Memory Flashcards
What is memory ?
Is the ability to keep things in one’s mind and recall them at will.
What are the three processes of memory ?
Encoding - this stage is where we actually create a memory trace, ie a representation of an event in our memory
Storage - once encoded, the memory trace is stored somewhere in the memory system.
Retrieval - this is where the memory is recalled or remembered
What are the differences of STM and LTM ?
Duration - STM has a very limited duration on average around 10 secs and rarely above 20 secs,whereas LTM has potentially unlimited duration.
Capacity - STM has very limited capacity ( 7 +/- two chunks of information) whereas LTM has potentially unlimited capacity
Encoding - information in STM tends to be encoded acoustically whereas information in LTM tends to encoded semantically.
What was Jacob’s study on capacity in the STM ?
Aims - to demonstrate how much information can be stored in STM.
Procedures - he used serial digit span technique - participant is presented with a sequence of items and then required to repeat them back in the order they were presented - it starts of with 1 digit and then a digit is added each time
Findings - he found that participants could recall more digits than numbers - the average span for digits was 9.3 whereas letters was 7.3 - also found that recall increased with age
Conclusion - STM does have a very limited capacity of somewhere between 5 and 9 items
What are some AO3 of Jacob’s study ?
Other studies have found the same thing - positive critical point. This suggests Jacob’s study is valid.
In other studies it has been founded that ur digit recall depends on your individual differences. This suggests that performance may be affected by factors other than capacity of STM.
What was Peterson and Peterson’s study on duration in STM ?
Aims - to investigate the duration of STM. How long is it before the memory trace disappears if rehearsal is prevented.
Procedures - 24 students were enlisted, and their recall was tested by the following :
The experimenter said a nonsense trigram to a participant e.g. WRT and then said a 3 digit number. The participant had to count back in threes from this number until told to stop. The student was then asked to recall the nonsense trigram.
Results - participants recalled more words accurately when they had a shorter retention interval e.g. at 3 seconds (90%) - accuracy with letter recall, than a longer retention interval e.g. 18 seconds (2%)
Conclusion - information usually remains in the SM for less than 18 seconds when rehearsal is prevented.
What are some AO33 of Peterson and Peterson’s study ?
The study doesn’t give us a proper understanding of what was to happen in real life as it relies to heavily on lab studies.
Students are not like everyone else - people aged 18-21 may have different memories to different age groups
What was Baddeley’s study on encoding in STM and LTM ?
Aims - to gather support for theory that material is encoded acoustically in STM by considering if people make acoustic errors - he also wanted to consider whether LTM would be affected by acoustic confusions - he also wanted to test whether LTM or STM would be affected by semantic confusions
Procedures - the experiment involved 4 word lists as shown below :
Acoustically similar , acoustically dissimilar , semantically similar == semantically dissimilar
75 young servicemen spilt into 4 groups - each group heard 1 word lists - it was repeated x4 - the words were then jumbled up and participants were asked to put them in the correct order
Results - all experiments participants remembered more words on each successive trial - acoustically similar did worse and so did semantically similar
What are some AO3 of Baddeley”s research ?
STM may not always use an acoustic code - visual code’s can be used in the STM
There is more than one kind of LTM
What was Bahrick’s study on duration in the LTM ?
Aims - set out to study very LTM within its natural context - things/memories that tend to be personally important are possibly more likely to be remembered over a long period of time - the study aimed to compare visual and verbal LTM
Procedures - nearly 400 participants aged 17-74 - a free recall test where participants were asked to list all the names of their graduating class - a photo recognition test of 50 photos some of which where from the participants high school year book - a name recognition test
Results - participants who were tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in identifying names and faces - after 48 years this declined to about 80% for name recognition
What are some AO3 of Bahrick’s study ?
Lab studies are not as true to real life as they could be - it is trivial and means less to the participant - this is why this study is more true to life and has greater validity
Some aspects were not controlled since participants could’ve gone over their yearbook multiple times this counts as rehearsal
