Petersom and Peterson (1959) Short-term Retentions of individual Verbal Items Flashcards
What is Mundane realism?
A realistic, everyday task
What was Peterson and Peterson’s aim?
To test the true duration of short term memory
What was Peterson and Peterson’s procedure?
Each student was asked to repeat out loud a set of letters (a nonsense trigram) that they heard. The were then asked to count backwards in 3s or 4s from a 3 digit number in order to prevent rehearsal. After a certain number of seconds participants then had to recell the trigram, at intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 seconds.
What were Peterson and Peterson’s finding?
Their result showed that the longer each student had to count backwards, the less able there were to accurately recall the trigram
What was Peterson and Peterson’s conclusion?
When the participants were unable to rehearse the trigrams information fades rapidly and the maximum duration of short term memory is around 18 seconds.
What were the strengths of this study?
Standardised procedure and high level of control as it was a lab experiment.
What were the weaknesses of this study?
Low ecological and external validity. The task lacked mundane realism due to the use of nonsense trigrams and counting backwards.
