Memory - STM & LTM

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

The process by which we retain and recall information about events that happened in the past

Question 2

What is short term memory?

Answer 2

Your memory for immediate events, disappears if not rehearsed

Question 3

What is long term memory?

Answer 3

Your memory for events that have happened in the past, from anywhere between 2 minutes and 100 years ago

Question 4

What is the capacity for STM? Who reached this discovery?

Answer 4

LIMITED
Jacobs et al found that 5-9 items can be stored in the STM and that digits (9) are easier to remember than letters (7)

Question 5

Who proposed the technique chunking ?

Answer 5

Miller found that CHUNKING can increase the number of items retained in the STM

Question 6

What was Jacob et al’s (1887) procedure?

Answer 6

Participants were asked to recall digits and then letters after seeing them

Question 7

What are the weaknesses of Jacob et al’s study?

Answer 7

Confounding variables weren’t controlled in the investigation so LACKS VALIDITY
For example: Some participants might have been distracted so they didn’t perform well

LACKS ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY , recalling lists of letters have little relevance to everyday activities

Question 8

What did Miller not take into account?

Answer 8

The participant’s age

Question 9

What is the duration of the STM?

Answer 9

Duration is limited to a maximum of 30 seconds which can be extended through rehearsal (if done long enough will result in transfer of the info into LTM where it will become long lasting)

Question 10

What were Jacob et al’s findings?

Answer 10

The mean span for remembered digits was 9.3
The mean span for letters was 7.3

Question 11

Who researched the duration of STM? What was their procedure?

Answer 11

Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Read nonsense trigrams to participants, and then got them to count backwards in threes from a large three-digit number (to prevent repetition of the letters)

Question 12

What was Peterson and Peterson’s findings?

Answer 12

They found that 90% of trigrams were recalled correctly after 3 seconds, but only 5% after 18 seconds
Suggests that STM duration has a capacity between 20 and 30 seconds

Question 13

What are the weaknesses of Peterson and Peterson’s investigation?

Answer 13

The results may be flawed by methodology because different trigrams were used on each trial, this may have led to interference between items, leading to decreased recall

LACKS ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY because nonsense trigrams have little relevance to STM tasks in everyday life

Question 14

How is information coded in the STM?

Answer 14

Acoustically

Question 15

Who investigated coding in STM and LTM? What was their aim?

Answer 15

Professor Alan Baddeley aimed to assess whether coding in the STM and LTM is mainly acoustic (by sound) or semantically (by meaning)

Question 16

What was Baddeley’s procedure?

Answer 16

75 participants were presented with one of four word lists repeated four times.
List A - acoustically similar (cat, mat, bat)
List B - acoustically dissimilar (pit, cow, day)
List C - semantically similar (big, huge, tall)
List D - semantically dissimilar (hot, safe, foul)

Question 17

How did Baddeley test coding in STM?

Answer 17

Participants were given a list containing the original words in the wrong order. Their task was to rearrange the words in the correct order

Question 18

How did Baddeley test coding in the LTM?

Answer 18

The procedure for LTM was the same as for the STM, but with a 20-minute interval before recall, during which the participant performed another task to prevent rehearsal .

Question 19

What did Baddeley find out about LTM coding based on his results?

Answer 19

For LTM, participants with List C (semantically similar) performed the worst, with a recall of only 55% . They confused similar -meaning words e.g recalling ‘big’ instead of ‘huge’. Suggesting that LTM is coded semantically

Recall of the other lists was comparatively good at between 70-85%

Question 20

What did Baddeley find out about STM coding based on his results?

Answer 20

For STM, participants given List A (acoustically similar) performed the worst, with a recall of only 10%. They confused similar sounding words (e.g recalling ‘cap’ instead of ‘cat’. It seems there is acoustic confusion in STM suggesting STM is coded on an ACOUSTIC basis.

Recall for the other lists was comparatively good at between 60-80%.

Question 21

What are the strengths of Baddeley’s study?

Answer 21

LABORATORY STUDY = shows causality (cause and effect relationships)
Can be replicated over and over again to check the results because it was done in a lab

Question 22

What are the weaknesses of Baddeley’s study?

Answer 22

LACKS ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY, not representative of real-life activities

Question 23

What did Anokhin estimate?

Answer 23

The number of possible neuronal connections in the human brain. He estimated that there are unlimited neuronal connections and therefore the capacity of LTM is UNLIMITED

Question 24

What did Wagenaar create and test himself on that suggests LTM capacity is unlimited?

Answer 24

He created a diary of 2,400 events over SIX years and tested himself on recall of events rather than dates, finding he had impeccable recall

Question 25

What is a flaw in Wagenaar’s diary study?

Answer 25

Diary studies are a type of case study and therefore not representative of the general population and there could also be an element of bias as people are testing themselves

Question 26

What is a potential flaw in the findings of LTM capacity research linked to assumptions?

Answer 26

We can only assume that LTM is limitless, because research has not been able to determine a finite capacity.

Question 27

How long can the LTM hold memories for?

Answer 27

Unlimited amount of time

Question 28

Who investigated the duration of the LTM? What was their procedure?

Answer 28

Bahrick et al (1975) showed 400 participants aged 17-74 years a set of photos and a list of names, some of which were ex-school friends and asked them to identify ex-school friends.

Question 29

What were the results of Bahrick et al’s study?

Answer 29

Those who left high school in the last fifteen years = identified 90% of faces and names

Those who left school 48 years ago = identified 80% of names and 70% of faces

Question 30

What is the strength of Bahrick et al’s high school study?

Answer 30

HIGH EXTERNAL VALIDITY - real life memories were studied

Question 31

What is the weakness of Bahrick et al ‘s study?

Answer 31

CONFOUNDING VARIABLES are not controlled
e.g participants may have looked at their yearbook photos and rehearsed their memory over the years