short and long term memory

Question 1

define capacity

Answer 1

the measure of how much can be held in the memory, represented in bits of information

Question 2

define coding

Answer 2

the way information was changed so that it can be stored in memory

Question 3

define duration

Answer 3

a measure of how long a memory lasts before it is no longer available

Question 4

define long term memory

Answer 4

the memory of events that have happened in the past, lasts anywhere from 2 mins to 100 years, with a potentially unlimited duration and capacity whilst tending to be encoded semantically

Question 5

define short term memory

Answer 5

the memory of immediate events, measured in seconds or minutes, they have a short duration and a limited capacity and tends to be encoded acoustically

Question 6

how was capacity of memory investigated

Answer 6

Jacobs

• assessed using a digit span
• asked pps to recall digits from a list, gradually increasing in length
• he found pps recalled an average of 9 items and 7 letters

Millers magic number of 7+-2 chunks= individuals tend to only be able to recall 7 chunks of information, sometimes more and sometimes less

Question 7

evaluate research into capacity of memory

Answer 7

1) size of the chunk matters
2) artificial research
3) individual differences- found recall of the digit span increased gradually with age with 8 year olds being able to recall 6 digits and 19 years olds recalling 9. This could be due to the development of the brain capacity of techniques such as chunking- STM not fixed

Question 8

outline research into duration of memory

Answer 8

peterson and peterson

• pps provided a consonant syllable and 3 digit number ie THX978
• asked to recall the letters after various intervals of 3,6,9,12,15 and 18 secs
• during intervals pps had to count back in 3’s to prevent rehearsal
• found that there was 90% recall after 3 secs and 10% recall after 18 suggesting STM has a duration of around 18 secs

Question 9

evaluate research into the duration of memory

Answer 9

1) testing of short term memory was artificial
2) challenging evidence- may be due to displacement, the counting back/rehearsal of the numbers during intervals may have displaced the consonants therefore showing a decreased recall, research was repeated using auditory tones instead and found STM was longer

Question 10

outline research into encoding

Answer 10

Baddley

• provided pps with word lists, either acoustically similar but semantically dissimilar or semantically similar but acoustically dissimilar
• either tested short term memory by asking pps to recall word lists straight away or tested long term memory by testing them 20 mins later
• found that pps STM is encoded acoustically and LTM tended to be encoded semantically

Question 11

evaluate research into coding

Answer 11

1) didn’t actually test long term memory
2) STM may not be only acoustically encoded
3) LTM not only semantically encoded
4) artificial task