Short Term Memory

Question 1

How long does STM last?

Answer 1

–20-30 seconds, extended if it is actively rehearsed
–Extremely limited, 7+/- 2

Question 2

What is Peterson and Peterson (1959)?

Answer 2

–Test participants on their ability to remember three consonants over a short period of time
–Required to count backwards by 3s to prevent rehearsal and clears active STM
–The more numbers you had to count backwards the less likely you are to remember the 3 consonants

Question 3

Why is STM so short?

Answer 3

–Decay: Information is spontaneously lost overtime even when there is no interference from other material
–Interference: Forgetting occurs because other material interferes with the information in STM

Question 4

Waugh and Norman (1965)

Answer 4

–To test the better explanation for STM being so short, decay or interference?
–The number of interfering items had a big effect on retention
–We can reduce and prevent interference

Question 5

What are the types of interference?

Answer 5

–Retroactive Interference: Forgetting that occurs because of interference from material encountered after learning
–Proactive Interference: Forgetting that occurs because of interference from material encountered before learning

Question 6

What is Keppel and Underwood (1962)?

Answer 6

–Same design as Peterson and Peterson
–People initially performed very well in recalling three consonants after a short retention interval but their performance deteriorated over subsequent trials
–The first trials began to interfere with their memory

Question 7

How to reduce proactive interference?

Answer 7

Material likely to interfere with each other should be studied at different times

Question 8

What is Miller (1956)?

Answer 8

–The first paper to publish a stated item capacity of STM
–7 plus or minus 2
–STM should be measured in chunks rather than items

Question 9

How do we test STM

Answer 9

Memory span- the number of correct items that people can immediately recall from a sequence of items

Question 10

What is de Groot (1966)

Answer 10

–Experiments that required players to reproduce a chess board
–They viewed the board for 5 seconds and then the pieces were removed and they had to put them back together

Question 11

What are acoustic codes and rehearsal

Answer 11

–Acoustic codes are speech based memory codes, phonemes are the basic sounds of languages
–Verbal rehearsal as a means of preserving information in STM

Question 12

What are the types of search

Answer 12

–Self-terminating search: a search that stops as soon as the test item is successfully matched to an item in the memory set
–Exhaustive Search: a search that continues until the test item is compared with all items in the memory set

Question 13

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) (Working Memory)

Answer 13

1. Phonological loop- is responsible for maintaining and manipulating speech-based information
2. Visuospatial sketchpad- responsible for maintaining and manipulating visual or spatial information
3. Central executive- responsible for selecting strategies and integrating information
4. Episodic buffer- serves as a limited capacity store that can integrate information from the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop

Question 14

Baddeley (1992)

Answer 14

–Attempted to reproduce a chess board while performing a secondary task to limit the use of a particular component
1. to prevent the use of the phonological loop, people completed a speech suppressing task
2. to prevent the use of the visuospatial sketchpad, people were asked to tap a series of keys in a predetermined patter
3. to prevent the use of the central executive, people were asked to produce a string of random letters
–Results: Suppressing speech had NO effect on peoples ability to reproduce a chess board but suppressing visual/spatial processing and requiring people to generate random letters caused a decline in their ability to correctly place the pieces on the board