Memory: Coding, Capacity and Duration 2024 - 2025 Flashcards
Key Term Focus
What is meant by the term coding?
How we process information
Key Term Focus
What is meant by capacity?
The amount of informaiton that can be held
Key Term Focus
What is meant by duration?
This is how long the information lasts in memory
AO1 Focus
How does the sensory register code information?
Modality specific
(according to the sense being used)
AO1 Focus
What is the capacity of the sensory register
Unlimited
AO1 Focus
What is the duration of the sensory register?
Limited - less than 0.5 second
AO1 Focus
How does the short term memory code information?
Acoustically
(based on sound)
AO1 Focus
What is the capacity of the short term memory?
7 + / - 2 items
(5-9 items)
AO1 Focus
What is the duration of the short term memory?
Limited - 18-30 seconds
AO1 Focus
How does the long term memory code information?
Semantically
(based on meaning)
AO1 Focus
What is the capacity of the long term memory?
Unlimited
AO1 Focus
What is the duration of the long term memory
Potentially, a lifetime
AO1 Focus
Who conducted studies into the coding of the short term memory and long term memory?
Baddeley
AO1 Focus
Who conducted the study into the capacity of the short term memory
Miller
AO1 Focus
Who conducted the study into the duration of the short term memory?
Peterson & Peterson
AO1 Focus
Who conducted a study into the duration of the long term memory?
Bahrick
AO1 Focus
What was Baddeley’s procedure for investigating the coding of the short term memory?
Showed participants word list of either;
* Acoustically similar words
* Acoustically dissimilar words
AO1 Focus
When Baddeley tested the coding of short term memory, when were participants asked to recall the word lists?
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!
AO1 Focus
When testing the coding of the STM, which word list did participants make more mistakes on?
Acoustically similar words
AO1 Focus
What was Baddeley’s conclusion regarding the coding of the STM
The STM codes information acoustically
AO1 Focus
What was Baddeley’s procedure for investigating the coding of the long term memory?
Showed participants word list of either;
* Semantically similar words
* Semantically dissimilar words
AO1 Focus
When Baddeley tested the coding of long term memory, when were participants asked to recall the word lists?
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!
AO1 Focus
When testing the coding of the LTM, which word list did participants make more mistakes on?
Semantically similar
AO1 Focus
What was Baddeley’s conclusion regarding the coding of the LTM
Codes information semantically
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
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!
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
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
AO1 Focus
What was Miller’s procedure to study the capacity of the STM?
‘Digit span technique’
* Participants given string of unrelated digits
* Asked to recall
* Increased by 1 digit every time correctly recalled
AO1 Focus
What were Miller’s findings about the capacity of the STM?
- Participants could realy 5 - 9 items
- More can be recalled if the items were ‘chunked’
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
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!
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
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
AO1 Focus
What was the procedure of Peterson & Peterson’s study of the duration of the STM?
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
AO1 Focus
What did Peterson & Peterson find when testing the duration of the STM?
- 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
AO3 Focus
Why can Peterson & Peterson’s procedure be praised for high reliability?
This would form your first E of your PEEL
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
AO3 Focus
What does having high reliability / standardised procedure mean for Peterson & Peterson’s study?
This would form the second E of your PEEL
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
AO1 Focus
What was Bahrick’s procedure when testing the duration of the LTM?
Asked high school graduates to recall the names of their classmates
* Condition 1 = recall using yearbook
* Condition 2 = recall without using yearbook
AO1 Focus
What were the findings of Bahrick’s study of the duration of the LTM?
- 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
AO1 Focus
What was Bahrick’s conclusion regarding the duration of the LTM?
Some information can last a lifetime in the LTM
AO3 Focus
Why can Bahrick’s study be praised for having high mundane realism?
This would be your first E of your PEEL
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
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
Generalise the findings of the duration of the LTM to real life situations
This would be the second E of your PEEL
AO3 Focus
How can Bahrick’s study be criticised?
Low control over extraneous variables
AO3 Focus
Why does Bahrick’s study have low control over extraneous variables?
This would form part of your first E of your PEEL
As the research did not take place in a controlled environment
This would form part of your first E of your PEEL
AO3 Focus
What is one potential extraneous variable of Bahrick’s study?
This would form part of the first E of your PEEL
How much contact the participants had with classmates after leaving school
AO3 Focus
Bahrick’s study lacks control over extraneous variables.
What does that mean cannot be established?
Cause and effect between the IV (time passed) and the DV (correct recall of classmates)
