1. The process of storing and retrieving information.
Cognitive Psychology
What is “Memory”?
The process of storing and retrieving information.
Topic: MODELS OF MEMORY
1. The Multi-Store Model (Atkinson & Shiffrin, ‘68)

2. Check you can… Describe the key features of the model
Describe encoding, capacity, and duration, AND evidence relating to: SM
STM
LTM
Explain strengths & weaknesses of the model

3. What’s a “model”? Not an exact copy, but a representation of something
Helps us understand how something works

4. The Multi-Store Model of Memory

5. Key Features of the MSM 3 different types of memory
“CAPACITY”: how much info this store can retain
3 different types of memory
Model describes these as “memory stores”
SM, STM, & LTM
Any stimulus you come across has been in one or more of these stores – in this sequence!
Each store retains a different amount of info, in a different way, and for a different length of time
“DURATION”: how long this store can retain info for
“ENCODING”: the form in which the memory is retained

6. For us to remember a piece of info well, we need to:
Pay attention to it
This gets it from the SM to the STM
Rehearse it
Maintenance rehearsal keeps it in our STM
Elaborative rehearsal can get it to our LTM

7. Sensory Memory
Encoding

8. visual info from the eyes –things you SEE. Stored as images.
The SM takes info from one of the sense organs and holds it in that same form
“ECHOIC MEMORY”: auditory input from the ears – things you HEAR. Stored as sounds.
“ICONIC MEMORY”:
visual info from the eyes –things you SEE. Stored as images.
“HAPTIC MEMORY”: tactile input from the body – things you’ve TOUCHED. Stored as feelings.

9. Sensory Memory
Capacity & Duration

10. Testing Iconic SM
The next slide demonstrates your iconic sensory memory at work!
Keep your eyes fixed on the slide and concentrate!!

11. 7 1 V F X L 5 3 B 4 W

12. How many letters can you recall?
This was based on an experiment by Sperling (1960):
Presented a grid of letters for less than a second
People recalled on average 4 letters
Although, when Sperling used “partial report” technique…
…showed that iconic memory held up to 10 items!
But decays before we can report them all 
Duration:
Info decays within about 2 secs (or less)

13. Short Term Memory
Encoding & Capacity
Click Here to Continue

14. Activity 1 - Encoding in STM
You will need a pen/pencil and paper.
When you go to the next page, you will be presented with a sequence of letters, which will appear in the centre of the screen one after another.
Try to memorise the letters in sequence as they are presented.
ONLY when you see the word NOW appear, write the letters down in the same order as they were presented.

15. B E G V D P T C
NOW

16. How many did you get? - answers below.
B D T G C P E V
Remember, to count as correct, the letters must be in the correct sequence.
Now try it again!!

17. W F M A L R Z Q
NOW

18. How did you do this time? - answers below
W L F Z M Q R A
If you did better, this fits in with previous findings…
Conrad (1964) first did this experiment
Visually presented students with letters one at a time
Found that: letters which are acoustically similar (rhyming) are harder to recall from STM than those which are acoustically dissimilar (non-rhyming)
This suggests that STM mainly encodes things acoustically (as sounds), even though the items were presented visually.

19. Activity 2: Capacity of STM
As before, you will need a pen/pencil and a piece of scrap paper.
When you go to the next page, you will be presented with a sequence of numbers, which will appear in the centre of the screen at one second intervals.
Try to memorise the numbers in sequence as they are presented, but DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING DOWN.
When you see the word “NOW” appear, write the numbers down in the same order as they were presented (serial recall)

20. 4 3 8 6 2 1 9 5 7
NOW

21. How did you do? - see below
Miller (1956): the STM can hold ‘the magic number seven, plus or minus two’
On average, the capacity of STM is between 5 and 9 items of information.

22. Activity 3: Extending STM Capacity
When you go to the next page, you will be presented with a line of letters across the screen.
Memorise as many of the letters as you can but do not write anything until the word NOW appears.
When you see the word NOW appear on the screen, write down on your paper as many of the letters as you can remember, in the same order as they were presented.

23. G C E B T E C G C S E G N V Q A S
NOW

24. Could you remember more this time?
Now try it again!!

25. GCE BTEC GCSE GNVQ AS
NOW

26. You probably did better this time - Answers below
You probably did better this time - Answers below. GCE BTEC GCSE GNVQ AS Why might this be? – (apart from having seen the stimulus material twice, an example of the practice effect).
Miller (56) found that the capacity of STM could be considerably increased by combining/organising separate ‘bits’ of information, e.g. letters or digits, into larger chunks.
Chunking involves making the info more meaningful, through organising it in line with existing knowledge from your LTM - in this case, of abbreviations for qualifications.

27. Short Term Memory
Duration

28. How long can you retain a new phone number before you have to write it down?
…if you didn’t rehearse it?
The duration for which STM can retain info is temporary – a very short time
Not much research interest of this aspect, but…
…some findings suggest only a few seconds before it fades/decays (unless we rehearse it)

29. Activity: duration of STM
This next experiment was first carried out by married couple Peterson & Peterson (1959)
Got students to recall combinations of 3 letters (trigrams), after longer and longer intervals.
During the intervals, students were prevented from rehearsing by a counting task!
On the next screen, you will see a trigram for a few seconds.
A 3-digit number will then appear in its place. When this happens, start counting backwards in 3’s from the number until you are told to stop.
Pens down….ready?

30. 303
V J P

31. 419
X G A

32. 297
K Z Y

33. After 18secs, fewer than 10% recalled correctly.
Their findings suggest that our STM fades in under a half a minute if we are not rehearsing it:
After 18secs, fewer than 10% recalled correctly.
After only 3secs, 80% recalled correctly.
Recall got progressively
worse as the delay
grew longer!

34. The Long Term Memory
Encoding

35. Activity: encoding in LTM
Try to memorise them in order, and wait for the word “NOW!” before you write…

36. SLEEP
YAWN
DREAM
NOW!
SLUMBER
DOZE
KIP
SNORE
REST
NAP
SNOOZE

37. Now write down as many as you can remember.
You should have done ok, as you were using your STM
Based on Baddeley (1966)
Presented lists of 10 short words one at a time
Some lists were semantically similar, others not
Tested immediately & then after 20 min delay
Found that after 20 mins, they did poorly on the semantically similar words
This suggests that we encode LTMs according to what they mean – so we get similar-meaning things confused!
Encoding in LTM is “semantic” – meaning-based

38. The Long Term Memory
Capacity & Duration

39. Easy! Capacity = potentially unlimited.
Duration = anything up to a lifetime. (minutes to years)
Difficult to test exact duration, but…
Bahrick et al. (1975) tested US graduates
Shown classmate photos years later
90% accuracy for remembering faces & names 34yrs after graduation
Declined after 48yrs, particularly for faces

40. Summary – Fill in the blanks!
Iconic
Processes
Sense
Decay
Short
Store
Seven
Unlimited
Rehearsed
Semantic
Organs
Sensory
Structure
Seconds (x2)
Lifetime
Attention
Duration
Long
Acoustic

41. Evaluation of the Model
Evidence
Strengths & Weaknesses of the evidence
Flaws
Alternatives

42. Experimental Evidence
Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)
Read out list of words to Ps
Asked them to recall as many as poss.
Findings: recalled more from start and end of list
Supports the idea of there being a separate STM & LTM, because…

43. The “serial position effect”: (Glanzer & Cunitz, ’66)
“PRIMACY EFFECT”:
these words were the first heard- they’ve been rehearsed, so we can recall them from our LTM
“RECENCY EFFECT”:
these words are the most recently heard - so we can recall them as they’re still in our STM

44. Case Study Evidence
Several cases of patients who have suffered brain damage to their hippocampus & have memory deficits:
H.M.
Clive Wearing
Their memory loss tends to be selective
This again supports the idea of separate stores for different types of memory

45. Brain Scanning Research
“REMEMBER NEW INFORMATION” – the hippocampus is active during this task, which requires your LTM
MRI scans show which parts of the brain are being used when certain tasks are carried out:
“MAKE A DECISION” -
the prefrontal lobes are active now, when using your STM
These findings back up the existence of different stores for different memories

46. Tasks (using sheets & CfE Textbook):
Draw and label your own version of the MSM.
Explain what a model is.
What can be said about the encoding, capacity & storage of STM?
Explain Miller’s research (1956).
In what 3 ways can information be lost from STM? Explain how this works.
How is information in LTM encoded?
How does retrieval occur?
What support/strengths is there for this model?
What are the limitations of this model?