Coding, Capacity and Duration of Memory

Question 1

What does STM stand for?

Answer 1

Short term memory

Question 2

What does LTM stand for?

Answer 2

Long term memory

Question 3

Who studied into coding in STM AND LTM?

Answer 3

Baddeley (1966)

Question 4

What was Baddeley (1966) procedure?

Answer 4

• Acoustically similar words
• Acoustically dissimilar words
• Semantically dissimilar words
• Semantically similar words

Question 5

What were Baddeley (1966) findings?

Answer 5

• Immediate recall worse for acoustically similar words (STM is acoustic)
• After 20 minutes recall worse with semantically similar words (LTM is semantic)

Question 6

Who studied into the capacity?

Answer 6

• Jacobs (1887)

- Miller (1956)

Question 7

What were Jacobs (1887) findings?

Answer 7

-Repeat back 9.3 numbers
-Repeat back 7.3 letters
in the correct order immediately after presented

Question 8

What was Jacobs (1887) procedure?

Answer 8

Digit span: Researcher reads four digits and increases until the participant cannot recall in the correct order

Question 9

What were Miller (1956) findings?

Answer 9

7 plus or minus 2

This can be improved by chunking

Question 10

What is chunking?

Answer 10

Grouping sets of digits/letters into meaningful units

Question 11

What was Miller (1956) procedure?

Answer 11

Observation of everyday practices (E.g things come in sevens such as 7 musical notes, 7 days of the week or 7 deadly sins)

Question 12

Who studied into the duration of the LTM?

Answer 12

Bahrick et al (1975)

Question 13

Who studied into the duration of the STM?

Answer 13

Peterson and Peterson (1959)

Question 14

What was Peterson and Peterson (1959) procedure?

Answer 14

• 24 students
• Consonant syllable (e.f YCG) to remember whilst a 3-digit number is counted backwards for 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds

Question 15

What were the findings of Peterson and Peterson (1959)?

Answer 15

• 80% of syllables correctly with a 3-second interval
• 3% after 18 seconds
• Duration of STM without rehearsal is 18 to 30 seconds

Question 16

What was Bahrick et al (1975) procedure?

Answer 16

• 392 participants age between 17 and 74
• Recognition test: 50 photos from participants’ high school yearbook
• Free recall test: Participants listed names of their graduating class

Question 17

What were the findings of Bahrick et al (1975)?

Answer 17

• 48 years after graduation had 70% recall by photo recognition
• Free recall was less accurate

Question 18

What is the limitation of Baddeley (1966)?

Answer 18

• Words used had no personal meaning to participants

- Lack of generalisability

Question 19

What is the limitation of Jacobs (1887)? + counter-argument?

Answer 19

• Lack of control of extraneous variables

- HOWEVER, other researchers have had similar results so high validity

Question 20

What is the limitation of Miller (1956)?

Answer 20

• Overestimated capacity of STM

- Cowan (2001) capacity of STM is only about four chunks

Question 21

What is the limitation of Peterson and Peterson (1959)?

Answer 21

-Artificial stimulus so lacks external validity

Question 22

What is the strength of Bahrick et al (1975)?

Answer 22

High external validity as meaningful memories used