Short term and long term memory COPY Flashcards
Capacity
Concerns how data can be help in a memory store. Usually represented as numbers.
Duration
How long a memory lasts before it is lost. STM has a duration of less than 18s unless items are rehearsed.
coding
the way in which information is changed so that it can be stored in memory.
How is STM & LTM encoded?
STM: Largely coded acoustically
LTM: Laregely coded semantically
Baddeley (1966)
What is the Duration for LTM?
Up to a lifetime.
What is the capacity for LTM?
Unlimited.
Bahrick et al (1975)
Define long-term memory (LTM)
Your memory of events that have occured in the past. This lasts anywhere from 2 minutes to 100 years.
Define sensory register
The place where information is held at each of the senses.
What is the duration of STM?
Approx 18s according to Peterson & peterson (1959)
AO3
Coding
STM may not be exclusively acoustic
Brandimote et al (1992)
P: some studies have found that visual codes also used in STM
E: Brandimote et al (1992) found p’s used visual coding in STM when they were given pictures to remember and prevented from verbally rehearsing.
E: This suggests there might be multiple types of coding in STM and that STM is not exclusively accoustic
Coding
LTM may not exclusively sematic?
Frost (1973) - categroies
Nelson and Rothbart (1972)
P: LTM appears to be sematic, but this is not always the case.
E: Frost (1973) showed that LT recall was related to visual as well as semantic categories. Futhermore Nelson and Rothbart (1972) found evidence for acoustic coding in LTM.
E: Ths suggests LTM is encoded using acoustic, visual and sematic information, depending on the type of information being remembered.
A criticism of research investigating LTM is that…
E - Frost (1972) showed that LTM recall was related to visual as well as sematic categories
E - Furthermore, Rothbart (1972) found evidence for acoustic coding in LTM
L - This suggests that LTM might be encoded using acoustic, visual and semantic information, depending on the type of information being remembered
Capcity STM (The Size of chunks matters)
Simon (1974) - smaller memory span for large chunks
R: Research has shown that the size of the chunk affects the number of chunks that can be remembered
E: Simon (1974) found that people have smaller memory span for larger chunks (e.g multi-syllable words, which take longer to rehearse, compared to single s words)
E: This supports the view that the STM has limited capcity, despite the benefits of chunking
Capcity of STM may be even more limited
Cowan
P: A criticism of research into STM is that miller’s findings have not been replicated
E: Cowan reviewed studies on the capacity of STM and concluded that STM is probably limited to 4 rather than 7 ‘chunks’.
E: This suggets that STM is not as extensive as the 7+/ 2 items claimed by Miller