Features of Memory

Question 1

What is coding?

Answer 1

• Way in which info is stored/processed into memory e.g acoustic, visual, semantic
• When info is changed into a form which can be stored (via an electrical morse code)

Question 2

What is capacity?

Answer 2

A measure of how much can be held in memory, in terms of boys of chunks of info

Question 3

What is duration?

Answer 3

How long a memory lasts in a store before it is no longer available for recall

Question 4

What was Baddeley’s 1966 cat/mat study?

Answer 4

• Read the words in each column, cover then repeat
• Multiply total number recalled in each list by 4 to get a %
• Coding in STM

Question 5

What were Baddeley’s findings?

Answer 5

• A:10%
• B: 80%
• C: 65%
• D: 70%

Question 6

What was Jacob’s 1887 serial digit span?

Answer 6

• Read out digits
• Ask pps to repeat immediately after hearing it
• The digit span they successfully reach is a measure of their STM capacity

Question 7

What were Jacob’s’ findings?

Answer 7

• Pps could recall digit spans between 5-9 digits
• Miller called this: Miller’s Magic Number (7+/- 2 items)

Question 8

What was Peterson and Peterson’s 1959 Trigram retention experiment?

Answer 8

• Pps read a nonsense trigram
• Pps have to count backwards in 3s from a large number for a specific time period (retention interval)
• Pps had to try and recall the trigram
• Duration of STM

Question 9

What were Peterson and Peterson’s results?

Answer 9

• 3 secs: 90%
• 18 secs: 10%
• 30 secs: 0%