memory

• what did miller test

  capacity of stm
• what was millers method

  literature review of investigations into stm
• what was millers results

  putting information into chunks allowed stm to work better
• what was millers conclusion

  organisation can extend the capacity of stm and allow more information to be stored there
• A03: Millers chunking study

  • supported by jacob’s as he did a similar test and got a similar outcome
  • didn’t state how large chunks could be so doesn’t conclude an exact capacity
  • didn’t take into account other factors affecting capacity eg age
• what did peterson and peterson study

  duration of stm
• what was peterson and peterson method

  • 24 male and female uni students
  • verbal items were 48 three constant nonsense syllables (eg JBT or OVP) trigrams
  • there were also three number trigrams
  • researchers had the, count down backwards in 3 or 4s from the trigram to avoid mental repetition.
  • at the end of a 3 to 18s interval, ppts recalled trigram
• what was peterson and petersons results

  • longer interval = less accurate recall
  • 3s = 80% correct
  • 18s = 10% correct
• A03: peterson and petersons trigram study

  • small sample size
  • psychology students so demand characteristics
  • low ecological validity
  • highly controlled extraneous variables