coding, capacity and duration of memory Flashcards
what is encoding?
changing information so it can be stored
what is storage?
holding information in the memory system
what is retrieval?
recovering information from storage
what is capacity?
the amount of information that can be held in a memory store
what is duration?
the length of time information can be held in memory
what is short term memory?
limited capacity store
what is long term memory?
permanent memory store
where is information we process and recall straight away usually stored?
short term memory
what information does short term memory store?
information we are currently aware of
when we take in new information to store, where do we process it from?
the sensory input
where do we take information from? and what do we transform it into?
we take information from senses and transform it into a memory trace
what is coding?
the format in which information is stored in the memory
what happens when we experience sensory information?
it stays there just long enough to decide if we should further process it
what happens if we don’t rehearse information?
we forget it
what happens if we do rehearse information?
it transfers to our short term memory
what kind of capacity store does our short term memory have?
a limited capacity store
what is rehersal?
attending to information so it stays in our memory store
where are memories from the past stored?
in our long term memory
what is long term memory?
the continual storage of information which is largely outside of our awareness but can be recalled when needed
what happens if you attend to information for long enough in your short term memory?
it can be transferred to your long term memory
is coding in the long term memory store semantic or acoustic?
semantic
what type of capacity does long term memory have?
a potentially unlimited capacity and can hold information for years until we want to retrieve it
what did Baddeley do?
give different lists of words to 4 groups of participants to remember
what types of words did each group get in Baddeley’s experiement?
- group 1 had acoustically similar words
- group 2 had acoustically dissimilar words
- group 3 had semantically similar words
- group 4 had semantically dissimilar words
what were participants asked to do in Baddeley’s experiment?
recall words in the correct order
if the participants recalled the words immediately after what did the results tend to be?
participants tended to do worse with acoustically similar words
if participants were asked to recall words after a timed interval of 20 minutes what were the results?
participants tended to do worse with semantically similar words
what did the results of Baddeley’s experiment suggest?
STM is acoustically coded
LTM is semantically coded
what is the capacity of short term memory?
limited
between 5-9 items on average or 7 + or - 2
what is the capacity of long term memory?
unlimited
What did Miller ask participants to do?
recall different amounts of letters, words or numbers
what did Miller argue most things come in?
7s
e.g. 7 notes on a musical scale
what did Miller conclude?
on average we can recall 7 items with a range of between 5-9 items
What did Miller discover?
we can remember 5 words as easily as we can remember 5 letters through chunking
who developed the digit span test?
Jacobs
what is the process of the digit span test?
- researcher gives a number of digits and participant recalls them in order
- researcher increases the amount by 1 digit and the participant recalls them again until they can’t recall them in the right order
- this determines their digit span
what was the mean digit span for participants with items and letters?
items = 9.3
letters = 7.3
what is the duration of short term memory?
between 18-30 seconds
what is the duration of long term memory?
a potential lifetime
What was the aim of Peterson and Peterson’s experiment?
to see if rehearsal was necessary to hold information in the short term memory store
what is the method for Peterson and Peterson’s experiment?
- participants were given sets of 3 letters to remember
- whilst remembering these letters participants had to count backwards in 3’s out loud for 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 seconds to prevent rehearsal
- participants were then asked to recall the letters in the correct order
what were the results of Peterson and Peterson’s study?
participants forgot virtually all the information after 18 seconds
what are the conclusions from Peterson and Peterson’s study?
- we can’t hold information in our short term memory unless we rehearse it
- the duration of short term memory is around 18 seconds
What did Bahrick do?
- studied 392 participants from Ohio between ages 17 and 24
- Tested recall with:
- photo recognition consisting of 50 photos
- free recall test - participants recalled the names of their graduating class
what were the results of Bahrick’s study?
- participants tested within 15 years of graduation were 90% accurate with photo recognition
- after 48 years recall declined to 70% in photo recognition
- after 15 years participants were about 60% accurate and 30% after 48 years
