AS PSYCHOLOGY

Year 1

Memory

New Term New Seats

Please find your
new
seat
according to the
seating plan.

New Term New Seats

Please find your
new
seat
according to the
seating plan.

New Term New Seats

Please find your
new
seat
according to the
seating plan.

New Term New Seats

Please find your
new
seat
according to the
seating plan.

Cognitive Psychology
Todays lesson:
Outline the Multi-Store Model of Memory [MSM]
(Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968), including the key features
of the model:
Coding
Capacity
Duration
Outline & evaluate Peterson & Petersons (1959)
research, investigating the duration of short-term
memory.

What is a Model of Memory?

A model of memory is a representation of memory.
It helps us understand how memory works and what
memory looks like inside our heads.

Atkinson &
Shiffrin (1968)

Today
we
will
be
learning
about
the
multi store model of
memory

The Multi-Store Model

The information we learn passes through a number of
STORES during the journey from Short-term memory
to Long-term memory.

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)

The Multi-Store Model

Task: On a mini-whiteboard, draw the diagram
below and label, using the following labels.
Hint: Each arrow and box had its own label,
however the three red arrows are the same!
Sensory Register
Long-Term Memory
Rehearsal
Retrieval
Short-Term Memory
Forgetting
Attention

The Multi-Store Model

Rehearsal

Retrieval

Information

Sensory
Register (SR)

Attention

Long-Term
Memory (LTM)

Short-Term
Memory (STM)
Transfer

Forgetting

Forgetting

Forgetting

The Multi-Store Model

According to the model each store differs in terms of the
way it codes information, its capacity and duration
Question What do we mean by
Capacity
Duration
Code (Coding)

Capacity, Duration and

Encoding
Capacity

Amount/Quantity - The
quantity of information that
can be stored.

Duratio
n

Time The length of time

information is held for.

Coding

Changed & Stored- The

way in which information is
changed
and
stored
in
memory.

Capacity, Duration and

Encoding
Task: Read the information on pages 3-4 of your
handout and complete your diagram on page 1,
detailing the capacity, coding and duration of:
Sensory Register
Short-Term Memory
Long-Term Memory

10 Minutes

13

LTM
Capacity: Unlimited
Duration: Lifetime/Years
Coding: Semantic
(Meaning)

SR :
Capacity: Unknown but very
limited
Duration: Very limited period (1-2
Rehearsal
secs)
Coding: Raw/Unprocessed (all 5
senses)
Sensory
Short Term
Information
Memory (SM)
Memory (STM)
Attention

Retrieval

Long Term
Memory (LTM)
Transfer

STM :
Forgetting

Capacity: Limited (about

7+- 2)
Duration: Very limited (20
secs)
Coding: Acoustic (sound)

Task:
Turn
your
handouts over, lets see
how good your memory
is.

To summarise

C
A
P
A
C
I
T
Y
D
U
R
A
T
I
O
N
C
O

SENSORY MEMORY

SHORT-TERM
MEMORY

LONG-TERM
MEMORY

Unknown, but very

limited

Limited (7+/-2
chunks of
information)
Miller (1956)

Unlimited

Very limited (1-2

seconds)

Limited (20 seconds)

Peterson &
Peterson (1959)

Lifetime/Years
Bahrick (1975)

15

Task: Now, complete your table. Make sure you include

the key researchers.

C
A
P
A
C
I
T
Y
D
U
R
A
T
I
O
N
C
O

SENSORY MEMORY

SHORT-TERM
MEMORY

LONG-TERM
MEMORY

Unknown, but very

limited

Limited (7+/-2
chunks of
information)
Miller (1956)

Unlimited

Very limited (1-2

seconds)

Limited (20 seconds)

Peterson &
Peterson (1959)

Lifetime/Years
Bahrick (1975)

16

Research Investigating STM

Duration of ShortTerm Memory (STM):

Peterson &
Peterson(1959)

A Petersons & Petersons Rip-Of

Ethical Issues:
Raise your hand if I have your informed consent.
You have the right to withdraw at any point
Theres the door.

Example
You will be presented with triagram and a number, for
example:

CXT (47, 3s)

When the slide moves onto the following slide, you will
WRITE backwards in 3s, from 47, until I saw stop.
At this point you will write down, the three letter triagram,
using the blank space at the bottom of page 7.
Any questions?
19

CXT (47,
3s)

Distractor Task

OUTLOUD: Starting from 47 count

backwards in 3s.

Recall

Now write down the trigram.

XYT (57,
4s)

Distractor Task

OUTLOUD: Starting from 57 count

backwards in 4s.

Recall

Now write down the trigram.

NZU (101,
3s)

Distractor Task

OUTLOUD: Starting from 101 count

backwards in 3s.

Recall

Now write down the trigram.

XST (27,
4s)

Distractor Task

OUTLOUD: Starting from 27 count

backwards in 4s.

Recall

Now write down the trigram.

KJG (157,
3s)

Distractor Task

OUTLOUD: Starting from 157 count

backwards in 3s.

Recall

Now write down the trigram.

PLB (1.4 million,

3s)

Distractor Task

OUTLOUD: Starting from 1.4

million count backwards in 3s.

Recall

Now write down the trigram.

CXH (100,
4s)

Distractor Task

OUTLOUD: Starting from 100 count

backwards in 4s.

Recall

Now write down the trigram.

NKU (63,
3s)

Distractor Task

OUTLOUD: Starting from 63 count

backwards in 3s.

Recall

Now write down the trigram.

A Petersons & Petersons Rip-Of

This aim of this experiment is to investigate the
duration of your STM. You will be shown letter
trigrams (for example, ABC) which you will then try to
recall, when you are told.

The Results

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4
Total
(Correct
)

CXT

XYT

NZU

XST

KJG

PLB

CXH

NKU

3 sec

6 sec

9 sec

12
sec

15
sec

18
sec

21
sec

24
sec

Scattergraph
Task: Draw a scatter graph from our replication
of Peterson & Petersons study. Imagine that it
is worth 4 marks.
Use the graph paper provided on page 5.

46

Example Scatter graph

Group 1
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
3 sec

6 sec

9 sec

12 sec

15 sec

18 sec

21 sec

24 sec

47

The Results
Task: 1)Summarise the
results from the study.
2)
What
can
we
conclude
about
the
duration of our STM?

After 18 seconds,
fewer than 10% of
the trigrams were
recalled correctly.

After
only
3
seconds, 80% of the
trigrams
were
recalled correctly.

Recall got progressively worse as the delay

grew longer!

Peterson & Peterson (1959)

Task: Read the summary of Peterson & Peterson
(1959) on pages 4-5 and complete the table on
page two of your handout.

15 Minutes

49

Peterson & Peterson (1959)

Questions:
What was the aim of their study?
What was the IV?
What was the DV?
What experimental method was used?
What were the results?
What can we conclude?

50

Evaluating Peterson & Peterson (1959)

Sample Issues
His sample lacked
population validity,
therefore we are
unable to generalise
the results to other
cultures/populations.

Methodologic
al Issues
Trigrams are
artificial
Therefore it lacks
ecological
validity
However, lab
studies are highly
controlled and
easy to
replicate.

Ethical Issues
Maybe he broke
protection from
harm. Why?
He dealt with many:
Got informed
consent from
participants and
gave the right to
withdraw.

Give Me 60!
Task: Summarise the Peterson and Peterson study in
exactly 60 wordsno moreno lessEXACTLY 60. It
must contain the aim, method, results and
conclusion!
6 Minutes

Peterson & Peterson (1959) examined the effect of duration on ShortTerm Memory (STM). 24 Psychology students were shown 3 letter
words, followed by a distractor task of 3-18 seconds. They then tried
to recall the words. After 3 seconds, 80% of the words were recalled,
whereas 10% were recalled at 18seconds. This shows that duration
has an effect on STM.
52

Homework
Task:
Complete
the
Memory

Sample
Questions on page 6 and 7 of your handout.
Due: Next lesson.

10 Minutes

53

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