Duration In Memory AO3

• Peterson + Peterson studied duration using artificial materials which are not often used in real life, so it is difficult to say that this represents the duration of STM in real life
• Bahrick's study had far more ecological validity as it took a naturalistic approach, and therefore this could provide a useful explanation of how we use LTM in real life, and how long it lasts
• Bahrick did more research into VLTM and in 2008 asked people to list their Uni grades (had graduated from Ohio Wesleyan between 1 and 54 years ago, finding people with higher grades were more accurate, and also that when people did make misrakes, generally they increased their grades
• This is another example of memory being used in real life, and the individual differences that affect the duration of it
• It is difficult to tell why memories are lost-for example, Petersons research may have found memories are lost - but may have to do with interference rather than duration