Encoding in the STM Flashcards
What is encoding?
Putting something into a code.
It involves the transfer of information into a code, leading to the creation of a memory trace, which can be registered in the memory store.
What are the two types of encoding?
Acoustic and semantic.
What is acoustic coding?
Sound.
E.g. cap and can.
What is semantic coding?
Meaning.
E.g. cap and hat.
When did Baddeley complete his word list study?
1966.
What was the aim of Baddeley’s 1996 study?
To find out whether acoustic coding is used in STM and semantic is used in the LTM.
What type of experiment was Baddeley’s 1996 study?
(Procedure)
A laboratory experiment.
How many PPs were in Baddeley’s 1996 study?
(Procedure)
75.
What were the four word lists Baddeley used in his study?
(Procedure)
List A: Acoustically similar: e.g. cat, mat.
List B: Acoustically dissimilar: e.g. day, cow.
List C: Semantically similar: e.g. big, huge.
List D: Semantically dissimilar: e.g. hot, tall.
What did all words in all word lists have in common?
(Procedure)
The words were of similar frequency in the English Language.
How were PPs asked to recall words from the lists? What was measured during recall?
(Procedure)
Asked to recall the words in the same order as the order of presentation either immediately for STM or after a timed delay for LTM.
Measured how many substitution errors made.
Outline Baddeley’s findings for STM.
(Findings)
Participants given List A performed the worst (most substitution errors), with a recall of only 10%.
They confused acoustically-similar words, e.g, recalling ‘cap’ instead of ‘cat’.
Recall for the other lists was comparatively good at between 60% and 80%.
There was no performance difference for semantically similar or dissimilar lists.
Outline Baddeley’s findings for LTM.
(Findings)
Participants with List C performed the worst, with a recall of only 55%.
They confused semantically-similar words, e.g, recalling “big” instead of “huge”.
Recall for the other lists was comparatively good at between 70% and 85%.
What was concluded from Baddeley’s 1996 study?
The nature of encoding is different in STM and LTM.
STM encoding seems to be acoustic rather than semantic.
LTM encoding seems to be semantic rather than acoustic.
Outline two evaluative points that can be made from Baddeley’s 1996 study.
Laboratory experiment means that we can make causal links between type of coding in STM and accuracy of recall.
Lacks mundane realism because people in real life rarely learn words under controlled conditions: thus it lacks external validity as it can’t be generalised to everyday memory.
The small difference in recall between semantically similar (64%) and semantically dissimilar (71%) lists suggests there’s also semantic coding in STM.
There are other ways of encoding e.g. visual, taste, smell - not just auditorily.
