Outline and evaluate research related to the features of STM (coding, capacity,

and duration). (12 marks)

Capacity
OUTLINE:
Miller
Stated that the capacity of STM = 7+/- 2 (the magic number)

EVALUATION:
- In contradiction to Miller, other research such as Cowans (2001) concluded that →
STM is likely to be limited to about 4 chunks instead of 7+/-2
Additionally…
- Simon (1974) found that ppl had a shorter memory span for larger chunks
- Eg. 8 word phrases, than smaller chunks such as on-syllable words

Duration
OUTLINE:
Peterson and Peterson
24 students → 8 trials
Count backward → prevent rehearsal
3s = 90%, 9s = 20%, 18s = 2%
STM duration < 18 secs

EVALUATION:
In Petersons study → count backward to prevent rehearsal → could have displaced the trigrams
However according to Reitman (1974)...
Auditory tones instead of numbers = no displacement
Duration of STM was longer
This contradicts Petersons’ research as … → forgetting was due to displacement not decay → study lacks internal validity.

Coding
OUTLINE:
Baddeley → Tested acoustic coding for STM
PP’s words acoustically similar/dissimilar
Acoustically similar eg. cat, cab, can
Acoustically dissimilar- pit , few cab
To test coding of STM → PP’s were asked to recall words immediately after hearing them
= Recalled words acoustically better than semantically similar words
Suggests STM = Acoustic

EVALUATION:
Studies like Baddeley show that Visual coding → sometimes used in the STM
We normally translate visual images & verbal codes in STM
However…..
Brandimote (1992) argues that…
→ that if pps were given visual info to encode & verbal rehearsal was prevented (by saying la la la) → encode it visually
In addition to this…
Wickens et al (1976) → also found that STM sometimes uses semantic codes
Contrasting Baddeley’s research as he suggested that only LTM coding is Semantic