M - coding, capacity and duration (AO3) Flashcards
What is a limitation of the research into capacity? - Miller’s potential overestimation for STM capacity
===> Cowan (2001) reviewed research and concluded STM is closer to 4 chunks of info, which may be a more appropriate ‘magic number’ than 7. Important to consider memory can be influenced by individual differences so challenging to draw universal conclusion. Samples used in populations for respective research could have differed and explained different findings
What is a limitation of the research into capacity? - Miller’s absence of specification regarding size of chunk
===> Simon (1974) discovered individuals have a smaller STM capacity when dealing with larger chunk, such as 8-word phrases, compared to single syllable words. Suggests Miller’s explanation alone isn’t sufficient to fully account for STM capacity as it’s too vague. Despite this, research supports perspective that STM does have limited capacity
What is a limitation of the research into capacity? - Jacob’s capacity estimate isn’t uniform for everyone
===> Jacob’s (1887) research demonstrated digit span recall consistently increased with age. On average, 8 year olds remembered 6.6 digits whilst 19 year olds remembered 8.6. Suggests STM capacity increases with age or develop better strategies to enhance digit span, not mentioned in their findings. Caution should be taken to generalise findings, individual differences influence the STM capacity
What is a limitation of the research into capacity? - Lack of ecological validity
===> Studies by Jacobs (1887) and Miller (1956) conducted in artificial settings and used meaningless words, numbers and objects to test memory. Doesn’t reflect how memory is used in the real world. In everyday life, memory carries more personal significance so lack of mundane realism means results only generalised to real-world scenarios
What is a limitation of research into duration? - Methodology of Peterson and Peterson (1959)
===> Might not have been measuring trace decay but instead displacement, lowering construct validity. Ppts. asked to engage in distraction task of counting backwards from 3 digit number so this complex task could have overridden trigrams and resulted in displacement rather than solely preventing rehearsal. Reitman (1974) conducted study using auditory tones instead of counting back so displacement wouldn’t occur. Findings suggest STM duration is longer
What is a limitation of research into duration? Peterson and Peterson (1959) questionable ecological validity
===> Stimulus material of consonant trigram used in task was highly artificial so lacked mundane realism as it didn’t reflect real-life examples of memory. People usually required to remember personal events which have greater personal significance than nonsensical syllables. However, in certain situations, we do remember meaningless information like phone numbers, car regs and postcodes so could be representative
What is a strength of research into duration? Bahrick et al (1975) higher ecological validity than P+P
===> As ppts.’ memory was tested on their own high school peers, mundane realism enhances generalisability of results. However, introduces confounding variables as some ppts. may remember their friends or classmates better than those who didn’t see each other often. Argued that Bahrick shows high ecological validity but low internal so should be noted when generalising findings
What’s a strength of research into coding? - Demonstrate existence of separate memory stores
===> Baddeley’s (1966) research is fundamental in evidencing that info is encoded acoustically in the STM and info is encoded semantically in the LTM. This proves they’re separate and distinct memory stores and played a crucial role in the development of the MSM. The finding of separate memory stores has consistently withstood the test of time, making it a reliable find
What’s a limitation of research into encoding? - Presence of contradictory research evidence
===> Brandimonte et al (1992) discovered ppts. used visual coding in the STM when engaged in a visual task and were prevented from verbal rehearsal before having to visually recall info. Nelson and Rothbart (1972) found evidence of acoustic coding in LTM, indicating encoding isn’t solely acoustic in STM or semantic in LTM. Generalisability of Baddeley’s findings to all types of learning isn’t equally applicable
What’s a limitation of Baddeley’s research into coding? - Lack of ecological validity
===> Research was conducted in a lab setting so it’s hard to generalise findings to real-world contexts. Baddeley used meaningless words to test ppts. recall which doesn’t reflect how memory is used in real life. It carries more personal meaning in reality. His task lacked mundane realism so mightn’t accurately reflect how memory functions in real life
