Stages of Memory - ANSWER • Encoding - how information is processed so it can be held in the memory.
• Storage - holding information in the memory
... [Show More] until it is needed.
• Retrieval - accessing the stored information to use it.
Short Term Memory - Capacity, Duration and Encoding - ANSWER • Capacity - 7 +/- 2 items.
• Duration - 18-30 seconds.
• Encoding - acoustic.
Long Term Memory - Capacity, Duration and Encoding - ANSWER • Capacity - Unlimited.
• Duration - Up to a lifetime.
• Encoding - semantic.
Who studied the STM capacity and what did they do? - ANSWER • Miller found that participants could hold 7 +/- 2 chunks of information on average, when using digit span measures, regardless of the size of the chunk.
• Miller argued this could be a number, sentence or capacity.
Who studied the STM duration and what did they do? - ANSWER • Peterson and Peterson.
• Showed the participants a trigram (three random consonants) which they had to repeat in order after an interference task of counting backwards from a three digit number, preventing rehearsal.
• The interference task lasted 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds.
90% recall after 3 seconds and 10% recall after 18 seconds, so STM lasts around 20 seconds
Who studied LTM duration and what did they do? - ANSWER • Bahrick et al.
• 392 participant between the ages of 17-74.
• Had to recall high school classmates from photographs, names, matching photos to names or free recall.
• 90% accuracy for faces and names for school leavers 15 years prior. 80% accuracy for names for school leavers 48 years prior.
Evaluation of Research into STM/LTM Capacity, Duration and Encoding - ANSWER + High internal validity. Strict, well-controlled environment for lab experiment
- Tasks to test memory are artificial. Bears little resemblance to what information is learnt throughout everyday life. Cannot apply findings to real life
Multi-Store Model of Memory - ANSWER Atkinson and Shiffrin
Multi-Store Model of Memory strength - ANSWER + Describe Primacy Recency effect
Multi-Store Model of Memory weakness(es) - ANSWER - Oversimplfied. Argued that STM is more complex and has its own stores, therefore not as simplistic as the model describes
- Overemphasises the importance of rehearsal. Flashbulb memories cannot be rehearsed but still are still remembered. Rehearsal not essential.
Glanzer and Cunitz procedure and findings - ANSWER • Participants presented with a list of words to learn and recall.
• Participants had best recall with words at the start (primacy) and end of the list (recency), while words in the middle had the poorest recall.
• Words at the start can be rehearsed and so transferred to the LTM, those at the end are fresh in the STM, and so are recalled the best.
• The middle words fade from the STM and are not transferred to the LTM.
Glanzer and Cunitz strength - ANSWER + Provides support for the MSM. Words at the start can be rehearsed and so transferred to the LTM, those at the end are fresh in the STM, and so are recalled the best. The middle words fade from the STM and are not transferred to the LTM
Glanzer and Cunitz weakness(es) - ANSWER - Lacks external validity. Controlled environment does not mimic memory demands of everyday life. Task is unrealistic compared to daily life. Lacks ecological validity. [Show Less]