Flashcards
Coding, Capacity, duration of memory
Cards in this deck (8)
- 1Baddeley (1966) coding in the STM and LTM:Procedure: Participants was asked to remember these words and either recall back straight away or hold the information. Acoustically similar words e.g. cat, cab or dissimilar e.g. pit, few and semantically similar words e.g. large, big or dissimilar e.g. good, hot.
Findings: They found immediate recall was worse with acoustically similar words showing that STM is acoustic and recall after 20 mins was worse for semantically similar words showing that LTM is semantic. - 2A limitation of Baddeley's study is it didn't use meaningful material. The words used in the study had no personal meaning to any of the participants when processing more meaningful information people may use semantic coding for STM tasks, therefore this study has limited application and we should be cautious when generalising the findings due to the study not having meaningful material.Jacobs (1887) capacity of the STM:
- 3Procedure: The research reads out 4 digits and increases the number until the participant cannot recall the order correctly. Findings: On average, participants could repeat back 9.3 numbers and 7.3 letters in the correct order immediately after they were presented.However a limatition of Jacobs study is it was conducted a long time ago, Early research often lacks control over extranoues variables e.g. some participants could have been distracted while they were being tested. Therefore the results would not be valid because of confounding variables not being controlled. Although these results have been confirmed in other research which increases the validity of this research
- 4Miller (1956) capacity of the STM:Procedure: Miller made observations of everyday practice and he noted that things come in sevens e.g. days of the week.
Findings: He found the span of the STM was around 7 items but can be improved b chunking. - 5However, Other researchers have found different results which suggest that Miller may have overestimated the capacity of the STM. Cowan (2001) Reviewed other researchers research and found the capacity of the STM was only about 4 chunks so supporting the lower end of Miller's estimate. Therefore this suggest's that Miller may have overestimated the capacity due to other researchers finding different results.Peterson and Peterson (1959) Duration of the STM:
- 6Procedure: 24 students was given a consonant syllable and was given a 3-digit number to count backward's from for 3,6,9,12 or 18 secs. Findings: On average students recalled about 80% of the syllables correctly with a 3 sec interval but average recall after 18 secs fell to about 3%. which suggests the duration of the STM without rehearsal is about 18 to 30 seconds.A limitation of Peterson and Peterson study is an artificial stimulus. Trying to remember consonant syllables does not reflect real life memory activities. Therefore it could be argued that this study lacks external validity, however, we do try to remember meaningless information e.g. phone numbers. However, Peterson and Peterson did use an artificial stimulus which reduces external validity.
- 7Bahrick et al (1975) Duration of the LTM:Procedure: Participants was 392 American's aged between 17 and 74. They first had a recognition test of 50 photos from their high school yearbook and a free recall test where participant's listed names from their graduating class.
Findings: Participants tested 48 years after graduation were about 70% accurate in the recognition test but free recall was less accurate. - 8One strength of Bahrick et al study is it has high external validity. They used real life meaningful memories within their study. Shepard (1967) Found when meaningless pictures were used recall rates were lower. Therefore showing that recall is better with meaningful memories and because Bahrick et al used meaningful information there research has high external validity.However in Bahrick et al study, they had no way of controlling confounding variables, therefore, lacks internal validity. As Bahrick participants may have looked at their yearbook photos and rehearsed the memories. Therefore showing Bahrick study lacks in internal validity.
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- A level Psychology (Memory ) Flashcards on Coding, Capacity, duration of memory, created by ashleigh pittaway on 24/05/2017.
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- ashleigh pittaway
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