
• Coding in LTM is assumed to be in terms of
  meaning, i.e. semantic.

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HomeworkEye on the exam
Outline and evaluate the multi-store model of
memory (12 marks)