Coding, Capacity and Duration Flashcards
What is coding?
The type of information stored in each memory store (acoustic in STM and Semantic in LTM)
What is capacity?
The volume of information/data which can be kept in a memory store at any 1 time (STM was. 7+/- 2 and LTM unlimited)
What is duration?
Refers to the amount of time that information can be stored in each memory store. Duration of STM is 18-30 seconds and LTM is unlimited
What did Peterson and Peterson explore?
Duration of STM
What was Petersons et.al experiment?
Participants were shown nonsense words and asked to recall them after 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds. During the pause they were asked to count backwards in 3s. This was an ‘interference task’ to prevent them from repeating the letters internally. After 3 seconds participants could. only recall about 80% correctly. After 18 seconds only 10% could recall correctly
What did Bahrick explore?
Duration of LTM
What was Bahrick’s experiment?
392 people were asked to name a list of their ex-classmates. They were shown photos and asked to recall the names of the people in the photo. Within 15 years of leaving school participants recognised 90% of names and faces, they were 60% accurate. After 30 years recognition was 30%. After 48 years name recognition was 80% and photo was 40%
What did Jacobs explore?
Capacity of STM
What was Jacobs experiment
Participants were shown a string of letters or digits. They had to repeat them back in the same order. The number of digits or letters increased until the participants failed to recall it correctly. The majority of the time, Participants recalled 9. digits and 7 letters
What did Miller explore?
Capacity of STM
What was Miller’s experiment?
Miller reviewed research into capacity of STM. He argued it was 7 +/- 2. He suggested we use chunking to combine letters or numbers into larger and more meaningful things. He uses the magic number 7
What did Baddeley explore?
Coding in the STM and LTM
What was Baddeley’s experiment?
Participants were given 4 sets of words either acoustically or semantically similar or different. It used independent group designs and participants were asked to recall the words either immediately or following a 20-minute task. Participants had problems recalling acoustically similar words when recalling the word lists immediately (STM), if it was 20 minutes it was easier however struggled with semantic words (LTM)
Give a - (Jacobs)
A issue with historical psychological research (Jacobs) is the lack of standardisation and appreciation for scientific methods. The current lab experiments methodology produces High reliability and valid data through controlling and removing. effects of extraneous and confounding variables . This is unlikely for. Jacobs where confounding variables such as noisy rooms or difficult word lists, they may have a greater influence on accuracy of recall leading to unreliable. results.
Give a + (Stim)
Bahrick uses meaningful stimuli and methodology which is high in mundane realism. Suggesting findings have high. ecological validity because they can easily. be generalised due to. the stimuli reflecting what we’d normally. recall daily
Give a - (LMR)
Peterson and Miller have low mundane realism, producing. findings with low ecological validity. This is due to the artificial stimuli which has little or no personal meaning . Therefore limits generalisability of findings.
Give a - (MOE)
Miller over exaggerated the capacity. of STM and the capacity is more similar to 4 chunks rather than 5-9. This could reflect the outdated methodologies adopted by MILLER and specifically the lack. of control over confounding variables which may have contributed to an inaccurate estimate
