Essay about Memory Processes and Long Term Memory

Submitted By aimeemcdonaldx
Words: 435
Pages: 2

What can The Levels of Processing experiment that you took part in tell us about the way that learned information can be effectively stored in Long Term Memory? Models of memory such as the working memory model (Baddely and Hitch, 1974) and the multi-store memory model (Atkinson and Shiffron, 1968) are both models which are backed up by psychological evidence. However, these models have clear weaknesses, so Craik and Lockhart proposed the Levels of Processing model of memory in 1972 in response to these integral flaws. Craik and Lockhart’s theory is a more unstructured approach which focuses on memory processing as opposed to simply memory stores. This model states that all information is processed through one of three types of memory encoding: structurally, phonemically or semantically, and that learned information is stored in long term memory because it has undergone semantic processing. This essay shall highlight the Levels of Processing Memory Model and explain how experiments give us insight into the way in which information is stored in the long term memory. Craik and Lockhart believe that the ultimate destination of the memory trace, whether it is stored in LTM, or forgotten through trace decay, displacement or interference, depends on the depth of processing of the original information. Processing may be either shallow or deep; shallow processing incorporates two of the main types of encoding: structural and phonemic. Structural encoding involves conversion of only visual information; for example the length of a word. Phonemic encoding is encoded acoustically; this is similar to the phonological loop, a component of the working memeory model (Baddely and Hitch, 1974). In experiments, this can be investigated through presenting the participant with a word pair and asking whether or not the two words rhyme. Deep processing involves semantic encoding, which is the