capacity

Question 1

what is meant by capacity in memory?

Answer 1

the amount of information that can be held in a memory store

Question 2

what is the capacity of STM?

Answer 2

7 +/- 2 digits

Question 3

what is the capacity of LTM?

Answer 3

unlimited

Question 4

Jacobs - digit span technique

Answer 4

reveal 4 numbers to ppt and asked them to recall. everytime they were correct another number was added until they recalled incorrectly, which was their digit span. mean number capacity 9.3, mean letter capacity 7.3

Question 5

Miller - magic number

Answer 5

noticed many things are presented in 7s, e.g. days of the week, concluded that STM was likely to have a capacity of 7 +/- 2 digits

Question 6

what is chunking?

Answer 6

grouping sets of digits or letters into chunks in an attempt to remember them better

Question 7

+AO3 - high validity

Answer 7

jacobs study has been replicated, even though his findings are outdated more recent studies (higher control) have supported his findings and conclusions.

Question 8

-Ao3 - underestimated (Cowan)

Answer 8

Cowan reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is only 4+/- 1 chunks

Question 9

-AO3 - outdated

Answer 9

Jacobs study is very outdated, early studies had very low levels of control, extraneous and confounding variables could have affected the results of the study.