RESEARCH INTO CAPACITY IN STM

RESEARCH INTO CAPACITY IN STM

1. MILLERS MAGIC NU. 7 (AO1)

   • DIGIT SPAN TECHNIQUE (A01)
     • (A01) According to Miller, most ppl have a digit span of 7 + or -2
     • PROBLEM (AO2): Bower & Winzenz found it is difficult to exclude influence of LTM
     • (A02) Miller suggested our immediate memory span (capacity) is determined by the number of chunks of info we can hold rather than individual letters or numbers

2. BADDLEY ET AL (AO1)

   • A: Baddley wanted to find out if capacity in STM was determined by pronouciation time rather than the number of items to be recalled (Did a study testing wether people could remember short words more than long words)
     • P: Showed lists containing monosyllabic words & lists showing polysyllabic words
       • FINDINGS:
         • Pp's coulf recall significantly more short words than long words
         • Pp's able to recall the nu. of words they could articulate in 2 secs
         • Strong positive correlation between reading speed & memory span

3. NAVEH-BENJAMIN & AYRES (A02)

   • Tested the digit span technique with speakers of different languages
   • Found Arabic speakers had a lower digit span than English speakers
     • Concluded only explanation for this is pronouciation time
       • Findings support Baddley; Pronounciation time is more important than the number of items to be recalled

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