studies

• Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)

  multistore model is a linear model representing the flow of memories between stores

  sensory memory: sensory information first has to be registerd in here. attention is needed to transfer information to STM

  short term memory: information is encoded into STM if attention is given. main modality is acoustic. rehearsal is needed to encode information to LTM, or else it will be lost through decay or substitution.

  long term memory: main modality is semantic. information can be lost through interference or retrieval failure.
• Jacobs (1887)

  • span measure test
  • a set of number is given to participants, and they're required to recall the numbers in the correct order out loud
  • another digit is added to the set if the participants got the previous set correct
  • if participants didn't get it correct, the last set of digit determines their digit span.
  • mean digit span across all participants is 9.3 items
  • mean span for letters is 7.3
• Miller (1956)


  • Miller's Magic no.7
  • dots/ digits/ words flashes on the screen
  • recall how many digits/ the dogits/ words in the correct order
  • participants can't cope well after 7
  • participants can recall 5 words or letter easily by chunking
  • oppose by Cowan : STM's capacity is only 4 chunks
• peterson & peterson (1959) aim

  test the duration of STM using the brown peterson technique and provide evidence to support the multistore model
• peterson & peterson (1959) procedure 


  • 24 psychology undergraduate students as participants
  • retention interval are 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds. 8 trails each
  • a new set of 3 digit number and trigram are given to participants in each trial
  • the participants are asked to count backwards in interval of 3-4 from the digit they were given (prevent mental rehearsal)
  • they then have to recall the trigram after the given seconds.
• peterson & peterson (1959) findings and conclusion 


  • the longer the interval delays, the less trigrams recalled
  • 3 seconds delay: 80% participants recalled
  • 18 seconds delay: 10% participants recalled
  • rehearsal is needed to retain information in short term memory
  • STM's duration is limited to 18 seconds max when rehearsal isn't taken place.
• Bahrick et al (1975) aim and sample

  aim

  • to find out the duration of LTM

  sample

  • sample 392 17-74 years old American ex-highschooler through opportunity sampling
• Bahrick et al (1975) procedure

  • bahrick got the participant's highschool yearbook through the participants or form the school

  the recalls are tested in 2 ways

  • free recall test: participants recall as many schoolmate as they can
  • photo recognition test: a set of 50 photos that are in the yearbook and not in the yearbook were given to the participants, in which they have to identify their former classmate.
• Bahrick et al (1975) findings and conclusion

  findings

  • participants who graduated within 15 years got 90% accuracy in photo recognition test
  • participants who graduated more than 48 years ago only got 70% in the photo recognition test
  • free recall were overall bad with a 60% accuracy within 15 years and 30% after 48 years.

  conclusion

  LTM has an unlimited duration
• Baddeley (1966) aim anf grouping 


  aim

  • find out the modality of STM and LTM

  grouping

  • group 1: acoustically similar
  • group 2: acoustically dissimilar
  • group 3: semantically similar
  • group 4: semantically dissimilar
• Baddeley (1966) procedure

  • a list of acoustically similar words were shown to the participants
  • the participants have to recall immediately or after 20 minutes
• baddeley (1966) findings and conclusion

  findings

  • participants tend to do worse when they have to recall a acoustically similar words list immediately
  • STM main modality is acoustic
  • participants tend to do worse with semantically similar words when they were asked to recall 20 minutes later
  • LTM main modality is semantic
• Tulving (1989) aim and sample

  aim

  • investigate possible difference in the processing of episodic and semantic memory task, assess the effectiveness of neuro-imaging

  sample:

  volunteer sampling, 6 participants including Tulving himself, his wife and a colleague
• tulving (1989) procedure

  • each participants performed 8 successive trials with 4 being semantic and 4 being episodic. each trial lasted for 80 seconds
  • at a signal by the researcher, participants would start thinking about a topic of their choice
  • a radioactive gold is injected into the participants after 60 seconds
  • gamma ray detector scanning occurs 8 seconds after injection and lasted on 2.4 seconds
  • between each trial, participants would lie, face up, eye closed on the couch to retrieve the episodic or semantic memory as retrieval requires silent mental thought.
• Tulving (1989) findings and conclusion

  findings

  • 3/6 participants produced inconclusive data for unknown reason while the others showed consistent difference in cortical blood flow patter between semantic and episodic thinking
  • episodic memory: frontal lobe; semantic memory: posterior region

  conclusion

  • episodic and semantic memory are different form of LTM and are biologically different.
• Baddeley and Hitch (1976) aim

  investigate if participants can use different parts of working memory at the same time
• Baddeley and Hitch (1976) procedure 


  • participants were tested using the dual task technique
  • a digit span task: repeat a list of numbers
  • verbal reasoning task: answer true or false to various questions
• Baddeley and Hitch (1976) findings and conclusion

  findings

  • the time taken to recall the list increases as the digits in the digit span task increases
  • no errors were made in verbal reasoning task as digit increases

  conclusion

  • verbal reasoning task is processed in central execution
  • digit span task is processed in the phonological loop
• Rauscher (1993)

  • mozart effect
  • students listen to Mozart for 10 minutes before performing an IQ test
  • students who listen to mozart had an increase in the score of visuospatial tasks
• Perham and Currie (2014)

  • a repeated measure test of students complete reading comprehension tasks while being put in different conditions
  • no music, lyrical music or instrumental music
  • students perform best under no music condition
  • perform worse under lyrical music
• McGeoch and McDonalds (1931)

  • changes the similarities between 2 set of material
  • participants were ask to learn a list of 10 words until they can remember them with 100% accuracy before learning another lists
  • whether the participants can recall the original list depends on the second list
  • the group who were tested with synonym did worse
  • interference is strongest when the memories are similar
• McGeoch and McDonald (1931) grouping

  group 1: lists of synonyms

  group 2: lists of antonyms

  group 3: words unrelated to the original lists

  group 4: nonsense syllables

  group 5: 3 digits numbers

  group 6: no new lists
• Baddeley and Hitch (1977)

  • Rugby players were asked to recall the names of teams they had played in the current season week by week
  • Most players have been absent from some games therefore their last game might be weeks ago
  • recall's accuracy depends on the number of games they've played instead of how long ago did it take place
• Henk Schmidt et al (2006)

  aim:

  investigate the influence of retroactive interference on memory of street names learned during childhood

  sample: 700 ex students from a dutch elementary school in molenburg aged between 11-79 were sampled randomly. but not all respond to the questionnaire

  procedure:

  a map of Molenburg was given to the respondee. the street names are replaced by numbers and they have to identify as many streets as they could

  the number of times they've moved was also collected
• Henk Schmidt et al (2006) findings and conclusion

  finding: positive correlation between number of times moved and the number of streets name forgotten

  conclusion: learning new streets makes recalling old ones more difficult as retroactive interference has taken place
• who came up with the dual task technique

  Baddeley and Hitch
• Abernathy (1940)

  • participants tend to do worse in retrieving material if they're being test by an unfamiliar teacher in an unfamiliar environment
• Godden and Baddeley (1975)

  deep sea divers were asked to learn a list of words on land or underwater then recall it on land or underwater

  participants are split into 4 groups

  • learn on land – recall on land
  • learn on land – recall underwater
  • learn underwater – recall on land
  • learn underwater – recall underwater

  when the context condition doesn't match, the accuracy of the recall is lower than if they're tested in the context condition match.
• Baker et al (2004)

  all participants learn a list of 15 words under 2 minutes. They then have to recall straightaway and 24 hours later

  split into 4 groups

  • gum-gum
  • gum-no gum
  • no gum-gum
  • no gum-no gum

  no significant difference between groups when recall right away

  when tested 24 hours later, the matched context groups did slightly better than the non-matched context group
• Carter and Cassaday (1998)

  antihistamine were given to participants to create a different internal state from the "normal" one

  split into 4 groups

  • learn on drugs – recall on drugs
  • learn on drugs – recall without
  • learn without – recall on drugs
  • learn without – recall without

  memory is better when learning and recalling's internal states matched
• Overton (1972)

  • participants learn a set of material when they're drunk or sober
  • recall was worse if the participants' internal states are different between coding and retrieving
• Darley et al (1973)

  • if a participants hid money when they're high on marijuana, they were less able to recall where the money is when they're not high
• Tulving and Pearlstone (1966)

  • participants were given written list of 48 words to learn
  • there are 12 categories with 4 words in each categories
  • participants had to recall words by free recall or heading as cues
  • participants who were given cues performed significantly better
• Loftus and Palmer (1974)

  • participants watch a video on a car accident
  • a leading question was given to the participants by the researcher
  • all participants got the same question but with a slightly different verb
  • "bumped" created a higher estimated speed than "contacted"
  • leading question biased the eyewitnesses' recall of the event
• Gabbert et al (2003)


  • participants are paired up and each of them watch a different perspective of the same crime
  • they then discuss what they was before being asked for a recall
  • 71% of the participants mistakenly recalled aspect of the event from the other POV that they've picked up in the discussion
  • witnesses goes with the other view due to memory conformity. this is cause by wanting to win social approval
• Loftus (1975)


  • a video of a lecture being disrupt by 8 demonstrator were shown to the participants
  • a questionnaire with either the question of "was the leader of the 4 demonstrators male?" or " was the leader of the 12 demonstrators male?" was sent to the participants afterwards
  • after a week delay, more questions about the number of demonstrators were sent to the participants
  • the average number of demonstrators estimated by those who had "4 demonstrators" is lower than those who had "12 demonstrators"