Coding

• Encoding - the acquisition of knowledge. Putting things to remember into a code in order to store it
• Coding/encoding - when information comes into our memory system it had to be changed into a format the system can cope with and store
• Coding - converting information so that it can be stored
• Three mains types of coding - visual, acoustic, semantic
• Visual - memories stores visually
• Acoustic - memories stored in terms of what they sound like
• Semantic - memories stored in terms of meaning
• Baddeley 1966 (coding). Participants given different lists or words to remember and were asked to recall them in the correct order.

  List one: acoustically similar

  List two: acoustically similar

  List three: semantically similar

  List four: semantically similar
• Baddeley 1966 (coding) findings:

  immediate recall - acoustically similar words had the worst recall, meaning the STM must be coded acoustically.

  delayed recall - waited 20 minutes. Semantically similar words had the worst recall, meaning the LTM must be coded semantically
• Baddeley 1966 (coding) AO3.

  The STM may not be exclusively acoustic. Some experiments have shown visual coding used in the STM.

  Brandimote - ppts used visual coding in the STM when given a visual recall task. We usually translate visual images into verbal codes in the STM, but verbal rehearsal was prevented, so visual codes were used. This shows that the LTM and STM are not simply acoustic or semantic
• Baddeley 1966 (coding) AO3. He may not have tested the LTM. He asked ppts to recall after 20 minutes, however it is questionable whether this is really the LTM or is it the STM. This means that the findings of the study may not be entirely accurate