memory 01: coding, capacity and duration

Question 1

what is the definition of coding?

Answer 1

the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores

Question 2

what is the definition of capacity?

Answer 2

the amount of information that can be held in a memory store

Question 3

what is the definition of duration?

Answer 3

the length of time information can be held in memory

Question 4

what is the capacity, duration and coding of the STM?

Answer 4

• limited capacity: 5 to 9 items on average
• duration: 18-30 seconds
• coding is mainly acoustic

Question 5

what is the capacity, duration and coding of the LTM?

Answer 5

• unlimited capacity
• duration: 2 mins - 100 years
• coding is mainly semantic

Question 6

who conducted the digit span experiment, and what were the results?

Answer 6

• jacobs (1887)

- the average span = 9.3 digits and 7.3 letters

Question 7

what did miller (1956) note about the STM capacity?

Answer 7

that it was actually 7±2 “chunks”

Question 8

how did peterson and peterson (1959) test STM duration? what were the results?

Answer 8

• each ppt was given a consonant syllable and a 3-digit number and then asked to count from their number for 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 seconds
• 3 seconds = 90% recall; 9 seconds = 20%; 18 seconds = 2%

Question 9

how did bahrick et al. (1975) test LTM duration? what were the results?

Answer 9

• used yearbook pictures as a cue in a photo recognition test and a free recall test
  
  • photo = within 15 years: 90% accurate; after 48 years: 70%
  • free recall = 60%, 30%

Question 10

what were the strengths and weaknesses of jacobs’ (1887) experiment?

Answer 10

• results have been confirmed in other research, confirming their validity
• very long time ago; lacked adequate control; didn’t consider displacement/decay

Question 11

what were the strengths and weaknesses of petersons’ (1959) experiment?

Answer 11

• not totally irrelevant (phone numbers); good distractor

- lacked general validity; didn’t consider displacement/decay

Question 12

what were the strengths and weaknesses of bahrick’s (1975) experiment?

Answer 12

• high external validity (high recall)

- confounding variables not controlled

Question 13

who used word lists to test the effects of acoustic and semantic similarity on STM and LTM, and when?

Answer 13

alan baddeley, (1966a and 1966b)

Question 14

what were baddeley’s findings?

Answer 14

ppts had difficulty remember acoustically similar words in STM but not LTM

Question 15

what are the strengths and weaknesses of baddeley’s (1966) experiment?

Answer 15

• only waited 20 mins to test LTM

- it used artificial stimuli (word lists rather than meaningful material)