coding, capacity and duration of memory

Question 1

what is encoding?

Answer 1

changing information so it can be stored

Question 2

what is storage?

Answer 2

holding information in the memory system

Question 3

what is retrieval?

Answer 3

recovering information from storage

Question 4

what is capacity?

Answer 4

the amount of information that can be held in a memory store

Question 5

what is duration?

Answer 5

the length of time information can be held in memory

Question 6

what is short term memory?

Answer 6

limited capacity store

Question 7

what is long term memory?

Answer 7

permanent memory store

Question 8

where is information we process and recall straight away usually stored?

Answer 8

short term memory

Question 9

what information does short term memory store?

Answer 9

information we are currently aware of

Question 10

when we take in new information to store, where do we process it from?

Answer 10

the sensory input

Question 11

where do we take information from? and what do we transform it into?

Answer 11

we take information from senses and transform it into a memory trace

Question 12

what is coding?

Answer 12

the format in which information is stored in the memory

Question 13

what happens when we experience sensory information?

Answer 13

it stays there just long enough to decide if we should further process it

Question 14

what happens if we don’t rehearse information?

Answer 14

we forget it

Question 15

what happens if we do rehearse information?

Answer 15

it transfers to our short term memory

Question 16

what kind of capacity store does our short term memory have?

Answer 16

a limited capacity store

Question 17

what is rehersal?

Answer 17

attending to information so it stays in our memory store

Question 18

where are memories from the past stored?

Answer 18

in our long term memory

Question 19

what is long term memory?

Answer 19

the continual storage of information which is largely outside of our awareness but can be recalled when needed

Question 20

what happens if you attend to information for long enough in your short term memory?

Answer 20

it can be transferred to your long term memory

Question 21

is coding in the long term memory store semantic or acoustic?

Answer 21

semantic

Question 22

what type of capacity does long term memory have?

Answer 22

a potentially unlimited capacity and can hold information for years until we want to retrieve it

Question 23

what did Baddeley do?

Answer 23

give different lists of words to 4 groups of participants to remember

Question 24

what types of words did each group get in Baddeley’s experiement?

Answer 24

1. group 1 had acoustically similar words
2. group 2 had acoustically dissimilar words
3. group 3 had semantically similar words
4. group 4 had semantically dissimilar words

Question 25

what were participants asked to do in Baddeley's experiment?

Answer 25

recall words in the correct order

Question 26

if the participants recalled the words immediately after what did the results tend to be?

Answer 26

participants tended to do worse with acoustically similar words

Question 27

if participants were asked to recall words after a timed interval of 20 minutes what were the results?

Answer 27

participants tended to do worse with semantically similar words

Question 28

what did the results of Baddeley's experiment suggest?

Answer 28

STM is acoustically coded LTM is semantically coded

Question 29

what is the capacity of short term memory?

Answer 29

limited between 5-9 items on average or 7 + or - 2

Question 30

what is the capacity of long term memory?

Answer 30

unlimited

Question 31

What did Miller ask participants to do?

Answer 31

recall different amounts of letters, words or numbers

Question 32

what did Miller argue most things come in?

Answer 32

7s e.g. 7 notes on a musical scale

Question 33

what did Miller conclude?

Answer 33

on average we can recall 7 items with a range of between 5-9 items

Question 34

What did Miller discover?

Answer 34

we can remember 5 words as easily as we can remember 5 letters through chunking

Question 35

who developed the digit span test?

Answer 35

Jacobs

Question 36

what is the process of the digit span test?

Answer 36

1. researcher gives a number of digits and participant recalls them in order 2. researcher increases the amount by 1 digit and the participant recalls them again until they can't recall them in the right order 3. this determines their digit span

Question 37

what was the mean digit span for participants with items and letters?

Answer 37

items = 9.3 letters = 7.3

Question 38

what is the duration of short term memory?

Answer 38

between 18-30 seconds

Question 39

what is the duration of long term memory?

Answer 39

a potential lifetime

Question 40

What was the aim of Peterson and Peterson's experiment?

Answer 40

to see if rehearsal was necessary to hold information in the short term memory store

Question 41

what is the method for Peterson and Peterson's experiment?

Answer 41

1. participants were given sets of 3 letters to remember 2. whilst remembering these letters participants had to count backwards in 3's out loud for 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 seconds to prevent rehearsal 3. participants were then asked to recall the letters in the correct order

Question 42

what were the results of Peterson and Peterson's study?

Answer 42

participants forgot virtually all the information after 18 seconds

Question 43

what are the conclusions from Peterson and Peterson's study?

Answer 43

1. we can't hold information in our short term memory unless we rehearse it 2. the duration of short term memory is around 18 seconds

Question 44

What did Bahrick do?

Answer 44

1. studied 392 participants from Ohio between ages 17 and 24 2. Tested recall with: - photo recognition consisting of 50 photos - free recall test - participants recalled the names of their graduating class

Question 45

what were the results of Bahrick's study?

Answer 45

1. participants tested within 15 years of graduation were 90% accurate with photo recognition 2. after 48 years recall declined to 70% in photo recognition 3. after 15 years participants were about 60% accurate and 30% after 48 years