Short and Long term memory

Question 1

short term memory

Answer 1

info we process straight away and are currently aware of (conscious)

Question 2

long term memory

Answer 2

continual storage of info which is largely out of our awareness, can be reached when needed (unconscious)

Question 3

capacity

Answer 3

amount of information held in a memory store

Question 4

duration

Answer 4

the length of time info can be held in a memory store

Question 5

coding

Answer 5

the format in which the information is stored in our memory
- info received from senses
- diff formats for diff memory stores

Question 6

Jacob (1887)

Answer 6

digit span test to test capacity of STM, average span for digits was 9.3 items and 7.3 for letters

Question 7

Miller’s magic number (1956)

Answer 7

7 +/- 2, average span of the immediate memory, can be more if we chunk things together

Question 8

capacity of LTM

Answer 8

unlimited

Question 9

duration of STM

Answer 9

up to 18 secs without rehearsal

Question 10

Peterson & Peterson (1959) procedure

Answer 10

• studied duration of STM with 24 students over 8 trials
• gave ppts a consonant syllable and a 3 digit number
• asked to recall consonant syllable after a retention interval of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 secs
• during the retention interval ppts had to count down their 3 digit number

Question 11

Peterson and Peterson Findings

Answer 11

• 90% correct after 3 seconds
• 20% correct after 9 seconds
• 2% correct after 18 seconds

Question 12

Duration of LTM

Answer 12

infinite, info can stay in our memories up to our lifetime

Question 13

Bahrick 1975

Answer 13

• tested 400 people between ages 17 and 74 on their memory of their classmates
• face recognition: 90% accuracy after 15 years, 70% after 48 years
• free recall: 60% after 15 years, 30 % after 48 years

Question 14

Baddeley 1966 procedure/conditions

Answer 14

4 conditions
- acoustically similar: cat, cab, cap
- acoustically dissimilar: cow, fear, dog
- semantically similar: great, large, big
- semantically dissimilar: good, huge, hat
ppts asked to recall lists of words in the correct order immediately or 20 mins after

Question 15

Baddeley 1966 findings

Answer 15

• struggled to remember acoustically similar words in STM and semantically dissimilar words in LTM

Question 16

duration peels

Answer 16

strengths
- high internal validity e.g. Peterson and Peterson preventing rehearsal
limitaions
- lacks eco validity and mundane realism e.g. P&P artificial task

Question 17

coding PEELS

Answer 17

strength
- high internal validity e.g. Baddeley
limitation
- lacks eco validity e.g. learning acoustically and semantically similar and dissimilar words

Question 18

capacity PEELS

Answer 18

strength
- high reliability e.g. Jacobs digit test in lab w standardised procedures
limitation
- individual differences e.g. 8yrs span of 6.6, 19 span of 8.6 digits