Memory - Basic Principles* Flashcards
Which Psychological approach is memory associated with?
Memory comes under the cognitive approach.
What is meant by coding?
Coding refers to the type of information that is stored in each memory store.
What is meant by capacity?
Capacity refers to the amount of information stored in any memory store at any time.
What is meant by duration?
Duration refers to the length of time information can be retained.
What are the types of coding and which type of memory do they relate to?
Two types of coding:
Acoustic - Short Term Memory
Semantic - Long Term Memory
Who proposed the idea of the two types of coding for the different types of memory store?
Baddeley (1966), when he found that recall was worse when trying to recall acoustically similar words straight after learning them, and recall was worse when trying to recall semantically similar words 20 mins after learning them.
What did Miller propose about the capacity of STM and LTM?
- Miller proposed that the capacity of STM was 7 +/-2 - based on the idea that things come in groups of seven.
- He proposed that the capacity of LTM was unlimited.
What is the duration of STM and who proposed this idea?
Petersen et al (1959) proposed that the duration of STM was 18-30 seconds.
What study proved that the duration of LTM is unlimited?
Bahrick et al (1975) found that participants’ recall was 90% accurate (after 15 years) compared to 70% (after 46 years).
Give an advantage of Bahrick’s study.
Permissable answers:
- High Mundane realism - Meaningful stimuli
- High ecological validity - due to high mundane realism
- Reliable results - Lab experiment
- Strict control over extraneous variables - lab experiment
Give a disadvantage of Bahrick’s study.
Permissable answers:
- Lab experiment - low ecological validity
- Ethnocentric sample - low population validity
