IB Psychology full notes for cognitive approach - 2 studies with evaluation for each topic
Topics:
Models of Memory
Schema
Thinking and Decision-Making
Biases in thinking and decision-making
Reconstructive Memory
Emotion and Cognition
Rational thinking
Intuitive thinking
Models of Memory
A significant portion of memory research has focused on storage and processing. Memory research
faces many of the same problems as other kinds of cognitive research because it is not technicallty
possible to observe cognitive processes in action. However, the processes can be inferred from
participant responses. The history of memory research has in some ways been a history of
refinement, as psychological theorists and researchers have tried to narrow down the cognitive
process of memory.
Multi-Store Model of Memory
First theorized by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968, the multi-store memory model was the first to stand
the tests of time and constructive criticism. The theory was divided into two distinct dimensions:
control processes and structural components. The control processes are not permanent features of
memory, but changing phenomena that the individual controls, almost like cognitive filters that
influence how memory is encoded and retrieved. But it is the structural components that really
make the multi-store model tick- it suggests that information flows through three memory stores or
stages, each of which has a different capacity and duration.
The model basically functions like a single computer. There are any number of inputs from scenes
which are detected. If they’re attended to, they’re temporarily processed by short-memory, and
then stored more permanently in long term memory. The memory stores operate in sequence, and
each has its own specialized functions and characteristics, just like on a computer.
The multi-store model can be used to explain a variety of phenomena from everyday life. For
examples, drivers sometimes report not remembering or noticing the last several miles of a trip and
presumably this happens because driving behavior sometimes becomes automatic, and drivers don’t
pay full attention to the drive.
The multi-store memory model says that memory is processed through three stages: first,
information is attended to by sensory memory, then rehearsed in short-term memory (STM), and
finally stored in long-term memory (LTM). It is an admittedly simple and imperfect model but at the
same time, it has served as the foundation for memory research. Most modern research on memory
can be connected in some way, shape, or form to the multi-store model.
Murdock (1996) Serial Position Effect
*Serial position effect: psychological effect that seems to happen when a person can remember the
first and last items in a list more often than the middle items.
AMRC Aim – to investigate how the serial position curve was affected by list duration
and presentation rate
, Method – 103 participants, all university students, both male and female, who
were fulfilling a course requirement in introduction to psychology. The study
was conducted in groups of 5 participants at a time
The groups had to listen to lists of words with varying list lengths and
presentation rates (list range from 10-40 words, presentation rate was 1 or 2
seconds). The words themselves were selected form a list of the common
English words, and Murdock had 80 different lists for each length/rate
combination (participants did 20 lists per session over 4 sessions).
After each list, participants were given 90 seconds to recall as many words as
they could, in any order
Results – findings indicated that participants remembered more words from
the beginning of the list and the end of the list, which is known as the serial
position effect.
(for a 24-word list)
Conclusion – Murdock suggested that words from the beginning of the list were
placed into the LTM because the participant had to rehearse it. Whereas, the
later words was placed into the STM, due to displacement, because it was not
rehearsed for long enough to be put into the LTM.
Provides evidence for separate short-term and long-term stores.
Strengths - Easily replicable due to standardized procedure therefore can be
tested for reliability
- High internal validity as it is a lab experiment, very controlled, high
cause and effect.
Weaknesses - Not typical memory tasks people encounter on a daily basis therefore
it lacks ecological validity
- Method – participants took part in 80 lists so order effects like fatigue
could affect results
How does the study
show the concept?
Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) – Recency effect
*learn part/experiment 2 ONLY
AMRC Aim – To investigate the existence of short-term memory and long-term
memory as two separate memory stores.
Method – Experiment 1 – words were presented to the participants at two
different presentation rates. In one condition, the words were presented at a 3
second rate and in the other at a 2 second rate.
Experiment 2 – Participants were presented with word lists and directly
afterwards asked to count out loud. Participants that were asked to count out
loud for 30 seconds remembered less of the last words on the list compared to
participants that were asked to count out loud for 10 seconds.
, Results – Experiment 1 – Participants who were presented with words at a 3
second rate were more likely to remember the first words of the list than
participants presented with the words at a 2 second rate.
Experiment 2 – Participants who were asked to count out loud for 30 seconds
remembered fewer of the last words on the list compared to participants that
were asked to count out loud for 10 seconds.
Conclusion – Experiment 1 – This is because they were able to rehearse the
first words more, therefore enabling them to enter long- term memory.
Experiment 2 – This is because they were unable to retain the words in short-
term memory, as they were displaced by the counting out loud step.
(Remember that the capacity of the short-term memory is seven chunks or
thereabouts).
This provides evidence for the existence of short-term and long-term memory
as two separate memory stores
Strengths - Results supported the multi-store model of memory.
- Design was simple, therefore easily repeated by subsequent
researchers.
- Multiple iterations of the experiment resulted in mutually supporting
results
Weaknesses - Laboratory experiment, therefore lacks a degree of ecological validity
o The mundane realism of this task could be questioned as it is
not an everyday activity
- Only army men – gender bias, and representativeness/low
generalizability
- Emphasizes structure over process, it doesn’t pay enough attention to
how information flows between the three components
- The only mechanism that enables transfer of information from STM to
LTM in this model is rehearsal. This is an oversimplification. It was
shown in further research that apart from rote rehearsal people can
use more elaborate structures such as semantic encoding
- The model only explains the flow of information in one direction, from
sensory memory to LTM. Arguably though, information can also flow in
the opposite direction
How does the study The results of this first experiment supported Atkinson and Shiffrin's multi-store
show the concept? model, as it evidences the existence of multiple stores of memory, and it shows
the apparent role of rehearsal in encoding.
Second experiment has, even more, relevance to the multi-store model,
because it focuses on the recency effect specifically.
In the end, the results throw strong support behind the multi-store model on
two levels: first, Glanzer and Cunitz' (1966) findings provide evidence for
multiple storage mechanisms in memory, namely STM and LTM. Further, their
results show that the primacy effect is produced by LTM, and that the recency
effect is produced by STM. The 30 second delay between presentation and
recall was long enough for the words to be displaced from STM – in fact, even a
10 second delay was enough for displacement. This ultimately shows that STM
and LTM have functions independent of one another, and this too supports the
multi-store model.
Corkin (1997) – The case of HM
, The case of HM is also related to the multi-store model, in that HM's memory problems support the
functioning of STM and LTM as independent mechanisms operating in sequence. The basic idea is
that HM's anterograde amnesia evidenced severe malfunctioning of STM, and that in turn meant
that any new memories could not be encoded into LTM, just as the multi-store model suggests.
This was further supported by the case of Clive Wearing, who experienced many of the same
problems as HM. Furthermore, the fact that both men retained some procedural memories and a
few episodic memories (especially those with some emotional connection) supports the idea that
memory exists in separate cognitive stores. Basically, both cases suggests that amnesia results from
the breakdown of the encoding sequence from STM to LTM, which is exactly what the multi-store
model predicts.
Multi-Store Memory Model Evaluation:
Strengths
- It was developed on the basis of a wide range of memory experiments, some of which they
conducted themselves, some by others, that constituted the body of research on memory at
the time.
- It is supported by a number of empirical studies
- Existence of separate short-term and long-term memory stores supported by much
evidence.
- Was a pioneering model, and it inspired (and continues to inspire) decades of research that
has consequently led to other influential models of memory. Its not perfect, but it is where
modern research on memory begins
Weaknesses
- While the multi-store model serves as a foundation for modern memory research, it has not
yet been coined as the one true model of memory – it is a model not a certainty
- It is slightly reductionistic. This is sometimes a good thing, because reductionistic
explanations boil a complex phenomenon (like memory) down to simpler components, and
that overall makes the complex process easier to understand. However, this also means that
important details can be lost in the over-simplification. For example, the process for
encoding verbal memory into LTM might be more complex than the multi-store model
suggests
- Might be overly-simplistic. The model suggests that the main process involved in encoding,
but it doesn’t explain incidental learning (when people learn something without rehearsal)
and the difference between types of rehearsal therefore it may be too simplistic
o Simplistic – fails to account for all the complexity of memory.
- Many studies supporting MSM lack ecological validity: eg. Murdock is based on memory of
single words but in real life, memory has to deal with multiple verbal inputs, sometimes
simultaneously.
- The model suggests memory is something that happens to people, without any human
agency or control on their part, as though individuals were passive receptacles of memory.
In reality, memory is active and individuals can shape it.
- The multi-store model suggests that memory is linear, but schema theory challenges this
- Cognitive processes like memory are seriously influenced by biological influences, like the
functioning of the hippocampus or the amygdala, so memory is not an exclusively cognitive
process –memory is influenced by biological and sociocultural factors too.
- The model doesn’t account for how a memory may not necessarily need to be rehearsed
- Beyond the many studies that support and challenge the multi-store model, there are also
many theoretical considerations with the model itself
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