Memory Flashcards
How is STM coded
Acoustically
How is LTM coded
Semantically
Who conducted a study into how STM and LTM are coded?
Baddeley
Outline Baddeleys findings into coding for STM and LTM
Baddeley found that more mistakes were found when recalling acoustically similar words straight after learning them, where as more mistakes were made when recalling semantically similar words 20 minutes after learning them.
Who conducted a study into the capacity of STM
Miller
What did Miller state the capacity of STM is?
7 +/- 2 items
Outline Millers research into STM
- Miller reviewed existing research on the capacity of memory and hypothesised that STM has a capacity of 5-9 items.
- He stated that we recall this through chunking, which is when we group related items together so they can be remembered easier
Who’s research supports millers hypothesis?
Jacobs
Outline Jacobs research into capacity of STM
- He asked ppts to recall a list of digits or letters straight after learning them
- he found that the mean score for recalling letters was 7.3 and the mean digit recall was 9.3
- this supports the fact of STM having a capacity of 5-9 items
Who conducted a study into the Duration of STM?
Petersen
What did petersen find about the duration of STM
That the duration of STM is 18-30 seconds
Outline Petersen’s study into the duration of STM
- Asked ppts to recall a given consonant whilst counting down from a 3 digit number at different intervals after learning it
- found that after 18 seconds the recall rate was only 2%
- this shows STM has a low duration
Why were ppts asked to count down from a 3 digit number in Petersens study
To prevent maintenance rehearsal
Who conducted a study into the duration of long term memory?
Bahrick
What did Bahrick find about the duration of LTM
That is is unlimited
Outline Bahricks study into LTM
- asked 400 high school graduates to recall different faces from their yearbook after different time intervals from graduating
- Found that photo recognition of classmates only dropped from 90% to 70% accuracy after 15 years and 46 years of graduating
Who found individual differences in STM capacity?
Jacobs
What did Jacob find about individual differences in STM capacity?
Found that digit recall increases steadily with age, 8 year olds could remember 6.6 digits whereas 19 year olds could remember 8.6 digits
- this shows that the capacity for STM is not fixed
What is one weakness into the research into Duration of STM?
- The tasks that they were asked to complete were very low in mundane realism
- they were remembering meaningless consonants that didn’t have any context attached to them
What is one criticism of Baddeleys research into coding for STM and LTM?
He may not have properly tested LTM
- he only waited 20 minutes after the ppts had learnt the word list before asking them to recall it
- it is questionable wether this is long enough for the words to be placed into long term memory
Who proposed the Multi store model of memory?
Atkinson and Shiffrin
Outline the Multi store model of memory
1- environmental stimuli enters the sensory register which is where information from the senses is held
2- if attention is given to one of the senses then the information from that will be transferred into STM
3- Information is held in the STM for immediate tasks, STM has a limited duration and capacity so information can be lost if not rehearsed or it can be displaced by other information
4- Maintenance rehearsal is the repetition that transfers information into LTM
5- information is stored in LTM and has an unlimited duration and capacity, if information is to be retrieved then it must be processed back into STM for it to be recalled
Who found supporting evidence for the MSM of memory using brain scans?
Beardsley (1997)
Outline Beardsleys study into the MSM of memory
Used brain scanning techniques to find that the pre-frontal cortex is active during STM but it isn’t during LTM
- this provides support for there being multiple stores of memory
Name one case study that supports the MSM of memory
HM
Outline the HM case study
- HM had his hippocampus Surgically removed to treat his severe epilepsy
- his personality and intellect remained in tact however he could not form new LTMs even though he could still recall LTMs from before the surgery
Why does HMs case study provide support for the MSM of memory?
It supports the idea that there are separate stores as HM was unable to transfer information from STM to LTM but was still able to retrieve information from before his surgery
What is one criticism of the MSM of memory?
It suggests that STM and LTM are both unitary stores however other research such as the Working memory model suggests that there are multiple stores within STM memory
Who proposed the working memory model?
Baddeley and Hitch