Memory

Outline one research study into the duration of long term memory of long term memory. In your answer include what the researchers did and what they found. (4 marks)

Barrack et al (1975) conducted a field experiment to explore the length of time memories can be retained. They tested the memory of 392 graduates participants aged between 17 and 74 of an American high school for their former classmates. They did this by testing the memories for other students in their yearbooks. Participants who were tested within 15 years were about 90% accurate in photo recognition, suggesting that LTM can last a very long time.

Explain what is meant by the term coding in relation to memory (2 marks)

Coding refers to the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores. Information enters the brain via the sense, e.g. eyes and ears and then is changed to another form so it can be stored in memory. It can be stored in the form of sounds (acoustic), images (visual) or meaning (semantic).

Explain the difference between STM and LTM (4 marks)

Coding: STM acoustic; LTM semantic Duration: STM 18-30 seconds; LTM unlimited Capacity: STM 5-9 items; LTM unlimited

Explain what is meant by the term duration in relation to memory (2 marks)

Duration refers to the length of time that information can be held in memory.

Explain what is meant by the coding in long term memory. (2 marks)

Information is encoded semantically (meaning) in LTM.

Chris was asked to write his new phone number down and wrote 01 863 776 624. His mother wondered why he had split it up into separate bits. Using your knowledge of psychology, explain why this might help someone remember his telephone number. (4 marks)

Miller: on average, short term memory can hold seven plus or minus two (5-9) chunks of bits of information. He sates that this can be increased by chunking. A strength of this research into the capacity of STM is that it has many practically applications. Research into chunking laid the foundations for the postcode system we use in the UK today. Baddeley discovered that if the initial letters of a postcode made up something meaningful it made it easier to remember. This shows how research into the capacity of STM has helped improve the efficiency of memory in a real life situation.

Explain how the findings of one or more studies demonstrate that short term memory and long term memory are different (4 marks)

Peterson and Peterson trigram study for STM Peterson and Peterson: trigrams Using a laboratory experiment, Peterson and Peterson gave participants trigrams which they had to recall after varying amounts of time from 0-18 seconds. On presentation of each trigram, they were required to verbally count backwards in threes from a specified number to prevent participants rehearsing the trigrams. Only 10% of trigrams were recalled after 18 seconds. This suggests that the duration of STM is approximately 18 seconds if rehearsal is prevented. Barrack et al (1975) conducted a field experiment to explore the length of time memories can be retained. They tested the memory of 392 graduates participants aged between 17 and 74 of an American high school for their former classmates. They did this by testing the memories for other students in their yearbooks. Participants who were tested within 15 years were about 90% accurate in photo recognition, suggesting that LTM can last a very long time.

Describe research into the duration of short term memory. (6 marks)

Peterson and Peterson: trigrams Using a laboratory experiment, Peterson and Peterson gave participants trigrams which they had to recall after varying amounts of time from 0-18 seconds. On presentation of each trigram, they were required to verbally count backwards in threes from a specified number to prevent participants rehearsing the trigrams. Only 10% of trigrams were recalled after 18 seconds. This suggests that the duration of STM is approximately 18 seconds if rehearsal is prevented.

Explain what is meant by the duration of short term memory (2 marks)

STM has a duration of 18-30 seconds if rehearsal is prevented.

Outline the difference between the capacity of short term memory and the capacity of long term memory (2 marks)

The capacity of STM is limited because it can only hold a certain number of things before forgetting takes place and the potential capacity of LTM is unlimited.

Explain what research has shown about coding in STM and LTM. (6 marks)

STM: Information in encoded acoustically in STM. LTM: Information is encoded semantically in LTM. Baddeley (1966) - investigating coding in LTM and STM using a laboratory experiment, participants were given four sets of words to learn: group 1 - acoustically similar group 2 - acoustically dissimilar group 3 - semantically similar group 4 - semantically dissimilar Findings: Results: when asked to recall words immediately (STM recall) participants recalled less of the acoustically similar words and when asked to recall the word list after a 20 minute delay (LTM recall) they recalled less of the semantically similar words. Conclusions: this suggests that information is largely coded acoustically in STM whereas LTM is largely encoded semantically.