Coding, capacity and duration of memory Flashcards
Coding
Process of converting information between different forms
What did Baddeley give participants in his study into coding?
Different lists of words
In Baddeley’s study into coding, how many groups of participants were there?
4
Give three of the four lists that Baddeley gave groups of participants in his study about coding
Any 3 from acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar and semantically dissimilar
Acoustically similar
Words that sound similar such as cat, cab, can
Acoustically dissimilar
Words that sound different such as pit, few, cow
Semantically similar
Words with similar meanings such as great, large, big
Semantically dissimilar
Words with different meanings such as good, hot, huge
In Baddeley’s study into coding, participants were shown the original words and asked to…
recall them in the correct order
In Baddeley’s study into coding, what happened when participants recalled the words immediately from short-term memory?
They tended to do worse with acoustically similar words
In Baddeley’s study into coding, what happened when participants recalled the words from long-term memory after a 20 minute interval?
They did worse with semantically similar words
What did Baddeley’s study into coding suggest?
Information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM
True/False: Baddeley’s study into coding identified a clear difference between two memory stores
True
After Baddeley’s study into coding, later research showed that…
there are some exceptions, but his findings have stood the test of time
Why were Baddeley’s findings from his study into coding an important step in our understanding of the memory system?
Led to the multi-store model
True/False: In Baddeley’s study into coding, artificial stimuli were used rather than meaningful material
True
What is the weakness of using artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material in Baddeley’s study into coding?
The words had no meaning to participants and may not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory tasks, especially in everyday life. Limited real-life application
How did Jacobs find out the capacity of memory?
By measuring digit span
How did Jacobs measure digit span?
Researcher reads out four digits and the participant recalls them out loud in the correct order. Continues by adding a digit each time until the participant cannot recall the order correctly
What indicates an individual’s digit span?
When the participant cannot recall the order correctly
The mean digit span for letters/items was 7.3 whilst the mean digit span for letters/items was 9.3
letters, items
Why did Miller think the capacity of STM was about 7 items +/- 2?
He’d observed through everyday practice that things often came in 7s. 7 days of the week, 7 deadly sins, 7 notes on a musical scale, etc.
True/False: Miller noted that people can recall five words as easy as five letters
True
Miller noted that people can recall five words as easy as five letters by doing what?
Chunking
Chunking
Grouping sets of digits or letters into units or chunks
Miller may have over/underestimated the capacity of STM
overestimated
Further research concluded that the capacity of STM is about…
4 +/-1 chunks, suggesting that the lower end of Miller’s estimate is more appropriate
True/False: Jacobs’ study into capacity of memory hasn’t been replicated
False, it has
What weakness of Jacobs’ study into capacity of memory was eliminated by recent controlled studies?
It was an old study and therefore there may have been confounding variables
Who tested 24 students in 8 trials when researching the duration of memory?
Peterson & Peterson
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, on each trial the student was given what to remember?
A consonant syllable
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, what were participants asked to do?
Count backwards from a 3 digit number given until told to stop
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, what did counting backwards from a 3 digit number prevent?
Mental rehearsal of the consonant syllable
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, when were participants stopped?
Varying periods of time. Seconds going up in 3s until 18s
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, at what point was average recall about 80%?
After 3 seconds
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, at what point was average recall about 3%?
After 18 seconds
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, participants were told to stop after varying periods of time, known as…
retention interval
True/False: Findings suggest that STM duration may be about 18 seconds
True
Findings suggest that STM duration may be about 18 seconds, unless…
we repeat the information over and over
What is repeating information over and over known as?
Verbal rehearsal
One weakness of Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory was…
stimulus material was artificial
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, stimulus material was artificial. Why is this not completely a weakness?
Because we sometimes try to remember fairly meaningless material such as phone numbers
In Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory, stimulus material was artificial. Why may this be considered as a weakness?
Recalling consonant syllables doesn’t reflect most everyday memory activities
Why did Peterson & Peterson’s research into the duration of memory lack external validity?
Stimulus material was artificial
In their research into the duration of memory, who studied 392 American participants between 17 and 74?
Bahrick et al.
In Bahrick et al.’s research into the duration of memory, what was obtained and how did methods of obtaining this differ?
High school yearbooks were obtained from the participants or directly from some schools
True/False: In Bahrick et al.’s research into the duration of memory, recall was tested in the same way throughout participants
False, recall was tested in various ways
In Bahrick et al.’s research into the duration of memory, what were two of the different ways that recall was tested?
There was a photo-recognition test consisting of 50 photos, some from the participants’ high school yearbooks. There was also a free recall test where participants recalled the names of their graduating class
In Bahrick et al.’s research into the duration of memory, participants tested within 15 years of graduation were about __% accurate in photo recognition
90
In Bahrick et al.’s research into the duration of memory, participants tested within 15 years of graduation were about __% accurate in free recall
60
In Bahrick et al.’s research into the duration of memory, participants tested after 48 years of graduation were about __% accurate for photo recognition
70
In Bahrick et al.’s research into the duration of memory, participants tested after 48 years of graduation were about __% accurate for free recall
30%
What did Bahrick et al.’s findings from his research into the duration of memory show?
LTM may last up to a lifetime for some material
True/False: Bahrick et al.’s research into LTM lacked external validity
False, it had high external validity
Why did Bahrick et al.’s research into LTM have high external validity?
Researchers investigated meaningful memories. When studies were conducted with meaningless pictures, recall rates were lower
The fact that Bahrick et al.’s findings have high external validity suggests that…
their findings reflect a more real estimate of the duration of LTM
