Memory: MSM, WMM, LTM Types, EWT, Forgetting and Interference Flashcards
What format is coding in STM?
acoustic
What format is coding in LTM?
semantic
Who discovered the encoding in LTM and STM? What were their findings?
Baddely (1966) found more mistakes are made recalling acoustically similar words immediately after learning them, and recalling semantically similar words 20 minutes after learning them
What is the capacity of STM thought to be? Who are the two relevant researchers?
7+-2 chunks (so we can remember 7 groups of things rather than 7 things). Jacobs (1887) conducted digit span tests and Miller (1956) published an article with the 7 chunks theory.
What is the capacity of LTM thought to be?
unlimited
What did Jacobs (1887) do? Findings?
Digit span test to find capacity of STM for numbers and letters. Used 443 female students who had to repeat back a string of digits/letters in the same order as it was read to them until they could no longer recall the sequence.
Average of 7.3 letters.
Strength of Miller’s research/article?
Supported by research (Jacobs 1887, then explain procedure and results)
2 problems with Miller’s research?
Didn’t specify how large a chunk should be so we can’t conclude exact capacity, further research required to determine this.
Didn’t take into account other factors that affect capacity like age, which Jacobs research acknowledged that STM changes with age.
What is the duration of STM thought to be?
18-30 seconds.
Who demonstrated duration of STM, and procedure?
Peterson and Peterson (1959) found that increasing retention intervals decreased accuracy of recall of syllables. Mental rehearsal was prevented as they had to count down from a 3 digit number.
What is the duration of LTM thought to be?
Lifelong/Unlimited
Who demonstrated duration of LTM? what was the procedure?
Bahrick et al (1975) showed 392 US uni graduates photos from high-school yearbooks and asked to select the name that matches the photo.
Bahrick et al results.
90% could match after 14 years. 60% could match after 47 years.
Bahrick et al conclusion.
Concluded people could remember some information for a very long time, potentially lifetime but at least 47 years, and is semantically encoded.
Bahrick et al criticism (2 points)
Lacks population validity (392 US graduates). Unable to generalise results to other populations.
Doesn’t explain why LTM is less accurate overtime - limited duration or affected by age. Means psychologists can’t determine if LTM has unlimited (but affected by age) or limited duration.
Strength of Bahrick’s research (1 point).
High levels of ecological validity as it used real life memories, reflecting our memory for real life events and can be applied to everyday memory. Use of meaningful stimuli.
Peterson and Peterson + Miller et al criticism.
Low mundane realism due to use of artificial stimuli (little personal meaning). This means little ecological validity so not reflective of real life memory and learning experience, limiting generalisability.
High mundane realism means high:
ecological validity
Key issue with Jacobs (and all historical research)
Lack of standardisation and use of scientific methods, producing less reliable results due to confounding variables and lower control.
What are the 3 stores in the MSM
sensory register, STM, and LTM
Sensory register MSM features
A sub-store for each sense, huge capacity, duration of less than half a second
Process that passes info from SR to STM
attention
STM MSM features
acoustically encoded (baddeley), capacity of 7+-2 (Miller) and duration of 18-30 seconds (Peterson and Peterson)
Process that keeps info in STM
Maintenance rehearsal (repeating information)