Coding, Capacity and duration Flashcards
what is memory?
the persistence of learning over-time through the storage and retrieval of information
what is short-term memory?
a memory storage system that briefly holds a limited amount of information where coding is acoustic, capacity is between 5-9 items, duration around 18 seconds
what is long-term memory?
the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system where coding is mainly semantic and can store information for up to a lifetime.
how many items of information can short term memory hold?
7+/-2 units. (limited)
how long can information be stored for in short term memory?
30 seconds, limited duration.
what type of coding is used for short-term memroy?
acoustic.
how do we forget in short term memory?
decay or displacement.
what is the study of capacity?
The Digit Span Study Jacobs (1887)
what was the procedure of the Jacobs (1887) digit span study?
Jacobs (1887) conducted an experiment using a digit span test. He used a sample of 443 female students. Participants had to repeat back a string of numbers or letters in the same order in which it was presented and the number of digits/letters gradually increased.
what were the findings of the Jacobs (1887) digit span study?
he found that the students had an average span of 7.3 letters and 9.3 words, which supports Millers notion of 7+/-2.
what is chunking in memory?
taking individual, meaningful pieces of information and grouping them into larger units or chunks (Miller)
what is one criticism of chunking?
reading aloud rather than sub vocally can increase digit span, and anxiety can decrease digit span, so Millers work is vague.
what is the study of duration?
The Peterson and Peterson (1959) experiment.
what was the procedure of the Peterson and Peterson (1959) experiment?
replicated a lab experiment, remembering 3 letters or consonants in intervals of 3 and counting backwards from 100.
what were the findings of the Peterson and Peterson experiment?
they found that the longer the interval the less accurate the recall. At 3 seconds, around 80% of the trigrams were correctly recalled, whereas at 18 seconds only 10% was accurately recalled.
