memory: coding, capacity and retrieval Flashcards
What is memory?
the system of information that involves three basic processes: encoding, storage and retrieval
What is coding?
the process of converting information from one form to another to create an internal representation so the information can be stored
what is storage?
the process of retaining information in a memory store
How did Baddeley investigate encoding in the STM and LTM memory?
he gave 4 groups of words to people: acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, semantically dissimilar and asked them to recall the words immediately or after 20 mins
What were the results of Baddeley’s investigation of encoding in the STM and LTM memory?
immediately: worse in acoustically similar as we encode mainly acoustically in the STM and don’t think of meaning
after 20 mins: semantically similar, the LTM encodes mainly semantically as they did not think of the sound only the meaning
What are the three ways memory can be encoded?
visually, acoustically, semantically
How did Jacobs investigation capacity of the STM?
The experimenter read 4 numbers and asked the participant to recall the then asked them 5 and so on tell they could not recall all the numbers
What were the results of Jacobs investigation into the capacity of the STM?
the mean recall on numbers was 9.3 whilst for letters it was 7.3. he concluded that the STM had a limited capacity
What was Miller’s investigation into the capacity of the STM?
he found that every day things came in groups of sevens and we store them this way, so we must have 7+/- slots
how many chunks does Cowan suggest the STM has?
4 slots
What is chunking?
storing information in groups
What is duration?
the length of time information can be held in a memory store
How did Paterson and Paterson investigate duration in the STM?
gave participants syllables and a 3 digit number to count down some so as to stop rehearsal, then asked them to recall the the syllables after a interval
What were Paterson and Paterson’s findings when investigating the duration in the STM
there is a limited duration of 18-30 secs in the STM as participants were unable t recall less words when the intervals were long
How did Bahrick investigate of duration in the LTM?
he studied high school livers in Ohio and tested them with free recall and photo recognition for class mates names
