Section 2 : Memory - Types of Memory Flashcards
Research on Coding
Baddeley
Coding - process of converting memory between different stores
Method:
4 differnt lists of words
-acoustically similar
-acoustically disimilar
-semantically similar
-semantically disimilar
Participants shown list, asked to recall in order
Recall:
Immediate, STM
20 mins later, LTM
Results:
STM - worse when acoustically similar
LTM - worse when semantically similar
Conclusions:
Info coded acoustically in STM
Info coded semantically in LTM
Research on Coding
Evaluate Baddeley
- lacks ecological validly
- other types of LTM (procedural, episodic memory) which this study doesn’t consider
- other methods of coding (visual) which this study doesn’t consider
- independent groups design means no control over participant variables
Research on Capacity
Jacobs
Digit Span
Method:
-Read out a list of digits
-Participants asked to recall in correct order
-Length of list increased if participant correctly recalled last number
Results:
Mean span of:
Digits - 9.3
Letters - 7.3
What are the three types of memory
- sensory register
- short-term memory
- long-term memory
Each differ in duration (how long it lasts), capacity (how much can be held), coding (how it is stored)
What is the sensory register
- stores information from our senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell)
- unless we pay attention to it, it disappears quickly through spontaneous decay
- has a limited capacity and very limited duration
- information is coded depending on the sense that it has picked up (visual, auditory, tactile etc.)
What is the short term memory
- limited capacity memory store
- coding is usually acoustic (sound)
- capacity 5-9 pieces of information
- duration 18s
What is long term memory
- permanent memory store
- coding is usually semantic
-unlimited capacity and duration
What are the three types of long term memory
- Episodic memory
- semantic memory
- procedural memory
define coding
information transformed in to a format in which it can be stored and retrieved from meory
What is episodic memory
- Stores information about events that you’ve actually experienced, e.g. concert
- stores facts and knowledge that we have learnt and can consciously recall
- does not contain details of time or place where you learnt the information
What is procedural memory
- stores knowledge of how to do things e.g. walking
- this information can’t be consciously recalled
What did sterling investigate
Investigated the sensory register using brief displays
What was the method of Sperling 1960
- Lab experiment
- shown a grid with three rows of four letters for 50 milliseconds (0.05s)
- then they had to immediately recall either the whole grid or a randomly chosen row
What was the results of Sperling 1960
- when recalling the whole grid they only managed to recall 4 or 5 letters on average
- when a recalling a row, participants could recall 3 items average no matter which row
what was the conclusion of sperling 1960
- the participants didn’t know which row was going to be selected , so in theory they would have been able to recall items from any row meaning almost the whole grid was held in their sensory register
- they couldn’t report the whole because the trace faded before they could finish recall