1. Memory

SQA HIGHER PSYCHOLOGY
Memory
Unit 1 – Understanding the Individual

Learning Content
The domain of cognitive psychology
The nature of memory
Models of memory
Theories of forgetting
Application of memory improvement
techniques

Getting you thinking
Read the Getting You Thinking box at the
top of page 3 in the Collins text books.
Work in pairs to discuss ideas to the questions.
Be prepared to discuss these with the class.
Read the activity box on page 4: ‘Why can’t
Clive Wearing Remember?’
Work as a group to deduce to other
explanations for Clive’s problem.
Can you now summarise three functions of
a working memory system?

What is Cognitive Psychology?
Cognitive Psychology
What is
studied?
How does it
differ from other
domains?
What are
mediators?
What is the‘information-
processing’ approach?

Ebbinghaus (1885)
How can memory be
measured and tested?
Make notes on Ebbinghaus
Nonsense Syllables:
What was Ebbinghaus trying to
find out?
How did he carry out his
research?
Why is Ebbinghaus’ work
criticised?

Memory as
Information Processing
For many the best way of understanding memory
is in terms of the three basic operations involved in
information processing in modern computers:
Encoding - Transformation of sensory input into a form
which allows it to be entered into memory.
Storage - The operation of holding or retaining
information.
Retrieval - The process by which stored information is
extracted from memory.
Although researchers do not see human memory
operating exactly the same way as a computer,
they believe that this approach can help
understand an extremely complex phenomenon.

Key Terms
What do you think is meant by the following
in terms of memory?
Capacity
Duration
Is your capacity and duration always the
same? If not, when is it different? Why do
you think this is?

What is memory?
What is Memory?
Think of a Psychological definition of what
memory actually is
Memory can be defined as ‘the retention of
information, or learning’.
Our memory holds everything we know
about ourselves and our world.

You need to know
Short-term memory (STM)
Capacity, duration and encoding
Studies of STM
Long-term memory (LTM)
Capacity, duration and encoding
Studies of LTM
Outline and evaluate two models of
memory. These are:
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Multi Store Model
Baddeley and Hitch’s Working Memory Model

Three Stores
Several theories of memory are based on the
assumption that there are 3 kinds of memory:
Sensory memory: a storage system that holds
information in an unprocessed form for fractions of a
second.
Short-term memory (STM): a temporary place for
storing information while it receives limited processing.
Long-term memory (LTM): a relatively permanent store
which has unlimited capacity and duration. Different
kinds have been identified:
episodic (memory for personal events)
semantic (memory for facts and information)
procedural (memory for actions and skills).
Can yourepresent thesethree memorystores as adiagram?

Sensory Memory
This is the first memory store in Atkinson and
Shiffrin’s Multi Store Model.
Incoming information is first stored in sensory
memory.
This is a very brief store that holds information in
its original code or modality.
Visual information is stored in a visual code.
The visual store has a duration of about 200 to
400 milliseconds.
The auditory store is thought to have a longer
duration, lasting from 1 to 2 seconds.

Questions we need to answer
What is the difference between short-term
memory and long-term memory?
Encoding
Capacity
Duration
What evidence supports the distinction
between long-term and short-term memory?
Case Study
Primacy & Regency Effects
Encoding Differences

Questions we need to answer
What models have been proposed to aid
our understanding of memory?
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Multi-store Model (1968)
Baddeley and Hitch’s Working memory Model
(1974)

STM
Short term memory is a system of storing
information for brief periods of time.
Researchers see STM in different ways, usually
depending upon the model or view of memory that
they have proposed.
There are three main questions you will need to
answer concerned with STM. These are:
How much information can we store in STM? (capacity)
How long does STM last? (duration)
How is the information stored? (encoding)
Researchers have carried out experiments to
discover the answers to these questions.

STM Capacity
The capacity of STM was investigated by
Jacobs (1886) and Miller (1956).
Using a digit span task it was found that the
capacity of STM was 7, plus or minus 2
items.
This means that we can normally fit
between 5 and 9 items in our STM, with the
average being 7.

STM Capacity
Read Box 1.24 on page 58 of the Higher
Textbook.
Complete the task as instructed.

STM Capacity
What factors can effect the capacity of the
STM?
Research this using the textbooks.
Make sure you cover the following points:
Influence of LTM
Reading aloud
Rhythmic grouping
Pronunciation time

Chunking
Chunking is when we combine individual letters or
numbers into a larger meaningful unit. For
example:
C B W Y A F
These letters are unconnected and are therefore
memorised as six separate items in STM.
IBM GAP PIN BBC ITV STM
Here, there are 18 letters, but as they are in 6
meaningful chunks, we can remember them all.
The amount stored in STM depends upon the
meaning of the chunk under consideration.

STM Capacity
Key Study
Baddeley et al. 1975
Read about Baddeley’s study.
Discuss: What were they trying to find out? How did
they go about it? What did they find out? How can we
evaluate this study?
Complete an APFCE form

Recap
How many memory stores are there?
Can you name them all?
What capacity does STM have?
What is a chunk of information
thought to be?
What do we mean by duration &
encoding in terms of memory?

Duration & Encoding
We have already discussed the capacity of
STM and some studies on this.
Using WS4 and IS4, answer the questions
on capacity.
Answer the rest of the questions on WS4
using IS4 and the textbooks to help you.
Whenever it asks you to make a record of the
aims, procedures, findings and conclusions of a
study, complete a KEY STUDY worksheet.

Recap
LTM
STM
EncodingDurationCapacity

Recap
Encoding in LTM
is mainly
semantic, as
proved by
Baddeley.
The duration of LTM
has been proved to
be at least 48 years
for some memories.
This was proved by
Bahrick.
The capacity of
LTM is infinite. This
has not been
proved, as capacity
of LTM is
immeasurable.
LTM
STM
predominantly
uses acoustic or
phonological
coding, as
proved by
Baddeley.
The duration of STM
is about 20 seconds.
This was proved by
Peterson and
Peterson (1959).
The capacity of
STM is 7 +/- 2
items. This was
proved by Jacobs
& Miller with a digit
span task
STM
EncodingDurationCapacity

Models
There are two models of memory which we
will look at.
These are:
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi store model
Baddeley and Hitch’s working memory model
For each model you will need to be able to
describe and evaluate the model

Multi Store Model
Sensory
memory
LTMSTM
Attention Rehearsal
Forgotten through:
Decay
Displacement
Forgotten through:
Retrieval cue failure
Interference

Multi Store Model
This model distinguishes between short-term
memory (STM) and long term memory (LTM).
Incoming information is stored initially in sensory
memory.
This information is then encoded into STM.
This store is short lived, and information held in it
will quickly be forgotten.
If information is rehearsed, it is refreshed in the
short term store, or transferred into the long term
store.

Multi Store Model
Support
The main assumption of the two process theory is that
there are two separate stores of memory; STM and
LTM.
Evidence to support this distinction is therefore also
evidence to support this model.
There are four main areas of research that have found
evidence for two stores. These are:
Studies into capacity, duration and encoding of STM and LTM
Brain damaged patients
The primacy and recency effect
Evidence for rehearsal

Multi Store Model
Support
Studies into capacity, duration and encoding of
STM and LTM have found that these two stores
have different characteristics, suggesting
therefore that there must be two stores.
Do you know any examples of these?

Multi Store Model
Support
A second type of evidence to support the idea
of two distinct stores comes from
neuropsychological studies on brain damaged
patients.
These people have impaired memories, but the
impairment appears to affect one store only, the
other store of memory appears relatively intact.
This suggests that not only are STM and LTM
different in nature, but that they occupy different
areas in the brain, because if one area of the brain
gets damaged, then only one store gets damaged.

Multi Store Model
Support
The third type of evidence comes from the
primacy/recency effect.
You will hear a list of words. When finished, you
should write down as many of the words as you
can remember in any order.

Primacy / Recency Effect
Serial Position Curve
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Position of word in list
Numberofpeoplewhorecalled
word

Primacy / Recency Effect
This is where if participants are asked to
memorise a long list of words,
they will recall the words at the beginning of the list and
the words at the end better than those in the middle.
This is because words at the end are still in STM,
and words at the beginning are in LTM, as they
were rehearsed, but words in the middle were
neither rehearsed (due to time pressures), nor are
they still in the short term store, as this only lasts
for 20 seconds, so they are forgotten.
Complete the Activity Box on p14 of Collins.

Multi Store Model
Evidence from rehearsal studies
How can Peterson and Peterson’s study into
the duration of STM provide support for the
multi store model?
It highlights rehearsal is the key aspect for
recall, if rehearsal is prevented, the information
does not transfer to LTM and is forgotten. It
therefore supports the MSM as it suggests that
rehearsal is the key to transfer of information -
as this model claims.

Multi Store Model
Can you think of any criticisms?
Atkinson and Shiffrin's two process model is too
simplistic
The model fails to take account of factors such
as the strategies we use to remember things
It is accused of being more interested in the
capacity that can be processed rather than the
nature of memory.

Multi Store Model
Can you think of any criticisms?
It focuses upon structure rather than the
processes involved.
The claim that rehearsal is the only route to
LTM from STM is also criticized.
Doubt has also been cast upon the assumption
that STM is a unitary store with a severely
limited capacity. Baddeley and Hitch’s claimed
this was a major limitation of this model.

Working Memory
How many radiators are there in your house?
How did you do this?
Most people:
imagined each room (a visualisation task).
counted each radiator (using internal speech sounds)
arrived at the answer
To be successful, different pieces of information
had to be processed and held in your memory at
the same time in order to put the whole together.

Working Memory
Baddeley and Hitch suggested that STM contains
all the ideas we are currently considering in our
conscious mind.
Their model comprises a central executive (the
controller), and two interlinking subsystems (slave
systems).
They proposed that this system of memory was an
active processor.
As such, we should think of STM as a much more
active store than Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed in
their model.

Working Memory Model
It is the central executive that deals with the many
different types of information. It is involved with
tasks such as deciding what to do next, and
solving problems.
The subsystems each deal with a different type of
information. What are these? Add to your diagram.
Central
Executive
Phonological
Loop
Visuo-spatial
Scratchpad

Working Memory Model
At any given time, the subsystems can be used for
different tasks. These stores can be used at the
same time.
Sometimes the subsystems combine upon a task.
Baddeley believed there are further subsystems to
be identified and argued that one of the goals of
research was to discover as many of them as
possible.
It is important to realise that this model of working
memory is a model of short term memory.
It does not describe the long term memory component
at all.

Evaluating Working Memory
Strengths
One central aspect of this model is the assumption that
short term memory is not unitary.
What does this mean?
It consists of separate stores that deal with different types of
information, working at the same time as each other.
Suggests that our STM capacity may be larger than
Atkinson and Shiffrin suggested, even though each type
of store is limited.
Evidence that supports these separate categories within
short term memory is also evidence to support the
working memory model.
Conrad and Hull (1964), Frick (1984), Baddeley and Lieberman
(1980), Salame and Baddeley (1982).

Strengths
Frick (1984) found that digits or words stored in
STM did not have to be recoded into an auditory
form, but could be held visually.
This supports the presence of a store that is
short term and holds visual and spatial
information (the VSSP).

What criticisms can you think of?
The model does not focus upon LTM, it only
provides a model for half the story!
The model does not explain how information is
recalled.
The model does not adequately explain how
this information is transferred to LTM
There may be one unitary store for STM
think of all the support for this idea for Atkinson and
Shiffrin.
The studies that support this model are mainly
artificial lab experiments that lack ecological
validity.

Check your understanding
Collins page 19
Answer questions 1-8 & 10
Extension Reading
Read the interview with Dr Philip Beaman on
page 18 of Collins.

1. Memory

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1. Memory