memory

memory

1. Coding

   • The format in which we store infomation is stored in the various memory stores.

2. Capacity

   • The amount of information that can be stored. 7( + - )2

3. Duration

   • The length of time information can be held in memory

4. STM

   • The limited capacity memory store. Coding is mainly acoustic and capacity is between 5 and 9 items on average, duration is between 18 and 30 seconds
     • Displacement

5. LTM

   • The permanent memory store. Coding is mainly semantic, it has unlimited capacity and can store memories for up to a lifetime
   • Decay and Interference

6. Studies

   • Baddley (1966) - When asked to recall words immediatly (STM task) PP's recalled less acoustically similar words (cat, cab, can), than acoustically dissimilar words (day, for, hot).. When asked to recall after 20min delay (LTM) task, they recalled less semantically similar words than semantically dissimilar words. This suggests infomation is coded aucostically in STM and sematically in LTM
     • Doesn't have ecological validity. Participant bias
     • Good control of IV, DV and CV and internal validity. This means the study can be replicated and Baddley found a causual relationship as his confounding variables where significantly controlled in the lab
       • CV's include: Noise distractions, Words materials, Time, Instructions, Standardised procedure

7. Peterson and Peterson (1959)

   • Each student was given a trigram to remember and then had a distractor task of counting back from a 3 diget number for certain amounts of time
     • BUT - Are they really measuring decay or are they measuring displacement