Memory

• sensory register is when information is temporarily stored (coded) from our five senses constantly from our environment if we don’t pay attention to it disappears via spontaneous decay

  • has a limited capacity and duration
  • coded depending on which sense it came from
• Short term memory 


  Limited capacity and duration and coded acoustically (sound )
• Long term memory

  • theoretically permanent and infinite capacity
  • episodic events and experiences memories are declarative , consciously recalled
  • semantic facts and knowledge declarative but where it was learnt cant be determined
  • procedural codes knowledge on how to do things e.g walking , non declarative
• Sperling (1960) sensory register

  lab exp with a grid with four lows per three rows which was shown for 50 milliseconds then immediately recall the whole thing or a randomly chosen row which was indicated by a high medium or low tone played straight after

  • results when recalling the whole grid only 4-5 recalled on average and three were when recalling rows
  • conclusion as they didn’t know what would need to be recalled they arguably retained the whole grid but the trace faded quickly in the sensory register
  • evaluation - lack of ecological validity
• Peterson and Peterson (1959) duration of short term memory

  participants shown a nonsense Triagram with random constants , they then had to recall in either 3 , 6 , 9 , 12 ,15 and 18 seconds after 18 only 10% could be recalled

  results - after three seconds they could recall 80%

  conclusion - if rehearsal is prevented very little can stay in the STM for and anything past 18 seconds

  evaluation - reliable results lab exp but artificial , meaning memories in life may lost longer and saw many different triagrams
• Bahrick et Al (1975) very long term memories in a natural setting

  method - 392 people asked to name ex classmates , free recall test

  photo recognition test - shown a face and recall name

  name recognition test - match ne to photo

  • results - in 15 years after school participants could recognise 90% of names and faces
  • with a 60% accuracy on free recall fell to 30% after 30 years
  • in 48 years name recognition was 80% accurate and 40% in photo recognition
• Jacob’s (1887) capacity of shower term memory

  participants shown a string of letters and digits and repeated the amount of digits and letters till they couldn’t be recalled

  • results , most recalled 9 digits and 7 letters capacity increased with age
  • conclusion , Jacob concluded short term memory had a limited storage capacity of 5 to 9 items , short term memory increases with age possibly due to memory techniques digits are easier to remember as there are only 10 but 26 letters
  • evaluation , artificial lacks ecological validity