Mem: Coding, Capacity, and Duration AO3 Flashcards
Limitation -> Miller may have overestimated the capacity of the STM
-Cowan (2001) reviewed research + concluded the capacity of STM is closer to 4 chunks of info,
-which is closer to the lower end of Miller’s estimate and be a more appropriate value.
-However, general rue, and doesn’t account for memory affected by individual experiences/differences, so may be difficult to draw universal conclusions in this research area.
Limitation -> Miller’s research into capacity is that he didn’t specify the chunk size
-Simon (1974) found ppl have a smaller STM capacity with larger chunks (e.g. longer words).
-shows Miller’s research is not a full explanation for STM capacity.
-However, does support idea STM has limited capacity
Limitation -> capacity is not the same for everyone- individual differences affect it
-Jacobs found digit span recall increased with age- e.g. 8yrs remembered ~6.6, 19yrs remembered ~8.6.
-Shows with age, brain activity may increase or ppl develop better strategies to improve it, so it varies
-therefore, capacity research should only be generalised with caution- individual diffs.
Limitation -> findings lack ecological validity, carried out in artificial setting
-Jacob + Miller used meaningless words/no./objects to test recall- not reflective of memory in real life
-memory has a larger personal significance, e.g. remembering birthdays, so tasks lacked mundane realism.
-so results from lab exps. should only be generalised with caution
Limitation -> P&P, may not have been measuring trace decay but displacement, lowers construct validity
-ppts asked to count backwards in 3s/4s, may have overwritten the trigrams + caused displacement, not preventing rehearsal.
-Reitman (1974) used auditory tones, STM duration was longer.
-so validity of P&P was low due to methodological limitations
limitation -> P&P, study results lack ecological validity
-stimulus material was very artificial, so lacked mundane realism
