coding, capacity and duration of memory

Question 1

who did research on coding

Answer 1

Baddeley

Question 2

when did Baddeley do research on coding

Answer 2

-1996a
-1996b

Question 3

what is coding

Answer 3

the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores

Question 4

what were the 4 groups in Baddeley’s study on coding

Answer 4

-group 1, acoustically similar
-group 2, acoustically dissimilar
-group 3, semantically similar
-group 4, semantically dissimilar

Question 5

what were participants asked to do in Baddeley’s study

Answer 5

shown words a list of words and asked to recall them in order

Question 6

baddeleys’s study results

Answer 6

-when asked to recall immediately (short-term memory), they did worse on acoustically similar words
-when asked to recall the word list after 20 mins (long-term memory) they did worse on semantically similar words

Question 7

Baddeley’s conclusion

Answer 7

information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM

Question 8

who did research on digit span

Answer 8

Jacobs

Question 9

when did Jacobs do research on digit span

Answer 9

1887

Question 10

how is an individuals digit span measured

Answer 10

researcher reads out number of digits (eg 4) and participants recall out loud in correct order. this occurs until the participant cannot accurately recall the digits

Question 11

what did Jacobs find mean digit span to be

Answer 11

9.3 items

Question 12

what did Jacobs find mean span for letters to be

Answer 12

7.3 items

Question 13

who did research on span of memory and chunking

Answer 13

Miller

Question 14

when did Miller do research on span of memory and chunking

Answer 14

1956

Question 15

what did Miller’s research involve

Answer 15

observations of everyday life, he noted that things come in 7s such as days of the week, and musical scales and deadly sins

Question 16

Miller’s results

Answer 16

-capacity of STM is 7 plus/minus 2
-people can recall 5 words as easily as they can recall 5 letters, this occurs by chunking

Question 17

what did Miller describe chunking to be

Answer 17

grouping sets of digits or letters into units or chunks

Question 18

who did research on duration of STM

Answer 18

Peterson and Peterson

Question 19

when did Peterson and Peterson do research onto duration of STM

Answer 19

1959

Question 20

procedure for Peterson and Peterson research on STM

Answer 20

-tested 24 students in 8 trials
-on each trial, the student was given a consonant syllable to remember
-they were also a given a 3 digit number
-the students has to count backwards from this number until told to stop (this was to prevent mental rehersal of the constant syllable which would increase duration of STM)
-on each trial, they were told to stop after varying periods of time 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds

Question 21

Peterson and Peterson research onto duration of STM results

Answer 21

-after 3 seconds average recall was 80%
-after 18 seconds average recall was about 3%

Question 22

Peterson and Peterson conclusion

Answer 22

STM duration is around 18 seconds, unless we repeat the information over and over

Question 23

who did study on duration of LTM

Answer 23

Bahrick et al

Question 24

when did Bahrick et al research duration of LTM

Answer 24

1975

Question 25

Bahrick at al sample

Answer 25

392 American participants aged 17-74

Question 26

Peterson and Peterson sample

Answer 26

24 students

Question 27

procedure for Bahrick et al's study on duration of LTM

Answer 27

-392 American participants aged 17-74 -high school year books were obtained and recall was tested in various ways -the first way of recall was the photo-recognition test consisting 50 photos, some from the participants high school year book -the second way of recall was participants recalled name of their graduating class

Question 28

Bahrick et als study on duration of LTM findings

Answer 28

-participants tested within 15 years of graduation were 90% accurate in photo recognition -after 48 years, recall declined to about 70% for photo recognition -free recall was less accurate then photo-recognition -free recall was 60% for after 15 years -free recall was 30% after 48 years

Question 29

Bahrick et als study on duration of LTM findings on photo-recognition

Answer 29

-participants tested within 15 years of graduation were 90% accurate in photo recognition -after 48 years, recall declined to about 70% for photo recognition -more accurate then free recall

Question 30

Bahrick et als study on duration of LTM findings on free recall

Answer 30

-free recall was less accurate then photo-recognition -free recall was 60% for after 15 years -free recall was 30% after 48 years

Question 31

Bahrick et als study on duration of LTM conclusion

Answer 31

LTM may last up to a lifetime for some material

Question 32

strength of Baddeley's research on coding

Answer 32

-shows separate memory stores as the is a clear difference identified in the study between the two memory stores. later research has shown some exceptions to Baddeley's findings but understanding that STM is coded acoustically and LTM is coded semantically is still used. -this was an important step to our understanding of the memory system which lead to the multi-store model

Question 33

limitation of Baddeley's research on coding

Answer 33

-used artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. this was because the word lists had no personal meaning to participants so may not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory tasks, especially in everyday life. - when processing meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for STM tasks -this suggests the findings have limited application

Question 34

strengths of research on capacity

Answer 34

-Jacob's study has been replicated, this study is very old so lacked adequate control. replication means that Jacob's findings have been confirmed by other, more controlled studies such as Bopp and Verhaeghen (2005) -this suggests that Jacobs' study is valid test of digit span in STM

Question 35

limitation of research on capacity

Answer 35

-Miller's research may have overestimated STM capacity -Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded capacity of STM is 4 +- 1 chunk -suggests that lower end of millers estimate is more appropriate than 7 items

Question 36

strength of research on duration

Answer 36

-Bahrick's study has high external validity due to researchers investigating meaningful memories. when studies on LTM were conducted on meaningless pictures to be remembered, recall rates were lower --> suggests that Bakrick et al's findings were a more real estimate to duration of LTM

Question 37

limitation of research on duration

Answer 37

-Peterson and Peterson's study had an artificial stimulus material. althogh we do sometimes remember fairly meaningless material such as phone numbers, remembering constant syllables does not reflect most everyday memory activities when what we are trying to remember is meaningful --> lacked external validity