Memory Studies

Question 1

Sperling

Answer 1

Sensory register investigation:

• Lab experiment
• Shown a grid 4x3 or letters
• Immediate recall of whole grid or a row
• Any row, recalled 3 items suggesting almost the whole grid was in the sensory register but faded before the end of recall

Question 2

Peterson and Peterson

Answer 2

STM duration study
- nonsense trigrams (CGH) and asked to recall after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18 seconds
- during pause, they had to count back in 3s from random number (prevent rehearsal)
- 3s - 80%
- 18s- 10%
STM duration is 18 s

Question 3

Bahrick et al

Answer 3

LTM duration study
- asked to name ex classmates (free recall)
- photo recognition test
- 15 years- 90% names and faces correct
- 48 years - declined to 40%
High ecological validity, no way of knowing why some information is stored well

Question 4

Jacobs

Answer 4

Capacity of STM

• String of letters/digits
• Repeat back in same order
• 9 digits recalled, 7 letters recalled.
• STM has storage of 5-9 items
• Lacks ecological validity

Question 5

Baddeley

Answer 5

Coding in STM and LTM
- acoustically similar words 
-acoustically dissimilar 
- semantically similar 
- semantically dissimilar 
AS group struggled immediately 
SS group struggled after 20 min gap
- suggests STM coded acoustically 
- LTM coded semantically

Question 6

HM

Answer 6

-epilepsy
- removed hippocampus
- STM unaffected
- unable to form new LTM memories
Supports separate systems

Question 7

KF

Answer 7

impaired STM
- couldn’t recall words presented verbally
- impaired articulatory loop but I face visuospatial sketch pad
Supports working memory model - different stores for STM

Question 8

Cognitive interview support

Answer 8

• Staged situation, man in blue rucksack stole projector
• 2 days later participants asked about it
• independent groups, standard or cognitive interview
• misleading question used (implying green rucksack) cognitive interview participants less likely to be affected by it