AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS - Student Book
Designed for students seeking a thorough understanding of memory processes, these notes provide a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the key concepts in the field.
The notes cover influential theories that have shaped our understanding of memory, such as the multi-store model and the work...
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Chapter 2:
MEMORY
1) CODING, CAPACITY, DURATION OF MEMORY .
- Our everyday experience of memory is that there are two main types.
- Psychologists broadly agree, and have investigated in great detail three main features of what they call
Short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM)
The 3 main features
1) Coding - refers to the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores
● Visual - pictures
● Acoustic - sounds
● Semantic - meaning of the experience
Research on coding : Alan Baddeley (1966)
- presented participants with 4 lists of words
● Acoustically similar/dissimilar
● Semantically similar/dissimilar
- Participants were then asked to recall the correct order of the words immediately after 20 mins
Findings
- Recalling from short-term memory (STM), they tend to do worse with acoustically similar words
- Recalling from long-term memory (LTM), they did worse with the semantically similar words
- These findings suggest that information is coded : acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM
Evaluations
Strength :
One strength in Baddeley’s study is that = it showed difference between stores
- He provided evidence for the fact that there is a fundamental between LTM and STM
- Although later research showed that there are some exceptions to the findings, in some cases the coding changes,
the idea that STM codes acoustically and LTM codes semantically has stood the test of time.
- This was an important step in our understanding of the memory system which led to the creation of the
‘multi-store model’. Which was the first proper model of memory.
- This paves the way for a lot of understanding and for a lot of memory research followed.
Weakness :
One limitation in Baddeley’s studying was that = it uses artificial stimuli
- The word lists had to personal meaning to the participants
- So Baddeley's findings may not tell us much about coding in different kinds of memory tasks, e.g) in everyday life.
- When processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for STM tasks
- This suggests that the findings from the study have limited application to memory in the real worlds
,2) Capacity - refers to the amount of information that can be held in a memory store
Research on capacity : Joseph Jacob (1887) = digit span
- Found out by measuring digit span
- Jacob wanted to know how much information can STM hold at a time (what capacity?)
- Researcher reads out four digits and the participant recalls these out loud in the correct order
- If this is correct researcher reads out five digits and so on until participant cannot recall the order correctly
- This indicates the individual’s digit span
Findings
- Jacob found that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items
- The mean span for letters was 7.3
Research on capacity : George miller (1956) = span of memory and chucking
- Miller made observations of everyday practice e.g) he noted that things come in sevens - seven days per week etc.
- Miller thought that the span (i.e. capacity) is about 7 items, plus or minus 2 [7 + or - 2]
- But he also noted that people can recall five words as easily as they can recall five letters (chucking process)
- We do this by chucking - grouping sets of digits of letters into units of chucks
Evaluations
Strength :
One strength of Jacob’s study is that = it has been replicated
- They study is a very old one and early research in psychology often lacks adequate controls (e.g some participants di
spans might have been underestimated because they were distracted during testing (confounding variable))
- Despite this, Jacob’s findings have been confirmed by other, better controlled studies since
- This suggests that Jacob;s study is a valid test of digit span in STM
Weakness :
One limitation of Miller’s research is that = he may have overestimated STM capacity
- Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM is actually only about [4 + or - 1]
chunks
- This suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate (five item) is more appropriate than seven items
, 3) Duration - refers to the length of time information can be held in memory
Research on duration of STM : Margaret & Lloyd Peterson (1959)
- Tested 24 students, in eight trials each (a trial = one test)
- On each trial, student was given a consonant syllable (such as YCG) to remember and also given a 3-digit number
- The student counted backwards from this number until told to stop
- The counting backward was to prevent any mental rehearsal of the consonant syllable (which would increase the
duration of STM memory for syllable if rehearsed)
- On each trial they were told to stop after a changing period of time; 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18 seconds
Findings
- After 3 seconds, average recall was about 80%
- After 18 seconds it was about 3%
- Peterson & Peterson’s finding suggested that STM duration may be about 18 seconds, unless we repeat the
information over and over (i.e verbal rehearsal)
Research on duration of LTM: Harry Bahrick et al. (1975)
- Studies 392 american participants aged between 17-74
- High school yearbooks were given from participants or directly from some schools
- Recall was tested 2 ways:
↳photo-recognition test consisting of 50 photos, some from the participants’ high school yearbo
↳free recall test where participants recall all the names of their graduating class
Findings
- Participants tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo-recognition
- Participants tested after 48 years, recall declined to about 70% for photo-recognition
- Free recall was less accurate than recognition = 60% after 15 years , 30% after 48 years
- This shows that LTM may last up to a lifetime for some material
Evaluations
Strength :
One strength of Bahricks et al’s LTM study is that = it has a high external validity (can be replicated in other situations in the real wo
- This is because researchers investigated meaningful memories (i.e people’s names and faces)
- When studies on LTM were conducted with meaningless pictures to remember, recall rates were lower
- This suggests that Bahrick et al’s findings reflect a more ‘real’ and authentic estimate of duration of LTM
Weakness :
One limitation of Peterson and Peterson’s study is that = the stimulus material was artificial (low external validity)
- The study is not completely irrelevant because we do sometimes remember meaningless material (e.g phone no.)
- However, recalling consonant syllables do not reflect everyday memory activities, where what we are trying to
remember is meaningful
- This means that the study lacked external validity
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