Bahrik

• Duration of the LTM
• Bahrik and colleagues (1975) studied pps aged between 17 and 74, high school year books were obtained from some schools
• Photo-recog test consisting of 50 photos (some from high school year book some not)
• Free recall- pps recalled the names of people in their graduating class
• Photo recog within 15 years od grad- 90% accurate
• Photo recog after 48 years of grad- 70% accurate
• Free recall after 15 years- 60% accuracy
• Free recall after 48 years- 30%
• LTM is very long
• Strength- used meaningful memories through high school yearbooks- high external validity
• when research has been conducted using meaningless pictures- (shepard, 1967) recall rates tend to be lower
• there could have been cofounding variables, former students may have looked over their yearbooks over the years and therefore rehearsed their memory