Memory Experiments + Case Studies

Question 1

What did Baddeley determine was the coding for STM?

Answer 1

Acoustic

Question 2

What did Baddeley determine was the coding for LTM?

Answer 2

Semantic

Question 3

What 4 sets of words did Baddley provide his participants?

Answer 3

Acoustically similar
Acoustically dissimilar
Semantically similar
Semantically dissimilar

Question 4

How did Baddeley test STM?

Answer 4

Participants given a list containing the original words in the wrong order, their task being to arrange the words into the correct order

Question 5

How did Baddeley test LTM?

Answer 5

Participants given a 20-minute task to complete before being asked to recall

Question 6

What were Baddeley’s findings for STM?

Answer 6

Recall for acoustically similar was 10%, recall for other lists was between 60-80%

Question 7

What were Baddeley’s findings for LTM?

Answer 7

Recall for semantically dissimilar was 55%, recall for other lists was between 70-85%

Question 8

What are some strengths of Baddeley’s study?

Answer 8

Applications = Students can use these findings to strategies their revision techniques
Replication = Study was standardises meaning it can be easily replicated, increasing the reliability

Question 9

What are some limitations of Baddeley’s study?

Answer 9

Individual differences = Experiment used independent groups, so there was no control over participant variables
Reductionist = There are other types of LTM (e.g. episodic, procedural) and other coding (e.g. visual) which this experiment doesn’t consider

Question 10

How did Jacobs test STM?

Answer 10

Participants presented with a string of letters or digits to repeat back in the same order. The number of digits increased until the participant failed to recall it correctly.

Question 11

What were Jacobs’ findings?

Answer 11

Participants recalled about 9 digits and about 7 letters on average, with this capacity increasing with age during childhood.

Question 12

What did Jacobs determine was the capacity of STM?

Answer 12

5-9 items

Question 13

What are some strengths of Jacobs’ study?

Answer 13

Generalisability = Jacobs used a wide range of ages, so the results can be used to generalise specific results to all members of society
Replication = Study was standardised meaning it can be easily replicated, increasing its reliability

Question 14

What are some limitations of Jacobs’ study?

Answer 14

Order effects = The previous sequences recalled by the participants might have confused them on future sequences.
Ecological validity = Highly controlled lab study, lacking ecological validity. In real life, meaningful information may be recalled better, showing STM to have an even greater capacity

Question 15

How did P&P test STM?

Answer 15

Participants were shown nonsense trigrams (e.g. DPW) and asked to recall them after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18 seconds. During the pause they were asked to count backwards in 3s from a given number (acting as an interference task).

Question 16

What were P&P’s findings?

Answer 16

After 3 seconds, participants recalled about 80% if trigrams correctly
After 18 seconds, only about 5% were recalled correctly

Question 17

What did P&P determine was the duration of STM?

Answer 17

When rehearsal is prevented, very little can stay in STM for longer than about 18 seconds.

Question 18

What are some strengths of P&P’s study?

Answer 18

Applications = Findings suggest that when we are revising for an exam or trying to memorise a shopping list, we should avoid distractions
Control = Researchers used fixed timings and eliminated noise and other factors that could have influenced memory.

Question 19

What are some limitations of P&P’s study?

Answer 19

Ecological Validity = Nonsense trigrams are artificial, and are unlikely to appear as a task in real-life. Meaningful memories may last longer in STM.
Order Effects = the previous trigrams recalled by the participants might have confused them on future sequences, meaning the first trigram was the only realistic trial

Question 20

What happened to HM at 27?

Answer 20

He underwent brain surgery to remove both hippocampi to reduce his epileptic seizures

Question 21

What condition did HM take on as a result of the surgery?

Answer 21

Global amnesia

Question 22

What memories did HM remember and forget?

Answer 22

Remembered things up until the age of 16, forgetting everything from 11 years before surgery

Question 23

What happened to HM’s memory-making and learning abilities?

Answer 23

Could not remember any new information in his LTM but could learn new motor skills, but did not remember learning them

Question 24

What happened to KF?

Answer 24

Suffered brain damage from motorcycle accident

Question 25

How were KF's STM and LTM affected?

Answer 25

STM for verbal information was severely impaired while STM for visual memory was largely unaffected

Question 26

How does KF support WMM and MSM?

Answer 26

It shows that not only are STM and LTM in separate stores but his visual and audio processing are also in separate stores

Question 27

How does KF contradict MSM?

Answer 27

MSM suggests that info must go through the STM to reach LTM, but KF could recall information from his LTM that he couldn't recall at the time of receiving the info

Question 28

How did KF's recall change?

Answer 28

If information was read out to him, he would have much more trouble recalling it than if he were to read it for himself