Short term and long term memory

Question 1

Capacity

Answer 1

Concerns how data can be help in a memory store. Usually represented as numbers.

Question 2

Duration

Answer 2

How long a memory lasts before it is lost. STM has a duration of less than 18s unless items are rehearsed.

Question 3

coding

Answer 3

the way in which information is changed so that it can be stored in memory.

Question 4

How is STM & LTM encoded?

Answer 4

STM: Largely coded acoustically

LTM: Laregely coded semantically

Baddeley (1966)

Question 5

What is the Duration for LTM?

Answer 5

Up to a lifetime.

Question 6

What is the capacity for LTM?

Answer 6

Unlimited.

Bahrick et al (1975)

Question 7

Define long-term memory (LTM)

Answer 7

Your memory of events that have occured in the past. This lasts anywhere from 2 minutes to 100 years.

Question 8

Define sensory register

Answer 8

The place where information is held at each of the senses.

Question 9

What is the duration of STM?

Answer 9

Approx 18s according to Peterson & peterson (1959)

Question 10

AO3

Question 11

Coding
STM may not be exclusively acoustic

Brandimote et al (1992)

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Coding
LTM may not exclusively sematic?

Frost (1973) - categroies

Nelson and Rothbart (1972)

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

A criticism of research investigating LTM is that…

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Capcity STM (The Size of chunks matters)

Simon (1974) - smaller memory span for large chunks

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Capcity of STM may be even more limited

Cowan

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Duration

Testing STM is artificial

Answer 16

P: A criticism of STM research is that it tends to take place in artifical situations

E: Much of the research involved trying to remember meaningless consonant syllables. Doesn’t reflect how we use memory in real life, where information tends to be more meaninful

E: However, we do also try to remember some essentially meaningless materials (e.g postcodes) so research has some relevance

Question 17

Duration STM results may be due to displacement

Answer 17

P: A criticism of Peterson & Peterson’s research is that it did not measure what it set out to measure.

E: Counting in numbers may have ‘displaved the syllables to. be remembered. Reitman used auditory tones rather than numbers and found duration of STM was much longer.

E: This suggests that forgetting in Peterson and Peterson’s study was due to displacement rather than decay.

Question 17

Duration STM results may be due to displacement

Answer 17

P: A criticism of Peterson & Peterson’s research is that it did not measure what it set out to measure.

E: Counting in numbers may have ‘displaved the syllables to. be remembered. Reitman used auditory tones rather than numbers and found duration of STM was much longer.

E: This suggests that forgetting in Peterson and Peterson’s study was due to displacement rather than decay.