Features Of Memory Stores- Short Term Memory

Question 1

What are the 6 AO1 points you must know for features of short term memory

Answer 1

-capacity
-duration
-coding
-maintenance rehearsal
-capacity limitation
-research evidence (Peterson and Peterson)

Question 2

What is the capacity of short-term memory (STM)?

Answer 2

STM has a limited capacity of 7 ± 2 items, as identified by Miller (1956), though this can be increased through chunking.

Question 3

What is the duration of short-term memory (STM)?

Answer 3

STM has a brief duration of 18–30 seconds without rehearsal, as demonstrated by Peterson and Peterson (1959).

Question 4

How is information encoded in short-term memory (STM)?

Answer 4

STM primarily uses acoustic (sound-based) encoding, as shown by Baddeley (1966), who found participants struggled with acoustically similar words.

Question 5

What is the role of maintenance rehearsal in STM?

Answer 5

Maintenance rehearsal keeps information in STM for longer periods and can help transfer it to long-term memory.

Question 6

How can the capacity of STM be enhanced?

Answer 6

Through chunking, where information is grouped into larger, meaningful units (e.g., remembering “BBC, ITV, CNN” instead of “B, B, C, I, T, V, C, N, N”).

Question 7

What research supports the short duration of STM?

Answer 7

Peterson and Peterson (1959) found that recall of trigrams declined rapidly after 18 seconds without rehearsal, supporting STM’s short duration.