AQA A-Level Psychology Memory Notes - summarised using all the relevant information, with key points and names in bold. Evaluations are clearly marked as + / - which allows for these notes too easily be converted into essay plans.
Learning these notes achieved me an A*.
Memory = a set of mental processes involved in registering, storing and retrieving information.
The multi-store model - Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)
Sensory register
-Coding: depends on the senses - visual, auditory etc.
-Capacity: high - over one hundred million cells in one eye, each storing data.
-Duration: very brief - less than half a second.
Short-term memory
-Coding: acoustic
-Capacity: between 5-9 items of information before forgetting occurs.
-Duration: 18-30 seconds unless information is rehearsed.
Research into the MSM - Miller (1956)
-’The magical number 7 plus or minus 2’.
-Capacity of short-term memory.
-Aim = to investigate the capacity of the MSM.
-Method = literature review of investigations into perception and STM (1930s - 1950s).
-Results = the research suggested that chunking of stimulus allowed the STM to cope with approximately 7 chunks of
information allowing for more than this to be remembered.
Ex. if we tried to remember a bank account number of 10 numbers, it is easier to remember by breaking it down into
chunks.
-Conclusion = chunking of stimulus can extend the STM, allowing more information to be stored there.
+ Research support
There is research evidence to support Miller (1956). Jacobs (1887) conducted the digit span test to examine
the capacity of the STM for numbers and letters. Ps were required to repeat a string of numbers or letters in
the same order which were gradually increased, until they were unable to recall what was read to them.
Jacobs found that there was an average span of 7.3 for letters and 9.3 for digits thus supporting Miller’s
concept of 7+/-2.
- Overestimation of the capacity of the STM
, Miller may have overestimated the capacity of STM. Cowan (2001) conducted research into the capacity of
STM and found that it was only four chunks of information. This would suggest that the lower end of Miller’s
estimate (five) would be more accurate than seven. Thus further research is needed to gain an
understanding of the exact capacity of STM
Research into the MSM - Peterson & Peterson (1959)
-Aim = to investigate how different short intervals containing an interference task affect the recall of items presented
verbally, and to infer the duration of STM.
-Method = 24 male and female university Ps.
The verbal items were 48 trigrams (e.g. RJP or JBW) which were spelled out letter by letter. There were also cards
with three digit numbers (e.g. 675 or 249).
The researcher spelled the trigram out and then read a three digit number. The Ps then had to count backwards in
threes from the number in order to prevent repetition of the trigram. T
they did this starting at a three second interval continuing to an 18 second interval. After each interval they had to
recall the trigram.
-Results = Peterson & Peterson found the longer the interval the less accurate the recall. At 3 seconds accuracy
was around 80% falling to 10% at 18 seconds.
-Conclusion = STM has a duration of approximately 18-30 seconds. Additionally, if rehearsal is prevented,
information will not be passed to the LTM.
+ High internal validity
The study was highly controlled reducing the risk of EVs. thus it is easily replicated allowing for the reliability
to be tested.
- Lacks external ecological validity
Trigrams are artificial stimuli which are not representative of real-life memory activities. It could therefore be
argued that the work of Peterson and Peterson lack ecological validity as it would be difficult to apply the
findings to real-life situations of memory recall in which important information, such as a phone number, is
memorised.
- Use of students
Psychology students were used in the experiment whose memory may be different to others, especially if
they have already studied memory. This would limit the population validity as it would be difficult to
generalise the results to all of the population.
Research into the MSM - Bahrick (1975)
-Aim = to investigate the duration of the LTM.
-Method = 392 American university graduates were shown photographs from their high school yearbook and for
each photo were given a list of names and asked to match the photos with the correct names.
-Results = 90% of participants were able to correctly match the names and faces 14 years after graduation and 60%
of the participants were able to correctly match the names and faces 47 years after graduation.
-Conclusion = Bahrick concluded that people could remember certain types of information, such as names and faces,
for almost a lifetime. This supports the MSM and the notion that the LTM has a lifetime duration (at least 47 years),
and is semantically coded.
+ High ecological validity
, The study made use of real-life memories by matching pictures of classmates with their names. Therefore the
results reflect real world events and can be applied to everyday human memory.
- Low population validity
Bahrick used a sample of 392 American students. Their results would be difficult to generalise to other
populations and therefore it would be difficult to conclude that they reflect the memory of all individuals.
- Individual differences
Bahrick found that accuracy declined from 90% after 14 years to 60% after 47 years. His research however
does not explain whether this decline is due to a reduction in duration or whether it is merely affected by old
age. This suggests that more research is required into the duration of LTM.
Research into MSM - Baddeley
-Aim = to establish how the LTM and STM is coded.
-Procedure = participants were given one of four word lists to learn. The list contained words that were either
acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar or semantically dissimilar. Participants either reached
the words immediately (testing STM) or after 20 minutes (testing LTM).
-Results = participants did worse with acoustically similar words in STM, suggesting that information in the STM is
coded acoustically. For LTM, they did worse with semantically similar words, suggesting that information in the LTM is
coded semantically.
+ Scientific
The study took place in a lab with standardised procedures and minimal extraneous variables. Thus it can be
suggested that a cause and effect relationship was able to be established.
+ High in reliability
The study uses standardised procedures which means that the experiment can easily be replicated to test the
findings among other groups of people.
- Low in ecological validity
The study used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. The word lists had no personal meaning
to participants. This means that we should be cautious about generalising the findings to different kinds of
memory tasks, eg, when processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for
STM tasks. This suggests that the findings from this study have limited applications.
Multi-store model general evaluations
+ Supporting evidence from psychological studies
There is evidence to support the existence of separate memory stores. For example, Glanzer & Cunitz
research into the primary and recency effect demonstrated the existence of STM and LTM. participants were
shown a list of words which they had to recall in any order. They recalled the first and last words best. The
first words had been rehearsed and were in the LTM and the last words remained in the STM. the words in
the middle had been displaced due to the STM reaching capacity. This shows the existence of a separate
STM and LTM.
+ Supporting evidence from psychological studies
You could also use any of the studies that support, capacity, duration and coding.
- Oversimplifies memory
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