memory Flashcards
Memory
“[Memory] is the process of retaining information after the original thing is no longer present”
(Eysenck, 2003)
Two main types of memories
Brief and quickly forgotten
Long-lasting
Coding
Format in which information is stored in the various memory stores
Capacity
The amount of information that can be held in a memory store
Duration
The length of time information can be held in memory
What did Joseph Jacobs research find in capacity of the short term memory
-used digit span
-How many digits the participant can read out correctly
-Jacobs found the mean span for digits across all participants to be 9.3
What is a strength of Jacobs study into capacity (A valid study)
-has been replicated
-the study is old and early research often lacks adequate control
-E.g confounding variables
-jacob’s findings have been confirmed by others
-This suggests that jacob’s study is a valid test of digit span in STM
What did George Miller find on capacity of the short term memory
-made observations of everyday practice
-noted things come in sevens
-Miller thought that the span of STM is about 7 items plus or minus 2
What is a limitation of Miller’s research into capacity on the STM (not so many chunks)
-He may have overestimated STM capacity
-Cowan reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is only about 4 plus or minus 1
-This suggests that the lower end of miller’s estimate (5 items) is more appropriate than 7 items
What research did peterson and peterson conduct on duration of the STM
-tested 24 students
-given consonant syllable (YCG) to remember)
-Had to count backwards to prevent mental rehearsal
Who conducted research on coding
Baddeley
What research did Bahrick conduct on duration of LTM
-studied 392 American participants
-High school yearbooks were obtained
-Tested participants recall in 2 ways.
-Free recall: remembering information without any aid
-photo recognition: remembering information with the aid of photos
What did research by bahrick conclude about duration of LTM
-Participants tested within 15 years of graduation had 90% accuracy in photo recognition
-after 48 years recall declined to 70%
-Free recall was less accurate will 60% recalling after 15 years and only 30% after 48 years
What does bahrick’s research suggest about the duration of LTM?
LTM may last a life time
What is a strength of Baddeley’s research (separate memory stores)
-Identifies a clear difference between two memory stores
-later research shows that there are some exceptions to Baddeley’s findings
-Idea that STM uses mostly acoustic coding and LTM mostly semantic has stood the test of time
-This was an important step in our understanding of the memory system
What is a limitation of baddeley’s research (Artificial stimuli)
-Used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material
-E.g the word lists had no personal meaning to the participants
-So Baddeley’s findings may not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory tasks
-This suggests that the findings from this study have limited application
Short-term memory
The limited-capacity memory store. In STM, coding is mainly acoustic, capacity is between 5 and 9 items and duration is about 18 seconds.
Long-term memory
The permanent memory store. In LTM, coding is mainly semantic, it has unlimited capacity and can store memories for up to a lifetime.
What experiment did Baddeley conduct in coding
-Gave different lists of words to 4 groups of participants to remember
-Acoustically similar, dissimilar, semantically similar, dismillar
-Were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order
What did baddeley’s research conclude about coding
Information is coded acoustically in the STM and semantically in the LTM
Chunking
Grouping sets of digits or letters into units or chunks
What were the finding’s of Peterson and Peterson’s research
-After 3 second’s average recall was about 80%
-After 18 seconds it was about 3%
This suggests that the duration of the STM is 18 seconds unless we repeat the information over and over
What is a limitation of Peterson and Peterson’s research into duration (Meaningless Stimuli)
-Stimuli material was artificial
-The study is not completely irrelevant because we do sometimes try to remember fairly meaningless material
-Even so, recalling consonant syllables does not reflect most everyday memory activities where what we are trying to remember is meaningful
-This means the study lacks external validity
What is a strength of bahrick’s research into the duration of LTM (high external validity)
-Researchers investigated meaningful memories
-when studies on LTM were conducted with meaningless pictures to be remembered , recall rates were lower
-This suggests that Bahrick’s findings reflect a more ‘real’ estimate of the duration of LTM.