memory

Question 1

what is coding?

and types?

Answer 1

the process of conveting information form one format to another

visual coding, acoustic coding, semantic coding

Question 2

explain reaserch into coding

who and what did they do

Answer 2

Baddeley et al- reaserched how different information was coded by different memory stores. he gave different lists to 4 groups.
1. Acoustically similar (cab, cat, can)
2. Acoustically dissimilar (pit, few, cow)
3. Semantically similar (great, large, big)
4. Semantically dissimilar (good, huge, hot)
findings:
when ppts had to recall wordes emedialty they did worse ond acoustically similar words.
when aseked to recall 20 mins later - did worse with semantically similar words.

coding of STM = mainly acoustic. coding of LTM = mainly semantic

Question 3

coding evaluation

explain a limitation of baddeley’s study

Answer 3

- Artificial stimuli

• used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material.
• The word lists had no personal meaning to participants, which means that we should be cautious about generalising the findings to different kinds of memory task.
• For example, when processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for STM tasks.
• This suggests that the findings from this study may have limited application.

Question 4

what is capacity?

Answer 4

Capacity refers to how much information memory can hold.
The long-term memory has unlimited capacity but the short-term memory can only hold a limited amount.

Question 5

what is the capacity of STM?

who and what did they propose

Answer 5

Miller (1956) put forward the idea that most adults can store
between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory. This is because
it only has a certain number of “slots” where items can be stored.

7 ± 2

Question 6

digit span and chunking

outline reaserch on capacity

Answer 6

digit span (jacobs) - gave 4 digets and asked ppts to recal in right order. a number is added till the ppt answers incorectly.
chunking (miller) - noticed people can rember 5 words same as 5 letters. do this by chunking - grouping the individual letters/ numbers into sets or chunks

Capacity of STM = 5-9 items
Capacity of LTM = unlimited