Memory Flashcards
What are the 3 stores in the MSM?
- Sensory register
- STM
3.LTM
What are the 3 features you need to remember of each store in the MSM?
- Coding
- Capacity
- Duration
What type of coding does the sensory register use?
Information is stored in an unprocessed form and is modality specific
What was the aim of sperlings study?
To investigate capacity and duration of the sensory register
What was the method used in sperlings study into the sensory register?
Participants were flashed a 3x4 grid of letters on a screen for 50 milliseconds. Participants were then asked to recall as many letters as they remember. He then asked participants to recall single rows of letters
What were the results of sperlings study into the sensory register?
When asked to recall as many letters as they could participants could remember about 4 letters, when asked to recall rows participants could remember about 3 letters. This information decayed rapidly
What did sperling conclude from his study?
The capacity of the sensory register is a minimum of 4 items and duration lasts about 250/500 milliseconds
What are the evaluation points of sperlings study into sensory register? AO3
+ High control
- low ecological validity
How does sperlings study have high control? AO3
P: a strength of sperlings research is that it is a lab experiment and therefore has high control
E: for example, all participants had the same experience since they were all shown the same letters for the same ammount of time and were given the same standardised instructions in a controlled environment
E: this is a strength of the study as the results are unlikely to have been affected by confounding variables and therefore has high internal validity
How does sperlings study have low ecological validity? AO3
P: a limitation of sperlings study is that it has low ecological validity
E: for example, in sperlings research participants are shown random letters in a lab and asked to recall them which is highly artificial as most information won’t be presented like this in real life situations
E: this is a limitation because the findings may be difficult to generalise to how the sensory memory works in real life
What type of codings is used in the STM?
Acoustic (sound)
What’s the duration of the STM?
18-30 seconds
What is the capacity of the STM?
7+-2
What was the aim of Millers study into STM?
To investigate the capacity of STM
What was the method used in millers study into the STM?
Miller used a digit span technique consisting of participants hearing a list of numbers and trying to recall them in the correct order
What were the results of Millers study into STM?
The span of STM is 7+/-2 and that if people chunk together information they can remember more
What was concluded from Millers study into STM?
The capacity of the STM is 7+/-2
What was the aim of Peterson and Petersons study into STM?
To investigate the duration of the STM
What method did Peterson and Peterson use in their study into the STM?
24 undergraduate students were presented a consonant trigram. Rehearsal was prevented by being asked to count backwards in 3s from a specific number. After intervals of 3,6,9 etc participants were stopped and asked to recall the trigram
What were the results of Peterson and petersons study?
After 3 secs delay 80% recall then after 18 secs 10% recall and after 30 secs 0% recall
What was concluded from peterson and petersons study into the STM?
The duration of the STM is between 18-30 seconds if maintenance rehearsal is prevented
What are the evaluation points of Peterson and Petersons study into the duration of the STM? AO3
+ high control
- low ecological validity
How does Peterson and Petersons study have high control? AO3
P: a strength of Peterson and Petersons study is that it is a lab experiment so therefore establishes cause and effect
E: as this experiment had high control over extraneous variables such as participants having standardised instructions, we can be confident that the IV (number of seconds prevented from rehearsing) affected the DV (if the trigram was recalled accurately or not)
E: this is a strength of the study as the results are unlikely to be affected by extraneous variables so we can be confident that the duration of the STM is 18-30 seconds
How does Peterson and Petersons study have low ecological validity? AO3
P: a limitation of Peterson and Petersons research is that it has low ecological validity
E: for example, the participants were presented with a trigram and recalling it is an artificial and simple task which does not test the true complexity of memory
E: this is a limitation because Peterson and Petersons results cannot be necessarily generalised to real life and therefore might not provide externally valid support for the claim that the duration of the STM is limited to approximately 18-30 seconds