Coding, Capacity & Duration

Coding, Capacity & Duration

1. Coding: the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores LTM: semantic STM: acoustic

   • Baddeley (1966) gave lists of words to 4 groups of participants: Group1 - aucousitically similar words, Group 2 - acousitically dissimilar words, Group 3 - semantically similar words and Group 4 - semantically dissimilar words. For STM test they recalled words immediatly, for LTM test they recalled after 20 minutes.
     • For STM participants did worst with acoustically similar words suggesting coding in STM is acoustic. For LTM participants did worst with semantically similar words suggesting coding in LTM is semantic.
       • Evaluation: The lists were artificial and had no real meaning to the participants. Real memories usually involve things meaningful to the participants. This means the findings cannot be generalised to other memory tasks.
         • As well as this it is questionable whether LTM was really tested after 20 minutes. This may still have been STM.

2. Capacity: the amount of information that can be held in a memory store STM: 7 items (+/- 2) LTM: Unlimited

   • Jacob (1887) devised technique to measure individuals digit span