These study notes contain everything you need to know in order to pass the Memory module of the AQA A-level Psychology - 'Introduction to Psychology' exam (Paper 1). Including:
- The multi-store model of memory.
- Types of long-term memory i.e. episodic, semantic, procedural.
- The workin...
Key Terms
encoding the form in which the memory is retained.
capacity how much info this store can retain.
duration how long this store can retain info.
Short-term Memory
encoding Baddeley (1966): tested whether STM favours acoustic or semantic coding.
. four lists of one syllable words (A, B, C, D).
- A = acoustically similar words.
- B = common words in English, but sound different.
- C = adjectives with similar meaning.
- D = adjectives with distinctive meaning.
. reported % of correctly recalled words for each list was:
- A = 10%
- B = 82%
- C = 65%
- D = 71%
. concluded that STM is encoded acoustically.
capacity Jacobs (1887): ‘Serial Digit Span’ experiment tested how much info the STM can hold.
. series of random digits that pps had to repeat back in the correct order.
. found the ‘magic number’ was 7 ± 2 (pps able to recall around 7 digits).
criticisms:
- indiv differences; STM increases with age (8yr olds recalled 7 numbers vs. 19yr olds
recalled 9 numbers).
- Simon (1974); indivs had shorter memory span for large chunks as opposed to smaller
chunks of info.
duration Peterson & Peterson (1959): ‘Trigram Retention’ experiment tested how long info can be retained for.
explaining the graph:
. after only 3 secs, 80% recalled correctly.
. after 18 secs fewer than 10% recalled correctly.
. recall grew progressively worse as decay got longer.
. findings;
- approx. 90% of trigrams recalled after 3 secs retention.
- 10% recalled after.
. conclusion;
- without rehearsal, duration of STM is very short (less than 18 secs).
Long-term Memory
encoding an adaption of Baddeley (1966): pps presented with list of 10 short words, one at a time.
- some lists were semantically similar, others were not.
- pps recall tested immediately, + then with a 20-min delay.
. findings;
- after 20 mins, pps did worse on semantically similar words.
- suggests we encode LTMs according to what they mean i.e. encoding in LTM is
‘semantic’.
capacity potentially unlimited e.g. case study of Shereshevsky (1886-1958), investigated by Luria (1968).
duration anything up to a life-time… difficult to test exact duration but Bahrick et al. (1975): tested US
graduates…
- shown classmates photos years later 90% accuracy remembering faces + names.
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