Memory Flashcards
(25 cards)
Capacity
How much information you can store
Duration
How long you can store the information for
LTM coding
Baddely
Semantically similar & dissimilar words
Asked to recall after 20mins
LTM better at recalling semantically dissimilar words
Coding
How you store and retrieve memories
STM coding
Baddely
Acoustically similar and dissimilar words
STM better at recalling acoustically dissimilar words
evaluation of LTM and STM coding
Brandimore and frost
Think the STM and LTM encode information visually
Wickens and rothbert
Think that the LTM can code acoustically and the STM can code semantically
LTM capacity
Unlimited
STM capacity
JACOBS digit span test
Mean span for digits was 9.3 items
MILLER
believes STM is 7(+/-2) chunks of information eg 7 deadly sins or days of the week
Evaluation of capacity
Jacobs limitations - conducted a long time ago & often lacked adequate control -might have been confounding variables that were not controlled
Miller limitations - may have overestimated capacity of STM
COWAN capacity of STM about 4 chucks
LTM duration
BAHRICK studied 392 participants from an American high sch to recall year books through photo recognition or free recall (remember everyone without photos) Findings - 15 years 90% accurate photo 60% free recall 48 years 70% photo 30% free recall
Evaluation of LTM duration
High external validity - real life memories so experiment more valid
Can be applied to real life
HOWEVER
Cannot control confounding variables ie participants could have looked at year book during 15/48 years to improve their memories
STM duration
Peterson and Peterson
42 undergraduates- each took part in 8trials
Asked o remember a trigram then given a distraction
FINDINGS longer the distraction the less % of correct responses (10sec distraction less than 10% correct response responses)
Narne believes STM as long as 96 seconds
Types of long term memory
Semantic
Episodic
Procedural
Semantic
Our knowledge of the world (facts etc)
Eg how many legs a spider has
Episodic
Recalling events of our lives eg what happened on your last birthday
Procedural
Our memory for actions and skills without conscious awareness
Eg riding a bike
Episodic
1) “time stamped” recall when the monody happened
2) will include several elements in one episode eg people smells objects
3) have to make a conscious effort to recall
Evaluation of types of LTM
Tulving et al believed episodic, semantic and procedural memories were stored in different parts of the brain
HM: had his hippocampus removed due to epileptic fits but lost some LTM
-semantic relatively unaffected
-procedural intact
-episodic severely impaired
Interference
Means cannot access the memories even though they are available
Types of interference
Proactive
Retroactive
Proactive
Old memory interferes with new memory
Eg calling a newly wed teacher her old name
Retroactive
When new memories interfere with old memories
Eg a teacher learning so many new names that they forget the names of their old students
Evaluation of interference
BADDELEY AND HITCH
Wanted to see if interference a better explanation for forgetting than the passage of time - rugby players
FINDINGS
accurate recall dos not depend on time but the number of games that had been played in the meantime
Further evaluation and validity of interference
Rugby players show interference can be applied to everyday life (new memories interfering with old memories = retroactive)
Support retroactive interference
VALIDUTY
high internal validity can control variables in a lab study
Low external validity and possible demand characteristics in lab study
