Duration

• Retrieval - to call or remember. When we research into how long information can be stored this is called duration.
• Duration - how long can we store memories in our LTM and STM
• Trigram Retention Experiment - Peterson and Peterson 1959

  Students were given consonant syllables to remember and then asked to count backwards from a particular number.

  They were then asked to count backwards from a number for 3-18 seconds.

  80% remembered after 3 seconds. Only 10% remembered after 18s.

  
• Bahrick et al 1975 - high school graduates tested over a 50 year period.

  They were shown their year book photos and had to recal names (free recall) or had to match names to faces (recognition)
• Bahrick et al 1975 results -

  recognition:

  90% accurate after 15 years

  70% accurate after 48 years

  free recall:

  60% accurate after 15 years

  30% accurate after 48 years
• Peterson and Peterson STM/LTM AO3.

  Testing the STM was artificial. Memorising consonant syllables does not reflect every day memory. This means that this study lacks mundane realism and may not be applicable. However, it is true that we memorise things without meaning, such as phone numbers.
• Peterson and Peterson AO3. STM results may be due to displacement. In the study, ppts were counting numbers in the STM, and this may displace or overwrite syllables trying to be remembered. Reitman used auditory tones instead so that displacement wouldn’t occur, and found the duration of the STM was longer. This shows that Petersons results may be based on displacement rather than decay, so the STMs duration wasn’t measured