Bahrick et al. (1975) Very long-term memories

Question 1

Method

Answer 1

• 392 people asked to list the names of their ex-classmates (free-recall test),
• They were then shown photos and asked to recall the names of the people shown (photo-recognition test),
• Or given names and asked to match them to a photo of the classmate (name-recognition test).

Question 2

Results

Answer 2

• Within 15 years of leaving school, participants could recognise about 90% of names and faces,
• About 60% accurate on free recall,
• After 30 years, free recall had declined to about 30% accuracy,
• After 48 years, name-recognition was about 80% accurate, and photo-recognition about 40% accurate.

Question 3

Conclusion

Answer 3

• Study is evidence of VLTMs in a real-life setting,
• Recognition is better than recall, there may be a huge store of information, but it is not always easy to access all of it.

Question 4

Evaluation

Answer 4

• Field experiment; had high ecological validity,
• In a real-life study like this, hard to control all the variables, making these findings less reliable; no way of knowing exactly why information was recalled well,
• Showed better recall than other studies on LTM, but this may still be because meaningful info is stored better,
• This type of information could be rehearsed (keeping in touch with old classmates, or reminiscience) increasing the rate of recall; can’t be generalised to other types of info held in the LTM.