the MSM- research studies

Question 1

what did Bradley do research on?

Answer 1

coding

Question 2

summarise the procedure of Bradley’s study and the groups within it

Answer 2

-gave different lists of words to 4 groups of participants to remember and they were then shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order.
-group 1 had acoustically similar words and group 2 had acoustically dissimilar, group 3 had semantically similar and group 4 had semantically dissimilar

Question 3

summarise the findings of Bradleys study

Answer 3

-doing the task immediately and recalling from STM do worse with acoustically similar words
-doing task after 20mins and recalling from LTM do worse with semantically similar words
-findings suggest information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM

Question 4

give one strength and one limitation of Bradleys study

Answer 4

-one strength is it identified a clear difference between LTM & STM
-one limitation is it used artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material, so findings of the study have limited application

Question 5

what did Jacobs do research on?

Answer 5

capacity through measuring digit span

Question 6

summarise the procedure of Jacobs research

Answer 6

researcher read out 4 digits and if participant read out loud in correct order then 5 digits are read out and so on until participant can’t recall order correctly

Question 7

summarise the findings of Jacobs research

Answer 7

that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items and mean span of letters was 7.3

Question 8

give one strength of Jacobs study

Answer 8

it has been replicated and suggests his study is a valid test if digit span in STM

Question 9

what did Bahrick do research on?

Answer 9

duration of LTM

Question 10

summarise the procedure of Bahricks study

Answer 10

392 american participants aged 17-74 were tested by photo recognition of 50 photos from yearbooks and also by free recall to recall all the names of their graduating year

Question 11

summarise the findings of Bahricks study

Answer 11

-participants tested within 50 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition and after 48 years 70%
-free recall was less accurate than recognition, 60% after 15 years and 30% after 48 years
-showed that LTM may last up to a lifetime for some material

Question 12

give one strength of Bahricks study

Answer 12

high external validity, due to investigating meaningful memories (names and facts) compared to studies using meaningless memories

Question 13

what did Petersons do research on?

Answer 13

duration of STM

Question 14

summarise the procedure of Petersons study

Answer 14

-tested 24 students in 8 trials each
-each trial the student had a 3 digit number and consonant syllable to remember. they had to count backwards from this number until told to stop after varying periods of time, to prevent mental rehearsal of the syllable which would of increased duration of STM memory of the syllable

Question 15

summarise the findings of Petersons study

Answer 15

-average recall after 3 seconds = 80% and after 18 seconds = 3%
-this suggested that STM duration may be about 18 seconds unless information is repeated over and over

Question 16

give one limitation of Petersons study

Answer 16

lacked external validity as stimulus material was artificial (recalling constant syllables doesnt reflect everyday memory activities of what we are trying to remember is meaningful

Question 17

what did Miller do research on?

Answer 17

capacity

Question 18

summarise the procedure of Millers study

Answer 18

-made observations of everyday practice showing how things came in sevens

Question 18

summarise the findings of Millers research

Answer 18

thought the span of STM is 7 items +/- 2 and we can recall 5 words as easily as we can 5 letters by chunking groups of letters or digits

Question 19

give one limitation of Millers study

Answer 19

overestimated STM capacity as Cowgn showed the capacity was over 4 chunks +/-1. his lower end of estimate (5words) is more appropriate than 7 items

Question 20

what did Tulving believe?

Answer 20

that the MSM was too simplistic and there is more than one memory store of the LTM

Question 20

what two sections did Tulving split the LTM into (and what do they mean)

Answer 20

declarative: using constant active recall
non- declarative: not using constant active recall (muscle memories)

Question 21

In Tulvings study where did episodic, semantic and procedural memory go in the 2 sections?

Answer 21

declarative section- semantic and episodic
non declarative- procedural

Question 22

give one strength of Tulvings study

Answer 22

evidence from HM & Wearing studies support Tulvings research. In both men their episodic memory was severely impaired due to brain damage, but their semantic and procedural memories were relatively unaffected. this was shown by them both still knowing how to walk and talk. But, HM couldn’t recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier however he didn’t need the concept of a dog explained to him. This evidence supports Tulvings view of there being different memory stores within the LTM, so one may be damaged but others can still work so clearly your whole LTM hasn’t just shut down.

Question 23

give one limitation of Tulvings study

Answer 23

there is conflicting research findings linking types of LTM to areas of the brain. Bucker and Peterson reviewed evidence regarding the location of semantic and episodic memory and concluded that semantic is on the left side of the prefrontal cortex and episodic on the right. However, other research studies link the left side prefrontal cortex with encoding of episodic and the right with episodic retrieval. This challenges any neuropsychological evidence to support types of memory and Tulvings study of the LTM as there is poor agreement of where each type may be located.