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What is coding in memory?
Coding is the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores
What is capacity in memory
Capacity is the amount of information that can be held in the memory store
What is duration in memory
Duration is how long information can be held in memory
What are the key characteristics or short-term memory (STM)
Limited capacity (5-9 items, 7-+2)
What are the key characteristics of long-term memory (LTM) ?
Permanent memory store, semantic coding, unlimited capacity, duration of a lifetime
What did Baddeley’s research on coding in memory show?
STM relies on acoustic coding (worse recall for acoustically similar words)
LTM relies on semantic coding (worse recall for semantically similar words)
What was a limitation of Baddeley’s study on coding
The use of artificial stimuli (word lists had no personal meaning), making it difficult to generalise findings to real-life memory tasks
What did Jacobs digit span test find?
Mean digit span: 9.3 items
Mean letter span: 7.3 items
Supports Miller’s 7-+2 rule
What was a limitation of Jacobs’s study on capacity
Lacking validity due to confounding variables (as it was early research with limited control)
What did Peterson & Peterson’s study on STM duration find
STM has a short duration unless verbal rehearsal occurs
Trigrams were forgotten quickly when rehearsal was prevented
What was a limitation of Peterson & Peterson’s research?
Meaningless stimuli(trigrams lack external validity)
What did Bahrick’s study on LTM duration find?
High school year book study
Photo recoginiton:90% accuracy within 15 years of graduation, 70% accuracy after 48 years
Free recall: 60% accuracy within 15 years, 30% accuracy after 48 years
Conclusion: LTM can last a lifetime
What was a strength of Bahrick’s study
High external validity since it studied real life memories
What was a limitation of Bahrick’s research
Confounding variables - participants may have rehearsed their memory by looking at yearbooks
