Capacity

Question 1

What is capacity

Answer 1

How much information can be stored in each memory store
STM -5-9 items
LTM - unlimited

Question 2

What is the experiment on capacity in sort term memory

Answer 2

Joseph jacobs - developed a technique to measure digit span
-he read out 4 digits . Then the participant attempts to recall them out Loud. He repeats this by adding on more digits
However people can score higher by chunking or grouping the data

Question 3

What is the experiment on capacity in LTM

Answer 3

Wagenaar - created a diary of 2400 events and tested himself on recall of events. He found he had excellent recall suggesting the capacity of LTM is huge

Question 4

What is an advantage of jacobs experiment

Answer 4

One strength is that the affects of age are acknowledged
For example jacobs tested individuals of ranging ages and found that digit span increases with age
This is a strength because the capacity of STM accounts all ages

Question 5

What’s a weakness in wagenaars experiment ?

Answer 5

A weakness is that the results are based on personal memories
Memories are hard to generalise to the rest of society because the memories are personal to him