Memory Flashcards
What is capacity?
the amount of information that can be held in a memory store
What is the capacity of the sensory register?
unlimited
What is the sensory register?
memory store for each of our 5 senses
- Iconic; see
- Echoic; hear
- Tactile; feel
- Gustatory; taste
- Olfactory; smell
What are the key researchers for the capacity of STM?
Jacobs (1887)
Miller
What was Jacobs research?
Digits span technique, reciting numbers or letters when the sequence increased by 1 each time
What was Jacobs findings?
found the mean span for digits was 9.3
found the mean span for letters was 7.3
What did Miller observe?
things that come in 7s, for example, days of the week, colour of the rainbow, music scales
What idea did Miller propose?
Chunking - when you group things together so you remember the chunks instead of the individual items
What is the capacity of STM?
7 (+2/-2) items
What is the capacity of LTM?
unlimited
What is duration?
the length of time information can be held in your memory
What is the duration of the sensory register?
250ms, if attention is not paid to information; less than 1/2 a second
Who are the key researchers in the duration of STM?
Peterson + Peterson (1959)
What was Peterson + Peterson’s research?
NONSENSE TRIGRAM, given a consonant syllable like LCG to remember and a 3 digit number that they had to count back from till were told to stop (eliminate mental rehearsal) then asked what the 3 letters were.
What was the findings of Peterson + Peterson’s study?
as retention intervals increases, the percentage of correct responses decrease
What is the duration of STM?
18-30sec
Who is the key researcher of duration for LTM?
Bahrick et al (1975)
What was Bahrick’s research?
used year book photos to test PHOTO RECOGNITION and FREE RECALL to remembering their school classmates 15 or 48 years after graduation
What was Bahrick’s findings?
Photo recognition, 90% corrected after 15 years. 70% correct after 48 years
Free recall, 60% after 15 years, 38% after 48 years
What is duration of LTM?
Forever; unlimited
What is coding?
the format in which information is sorted in the various memory stores
What is the coding of the sensory register?
Modality specific
Who was the key research for coding?
Baddeley
What was Baddeley’s research?
Gave different lists of words to 4 groups of participants to remember:
1) acoustically similar words, e.g. cat, cab, can
2) acoustically dissimilar words, e.g. pit, few, cow
3) semantically similar words, e.g. large, big, colossal
4) semantically dissimilar words, e.g. good, huge, hot
What was Baddeley’s findings?
recalling words immediately - semantically similar words was recalled better
recalling words after completing a 20mins task - they did worse with semantically similar words
What is the coding of STM?
Acoustic
What is the coding of LTM?
Semantic
What is the Multi-store model?
a representation of how memory works where LTM and STM are unitary stores in which information is passed between them in a linear way