A-Level Psychology - PAPER 1 - Memory
The capacity of short-term memory (STM) is approximately 7 ± 2 items, meaning most people can hold between 5 and 9 pieces of information at once, as proposed by Miller (1956).
What is the capacity of STM ?
7 +/- 2 items
Key Terms
What is the capacity of STM ?
7 +/- 2 items
Who researched STM capacity ?
Jacobs Miller
What is the duration of STM ?
18 - 30 seconds
Who researched STM duration ?
Brown ; Peterson and Peterson
What is the capacity of LTM ?
unlimited
What is the duration of LTM ?
potential to last a lifetime
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
What is the capacity of STM ? | 7 +/- 2 items |
Who researched STM capacity ? | Jacobs Miller |
What is the duration of STM ? | 18 - 30 seconds |
Who researched STM duration ? | Brown ; Peterson and Peterson |
What is the capacity of LTM ? | unlimited |
What is the duration of LTM ? | potential to last a lifetime |
Who researched the duration of LTM ? | Bahrick et al |
What is CAPACITY ? | the amount of information a memory store can hold |
What is DURATION ? | the length of time the memory store holds the information |
What is CODING ? | the way which the information is stored |
What is SEMANTIC MEMORY ? | contains our knowledge of the world, including facts but in the broadest possible sense |
What is EPISODIC MEMORY ? | refers to our ability to recall events, they are quite complex because they are ‘time-stamped’ and require a conscious effort to recall |
What is PROCEDURAL MEMORY ? | memory of actions of skills but don`t require a conscious effort to perform. |
What did Baddeley (1966) investigate ? | acoustic v semantic encoding immediate recall of acoustically sim and dis-sim and semantically sim and dis-sim words |
What were the results of Baddeley (1966) coding experiment | stm : words that sound similar are harder to recall but meaning had little effect ltm : semantically similar are harder to recall |
What is the order of the Multi-Store Model of Memory ? | input - sensory register - attention - stm store - rehearsal - ltm store |
Who researched the MSM ? | Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) |
What did Glanzer and Cunitz do to research the MSMoM ? | presented participants with a list of words and asked them to immediately recall them. |
What were the results of Glancer and Cunitz’s experiment ? | words at the beginning are recalled (primary effect) words in the middle are forgotten (asymptote) words at the end are recalled (recency effect) |
What are the 4 components to the WMM ? | central executive visuo-spactial sketchpad phonological loop (articulatory contol system) (phonological store) episodic buffer (added in 2000) |
Who designed the WMM ? | baddeley and hitch |
What is one strength, linked with different areas, about the WMM ? | different ares of the brain are activated depending on the task Posner = PET scans, visual = posterior, auditory = lateral support research |
What is another strength, linking to support evidence, about the WMM ? | support evidence from duel task research hitch and baddeley found performance decreased when participants had to do task that required the same slave systems. we can multitask if they require the same slave system e.g. articulatory and phonological |
What is a weakness, about ecological validity, about the WMM ? | lacks ecological validity research is lab based - lacks mundane realism difficult to apply to everyday life |
What is another weakness, to do with the central executive, about the WMM ? | the functioning of the central executive is vague little is known about it suggests theory is over-simplistic |
Define PROACTIVE INTERFERENCE | previous learning interferes with current learning |
Define RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE | recent learning interferes with the recall of past learning |
WHO STUDIED ? | Retroactive transfer | UNDERWOOD & POSTMAN (1960) | forgetting |
WHO STUDIED ? | GODDEN & BADDELEY (1975) | forgetting |
WHO STUDIED ? | GOODWIN ET AL. (1969) | forgetting |
GOODWIN ET AL. (1969) | forgetting | OVERTON (1962) | forgetting |
WHO STUDIED ?
| LOFTUS (1979) | anxiety |
WHO STUDIED ?
| YUILLE AND CUTSHALL (1986) | anxiety |
WHO STUDIED ? | LOFTUS AND PALMER (1974) |
WHO STUDIED ? | Post-event discussion | GABBERT ET AL. (2003) |
What are the 4 parts to the Cognitive Interview |
|
WHO STUDIED ? | Comparing CI to standard interviews | GEISELMAN (1985) |
What are the STRENGTHS of the study of STM duration ? | - Brown; Peterson Peterson | PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS HIGH CONTROL
ADDS SUPPORT
|
What is the WEAKNESS of the study of STM duration ? | - Brown; Peterson & Peterson | NO ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
|
What are the STRENGTHS of the study of LTM duration ? | - Bahrick et al | MUNDANE REALISM
HIGH CONTROL
ADDS SUPPORT
|
What is the WEAKNESS of the study of coding ? | - Baddeley | may not have been testing LTM as he only asked the pps to recall after 20 mins |
What is the STRENGTH of the research for MSM ? | - Glanzer & Cunitz | INDICATES DIFFERENCE
|
What is the WEAKNESS of the research for MSM ? | - Glanzer & Cunitz | TOO SIMPLISTIC
|
What are the STRENGTHS of the WMM ? | - Baddeley & Hitch | SUPPORT RESEARCH
SUPPORT RESEARCH
|
What are the WEAKNESSES of the WMM ? | - Baddeley & Hitch | NO ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
VAGUE
|
What is the STRENGTH of the study of retroactive transfer ? | - Underwood & Postman | HIGH CONTROL
|
What is the WEAKNESS of the study of retroactive transfer ? | - Underwood & Postman | NO ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY | - hard to generalise |
What are the STRENGTHS of state-dependent forgetting ? | - Goodwin et al | ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
HIGH CONTROL
|
What are the WEAKNESSES of state-dependent forgetting ? | - Goodwin et al | DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS
ETHICS
|
What are the STRENGTHS of the weapon focus phenomenon ? | - Loftus | RESEARCH EVIDENCE
METHODOLOGY
|
What are the WEAKNESSES of the weapon focus phenomenon ? | - Loftus | ETHICS
NO ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
|
What are the STRENGTHS of real-life event anxiety ? | - Yuille & Cutshall | RESEARCH SUPPORT
ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
|
What are the WEAKNESSES of real-life event anxiety ? | - Yuille & Cutshall | METHODOLOGY
GENERALISING
|
What are the STRENGTHS of the cognitive interview ? | - Geiselman | SUPPORT RESEARCH
SUPPORT RESEARCH
|
What are the WEAKNESSES of the cognitive interview ? | - Geiselman | didn't help with identifying a suspect
children under the age of 6 report events less accurately
|
What is MAINTENANCE REHEARSAL ? | REPETITION to help us hold information in STM, eventually it will be transferred to LTM |
What is ELABORATIVE REHEARSAL ? | involves a more MEANINGFUL ANALYSIS of information and leads to BETTER RECALL. |
What is the WEAKNESSES of context dependent forgetting ? | - Godden and Baddeley | ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY CONTROL OF VARIABLES DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS |