Memory Revision Notes

Memory Revision

Memory Processes:

Encoding- placing information into the memory store. Must pay ATTENTION for info to be encoded
Storage- info must be kept in memory. Memory for skills eg. riding a bike (procedural), facts( semantic) or memories (episodic). Semantic and episodic together is called DECLARATIVE memory. Remembering how info is acquired- EXPLICIT. Not remembering how info is acquired- IMPLICIT.
Retrieval- ability to recall info when it is needed.

Short term memory:

Capacity of STM- Baddeley et al.

to see if people could remember more short than long words in a serial recall test.
Pps reading speed was measured
pps presented with 5 words on a screen. Words were taken from 1 of 2 sets; either a set of one syllable words or a set of polysyllabic words.
pps asked to write down the 5 words in serial oder immediately after presentation
pps could recall considerably more short words that long
able to recall as many words as they could say in about 2 seconds
strong positive correlation between reading speed and memory span ie immediate memory span represents no. of items that can be said in about 2 seconds
short words MAY be easier to recall as more familiar
lack of realism (lab experiment, lists of unconnected words)

Duration of STM- Peterson and Peterson

test how long STM lasts when rehearsal is prevented
pps briefly shown a consonant trigram, then asked to count backwards in 3's from specified number to stop rehearsal
after intervals of 3,6,9,12,15 and 18 seconds, asked to recall original trigram
procedure repeated several times with different trigrams
pps able to recall about 80% of trigrams after 3 seconds
less trigrams remembered as time intervals increased ie STM only able to hold a few items at once and for a brief period of time. Anything needed to be remembered for longer must be transferred to LTM
preventing rehearsal by interference task, recall poorer

Encoding in STM- Baddeley

To explore effects of acoustic and semantic encoding in STM
pps divided into 4 groups. each group heard list of 5 words drawn from one of these categories; acoustically similar/dissimilar words, semantically similar/dissimilar words
immediately after hearing words, asked to recall them in correct order. Procedure carried out 4 times
Acoustically similar words harder to recall in correct order (5%) than disimilar (75%)
causal link can be drawn
STM may use other forms of encoding

Duration of LTM- Bahrick et al

to estabilish the existence of VLTM and see if there was difference between recognition and recall
Investigators tracked down graduates from American high school over 50 year period.
392 graduates shown photographs from high school yearbook
recognition group- pps given group of names, recall group- simply asked to name the people
in recognition: 90% correct after 14 years of graduation, 60% after 47 years, in recall group; 60% after 7 years, 20% after 47 years
study…