Study Design Dot Point: Comparison of models for explaining human memory

The Atkinson-Shiffrin Multi-Store Model of Memory

A model of memory is used to represent, describe and explain memory, its components and processes. Often diagrams are used to represent the movement of information from one store to another.

A Diagram of the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

You should be able to visualise this model in your visuo-spatial sketchpad and reproduce it at will!

According to the Atkinson-Shiffrin model, memory has three components. Each stores, encodes and processes information in varying ways:

the sensory register Sensory information that

is not attended to is lost for ever. Information attended to in this register passes to ... from the sensory register and information retrieved from the long-term store. Rehearsal allows storage in ...

the short-term store Holds limited information

the long-term store Permanently held

information, in a store with essentially unlimited capacity

Structural features of the

Atkinson-Shirin Model

This means the permanent, built-in or xed features of memory Structural features include:

the three dierent stores the function of each store - that is, the role it plays in human memory each components storage capacity the duration of time that information is held

Control features of the Atkinson-Shirin Model

These vary from individual to individual - we can choose. For instance, you can choose what you pay attention to and therefore what passes from the sensory register to the short-term register Rehearsal is also under individual control; it determines how long information is held in the short-term store and whether it is passed on to the long-term store Retrieval is another control process. The method we use to access information is chosen by us.

SUMMARY: The Atkinson-Shiffrin Model is based on and supported by substantial research. It is still useful in understanding memory, but it has been developed and challenged. There are now believed to be several sensory registers, possibly one for each sense. Short-term memory is now considered to be more complex than it was believed to be by Atkinson and Shririn. It is now seen as a number of separate, interacting components, not a single store. Long-term memory is no longer seen as one system, but as several sub-systems or stores - procedural (implicit), declarative (explicit), which includes episodic and semantic, etc. There is more focus now on how we not only retrieve memories but reconstruct them in the process.

Criticisms of the Atkinson-Shirin Model

The concept of the sequenced ow of informa5on through sensory, STM and nally LTM is now believed to be more complex than proposed by Atkinson and Shirin. Some believe this model was too straighEorward and linear in its descrip5on of memory processes.

There is now evidence for the concept of a separate sensory register for auditory informa5on and for other senses.

Limitations of Atkinson and Shiffrins Concept of STM:

Neuroimaging techniques have matched STM and other stores with physical loca:ons in the brain, demonstra:ng that STM is much more complex than Shirin and Atkinson realized. The Atkinson-Shirin model tended to overemphasise the role of maintenance rehearsal and overlook elabora:ve rehearsal.

A PET scan showing the active brain of a person doing a STM task

See the discussion of Baddeley and Hitchs Working Memory Model for the source and meaning of this scan.

Limitations of Atkinson and Shiffrins Concept of LTM:

LTM is now believed to have dierent subsystems, such as episodic and procedural; each of these processes and stores dierent kinds of informa:on. The role of implicit memory is perhaps not emphasised adequately in this model. Informa:on is not always simply retrieved from LTM and available for use exactly as it was originally stored; it has been shown that we reconstruct memories, that is, fuse a remembered event with newer informa:on, changing the memory subtly in the process.

More about Sensory Memory

the rst store of memory is eeting in d u r a t i o n, but

huge

in capacity

Be careful not to confuse these two concepts of duration and capacity!

Duration versus Capacity

Duration means the length of
time that the memory is held in a memory store can be held at any one time

Capacity means how much

SENSORY MEMORY
is brief or eeting in duration but virtually unlimited in capacity

Iconic memory Examples of sensory registers

Echoic memory

Sensory Memory
holds an exact copy of sensory input has a register for each sense the t wo registers that have been most extensively researched are: ECHOIC ICONIC

Brief auditory memory which lingers for 3-4 seconds This is long enough for us to be able to link impressions of sound with the next syllable or word we hear When we pay attention to the sounds (in order to transfer them to short-term memory) we are able to make sense of the sounds as a word or the words as a sentence Echoic memory thus makes speech perception possible

ECHOIC MEMORY

ICONIC MEMORY
STORE FOR VISUAL SENSORY INFORMATION: Even more eeting than echoic memory, this sensory register holds a vast amount of visual information for about a third of a second. Your text says - 0.2-0.4 of a second. Sperlings studies showed that people actually held all the information he projected on a screen, but lost it faster than they could report it. To overcome this difculty, he devised a research method that demonstrated both the vastness and the briefness of this memory store.

MOVING TO THE NEXT STAGE: Sensory memory is huge in capacity, but eeting
in duration. One advantage of this is that we can quickly lter out extraneous matter. We dont have to remember everything we see, hear and experience. In fact, it would be we did.

overwhelming if

The only way we can keep, hold on to, preserve and hope to prolong sensory memories is through ATTENTION. Only the material we attend to passes into short-term memory.

The usefulness of sensory memory in allowing us to lter out overwhelming detail...

How could you cope with life if you couldnt lter out the extraneous details?

temporary storage

Short-Term Memory

(18-20 seconds without rehearsal)

(Note that Atkinson and Shiffrin believed this period was 30 seconds in their model. See your text, p.304, under DURATION OF STM for clariOication of this point.)

limited capacity (7 plus or minus 2 bits or chunks) often encoded phonentically (according to sound) very sensitive to interference information is lost though decay (fading) or displacement (being pushed out by new information)

The distressing shortcomings of STM

For instance, as a youthful sales assistant in the shoe department at Myer, I would be asked by three dierent customers to get an 8 in the style Ecstasy by Jane Debster, a 7 in Cargo by Sandler and a 40 in 19203 by Stuart Weitzmann. Should I have been able to hold this amount of information in my STM?

Yes! Thats actually only 6 pieces of information, chunked (or 9, if you count the brands). I would enter the rabbit burrows of the back of the department, muttering to myself (maintenance rehearsal, vocal or sub-vocal).

Then the manager would say, Roslyn, can you work tomorrow from 5-9 and on Saturday from 1-5? Sure I can! I would cry. Then I would realise that I could no longer remember which size I needed to get in which shoe. I would have to go out and say to the customers: Im sorry. I am an idiot and have forgotten what you asked for.

What I really said:

Forgive me, although I had successfully chunked your request for shoes and was rehearsing it to keep it in my short-term memory until I found what you wanted, my maintenance rehearsal was interrupted and the information in my STM was consequently displaced. Its not my fault, its a well-known psychological phenomenon.

Increasing the capacity of STM through chunking

Extending time in STM OR moving material into LTM:

Rehearsal: Any activity that allows information to be retained in memory and retrieved when required: may be verbal, vocal, non-verbal, sub-vocal, mental imagery. Maintenance rehearsal: Simple, rote repetition of information. This needs to be attended to consciously should not just be meaningless repetition. Elaborative rehearsal: Involves linking new information in a meaningful way with information already stored in long-term memory. More active and more effective than maintenance rehearsal, this ensures that information is encoded well.

Elaborative Rehearsal
Any activity that adds meaning to information allows it to be encoded semantically, which is how LTM is organised.
For instance, self-referencing is a form of elaborative rehearsal. You tie new information that you need to learn to something that is personal and meaningful to you, as I did with my shoe example.
Using a diagram allows elaborative rehearsal of a concept.

Well-encoded information is easier to retrieve because there are many ways in which you can access it in your long-term memory.

Elaborative Rehearsal
More Elaborative Methods
Work out an analogy, a rhyme, an acrostic, a story, to help you remember something. Think of examples, work out synonyms you could use to describe a concept, change a teachers description into your own wording, draw a concept map, a diagram, a picture or set of symbols. The more you work on the information, the easier retrieval will be. On the neuronal level, there will be more connections bet ween neurons that will increase the efficiency of communication in your brain.

Elaborative Rehearsal
More Methods
Mnemonics add meaning to information and therefore qualify as methods of elaboratively rehearsing material. ROYGBIV, EGBDF, the Hippo Campus is on Memory Lane, a stalactite hangs on tight, a stalagmite might get there...

Serial Position Effect

Serial position effect: Participants show better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list than in its middle.
Primacy effect: Items near the beginning of a list are recalled better than other items. Recency effect: Items near the end are recalled better than other items.

Serial Position Effect

An Explanation of Serial Position Effect

! !

The early items are rehearsed more and therefore have a greater chance of being transferred to LTM.
! !

The ;inal items displace the middle items in STM and are still there at the end of the task, allowing them to be recalled well too.

This explanation is supported by...

The effects of delayed recall on the graph are shown below. When participants in a recall experiment of this kind are delayed in recalling for 30 seconds, the recency effect was lost. The 30 seconds extend beyond the duration of STM. Note the red line
The primacy effect remains.
!

Baddeley and Hitchs Model of Working Memory

Baddeley and Hitch believed that the STM store in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model was too simplistic. They emphasised in their model of working memory that STM was not simply a passive store of information but a set of active processes that manipulate information.

Baddeley and Hitchs Model of Working Memory

Baddeley and Hitch emphasised that STM is working (i.e. processing and manipulating), not just storing and rehearsing. Their model focused on how working memory supports complex and important cognitive activities, allowing us to visualise, store sounds, make decisions and coordinate tasks.

General Information about Baddeley and Hitchs Working Memory Model The central executive, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are separate and can function relatively independently. But they also interact. The phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are assumed to be sub-systems of working memory, whereas the central executive is assumed to be an attentional controller.

VISUO-SPATIAL SKETCHPAD
This is one component of the Baddeley-Hitch model of working memory The visuo-spatial sketchpad stores and manipulates visual information This allows you to visualise a room and store in memory the location of objects in space

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
A mental workspace for storing and manipulating visual and spatial information For instance, the tasks to the right require you to visualise and rotate objects,, or to visualise a 3D object whilst looking at a 2D one. Both require the use of your visuospatial sketchpad. Can you think of some everyday tasks that require visualising and the location/manipulation of objects in space, using what we might call your minds eye?

Can you form a cube by cutting out and folding this shape?

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
Example: When you look for something in your crowded locker, and can picture in your mind exactly where it is, you are using your visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Some more uses for your Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad...

Finding or describing the location of a book or object in a crowded room

Picturing internally the location of your friend in the classroom

Going straight to that outfit you need for a party, even though your cupboard is a mess

Phonological Loop
Another component of Baddeley and Hitchs model Also called verbal working memory Temporarily stores a limited amount of verbal, speech-like information Verbal information is held in a sound-based or phonological form You hold the information through sub-vocal maintenance rehearsal; without it, you could only hold about 2 seconds worth of information

From Baddeley, Your Memory: A Users Guide (in library), p. 47

This PET scan uses the rate of oxygen consumption in the brain to reveal which areas are most strongly involved in which mental activities. This brain scan suggests that two areas are strongly activated by phonological short-term memory, one involved in storing the memory (A) and the other with rehearsal (B). (Paulesu et. al. 1993)

Phonological Loop

Research evidence suggests that the phonological loop is important to language learning, both in acquiring ones native language as a child and in learning the vocabulary of a foreign language as an adult.

A Word on Multi-Tasking
The phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad both have limited storage capacity, but the capacities of each component are assumed to be independent of each other. Reaching the limits of one component does not affect the capacity of the other component. Dual-task experiments have shown that people can do two tasks at once, maintaining information in one sub-system whilst carrying out a task requiring the other.

For instance, last year I found that I could paint a portrait of my daughter while listening to German podcasts, but I couldnt listen to German and type an email in English. What are some tasks you can do simultaneously that dont interfere with others? What are some tasks you cannot do at the same time?

Central Executive
Another component of the Working Memory model Monitors information and selects which information to pay most attention to Shows the dynamic nature of working memory, as opposed to the Short-Term Store in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model Though limited in storage capacity, the central executive is an active cognitive mechanism

Central executive
Integrates information from other components and from LTM Involved in all our thoughts, feelings and decisions in normal waking consciousness

Central Executive
A final summary
According to Baddeley, the central executive controls the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad, which he refers to as slave systems. It relates them to long-term memory. Your text: In everyday life, the central executive is involved in planning and goalsetting, helping you decide what to do next, or what not to do. When you change your mind about what to do, it will coordinate task switching, enabling you to change tasks smoothly while it controls the flow of information within and between the working memory and LTM systems. (p.318)

Episodic Buffer
A late entry to the model
Baddeley thought that his model did not explain how working memory links with LTM. Consequently, he added a fourth component in 2000, the episodic buffer.

Episodic Buffer
A sub-system of working memory that enables the different components of working memory to interact with LTM. Assumed to be a limited-capacity storage system that holds about 4 chunks of information.

The episodic buffer is a bit like a mental workbench for cognitive activities

Episodic Buffer
Baddeley called it this because he believed that this component can pull together separate streams of information from elsewhere in working memory and LTM and then combine them into scenes or episodes, like memories of a story or movie scene.

Episodic Buer
Baddeley called it a buer because it provides a temporary working space where information can be edited, reordered or reorganised in a meaningful way. See the example of how the four components of the working memory model might work in everyday life (p.319).

How do all these components work together to allow you to manage a complex, muli-faceted task?

You are cooking dinner. Your daughter or little sister spills her milk on the oor. The phone rings. It is your best friend, wanting to tell you urgently how she/he hates her boyfriend/girlfriend. What is your working memory doing? How are all the components involved?

Strengths of Baddeley and Hitchs model of working memory

The model ts with our experience of everyday life. For instance, counting the number of windows in your house requires the visuo-spatial sketchpad; the sub-vocal counting requires the phonological loop; this would be coordinated by the central executive.

Strengths of Baddeley and Hitchs model of working memory

A considerable amount of research evidence, including experimental evidence and even brain scans showing dierent parts of the brain at work, supports the components Baddeley and Hitch suggested. For instance, experiments in which participants successfully did dual tasks suggest that there is indeed a component focused on visual tasks and another focused on sound-based tasks.

Concerns about the Baddeley-Hitch model

It is dicult to test and verify the role of the central executive. It is dicult to quantify what is meant by limited capacity. The episodic buer still requires more research and explanation.

Craik and Lockharts Levels of Processing Theory

Attention is vital to the encoding of memories, but not all attention is created equal. You can pay attention in dierent ways or focus on dierent aspects of the stimulus input. According to Craik and Lockhart, dierent rates of forgetting occur because some methods of encoding create more durable mermory codes than others.

Craik and Lockharts levels of processing theory

Encoding: The process of converting information into a useable form or code so that it can enter and be stored in memory. According to Craik and Lockhart, remembering depends on how information is encoded. If you encode only by paying attention to basic features, you will encode at a shallow level. If you encode by making new associations, this information will be encoded at a deeper level, which results in better recall (Plotnik, p.249).

An example... Shallow processing: Its tall, grey, crooked.

Physical properties detected.

Intermediate processing: Its the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.

Recognised and named.

Deep processing: Galileo

reputedly used it for an experiment; tourists use it to create visual illusions; maybe the foundations are shallow...
Meaningful associations created.

The shallow, intermediate and deep processing student... (not a serious page)
Harrison and Richard are naturally in the deep category (despite the crocheted blanket)

Shallow processing student: Notices what the teacher is wearing. Knows where friends are sitting. Complains if teacher doesnt write neatly. Intermediate processing student: Copies notes. Reads textbook. Writes denitions.

Deep processing student: Uses own wording when possible for notes. Reads beyond textbook. Thinks up analogies and examples, designs diagrams, draws concept maps, asks probing questions (teacher struggles to answer), makes up questions and tries to answer them, encodes meaningfully; neural connections abound in his/her subtle brain...

Your own example of variations in processing...

Choose a topic, theme or experience and try to imagine how you could encode it in a shallow way, at an intermediate depth or deeply. Share your ideas with the class. Here are some possibilities: a problem or formula in mathematics models of memory learning a poem or song remembering a group of peoples names remembering a text for English/English Literature

Criticisms of the Model

It is difficult to quantify depth of processing. How can this be measured in a truly objective way? Baddeley has pointed out that the logic of this theory might be considered circuitous, making it difficult to test. To test whether deep processing improves long-term memory encoding and retrieval, one could see whether a person has remembered something. If he has, then you could deduce that he had processed it deeply.

Questions and Answers ONE

What role does attention play in Atkinson and Shiffrins theory? How has this been changed and developed by Baddeley and Hitch?

Questions and Answers ONE

In the Atkinson and Shiffrin model, attention is what ensures the information in the fleeting sensory register to get into the short-term store. Once in the short-term store, information that is attended to through maintenance rehearsal is kept there through rehearsal or encoded for storage in LTM.
The role of attention is more complex in the Baddeley and Hitch model, which focuses on working memory as a dynamic version of STM. The central executive is the attentional controller which determines what will be attended to and what will not. It directs its slaves (the other components) to focus on certain aspects of the incoming sensory information. This kind of attention is viewed as more active, complex and multifaceted than in the earlier model.