Memory Studies

Question 1

Who did research into coding for short and long term memory?

Answer 1

Baddeley

Question 2

What was the aim of Baddeley’s research?

Answer 2

To assess whether coding in short and long term memory was mainly acoustic or semantic

Question 3

Explain the procedure for Baddeley’s research

Answer 3

-He used word lists, such as cat, mat, hat and chat

-There were four sets of word lists that were acoustically and semantically similar and dissimilar

-Participants had to recall the order of the word lists ,immediately, to assess the short term memory and after 20 minutes to assess the long term memory

Question 4

What are the findings for Baddeley’s research?

Answer 4

-Participants given the list of acoustically similar words had the worst recall as they confused the similar sounding words

-Participants given the semantically similar words had the worst recall as they confused the words what had a similar meaning

Question 5

What are the conclusions from Baddeley’s research?

Answer 5

-The lists that had poor recall showed that the words had become confused

-For the immediate recall, acoustically sounding words were not remembered well, suggesting that STM is coded acoustically

-For the delayed recall, semantically sounding words were not remembered well, suggesting that LTM is semantically coded

Question 6

Evaluate the limitations of Baddeley’s research

Answer 6

-The words used had no personal meaning to participants. When information is meaningful, people will use semantic coding, even in short term memory

Question 7

Who did research into the capacity of short term memory?

Answer 7

Jacobs and Miller

Question 8

What was the aim for Jacob’s research ?

Answer 8

Too see how many items can be stored in the short term memory

Question 9

What was the procedure for Jacob’s research?

Answer 9

-He developed a technique to measure the digit span (how many items an individual can remember, in sequence and repeat back in order)

Question 10

What were the findings of Jacob’s research?

Answer 10

He found that the mean span for letters across participants was 7.3 and for digits, 9.3

Question 11

What is the conclusion from Jacob’s research?

Answer 11

The memory can hold 5-9 items

Question 12

Evaluate the limitations of Jacob’s research

Answer 12

-Jacob’s study was conducted a long time ago and early research , such as this, often lacked control over extraneous variables e.g. Some participants may have been distracted

Question 13

What was the aim for Miller’s research?

Answer 13

The number of items a human can hold in the working memory

Question 14

What was the procedure for Miller’s research?

Answer 14

-He observed things that come in sevens: days of the week, notes on a music scale, deadly sins etc.

-He also used the digit span technique, but chunked items into groups e.g. words and sets of numbers

Question 15

What is the conclusion from Miller’s research?

Answer 15

The memory can hold 5-9 items (7+/-2)

Question 16

Evaluate the limitations of Miller’s research

Answer 16

Miller’s research may have oversimplified capacity in short term memory. Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of short term memory is was only 4 chunks which is lower than Miller’s 7+/-2. This means the accepted capacity of short term may be inaccurate

Question 17

Who did research on the duration of short term memory?

Answer 17

Peterson and Peterson

Question 18

What was the aim of Peterson and Peterson’s research?

Answer 18

To test the hypothesis that information that is not rehearsed is lost quickly from short term memory

Question 19

What was the procedure for Peterson and Peterson’s research?

Answer 19

-24 students took part in 8 trials and were given a consonant syllable/trigram, such as BNT and a three digit number and were asked to count backwards to prevent rehearsal

-On each trial, they were stopped after either 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds. This was the retention interval

Question 20

What were findings of Peterson and Peterson’s research?

Answer 20

Short term memory lasts about 18 seconds, after this very few people correctly recall the consonant syllable

Question 21

What is the conclusion from Peterson and Peterson’s research?

Answer 21

Short term memory may have a very short duration, unless it is rehearsed

Question 22

Evaluate the limitations of Peterson and Peterson’s research

Answer 22

Their research used artificial stimuli. Consonant syllables/trigrams do not reflect real life memory activities. This means the study lacks external validity

Question 23

Who did research into the duration of long term memory?

Answer 23

Bahrick

Question 24

What was the aim of Bahrick’s research

Answer 24

To investigate the duration of long term memory

Question 25

What was the procedure for Bahrick’s research?

Answer 25

-He tested the recall of people participants had gone to school with using photo recognition (50 photos from a person’s yearbook)

-And free recall (participants recalled all the names of their graduating class)

Question 26

What were the findings of Bahrick’s research?

Answer 26

-90% accuracy for photo recognition for people who had graduated within 15 years and 60% for free recall

-After 48 years, photo recognition recall was about 70% and 30% for free recall

Question 27

What is the conclusion from Bahrick’s research?

Answer 27

Long term memory lasts a very long time

Question 28

Evaluate the strengths of Bahrick’s research

Answer 28

His study had high external validity. They used memories that were part of real life. Using real life meaningful memories means that the findings are more likely to accurately represent memory in the real world

Question 29

Evaluate the limitations of Bahrick’s research

Answer 29

Confounding variables were not controlled, such as the possibility that some participants may have recently looked over their yearbook photos