Memory

Question 1

What are the three important stores in our memory?

Answer 1

Sensory memory, LTM and STM

Question 2

What is the duration of our memory?

Answer 2

How long the information stored lasts

Question 3

What is the capacity?

Answer 3

How much information our memory can hold

Question 4

What is the encoding of our memory?

Answer 4

How information enters our brain and the format in which it is stored

Question 5

Who was the duration of STM investigated by?

Answer 5

Peterson and Peterson

Question 6

What was the method of Peterson and Peterson’s STM duration study?

Answer 6

• 24 students were presented with nonsense trigrams, followed by a 3 digit number
• Participants were than asked to recall the trigrams after increasing lengths of time

Question 7

In Peterson and Petersons duration study, what did they ask participants to do to prevent them from rehearsing the trigrams?

Answer 7

Count backwards from a certain number

Question 8

What were Peterson and Petersons findings?

Answer 8

After a 3 second interval, there was 90% recall. But after 18 second interval, there was only a 2% interval

Question 9

What can we conclude from Peterson and Petersons STM duration findings?

Answer 9

If there is no verbal rehearsal, the duration of the STM is less than 18 seconds

Question 10

What is the duration of STM?

Answer 10

Less than 18 seconds if no verbal rehearsal

Question 11

What is the capacity of STM?

Answer 11

7 +/- 2 chunks of information

Question 12

What did Miller find in his experiment into the capacity of short term memory?

Answer 12

Participants can cope reasonably well in counting 7 dots when flashed onto a screen, but not many more

Question 13

According to Miller, how can we increase the capacity of STM?

Answer 13

If we chunk information together into groups

Question 14

What did Jacobs use to assess the capacity of STM?

Answer 14

The digit span technique

Question 15

What did Jacobs find regarding the capacity of the STM?

Answer 15

Average span for digits was 9.3, average span for letters was 7.3

Question 16

What was the method of Baddelys experiment regarding the encoding in LTM & STM?

Answer 16

Participants were given a list of words that were either acoustically similar or dissimilar, or semantically similar or dissimilar

Question 17

What were the findings of Baddelys encoding experiment?

Answer 17

Participants had more difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in STM but not LTM, but participants found it easier remembering semantically similar words in the STM

Question 18

What is the encoding in STM and LTM according to Baddelys experiment?

Answer 18

Encoding in STM is acoustic. Encoding in LTM is semantic.

Question 19

What was the method of Bahricks natural experiment regarding the duration of long term memory?

Answer 19

392 participants of various ages were shown pictures from their high school yearbooks and asked to put faces to names

Question 20

What were the findings of Bahricks LTM duration experiment?

Answer 20

More than 48 years later, participants were 70% accurate in putting faces to names

Question 21

Why might there be such a high accuracy in Bahricks LTM duration study?

Answer 21

Due to the meaningful material used

Question 22

What was the method of Shepards LTM duration experiment?

Answer 22

Participants were shown over 600 memorable pictures, one by one. A few hours later the images were shown again within a set of others

Question 23

What were the findings of Shepards LTM duration experiment?

Answer 23

Hours later, there was almost perfect recognition. 4 months afterwards, participants were still able to remember 50%

Question 24

What is the capacity of LTM?

Answer 24

Potentially unlimited

Question 25

Evaluation of the research into the duration of STM?

Answer 25

• Lacks ecological validity as artificial stimuli was used in artificial settings
• Demand characteristics; participants may guess aim
• Similar study where Ps were tested without warning: forgetting occurred after 2 seconds showing STM duration may be shorter

Question 26

Evaluation of research into STM Capacity?

Answer 26

• Capacity may be more limited: 4 chunks
• Individual Diffs
• Jacobs study: digit span increased with age, maybe due to increase in brain capacity

Question 27

Evaluation of research into STM/LTM encoding?

Answer 27

-Lab experiment conducted that found that STM may sometimes use other codes

Question 28

Evaluation of research into LTM duration?

Answer 28

• Generalisability: difficult to find tasks only representing LT memories
• Participants may have seen classmates or looked at yearbook explaining high levels of recall

Question 29

Why did Peterson and Peterson ask participants to count backwards out loud before recall?

Answer 29

To prevent verbal rehearsal

Question 30

What are two limitations of the research into STM capacity?

Answer 30

1) capacity may be even limited, it has been suggested that it is four chunks
2) individual doffs: in Jacobs study, the digit span increased with age which could be due to an increase in capacity