MULTIPLE MEMORY SYSTEMS
- Major theories in memory research
- A structural view of memory -- the modal model, 1960s, 1970s
- A processing view of memory, 1970s-
- A systems view of memory -- multiple memory systems, 1980s-
- A structural view of memory, the modal model
- Waugh and Norman (1965), probe digit task, prevent rehearsal
- Primary and secondary memory, see Fig. 1-2
- Atkinson and Shiffrin's multistore model (1968), see Fig. 2-1
- Flow of information between three interrelated stores
- Sensory store -> short-term store <-> long-term store
- Sensory store: iconic memory, < 500 ms
- STS: a combination of the idea of primary memory with the computer metaphor of memory
- limited capacity
- short duration
- primarily verbal in nature
- a buffer where information could be temporarily stored
- STS: phonological coding
- LTS: semantic coding
- The serial position curve
- The most systematic body of evidence favouring the idea of STS and LTS comes from exp
using free recall task (serial presentation of items for about 2s each, S is asked to recall the
items in any order)
- Recency: the high level of recall found for the last few items in the list
- Primacy: enhanced recall found for the first few items in the list
- Functional double dissociation, 3 Fig. (Parkin, 1993, page 16, 17)
- Variations in word frequency, presentation rate, list length, affected primacy, but not
recency, see Fig. 2-2
- Distraction affect recency but not primacy, see Fig. 2-3
- amnesic patient: impaired recall of earlier items, but normal recency, see Fig. 2-4
- A processing view of memory
- Craik and Lockhart (1972) offered the 1st detailed view suggesting that processing was more
important than the underlying theoretical structure.
- Conceptualized memory as the result of successive series analyses, each at a deeper level
than the previous one.
- The deeper the level, the more durable the resulting memory
- The level of processing view assumes that rehearsal can be relatively unimportant
- Most informative research will occur when the experimenter has control over the processing
- use of incidental learning procedure
- Hyde and Jenkins's experiment (1973)
- Design
- To-be-remembered items were 24 common words
- Free recall
- Groups differed primarily in the orienting instructions
- checking the words for the presence of E or G
- identifying the part of speech
- rate the frequency
- rate the pleasantness
- control group: told to remember the words for a later test
- Groups also differed in whether they were told in advance of the free recall test
- Results, see Fig. 2-5 (Neath, 1998, page 113)
- the deeper the level of processing, the more words were recalled
- incidental pleasantness condition recalled as many as the intentional control condition
- little difference between the incidental and intentional groups for the same orienting
instructions