Memory- features of each store

Question 1

What is meant by capacity?

Answer 1

The volume of information/data which can be kept in any memory store at any one time. (how much)

Question 2

What is meant by duration?

Answer 2

The amount of time that information can be stored in each memory store. (how long)

Question 3

What is meant by coding?

Answer 3

The format or ‘type’ of information which is stored in each memory store. (form it is stored in)

Question 4

Capacity in the sensory memory store?

Answer 4

Unlimited. Every cell in the eye can store data giving a high capacity.

Question 5

Research evidence of capacity in sensory memory?

Answer 5

Sperling (1960) found that participants could recall letters from a 3x4 grid when it was flashed for 1/20th of a second, suggesting a large capacity.

Question 6

Duration in the sensory memory store?

Answer 6

Less than half a second. Research found the duration is between 250-500 milliseconds.

Question 7

Research evidence of duration of sensory memory?

Answer 7

Sperling’s (1960) research showed that iconic memories are stored for a fraction of a second.
Baddeley (1999) found echoic memories are thought to last 2-3 seconds.

Question 8

Coding of sensory memory?

Answer 8

Modality specific- it is stored in its original form.
Iconic-visual
Haptic-touch
Echoic-sound
Olfactory-smell
Gustatory-taste

Question 9

Research evidence of coding of sensory memory?

Answer 9

Chowder (1993) found that echoic and iconic stores have different durations- suggesting information is coded into different sensory stores.

Question 10

Capacity of short term memory?

Answer 10

Between 5-9 items.
Can be increased by chunking items to reduce number of separate items overall.

Question 11

Research evidence of capacity of short term memory?

Answer 11

Jacobs (1887) used the digit span technique where participants are given four digits and have to recall these in that order. They are then given five digits, with the number of digits increasing if they get the previous string correct. The mean span for letters was 7.3 and for numbers was 9.3 items.

Question 12

Duration of short term memory?

Answer 12

18-30 seconds. Duration can be extended by verbal rehearsal- maintained in the rehearsal loop.

Question 13

Research evidence of duration of short term memory?

Answer 13

Peterson and Peterson (1959) gave participants a trigram to remember (three consonants). They were then given a three digit number and asked to count backwards to prevent rehearsal. The length of time spent counting increased each time and it was found that recall was 80% after 3 seconds and 3% after 18 seconds.

Question 14

Coding of short term memory?

Answer 14

Acoustic- this means coding is sound based, if material sound the same/similar then it can be confused if tried to recall immediately.

Question 15

Research evidence of coding in short term memory?

Answer 15

Baddeley (1966) gave different lists of words to four groups of participants. They were either acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar or semantically dissimilar. Participants were then asked to recall the words in the correct order immediately and did worse on acoustically similar words.

Question 16

Capacity of long term memory?

Answer 16

Unlimited- we may think we have forgotten information, however it may not be accessible.

Question 17

Research evidence of capacity of long term memory?

Answer 17

Wagenaar (1986) created a diary of over 2400 events over six years and tested himself on the recall of events rather than the dates. He found he had excellent recall, showing that LTM capacity is extremely large.

Question 18

Duration of long term memory?

Answer 18

From a few minutes to a lifetime.

Question 19

Research evidence of duration of long term memory?

Answer 19

Bahrick et al. (1975) studied participants aged 17-74 on their recall of students in their high school yearbooks. This was done via photo recognition and free recall. Those tested within 15 years of graduation were 90% accurate, after 48 years this declined to 70% for photo recognition. For free recall this was 60% at 15 years and 30% after 48 years, showing memories last a long time, although forgetting also increases over time.

Question 20

Coding of long term memory?

Answer 20

Semantic- this means coding is based on the meaning of the material. Material with the same meaning can be confused.

Question 21

Research evidence of coding of long term memory?

Answer 21

Baddeley (1966) (using same procedure as coding of STM) found that if participants were asked to recall the word list after 20 minutes they did worse with semantically similar words.