Coding, Capacity and Duration of Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

Define coding

A

Format in which information is stored in the memory stores

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2
Q

Define capacity

A

Amount of information that can be held in a memory store

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3
Q

Define duration

A

Length of time information can be held in memory

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4
Q

Define short-term memory

A

Limited-capacity memory store.
Coding: acoustic
Capacity: 5-9 items
Duration: 18-30 seconds

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5
Q

Define acoustic

A

Relating to sound

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6
Q

Define long-term memory

A

Permanent memory store.
Coding: Semantic
Capacity: Unlimited
Duration: Lifetime

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7
Q

Define semantic

A

Relating to meaning

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8
Q

What researcher conducted research into coding? Mention the year and how the experiment was conducted.

A
Baddeley 1966
Gave PPs lists of words to remember.
Group 1: Acoustically similar
Group 2: Acoustically dissimilar
Group 3: Semantically similar
Group 4: Semantically dissimilar

PPs were shown words and told to recall in the right order

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9
Q

What were the findings from Baddeley 1966 study on coding? What can be concluded from these findings about LTM?

A

When PPs had to recall words immediately after hearing them, they did worse on acoustically similar words.
When PPs had to recall words after 20 mins, they did worse on semantically similar words.

Conclusion: Info is coded semantically in LTM.

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10
Q

What researcher conducted the ‘Digit Span’ study on capacity? Mention the year and how the study was conducted. What were the findings of this study?

A

Jacobs 1887
Ask PP to recall 4 numbers in the correct order. Add 1 more number until the PP makes a mistake.

Findings:
Mean digit span for PPs was 9.3, whereas mean letter span was 7.3

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11
Q

What were the findings from Jacobs 1887 ‘Digit Span’ study on capacity?

A

Mean digit span for PPs was 9.3, whereas mean letter span was 7.3

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12
Q

What researcher studied ‘Span of memory and chunking’ in relation to capacity? What were his 2 observations? Mention the year and what his 2 conclusions were.

A

Miller 1956
Miller observed:
1. Every day practices; he found that things come in 7s - 7 days in a week, 7 deadly sins etc.
This suggested the capacity of STM is 7+/-2
2. People recall 5 letters as well as 5 numbers
They did this by chunking - grouping sets of digits/letters into units/chunks

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13
Q

Which researchers conducted a study on the ‘duration of STM’ on duration? Mention the year and how they carried out the study. Also mention why they did what they did in the study, and what their conclusions were.

A

Peterson + Peterson 1960
Study:
• Tested 24 undergrads
• Each stud given 8 trials. Each trial is 1 test.
• 1 test = stud given 3 letter consonant syllable and asked to count backwards from a 3 digit number until told to stop, to prevent mental rehearsal of the syllable
• On each trial, PPs counted backwards for diff. amount of time - 3 sec, 6 sec, 9 sec, 12 sec, 15 sec, 18 sec. This is known as the retention interval.

Findings:
% of correct responses negatively correlated w/ retention interval

Conclusion:
STM has a short duration unless we repeat something over and over.

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14
Q

Which researcher conducted a study on the ‘duration of LTM’ on duration? Mention the year and how the study was conducted.
What were the findings of this study?
What conclusion can be made from this study?

A

Bahrick 1975

Studied 400 PPs from Ohio aged 17-74
• Took high school yearbooks from PPs or schools
Recall tested in 2 ways:
1. Photo recognition test: Consisted of 50 photos, some from PPs yearbooks
2. Free recall test: PPs recalled all the names of their graduation class

Findings:
PPs tested within 15 years of graduation were 90% accurate in photo recognition
After 48 years, recall fell to 70%.
PPs tested within 15 years were were 60% accurate in free recall.
After 48 years, free recal fell to 30%

Conclusion: LTM lasts a long time.

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15
Q

Evaluate Baddeley’s study on coding.

A

Limitation: Artificial stimuli
• Baddeley used artificial stimuli vs meaningful material - word lists meant nothing to PPs
• Findings can’t be generalised to other memory tasks e.g. ppl may use semantic coding even for meaningful STM tasks
• So findings have limited application

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16
Q

Evaluate Jacobs’ study digit span study on capacity.

A

Lack of validity
• Study is very old - early experiments lacked control over confounding variables, e.g. some PPs may have been distracted so didn’t perform well

Positive:
Jacobs’ findings confirmed in other research, supporting their vailidty

17
Q

Evaluate Miller’s span of memory and chunking study on capacity.

A

Limitation
• Miller may have overestimated STM capacity
• Cowan 2001 reviewed other research + concluded STM capacity was 4 chunks

18
Q

Evaluate Peterson + Peterson duration of STM study on duration.

A

Limitation
• Artificial stimulus - memorising syllables doesn’t reflect memorising every day activities
• So lacks external validity

Study not completely irrelevant as sometimes we remember meaningless info, e.g. phone numbers

19
Q

Evaluate Bahrick’s duration of LTM study on duration.

A

Strength:
• High external validity as real-life meaningful memories were used
• e.g. 1970 Shepard study - lower recall for meaningless pictures

Limitation:
• Lack of control over confounding variables - PPs may have looked in yearbooks over the years