Psychology - Memory - Coding, Capacity, and duration of memeory

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