features of memory Flashcards
What is the Multi-Store Model (MSM) of memory?
Proposed by Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968), it suggests memory consists of three stores: Sensory Register (SR), Short-Term Memory (STM), and Long-Term Memory (LTM).
What are the three key characteristics of each memory store in the MSM?
Coding (how information is stored), Capacity (how much can be stored), and Duration (how long it lasts).
What did Miller investigate regarding STM?
He studied the capacity of Short-Term Memory (STM).
What method did Miller use to study STM capacity?
Literature review of perception and memory studies (1930s–1950s) and his own word recall experiments.
What did Miller conclude about STM capacity?
STM can hold about 7 ± 2 items.
How can STM capacity be increased according to Miller?
Through chunking—grouping items into meaningful units.
What was the aim of Peterson & Peterson’s study?
To investigate how interference affects the duration of STM.
What was the method used in Peterson & Peterson’s study?
Participants were given trigrams (three-letter nonsense syllables) and a number, then had to count backwards before recall.
What did Peterson & Peterson find?
Recall accuracy decreased as the interval lengthened—80% at 3 sec, only 10% at 18 sec.
What conclusion did Peterson & Peterson make?
STM has a limited duration (~18 sec) and requires rehearsal for transfer to LTM.
What was the aim of Bahrick’s study on LTM duration?
To investigate how long LTM lasts.
What method did Bahrick use in his study?
392 graduates identified names of former classmates from yearbook photos.
What were Bahrick’s findings?
90% accuracy after 1 year, 60% accuracy after 47 years.
What conclusion did Bahrick reach about LTM?
LTM can last a lifetime, especially for meaningful information like names and faces.
What method did Baddeley use to study STM and LTM encoding?
Participants memorized word lists: acoustically similar/dissimilar and semantically similar/dissimilar.
What were Baddeley’s STM findings?
Poorer recall for acoustically similar words—STM primarily encodes acoustically.
What were Baddeley’s LTM findings?
Poorer recall for semantically similar words—LTM primarily encodes semantically.
What is a strength of Miller’s STM capacity research?
Jacobs’ (1887) digit span study supported his 7 ± 2 finding.
How does chunking affect Miller’s STM capacity theory?
Chunking increases capacity, but Miller didn’t define chunk sizes.
Why does age limit Miller’s STM capacity research?
Jacobs (1887) found STM span increases with age—Miller’s theory doesn’t account for this.
What is a strength of Peterson & Peterson’s study?
Its controlled design ensured only time affected STM recall.
What is a limitation of Peterson & Peterson’s study?
Trigrams lack real-world relevance, limiting ecological validity.
Why might Peterson & Peterson’s study not measure STM duration accurately?
Interference from the counting task may have disrupted memory rather than measuring decay.
What is a strength of Bahrick’s LTM duration study?
Real-world memories increase ecological validity.
What is a limitation of Bahrick’s study?
Memory performance may have been affected by personal differences like social interactions.
How does selection bias limit Bahrick’s study?
Participants with stronger school memories may have performed better, skewing results.
What is a strength of Baddeley’s STM and LTM encoding study?
Controlled lab conditions made comparisons between STM and LTM encoding reliable.
Why does Baddeley’s study lack ecological validity?
It used word lists, which may not represent real-world memory processes.
Why might Baddeley’s study not fully measure LTM encoding?
The delay before LTM recall was only 20 minutes, which may not be long enough to assess true long-term storage.
