psychology (memory)

• what is memory 


  memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored and retrieved
• three types of memory

  -sensory memory

  -short term memory

  -long term memory
• short term memory

  -a temporary store where small amounts of information can be kept for a brief period. can be easily lost
• long term memory 


  -permanent store where limitless amounts of information can be stored for long periods of time
• sensory memory 


  -immediate information coming n from the environment first registers i the sensory store. comes from our senses
• capacity 


  HOW MUCH CAN BE STORED
• encoding 


  HOW IT IS TRANSFERRED FOR STORAGE
• duration

  HOW LONG MEMORY LASTS
• encoding meaning 


  changing information so that it can be stored
• storage meaning

  holding information in the memory system
• retrieval meaning


  -recovering information from storage
• capacity meaning 


  -the amount of information that can be held in a memory store
• duration meaning 


  -the length of time information can be held in memory
• short term memory

  a limited capacity memory store
• long term memory meaning

  -a permanent memory store
• JACOB(1887) EXPERIMENT ON CAPCITY IN STM

  AIM: research our capacity in STM

  PROCEDURE: participants were n with strings of letter or digits and were asked to repeat them back in the same order. the length of the string was increased until participant was unable to repeat the sequence accurately. when they fail on 50% of the trials they've reached their digit span capacity
• findings of Jacob's experiment on STM

  on average, participants recalled nine digits and seven letters. the average recall increased with age. he found mean span for digits was 9.3 and letters was 7.3
• conclusions and criticism of Jacob's experiment on STM

  STM has a limited storage capacity of between five and nine items but learned memory techniques may increase capacity as people get older

  
  

  Since there are more letters in the alphabet but only 10 digits letters may be hard to recall
• chunking 


  when you put information together/ grouping information may help to improve memory capacity
• jacob's study was done a long time ago before the importance of control in experiments was understood. how might this have affected the results

  its not reliable as its not a standardized procedure
• miller, jacob and other psychologists have all found similar results in their digit span experiments. what does this tell us about the theory

  they're valid and reliable results
• however cowan found that we could only remember 4 items. what does this tell us about the theory

  depends on what your remembering
• does this theory apply to everybody or are there 'individual differences'

  depends on you as a person, variation no ones the same
• how can you apply the theory to the real world

  postcode 6/7 digits as easy to remember
• can you devise an experiment to test the capacity of LTM

  impossible to test
• one word to describe SENSORY MEMORY

  large
• one word to describe STM

  limited
• one word to describe LTM

  unlimited
• the duration for STM 


  -the duration for which STM can retain info is temporary- a very short time but some findings suggest only a few seconds before it fades unless its rehearsed
• peterson peterson (1959) AIM AND PROCEDURE 


  aim: to see if rehearsal was necessary to hold information in the STM store to test the duration of STM

  procedure: participants were given a set of 3 letters to remember but were immediately asked to count backwards in 3's out loud for 3,6,9,12,15,1 seconds. this was done to prevent rehearsal. participants were then asked to recall the letters in the correct order
• peterson peterson (1959) FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION 


  findings: at 3 seconds average recall of the trigrams was about 90% and at 1 seconds average recall had dropped to 3% participants had virtually forgotten all the information after 18 seconds

  conclusions: we cannot hold information in thw STM store unless we rehearse it. STM is said to have limited duration: 18-30 seconds
• what's meant by displacement 


  the first piece of information stored in the STM is the first piece to be replaced when maximum capacity happens
• What is a criticism of Peterson and Peterson's (1959) study regarding ecological validity?


  The study is considered unrealistic as it does not reflect normal everyday tasks like memorizing trigrams.
• What does the term "ecological validity" refer to in the context of research studies?


  It refers to the extent to which findings can be generalized to real-world settings.
• What limitation does the controlled experimental setting of the study introduce?


  The stimulus material is artificial, leading to a lack of mundane realism.
• What is meant by "mundane realism" in research studies?

  Mundane realism refers to how closely the experimental tasks resemble real-life activities.
• What are demand characteristics in the context of psychological experiments?


  Demand characteristics occur when participants guess the aim of the experiment and alter their behavior accordingly.
• How does the ability to replicate the Peterson and Peterson study affect its scientific credibility?


  The ability to replicate the study enhances its scientific credibility by confirming the findings across different samples.
• peterson peterson (1959) limitations using constant syllables such as THX 


  -easier to remembers

  -has low levels of ecological validity

  -unlikely to memorize this in everyday
• why did peterson peterson (1959) use consonant syllables 


  -as they wanted to test that information what isn't rehearsed is lost quickly from short term memory

  -makes the procedure easy to replicate