Memory Flashcards
(13 cards)
What is coding?
The format in which information is stored in various memory stores
What is capacity?
The amount of information that can be held in a memory store
What is duration?
The length of time information can be held in memory
What was Baddeley’s procedure for his research into coding?
Baddeley gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember: acoustically similar/dissimilar and semantically similar/ dissimilar. Participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order either immediately after hearing the words or after an interval of 20 minutes
What were Baddeley’s finding for his research into coding?
Baddeley found that when participants had to do this recall task immediately after hearing it (STM), they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words. If participants were asked to recall the word list after a time interval (LTM), they did worse with semantically similar words. This suggests that STM is coded acoustically and LTM semantically.
One strength of Baddeley’s research into coding?
One strength of Baddeley’s study is that it identified a clear difference between two memory stores. Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley’s findings, but the 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, which led to the multi-store model
One limitation of Baddeley’s research into to coding?
One limitation of Baddeley’s study was that it used artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material.
For example, the word lists had no personal meaning to participants, therefore this research may not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory tasks. This suggests the study has limited application.
What was Jacob’s (1887) research into capacity’s procedure?
Jacobs (1887) developed a technique to measure digit span:
-Jacobs et al. gave participants a number of digits
-Participants were required to repeat these out loud.
-If they repeated the amount of digits correctly, one more digit is added.
-They must do this until failure - This determines the individual’s digit span.
-The mean digit span was 9.3.
What was Miller’s (1956) theory about capacity?
Miller (1956) observed that many things come in sevens i.e. days of the weeks, notes on the musical scale, 7 deadly sins.
*He argued that the capacity of STM is 7 plus or minus 2.
*He also noticed that people can recall 5 words as well as they can 5 letters.
*Miller found out that they do this by chunking
One strength of Jacob’s study into capacity
One strength of Jacobs’ study is that it has been replicated. This study is a very old one and early research in psychology often lacked adequate controls. However, this has been replicated by other, better controlled studies since, suggesting Jacobs’ study is a valid test of digit span in STM
One limitation of Miller’s research into capacity
One limitation of Miller’s research is that he may have overestimated the capacity of the STM.
Nelson and Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of the STM is only about 4 (plus or minus 1) chunks. This suggests that the lower end of Millers estimates (five items) is more appropriate than seven items
What was Peterson and petersons (1959) research into duration procedure?
Peterson and Peterson (1959) tested 24 undergraduate students.
* Each participant took part in 8 trials.
* In each trial, participants were given a consonant trigram (CVC or KWN) to remember
but also a 3-digit number (465).
* Participants were then told to count backwards from that-3 digit number until they
were told to stop either after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds - This was to prevent any
‘rehearsal’ of the consonant trigram – to prevent them remembering it.
