Memory Flashcards
Duration of STM
18s
Duration of STM Research
Peterson Peterson 1959
Procedure:
1.24 students
2. 8 trilas
3. asked to recall a consonant syllable and 3-digit number after a retention interval of 3,6,9,12,15,18sec
4. count backwards from 3-digit number to prevent verbal rehearsal
Peterson Peterson 1959 findings
- 80% correct at 3sec
- 20% correct at 9 sec
- 2% correct at 18 sec
Peterson Peterson 1959 evaluation(2)
Criticism:
Top: it is artificial
Point: trying to memorise consonant syllables doesn’t reflect mundane activities, where what owe are memorising is meaningful. However, sometimes we try to remember meaningless things(like postcode)
Tail: although the task was artificial, the study has some relevance to mundane life
Criticism:
Top: result may be due to displacement
Point: participants were counting numbers in their STM and this may displace syllables to be remembered. Reitman(1974) used auditory tones to instead of numbers so displacement wouldn’t occur(sounds don’t interfere with verbal rehearsal)- STM was longer
Tail:forgetting in Petersons’s study was due to displacement, rather than decay
STM Capacity
7+-2
STM Capacity research
Jacobs 1887
Procedure:
1. start with a 4 digit number and increase the length by 1 until can no longer recall the number correctly
Jacobs 1887 findings
9.3 numbers and 7.3 letters
Miller- Magic number= 7+-2
STM evaluation(Miller)
Criticism:
Top: Miller’s original findings have not been replicated
Point: Cowan(2001) reviewed studies on the capacity of STM and concluded STM is likely to be limited to 4 chunks. Research in the visual capacity of STM also shows a limit of 4 chunks- Miller’s range is appropriate
Tail: STM may not be as excessive as we thought
Top: Size of chunks affects how many of them can be remembered
Point: Simon(1974)- found that people had a shorter memory span for larger chunks
Tail: Supports that STM has a limited capacity
Top: Capacity is not the same for everyone
Point: Jacobs found that digit span(recall) increased with age. 8y.o= 6.6 digits, 19y.o=8.6 digits
Tail: suggests that the capacity of STM is not fixed and individual. differences may play a role
STM coding
Acoustic
STM coding research
Baddeley 1966
Procedure:
1. 4 groups of words
2. semantically/acoustically similar/dissimilar
Baddeley 1966 findings
STM is coded mostly
Multi Store Model of Memory was invented by:
Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968
Multi Store Model order (Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968):
1.Environmental stimuli
2.Sensory register
3. Attention
4.Short term memory (maintenance rehearsal)
5.Maintenance rehearsal
6.Long-term memory
7.(retrieval back to STM; maintenance rehearsal)
8. Decay
Working Memory Model was invented by:
Baddeley and Hitch 1974
Reasons for Working Memory Model to be invented:
There is one stop for visual and auditory processing
- If you do 2 things at the same time (dual ask performance) and they are both visual, you perform them less well than if you do them separately
- If you do 2 things (visual and sound) then there is no interference. You do them simultaneously as you do them separately
Working Memory Model order:
