Memory: Coding, Capacity and Duration 2024 - 2025

Question 1

Key Term Focus

What is meant by the term coding?

Answer 1

How we process information

Question 2

Key Term Focus

What is meant by capacity?

Answer 2

The amount of informaiton that can be held

Question 3

Key Term Focus

What is meant by duration?

Answer 3

This is how long the information lasts in memory

Question 4

AO1 Focus

How does the sensory register code information?

Answer 4

Modality specific
(according to the sense being used)

Question 5

AO1 Focus

What is the capacity of the sensory register

Answer 5

Unlimited

Question 6

AO1 Focus

What is the duration of the sensory register?

Answer 6

Limited - less than 0.5 second

Question 7

AO1 Focus

How does the short term memory code information?

Answer 7

Acoustically
(based on sound)

Question 8

AO1 Focus

What is the capacity of the short term memory?

Answer 8

7 + / - 2 items
(5-9 items)

Question 9

AO1 Focus

What is the duration of the short term memory?

Answer 9

Limited - 18-30 seconds

Question 10

AO1 Focus

How does the long term memory code information?

Answer 10

Semantically
(based on meaning)

Question 11

AO1 Focus

What is the capacity of the long term memory?

Answer 11

Unlimited

Question 12

AO1 Focus

What is the duration of the long term memory

Answer 12

Potentially, a lifetime

Question 13

AO1 Focus

Who conducted studies into the coding of the short term memory and long term memory?

Answer 13

Baddeley

Question 14

AO1 Focus

Who conducted the study into the capacity of the short term memory

Answer 14

Miller

Question 15

AO1 Focus

Who conducted the study into the duration of the short term memory?

Answer 15

Peterson & Peterson

Question 16

AO1 Focus

Who conducted a study into the duration of the long term memory?

Answer 16

Bahrick

Question 17

AO1 Focus

What was Baddeley’s procedure for investigating the coding of the short term memory?

Answer 17

Showed participants word list of either;
* Acoustically similar words
* Acoustically dissimilar words

Question 18

AO1 Focus

When Baddeley tested the coding of short term memory, when were participants asked to recall the word lists?

Answer 18

Immediately

Students often forget that for a task to be testing the STM, it has be recalled immediately. AQA often makes this a mark point on questions about designing memory tasks!

Question 19

AO1 Focus

When testing the coding of the STM, which word list did participants make more mistakes on?

Answer 19

Acoustically similar words

Question 20

AO1 Focus

What was Baddeley’s conclusion regarding the coding of the STM

Answer 20

The STM codes information acoustically

Question 21

AO1 Focus

What was Baddeley’s procedure for investigating the coding of the long term memory?

Answer 21

Showed participants word list of either;
* Semantically similar words
* Semantically dissimilar words

Question 22

AO1 Focus

When Baddeley tested the coding of long term memory, when were participants asked to recall the word lists?

Answer 22

After 20 minutes

Students often forget that for a task to be testing the LTM, it has be recalled after a delay. AQA often makes this a mark point on questions about designing memory tasks!

Question 23

AO1 Focus

When testing the coding of the LTM, which word list did participants make more mistakes on?

Answer 23

Semantically similar

Question 24

AO1 Focus

What was Baddeley’s conclusion regarding the coding of the LTM

Answer 24

Codes information semantically

Question 25

AO3 Focus

Why can Baddeley’s study of the coding of the STM and LTM be criticised for mundane realism?

This would form the first E of your PEEL

Answer 25

It used an artificial task of recalling word lists

Remember, you must always be specific and tailor the PEEL to suit the study you are evaluating - generic AO3 = 0 marks!

Question 26

AO3 Focus

As Baddeley used an artificial task to study the STM and LTM’s coding, what is it difficult to do?

This would be your second E of your PEEL

Answer 26

Generalise the findings that the STM codes acoustically / LTM codes semantically to real life examples of memory coding

This would be your second E of your PEEL

Question 27

AO1 Focus

What was Miller’s procedure to study the capacity of the STM?

Answer 27

‘Digit span technique’
* Participants given string of unrelated digits
* Asked to recall
* Increased by 1 digit every time correctly recalled

Question 28

AO1 Focus

What were Miller’s findings about the capacity of the STM?

Answer 28

• Participants could realy 5 - 9 items
• More can be recalled if the items were ‘chunked’

Question 29

AO3 Focus

Why can Miller’s study of the capacity of the STM be criticised for mundane realism?

This will be the first E of your PEEL

Answer 29

It used an artificial task of recalling series of digits

Remember, you must always be specific and tailor the PEEL to suit the study you are evaluating - generic AO3 = 0 marks!

Question 30

AO3 Focus

As Miller used an artificial task to study the STM’s capacity, what is it difficult to do?

This will be the second E of your PEEL

Answer 30

Generalise the findings that the STM has a capacity of 5-9 items to real life examples of the capacity of the STM

This will be the second E of your PEEL

Question 31

AO1 Focus

What was the procedure of Peterson & Peterson’s study of the duration of the STM?

Answer 31

Consonant Trigrams
* Given a consonant trigram
* Given a 3 digit number and were asked to count backwards
* They were stopped at different intervals (3, 6, 9, 12 seconds)

Students often forget that P&P stopped participants at different intervals - this is ESSENTIAL when explaining the procedure, as this is how they measured the duration

Question 32

AO1 Focus

What did Peterson & Peterson find when testing the duration of the STM?

Answer 32

• After 3 seconds only 80% recalled the trigram correctly
• After 18 seconds less than 10% recalled the trigram correctly

Do not confuse findings with conclusions - these findings tell us what we know the duration of the STM to be

Question 33

AO3 Focus

Why can Peterson & Peterson’s procedure be praised for high reliability?

This would form your first E of your PEEL

Answer 33

They used a standardised procedure of stopping participants at the same time intervals to ask to recall trigram

This would form your first E of your PEEL

Question 34

AO3 Focus

What does having high reliability / standardised procedure mean for Peterson & Peterson’s study?

This would form the second E of your PEEL

Answer 34

It can be repeated in the same conditions to check for consistent results into the capacity of the STM

This would form the second E of your PEEL

Question 35

AO1 Focus

What was Bahrick’s procedure when testing the duration of the LTM?

Answer 35

Asked high school graduates to recall the names of their classmates
* Condition 1 = recall using yearbook
* Condition 2 = recall without using yearbook

Question 36

AO1 Focus

What were the findings of Bahrick’s study of the duration of the LTM?

Answer 36

• Condition 1 = 70% recalled accurately after 48 years
• Condition 2 = 30% recalled accurately after 48 years

Do not confuse findings with conclusions - these findings tell us what we know the duration of the LTM to be

Question 37

AO1 Focus

What was Bahrick’s conclusion regarding the duration of the LTM?

Answer 37

Some information can last a lifetime in the LTM

Question 38

AO3 Focus

Why can Bahrick’s study be praised for having high mundane realism?

This would be your first E of your PEEL

Answer 38

As the research used a real life task of assessing real life memories of an individuals classmates

This would be your first E of your PEEL

Question 39

AO3 Focus

As Bahrick’s study is high in mundane realism, what does that mean it is easier to do?

This would be the second E of your PEEL

Answer 39

Generalise the findings of the duration of the LTM to real life situations

This would be the second E of your PEEL

Question 40

AO3 Focus

How can Bahrick’s study be criticised?

Answer 40

Low control over extraneous variables

Question 41

AO3 Focus

Why does Bahrick’s study have low control over extraneous variables?

This would form part of your first E of your PEEL

Answer 41

As the research did not take place in a controlled environment

This would form part of your first E of your PEEL

Question 42

AO3 Focus

What is one potential extraneous variable of Bahrick’s study?

This would form part of the first E of your PEEL

Answer 42

How much contact the participants had with classmates after leaving school

Question 43

AO3 Focus

Bahrick’s study lacks control over extraneous variables.

What does that mean cannot be established?

Answer 43

Cause and effect between the IV (time passed) and the DV (correct recall of classmates)