memory Flashcards
what is coding
the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores
what is capacity
the amount of information which can be held in a memory store
what is duration
the length of time information can be held in a memory store
describe short term memory
limited capacity memory store. coding is acoustic, capacity between 5 and 9, duration is 18 to 30 seconds
describe long term memory
permanent memory store. coding is semantic,unlimited capacity, duration can be for a lifetime
what were the 4 groups in Baddeley’s research on coding
acoustically similar
acoustically dissimilar
semantically similar
semantically dissimilar
describe Baddeley’s coding study
Baddeley gave different lists of words to 4 different groups of participant
Acoustically similar and dissimilar
Semantically similar and dissimilar
Participants were then tested on short and long term memory I.E. tested immediately after or 20 minutes after
what were the results of Baddeley’s study
STM had the worst results for acoustically similar words
LTM had the worse results for semantically similar words - this suggests we code LTM semantically
evaluation of research on coding - Baddeley
artificial stimuli
describe digit span research - jacobs
Participant is asked to recall a sequence of numbers
If recalled correctly more numbers are given
This process repeats until the participant recalls them wrong
what was Jacobs results for his digit span research
mean span for numbers was 9.3
mean span for letters was 7.3
what is chunking
grouping sets of digits or numbers into units or chunks
describe Millers theory on span and chunking
things tend to come in 7s (plus or minus 2)
capacity of STM is around 7
people can recall 5 words as well as they can recall 5 letters by chunking
evaluate research on capacity - Jacobs and Miller
lacking validity - Jacobs
too many chunks - Miller
describe research into STM p + p
24 students to recall a trigram (3 consonants) and count down from a 3 letter digit
Each time a participant did this they were given either 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 second
Describe findings in STM - p + p
STM is very short; even at 3 seconds only 80% of participants recalled their trigram correctly and this fell to about 10% at 18 seconds
describe research into LTM - Bahrick et al
392 participants aged 17 - 74 and tested them on two conditions
Facial recognition from their school years yearbook
Free recall of names of students from their year
describe findings in LTM - Bahrick et al
graduated a maximum of 15 years before had a 90% accuracy on photo recognition
fell to 70% after 48 years
Free recall - graduation within 15 years scoring a 60% accuracy
30% for people who had graduated 48+ years ago
evaluate research on duration - P+P and Bahrick et al
meaningless stimuli in STM
P+P lacked internal validity
Higher external validity in LTM
describe the multi store model
A representation of what the memory works in terms of the 3 memory stores
Describes how information is transferred from one store to another