memory - studies - peterson & peterson 1959 Flashcards

1
Q

Aims

A
  • To test the true duration of STM
  • to see if retention of items was affected by
    interference during recall intervals
  • second part of their study, they investigated
    whether silent or vocal rehearsal would affect recall of items.
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2
Q

sample

A
  • 24 students from an introductory psychology course at Indiana University, USA were selected.
  • As part of their course, the students were required to take part in
    research experiments.
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3
Q

procedure

A
  • The green light meant that the trial was ready to begin.
  • The red light meant to stop counting & recall the trigram (three-letter consonant.)
  • Each participant was tested eight times at each of the following six recall intervals: 3s, 6s, 9s, 12s, 15s, 18s
  • 2 practice trials to ensure the instructions had been fully
    understood.
  • Beginning of each trial, the experimenter would spell out a trigram followed by a number from which the participant had to count backwards in either 3’s or 4’s
    e.g BFP 709, 707
  • In half the trials, participants counted backwards in 3’s
  • in the other half they counted backwards in 4’s
  • Participants counted backwards in time with the ticking of a metronome. This was a task that would minimise rehearsal behaviour between presentation and recall.
  • In 2nd experiment, experiment asked participants to do same tasks, but given time to repeat trigram.
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4
Q

results

A
  • longer each student had to count backwards, less they’re able to accurately recall the trigam.
  • when asked to count backwards after 3s = remembered 80% of trigram
  • 18s = less then 10%
    2nd experiment
  • extra time increased frequency of recall = able to consolidate info little more
  • showed similar decline over time
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5
Q

conclusion

A
  • participants unable to rehearse trigrams
  • info in our STM fades rapidly, only 10% recalled after 18s
  • stm has limited duration
  • Only in conditions where the repetition was vocal and controlled did accuracy of recall improve.
  • The rate of forgetting from short-term memory depends on the amount of rehearsal undertaken.
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6
Q

strengths

A
  • Reliable → Extraneous variables like noise eliminated. Situational variables controlled. Study can be replicated, findings can be checked to make sure they weren’t one-off result.
  • Standardized procedure → Fixed timings used - scientific.
  • Explains how verbal distraction (interference) affects retention of info.
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7
Q

weaknesses

A
  • Lacks mundane realism → recalling trigrams not realistic use of memory.
  • Reductionist → biological factors not considered.
  • Trigrams may have personal meaning to participant → extraneous variable participant variable.
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