Long term memory research

• BAHRICK (DURATION)

  • Procedure - a longitudinal study, 400 participants aged between 17–74. They were shown photographs and names of old high school classmates and asked to identify their old school friends
  • Findings – They found 90% of people could remember classmates’ names and faces after 15 years. They also found that 80% of people could remember classmates’ names and 70% of faces after 48 years suggesting that meaningful memories are long lasting.
• BADDELY (CODING)

  • Procedure – Participants were presented with one of two word lists: List C; semantically similar words and List D; semantically dissimilar words. To test coding, 20 minutes after looking at the words, participants were given the list in the wrong order. Their task was to rearrange the words in the correct order.
  • Findings – Participants given List C (semantically similar) performed worse, with a recall of only 55%. They confused semantically similar words, e.g. recalling ‘big’ instead of ‘huge’, suggesting that LTM is coded on a semantic basis.