Memory

Question 1

Baddeley: coding in STM and LTM

Answer 1

Procedure: acoustically similar words (e.g cat, cab) or dissimilar (e.g pit,few) and semantically similar words (e.g large,big) or dissimilar (e.g good,hot)

Findings: immediate recall worse with acoustically similar words, STM is acoustic. Recall after 20 minutes with semantically similar words, LTM is semantic

Question 2

Jacobs: capacity of STM

Answer 2

Procedure: digit span- researcher reads four digits and increases until the participant cannot recall the order correctly

Findings: on average, participants could repeat back 9.3 numbers and 7.3 letters in correct order immediately after they were presented

Question 3

Miller: capacity of STM

Answer 3

Procedure: Miller made observations of everyday practice. For example, he noted that things come in sevens: there are 7 notes on the musical scale, 7 days of the week, 7 deadly sins and so on

Findings: the span of STM is about 7 items but can be improved by chunking- grouping sets of digits/ letters into meaningful units

Question 4

Peterson and Peterson: Duration of STM

Answer 4

Procedure: 24 students were given a consonant syllable (e.g YCG) to remember and a 3 digit number to count backwards for 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds

Findings: students recalled about 80% of the syllables correctly with a 3 second interval. Average recall after 18 seconds fell to about 3%. Suggesting that duration of STM without rehearsals is about 18 to 30 seconds

Question 5

Bahrick et al

Answer 5

Procedure: participants were 392 Americans aged 17 and 74.

1) recognition test: 50 photos from participants’ high school yearbook
2) free recall test: participants listed names of their graduating class

Findings: participants tested 48 years after graduation were about 70% accurate in photo recognition. Free recall was less accurate

Question 6

Atkinson and Shriffin Multi store model: what is it?

Answer 6

MSM describes how information flows through the memory system

Question 7

Sensory register

Answer 7

A stimulus from the environment passes into the SR along with lots of other sights, sounds etc. This part of memory is not one store but five, one for each sense
Duration: very brief- less than half a second
Capacity: High
Coding: depends on the sense- visual, auditory etc

Question 8

Transfer from SR to STM

Answer 8

Little of what goes into SR passes further into the memory system- needs attention to be paid to it

Question 9

Short term memory

Answer 9

STM is a limited capacity and duration store
Duration: about 18 to 30 seconds unless the information is rehearsed
Capacity: between 5 and 9 items before some forgetting occurs
Coding: acoustic

Question 10

Transfer from STM to LTM

Answer 10

Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat (rehearse) material to ourselves. We can keep information in STM as long as we rehearse it
If we rehearse it long enough, it passes into LTM

Question 11

Long term memory

Answer 11

A permanent memory store
When we want to recall materials stored in LTM it has to be transferred back into STM by a process called retrieval
Duration: potentially up to a life time
Capacity: potentially unlimited
Coding: tends to be in tweaks of meaning I.e semantic

Question 12

MSM strength: research showing STM and LTM are different

Answer 12

• Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when using our STMs. But we mix up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTMs
• this clearly shows that coding in STM is acoustic and in LTM it is semantic
• supports the MSM’s view that these two memory stores are separate and independent

Question 13

MSM weakness: research studies supporting the MSM use artificial materials

Answer 13

• researchers often asked participants to recall digits, letters and sometimes words. Peterson and Peterson even used consonant syllables which have no meaning
• in everyday life we form memories related to sorts of useful things- peoples faces, their names, facts, places
• this suggests the MSM lacks external validity. Research findings may reflect how memory works with meaningless material in lab testing, but does not reflect how memory works in everyday life

Question 14

Types of long term memory

Answer 14

Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Procedural memory

Question 15

Episodic memory

Answer 15

• stores events (episodes) from our lives
• this store has been likened to dairy of daily happenings
• they are time stamped- you remember when they happened
• they involve several elements- people,places,objects and behaviours