Short term memory

Short term memory

1. information which is remembered for a short period of time to be converted into long term memory

2. Peterson and Peterson (1959)

   • Aim - to investigate the duration of short term memnory and provide empirical evidence for the multisotre model
     • laboratory experiemnt
       • 24 Psychology students
         • Had to recall trigrams (three constonant syllables
           • to prevent rehersal they were asked to count backwards in threes from random numbers untll theyr saw a red light (Broom Pterson technique)
             • Ask to recall the information after intervals of 3,6,9 seconds
               • Findings - the longer the interval delay, the less trigrams were recalled (3 seconds=80%, 18 seconds = less than 10%)
   • :) laboratory experiment - high control - cause = effect - validity
   • :( laboratory experiment - lacks ecological validity- findings may not be generlisable
   • demand characterisitics - pshychology students - may guess the purpose from experties
   • objective - fact based data - increase validity of results

3. Duration

   • length of time memory lasts
     • 20 seconds Peterson and Peterson

4. Capacity

   • how much can be held in memory
     • 7+/- 2 Miller

5. encoding

   • how much information is changed so it can be stored
     • Acoustic - hearing such as repetition of words Baddeley