Generic evaluation for coding/capacity/duration(STM/LTM) of memory

Point: Research into (delete as appropriate) capacity of STM/capacity of LTM/duration of STM/duration of

LTM/encoding of memory / often takes place in laboratories.

Evidence: Use whichever piece of evidence is relevant to question.

Why is this a bad thing for research into how memory is encoded?

Explanation: This situation is not very similar to the environments in which we would usually memorise information so
participants may not be behaviour naturally.

Link: As a result, research into (delete as appropriate) capacity of STM/capacity of LTM/duration of STM/duration of
LTM/encoding of memory may lack ecological validity.

A limitation of research into coding of short term memory and long term memory is that it uses artificial tasks. For
example, Baddeley uses word lists and this doesn’t reflect everyday since we don’t memorise lists of random words in
real-life and Baddeley’s findings don’t necessarily support recall of more meaningful information. Therefore research
into STM and LTM has limited application and may not reflect how memory is coded in real-life.

coding of memory
- Baddeley (1966)
- Gave 4 lists to participants to remember
- A: acoustically similar
- B: acoustically dissimilar
- C: semantically similar
- D: semantically dissimilar
- Has to recall words in the correct order
- STM - List A + B they recalled immediately
- LTM - List C + D they recalled after 20 minutes
- Acoustically similar was recalled worse than dissimilar
- Semantically similar was recalled worse than semantically dissimilar
- STM encodes acoustically & LTM encodes semantically
- Artificial task  Baddeley uses word lists  not everyday and less meaningful  limited application and doesn’t
reflect real life
- May not be testing LTM  Baddeley used 20 minutes then recall  too short and may just be good STM  low
validity and less credible
- STM and LTM may not be entirely acoustic/semantic  research found people can code visually in STM and
acoustically in LTM  therefore inconclusive and may depend on circumstances

capacity of memory
- Jacobs (1887)
- Produced digit span test
- STM can hole 5-9 items
- Mean span for digits is 9.3
- Mean span for letters is 7.3
- Done a long time ago  less controlled confounding variables may have affected DV other than the IV  reduced
validity
- Miller (1956)
- Proposed idea of ‘Magic 7’ ± 2
- People can ‘chunk’ to improve the capacity of STM
- Overestimate capacity of STM  Cowan (2001) conducted meta-analysis - found STM can manage about 4 chunks
 4 is closer to the lesser estimate (5) than upper estimate (9)  less reliability since inconsistent results

duration of memory
STM

- Duration is the length of time info can be held

- STM: 18 - 30 seconds, without rehearsal
- LTM - potentially forever
- Peterson & Peterson (1959)
- 24 undergraduates
- 8 trials
- Had a consonant syllable and a 3 digit number
- Had to count backwards to prevent them rehearsing it to keep it in STM
- Time stopped counting backwards varied: 3 - 18 seconds
- STM has a short duration, around 18 seconds, unless rehearsal and after we forget the info

- Artificial task  P&P used consonant syllables and 3 digit numbers  not everyday and less meaningful  limited
application and doesn’t reflect real life
- Research uses retention intervals to prevent rehearsal  may displace info so Reitman (1974) used auditory tones
which don’t displace information - found STM duration was longer than P&P would suggest  short STM duration
because of displacement rather than decay/forgetting  research not credible as doesn’t reflect the duration of the
STM

LTM

- Bahrick (1975)
- 392 American students (17-74 y/o)
- Tested who they recognised from 50 photos and who they could recall without any hints
- After 15 YR: 90% accurate
- After 48YR: 70% accurate
- After 15YR: 60% accurate
- After 48YR: 30% accurate
- LTM is much longer than STM - photos can help with recognition
- Research into the duration of LTM uses real life memories  Bahrick used year book photos  more meaningful
task and personal to their lived  high ecological validity
- Research into the duration of LTM cannot control all EVs  In Bahrick’s study, extraneous variables such as how
often people looked at their year books, cannot be controlled.  This means we cannot be sure it is the IV alone
than affects the DV which reduces the internal validity.  As a result, credibility in such research is reduced.

msm
ltm
wmm
explanations for forgetting: interference 
explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure: encoding specificity principle
explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure: context-dependant forgetting
explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure: state-dependant forgetting
factors affecting the accuracy of ewt: misleading information: leading questions
factors affecting the accuracy of ewt: misleading information: post-event
discussion factors affecting the accuracy of ewt: anxiety
improving the accuracy of ewt: cognitive interview