Coding, capacity and duration Flashcards
what is coding?
The process of converting information between different forms
Who did the key study of coding?
Alan Baddeley (1966)
What 4 groups of words were tested?
- acoustically similar
- acoustically dissimilar
- semantically similar
- semantically dissimilar
what words did participants do worse with after immediate recall?
acoustically similar
What words did participants do worse with after 20 minutes?
semantically similar
How is our STM coded?
acoustically
How is our LTM coded?
semantically
what are the strengths of Baddeley’s (1966) procedure?
- identified a clear difference between two stores
- idea of acoustic and semantic coding has stood the test of time
- important step into understanding of MSM
what are the weaknesses of Baddeley’s (1966) procedure?
- artificial stimuli - no meaning to participants
- lack of mundane realism
- limited application
What is capacity?
How much information our brain can hold at once
Who did the key research on capacity of STM?
Joseph Jacobs (1887)
what was Jacobs (1887) procedure?
researcher reads out 4 digits which participant immediatley recalls in correct order, researcher increases number of digits until recalled incorrectly.
what was the mean digit span?
9.3 items
what was the mean letter span?
7.3 items
What are the strengths of Jacob’s (1887) procedure?
- been replicated
- confimed by other, newer studies