AO3

• Weakness - Capacity may be more limited: Cowan (2001) reviewed research and concluded that STM is likely to be limited to about 4 chunks
• Weakness - Individual differences—the capacity of STM is not the same for everyone. Jacobs found that recall increased with age (8 year old = 6.6 digits, 19 year olds = 8.6 digits). Age increase might be due to increase in brain capacity
• • Weakness - The study does not have relevance to everyday life. Memorising consonant syllables does not truly reflect most everyday memory activities = low sociological validity
• Bahrick – Real-life meaningful memories were studied - higher external validity
• • Weakness - Methodology - it is questionable that Baddeley’s study actually tested LTM.
• Artificial - Word lists have no meaning for participants
• • Weakness - Coding within LTM may not be semantic – Frost showed long term recall was related to visual and semantic = may depend on type of information being remembered