Short term memory

Question 1

How much storage capacity does the STM have?

Answer 1

A limited capacity, as only small amount of information is held in the store.

Question 2

How many items does research indicate the STM can hold?

Answer 2

5-9 items

Question 3

How can the capacity of the STM be increased?

Answer 3

By chunking

Question 4

What is chunking?

Answer 4

When letters or numbers are bunched into groups which increases the number of things that can the held by the STM.
The STM can hold 5-9 of these groups.

Question 5

Who tested the STM capacity with the Serial Digit Span method?

Answer 5

Jacobs (1887)

Question 6

What was involved in Jacobs’ serial digit span method?

Answer 6

• Participants were presented with increasingly long lists of numbers/letters and had to recall them in the right order
• When participants failed on 50% of tasks, they were judged to have reached their capacity.