4.1.2 SHORT TERM MEMORY Flashcards

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1
Q

what’s the short term memory?

A
  • known as a limited capacity store
  • holds a small amount of information for short period of time
  • holding device before memory is forgotten / lost
    OR moved into the long term memory
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2
Q

what is the capacity of short term memory?

who found this out and when?

A

Miller (1956)

METHOD
- asked participants to recall information, adding an extra bit as he moved on
- started participants with two or three words to recall
- gradually built it up until they made an error

FINDINGS
- found that the capacity of STM could be considerably increased by combining/organising separate ‘bits’ of information ( known as chunking)
- most participants struggled with between 5-9 words
- this is known as ‘Miller’s Magic 7’

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3
Q

how can we evaluate research into capacity and short term memory?

A

Jacobs (1887)

METHOD
- similar experiment using digits with 443 female students
- called this a digit span experiment using numbers instead of words

FINDINGS
- results were similar to Miller’s
- 7.3 was the average recall

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4
Q

how does this evaluate Miller’s study?

A
  • shows it is reliable as it’s easy to copy and the results are more often than not the same
  • as it’s a lab study, extraneous variables would have been controlled
  • it could be argued to lack ecological validity as the task bears little resemblance to real life
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5
Q

what is the duration of short term memory?

A
  • short term memory is only a temporary device so duration is limited
  • is a very short amount of time
  • around 18-30 seconds
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6
Q

what is the method of evidence for the duration of short term memory?

A

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

METHOD
- gave participants a non-sensical three-letter trigram to learn eg) CGR or BHT
- these were presented visually, one at a time
- participants had to recall the trigram in the correct order after a delay of either 3s, 6s, 9s, 12s, 15s or 18s
-during the delay they were asked to complete a distraction task: usually counting backwards from 300 in 3’s
- this was to prevent them from rehearsing during the delay

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7
Q

what are the findings for the delay of the evidence for STM duration?

A
  • graph of the correctly recalled trigrams over time was plotted and was shown to be a decay curve
  • this demonstrates that over time the memory seems to decay
  • after 30s recall in STM would be zero
  • therefore, P+P stated that the duration of STM was 18-30s
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8
Q

what is the evaluation of duration in the STM?

A
  • Peterson and Peterson conducted a well-controlled study
  • many extraneous variables would have been removed or controlled
  • validity of the study is challenged
  • previous trigrams (maybe similar to the one being recalled) could have interfered with the memory and this is why the participant made the mistakes
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9
Q

what is encoding in the short term memory?

A
  • encoding is how the information is processed from the senses into the memory itself
  • this is how it will be stored and recalled
  • encoding is always in the form of a modality/one of the senses
  • STM encodes acoustically or using sound
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10
Q

what is the evidence for acoustic encoding in short-term memory?

who and when?

A

Baddely (1966)

METHOD
- he gave participants four lists of words to learn
acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically
similar, semantically dissimilar
- the words were all presented visually on a screen as part of a slideshow
- free recall was not allowed
- he asked for immediate recall

FINDINGS
- he found the acoustically similar words had the worst recall
- there was no difference for the semantically similar and dissimilar words
- he concluded that STM relied on acoustic encoding to process information

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11
Q

how can we evaluate the research into encoding in short term memory?

A
  • lab experiment so is highly controlled
  • extraneous variables taken care of
  • lacks ecological validity as the tasks don’t relate to real life
  • the words had little to no meaning for participants and so they were harder to recall
  • information we have to recall in reality often has meaning and significance so it makes recall easier
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