Memory MODELS OF MEMORY Multistore Model Atkinson and

Memory MODELS OF MEMORY

Multi-store Model Atkinson and Shifrin, 1968 – Memory stores are separate and distinct Sensory Memory Attention Short Term Memory Retrieval Rehearsal Long Term Memory Rehearsal Sensory memory is the memory of information gained through the 5 senses. Most of this information is immediately forgotten and doesn’t make it to the STM.

Scoville and Milner, 1957 Aim – Study the effects of brain damage on behaviour. Method & Procedure – Case study of HM (1953) Surgeons removed his hippocampus dues to severe epilepsy. Results – Behaviour and personality remained the same but memory was affected. 90 second memory span and no memory of the 10 years before his operation. His semantic & procedural memory remained. STM intact. Provides support for a physiological multi store model. Hippocampus place of transfer between STM and LTM? Do you remember Clive Wearing? He also supports the idea for separate stores.

Evaluation Oversimplified – doesn't consider the different stores for the different kinds of LTM (episodic, procedural and semantic). Only proposes that information is retained via rehearsal. There are other ways of retaining information, Craik and Lockhart, 1972, suggested that processing was also a factor. Craik and Tulvig , 1975. Ppt given a list of words and asked questions about each (rhyme, capitals, meaning). Ppts recalled more words which they had processed for meaning.

Further support Glanzer and Cunitz, 1966 – primacy(LTM) and recency effect (STM). Beardsley, 1997 – Prefrontal cortex active during immediate memory tasks. Squire, et al, 1992 – hippocampus active when LTM engaged.

Issues arising from Exit Passes Baddeley, 1996 – mistakes show encoding? Multi store model? No specific questions Encoding process? No specific questions Jacobs, 1887? NSQ Hippocampus

Working Memory Model of Memory Baddeley and Hitch, 1974. Focuses on STM (working memory) Believes that STM is a number of different stores.

The Model http: //www. simplypsychology. org/working%20 memory. html Acts like attention and focuses appropriate ‘slave system’ Has a limited capacity 1. Phonological Store 2. Articulatory Process Slave Systems Added by Baddeley in 2000

Baddeley and Hitch 1976 Can different components of the working memory work at the same time? Participants (12 students) given 2 tasks to do at the same time: A verbal reasoning task + no task (control condition) Verbal reasoning + repetition of single word (requires the control executive to be working on 2 tasks) Verbal reasoning + recalling a 6 digit number (requires the central executive to be working on 2 more complex tasks) The more complex the task became the longer it took participants to complete the task. However, that participants didn’t make any mistakes in the tasks - providing support for the working memory model. (That there is more than one component to STM).

Evaluation – Advantages Active process: It sees memory as an active process and not merely a passive store. This is in keeping with more modern views of memory that don’t see it as a ‘thing’ but a function or process. Rehearsal: It only considers rehearsal to be important in the phonological loop. It is widely considered that the multi-store model does place too great an emphasis on rehearsal in transferring information to STM. PET scans (Positron Emission Tomography), show that different parts of the brain are active when different parts of the system are in use. This provides further evidence for distinct components. The central executive seems to reside in the frontal cortex and the scratch pad in the right side of the occipital lobe, known to be associated with vision. Amnesiac case studies: A single component STM is unable to explain the case of KF, who, following a motorbike accident suffered impairment of his STM. Shallice & Warrington (1974) showed that although his memory for verbal material was poor his memory for visual information was unaffected. In terms of the working memory model this can be explained by damage to the articulatory loop but with the sketchpad remaining intact. Baddeley (1986) found that patients with damage to their frontal lobe had problems concentrating suggesting damage to the central executive.

Evaluation - Disadvantages Very little is known about the central executive. Elsinger & Domasio (1985) studied a man who suffered trauma following the removal of a brain tumour. Although his IQ was still high and he could cope well with interference during memory tasks he was quite unable to make decisions. The fact that some functions associated with the CE were intact whereas others were impaired provides evidence for the CE being a collection of separate components. Baddeley (2001) added the episodic buffer making the model more complex. This suggests again that the model is not complete and may need still further revision as more evidence is uncovered.