LS1 - Duration, Coding & Capacity

Question 1

Duration

Answer 1

How long a memory can be stored and how long it lasts.

Question 2

STM Duration

Answer 2

Doesn’t last long and rehearsal is needed to keep the memory longer than a few seconds.

Question 3

STM Duration Study

Answer 3

Peterson & Peterson - 24 undergrads presented with a consnant trigram and asked to count backwards in 3s to stop rehearsal after interveals between 0-18s, the trigram had to be repeated.

Question 4

STM Duration Results

Answer 4

Peterson & Peterson - 90% of trigrams reherased after 3 seconds, 20% after 9 seconds and less than 10% at 18 seconds.

Question 5

STM Duration Conclusion

Answer 5

Peterson & Peterson - Information decays quickly without being rehearsed, maximum duration of STM is 18 seconds.

Question 6

STM Duration Strengths

Answer 6

Lab study, good control, easy to replicated.

Question 7

STM Duration Weaknesses

Answer 7

Low Ecological Validity
Low Validity - Earlier trigrams may have interferred with remembering ones later down the line.

Question 8

LTM Duration Study

Answer 8

Bahrick Et Al - Tested 400 American participants remembering classmates through pictures, matching names to pictures or recalling without picture cues.

Question 9

LTM Duration Study Results

Answer 9

Bahrick Et Al - 48 years later when askd to link names and faces 70% accuracy but without pictures 30%

Question 10

LTM Duration Study Conclusion

Answer 10

Bahrick Et Al - LTM can last a lifetime however memories can’t immediately be accessed, and recall is higher with cues.

Question 11

LTM Duration Study Conclusion

Answer 11

Bahrick Et Al - LTM can last a lifetime however memories can’t immediately be accessed, and recall is higher with cues.

Question 12

LTM Duration Study Strenghts

Answer 12

High Ecological Validity - It was a natural experiment and links to everyday life.

Question 13

LTM Duration Study Weaknesses

Answer 13

Less Control Over Independant Variables e.g. people may have been kept in contact with certain classmates making results invalid.
Names and shit are meaningful so are likely to be rehearsed suggested not all LTM last a lifetime.

Question 14

Capacity

Answer 14

How much information can be stored, LTM can be unlimited whilst STM is very limited.

Question 15

STM Capacity Study

Answer 15

Jacobs - Researcher read out 4 digits and the participants were asked to repeat accurately, another digit was added until they could no longer accurately repeat the sequence.

Question 16

STM Capacity Study Results

Answer 16

Jacobs - 9 digits and 7 letters was average. Capacity increased with age which could be because of expansion or strategies e.g. chunking.

Question 17

STM Capacity Study Weaknesses

Answer 17

Lacks Ecological Validity - Remembering numbers isn’t realistic or meaningful
Order - Previous sequences may have confused with later ones, meaning validity would’ve been low.
Temporal Validity - Given it was done a while ago, so we don’t have EVs were controlled, however the study has since been repeated.

Question 18

Miller (7+/-2)

Answer 18

After reviewing STM capacirty studies concluded 7 +/-2 items was the capacity ofe STM and processes like chunking can increase it.

Question 19

Coding

Answer 19

How memory is stored i.e. acoustic, semantic and visual. Generally, STM is acoustic and LTM is semantic.

Question 20

Coding Study

Answer 20

Baddeley - Pariticpants had to remember a list of Accoustically similar/dissimilar words and semantically dissimilar words.

Question 21

Coding Study Results

Answer 21

Baddeley - When tested immediate;y, accoustically similar words were least accurate. When tested 20 minutes later, semnatically similar words were least accurate.

Question 22

Coding Study Conclusions

Answer 22

Baddeley - STM is acoustically coded and LTM is semantically coded.

Question 23

Coding Study Weaknesses

Answer 23

Low Ecological Validity - We’d never have to remember a meaningless list of words which suggests more meaningful situations may show different results.