capacity

Cards (6)

  • Jacobs digit span test - procedure
    said 4 letters and asked ppts to repeat
    if correct said 5 letters and asked ppts to repeat until ppts could no longer remember correctly
  • Jacobs digit span test - findings
    found mean span of digits to be 9.3 items
    found mean span of letters to be 7.3 items
  • memory span - Miller
    STM span is 7 + _ 2 digits
    (9-5 digits)
  • chunking - Miller 

    found that people can remember 5 words as well as 5 letters through chunking
  • valid study - Jacobs
    P: strength - jacobs sudy has been replicated
    E: in original study, ppts capacity may be over estimated due to distractions (confounding variables)
    E: however, Jacobs finding have been confirmed by other, better controlled research
    L: therefore Jacobs experiment is a valid study
  • overestimated chunking - Miller
    P: limitation - overestimated chunking
    E: researcher reviewed multiple studies
    E: found capacity with chunking to be 4 +- 1 chunks
    L: therefore lower end of Millers estimate (5 digits) could be more appropriate than 9 digits