topic 2 - Peterson and Peterson (1959) Flashcards
what was the background of the study?
Lyod and Margaret Peterson conducted a lab experiment to investigate the duration of the stm. As we can hold information in the stm by rehearsing it over and over, they could only test the true duration of the stm trace by interfering with this rehearsal process. To prevent participants from rehearsing they had to count back in threes.
what was the aim of the study?
the aim was to test the true duration of the stm.
what was the procedure? describe who was tested and what they had to do.
24 students were tested individually. Each student was asked to repeat out loud a set of letters that they head. The letters were three consonants (a trigram). Immediately afterwards, they were asked tp say out loud a 3 digit number read to them by the experimenter and then count backwards in threes of fours from that number.
When signalled with a red light, each student had to recall the trigram. each student had to recall the trigram eight times. They did this with time delays of 3,6,9,12,16 and 18 seconds. In total the procedure was repeated 48 times using different trigrams.
a second experiment asked participants to do the same tasks but some were given time to repeat the trigram before counting backwards (silently or vocally)
what were the results?
The results showed that the longer each student had to count backwards, the less able they were to accurately recall the trigram. When asked to count backwards after 3 seconds, they remembered over 80% of trigrams correctly but after 18 seconds the percentage of correct recall was less than 10%.
In the second experiment, they found that this extra time increased the frequency of recall because they were able to consolidate the information a little bit more. However, it showed a similar decline over time.
what was the conclusion of the study?
with the participants unable to rehearse the trigrams, the petersons concluded that information held in our stm fades rapidly and only 10% could be recalled after 18 seconds.
what was the strengths of this study?
A strength, is the researchers used fixed timings for participants to count backwards from. They also eliminated noise and other factors which could have influenced memory. The research then can be said to have good control using standardised procedures to makes sure all participants experienced the same process. this means that the study is scientific because it can be replicated and the reliability of the findings can be checked to make sure they were not a one-off result.
another strength is it has practical application. It demonstrates how interference is a form of verbal distraction and it can affect our ability to retain information.
what was the weaknesses of this study?
A weakness of this theory is that it uses trigrams. This lacks mundane realism because it is not how we would typically use our memory in everyday situations.
define “extraneous variables”
variables that could affect the results of the study
define “mundane realism”
a realistic everyday task.
