Memory

Question 1

What research did Baddley conduct?

Answer 1

• He gave 4 different lists of words to 4 groups of participants
• One group had acoustically similar words, another acoustically dissimilar, another semantically similar ad the other one semantically dissimilar
• PPs had to recall their list

Question 2

What were the findings of Baddley’s research?

Answer 2

• When PPs had to recall immediately (STM), they did worse on the acoustically similar words
• When PPs had to recall after a period of time, they did worse on the semantically similar words

Question 3

What research did Jacobs conduct?

Answer 3

• He developed a technique for measuring digit span
• This technique was to give an individual ,for example, 4 digits and asked to recall
• This carries on to 5 digits and so on until the person can’t recall the digits correctly
• This number then becomes their digit span

Question 4

What did Jacobs find?

Answer 4

He found that the mean span for digits was 9.3 and for letters, it was 7.3

Question 5

What research did Miller conduct?

Answer 5

• Miller’s research was very similar to Jacobs’
• He made observations of everyday life and made note of the fact that everything came in 7s (+/- 2)
• He also noticed that people can remember 5 letters as well as 5 number by chunking

Question 6

What research did Peterson and Peterson conduct?

Answer 6

• They tested 24 undergraduates
• Each student participated in 8 trials
• In each trial, a student was given a constant syllable (eg YCG) and a 3 digit number
• They were told to count backwards from that number to prevent mental rehearsing
• They were told to stop and recall after either 3 ,6,9,12 or 18 seconds

Question 7

What did Peterson and Peterson find?

Answer 7

The % of correct responses was highest at 3 seconds and gradually the % decreased when it got to 18 seconds
- This suggests that STM has a very short duration unless repeated

Question 8

What research did Bahrick conduct?

Answer 8

• Bahrick et al studies 392 participants
• High school yearbooks were obtained for these PPs
• Recall was tested in various ways; photo-recognition and free recall

Question 9

What did Bahrick find?

Answer 9

• PPs who were tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition
• PPs who were tested after 48 years were about 70% accurate in photo recognition
• for free recall, after 15 years accuracy was about 60%, after 48 years it was 30%
• showing that LTM lasts a very long time

Question 10

coding, capacity and duration strengths

Answer 10

(+)Bahrick’s study has high external validity - real life stimuli - not artificial

Question 11

coding, capacity and duration weaknesses

Answer 11

(-) Baddleys study - artificial stimuli - caution when generalizing
(-) Bahrick’s study might have had confounding variables - some may have been looking over the photos some may not, some may be freinds with them etc
(-) jacob’s study conducted a long time ago
(-)Peterson and Peterson also had artificial stimuli

Question 12

MSM strengths

Answer 12

(+) large base of research evidence - KF shows that LTM and STM are distinctly different
(+)pioneering model that inspired other more accurate models such as the WMM

Question 13

MSM weaknesses

Answer 13

(-) KF shows theres more than one STM - he could recall when he read words but if they were read to him he couldn’t recall
(-) MSM too simplified - more than one type of LTM and STM
(-) research that went into the MSM used artificial stimuli - questionable validity

Question 14

Types of LTM strengths

Answer 14

(+) HM- procedural in tact but his episodic and semantic was damaged
(+)Brain scans evidence - showed diff parts of brain “light up” when diff tasks performed eg semantic -
hippocampus
(+) used to apply to treatments - this research provided basis for treatment of brain damage

Question 15

Types of LTM weaknesses

Answer 15

(-)