Lesson 2: Coding, capacity and Duration

Question 1

What is the term that refers to how information is coded in the Sensory register?

Answer 1

Modality specific
Dependent on the 5 senses

Question 2

Does the sensory register have a large or small capacity, and explain why.

Answer 2

Large capacity- this is as information from all 5 senses are all being detected at once

Question 3

What the duration of information stored within the sensory register?

Answer 3

250 milliseconds

Question 4

How is information coded in the short term memory (STM)

Answer 4

Acoustically

Question 5

What is the capacity of information in the STM

Answer 5

7+/-2 items

Question 6

How can the capacity of information be improved
(hint: remembering a phone number)

Answer 6

Chunking

Question 7

What is the duration of information that is stored in the STM

Answer 7

18-30 seconds

Question 8

How can the duration of information that is stored in the STM be reset?

Answer 8

Through Verbal rehearsal

Question 9

What are the two types of rehearsal

Answer 9

Maintenance rehearsal
Elaborative rehearsal

Question 10

What is meant by maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 10

Repeating information over and over again

Question 11

What is meant by elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 11

Linking newly received information to information that already exists in long term memory

Question 12

How is information coded in long term memory (LTM)

Answer 12

Semantically
(process in which the brain makes links to previously existing knowledge)

Question 13

What is the capacity of information stored in the LTM

Answer 13

UNLIMITED

Question 14

What is the duration of information stored in the LTM

Answer 14

UNLIMITED

Question 15

Outline the study that investigated CODING in STM
(Hint: Baddeley)

Answer 15

Baddeley(1966) investigated coding in STM
He gave participants FOUR lists to recall

List A- contained words that sounded SIMILAR

List B- contained words that sounded DISSIMILAR

List C- contained words with SIMILAR MEANINGS

List D- contains words with DISSIMILAR MEANINGS.

-Baddeley argued that STM is coded acoustically because participants PERFORMED WORSE on list A than on list B, but there was no difference between list C and D.

-Baddely concluded that beacuse STM organises information according to how it sounds, SIMILAR SOUNDING WORDS can become muddled.

Question 16

Outline the study that investigated CODING in LTM

Answer 16

Baddely (1966) repeated this same experiment to test the coding of LTM.
He tested participant’s recall of lists after a 20 MINUTE delay in order to ensure that information had passed onto the LTM.

-Participants recall of list C was worse than the recall of list D
-There was no difference between lists A and B.

Baddeley concluded that LTM organises information according to its meanins, so words with similar meanings can become muddled.

Question 17

State a positive evaluation of the study that investigated coding in both STM and STM
(hint= lab experiment)

Answer 17

This study is a laboratory experiment and so it is easy to replicate as variables would have been closely CONTROLLED.
This also means the reliability can be assessed.

Question 18

State a NEGATIVE evaluation of the study that investigated coding in both STM and LTM
(hint= ecological validity)

Answer 18

The findings of this study have LOW ecological validity.
The material (the list of unconnected words) which participants needed to recall is ARTIFICIAL (unlike the type of information people need to recall in their day-to-day life) as was the laboratory setting.

Question 19

Outline the study that investigated CAPACITY in STM (Hint: Jacobs)

Answer 19

Jacobs (1887) used the DIGIT SPAN TEST to determine the capacity of STM.

-He gave participants several sequences of DIGITS or LETTERS and asked them to repeat each sequence immediately after he had given it, in the correct order.

-The sequences increased in length each time.

Jacobs found that on average we can hold 9.3 DIGITS
and 7.3 LETTERS.

Question 20

In addition to Jacob’s research on the capacity of STM, what did Miller find about what happens if we try to recall more information than what we have capacity for?

Answer 20

the new incoming information DISPLACES the old information

Question 21

State a positive evaluation of the study that investigated CAPACITY in STM
(Hint= age)

Answer 21

+ Jacob’s research was the first to acknowledge that STM capacity gradually IMPROVES with age

Question 22

State a negative evaluation of the study that investigated CAPACITY in STM
(Hint= amount of years)

Answer 22

• The study was conducted a long time ago, so it may not have been done to the same scientifically rigorous standard as research today, therefore the validity of the findings is in question

Question 23

Outline the study that investigated DURATION in STM
(Hint: silly peterson + peterson)

Answer 23

Peterson and Peterson used NONSENSE TRIGRAMS to test STM duration.

-To prevent participants keeping the information in the STM using maintenance rehearsal, they were asked to count BACK from 100 in THREES.
Findings:

-after 3 SECONDS- recall was 90% accurate

-after 9 SECONDS- recall was 20% accurate

-after 18 SECONDS- recall was only 2% accurate

They concluded that information in STM lasts for 18-30 seconds

Question 24

State a positive evaluation of the study that investigated DURATION in STM
(Hint=control)

Answer 24

-researchers used FIXED timings for participants to count
backwards from.

-ELIMINATED noise and other factors that could have AFFECTED memory.

-therefore RESEARCH= high level of control, using standardised procedures to make sure all participants
experienced the same process.

Question 25

State a negative evaluation of the study that investigated DURATION in STM
(Hint=interference)

Answer 25

• The findings of this study may have been caused by INTERFERENCE rather than by STM having a short duration.
• It is possible that earlier learnt trigrams
  became CONFUSED with later ones.

Question 26

Outline the study that investigated DURATION in LTM

Answer 26

Bahrick (1979) tested 400 PEOPLE of various ages (17-74)
on their memory of their classmates.

A PHOTO RECOGNITION test consisted of participants being shown 50 photos and deciding if they belonged to their classmates or not.

In a free recall test participants were asked to list the names they could remember from their graduating class.

Identifying FACES:
15 YEARS= 90% accurate
48 years= 70% accurate

Free RECALL OF** NAMES:**
15 years=60% accurate
After 48 years = 30%

Question 27

State a positive evaluation of the study that investigated DURATION in LTM

Answer 27

+ This study has higher ecological validity than Peterson and Peterson (1959) as the material used was more meaningful and relevant to everyday life.

Question 28

State a negative evaluation of the study that investigated DURATION in LTM

Answer 28

• It is problematic to control for extraneous variables, such as people stayingin touch after they left school or how many participants have looked in their yearbook since leaving school.