16 marker plans:
1) Coding, capacity and duration of STM and LTM
AO1
SHORT TERM MEMORY:
● Temporarily stores information received from the SM
● Coding - stored as raw information ( visual, acoustic, semantic)
● Capacity - limited - 5-9 items
● Duration - 18-30 seconds- can be extended through rehearsal
POSNER AND KEEL ( 1967):
● Found ppts were faster in assessing that ‘A’ followed by ‘A’ was the same letter than
when ‘A’ is followed by ‘a’ as the visual code differs
● Findings show that visual coding was occuring ,which illustrates how codes other than
the acoustic one occur in STM
● A03 = although research shows that coding in STM is mainly acoustic, other sensory
codes e.g. visual is used to too
JACOBS (1987):
● Tested STM capacity with the serial digit span test, where ppts are presented with
increasingly long lists of numbers of letters and have to recall them in the right order
● E.g. 391 followed by recall, 8539 followed by recall etc.
● When ppts fail on 50% of their tasks, they are judged to have reached their capacity
● Capacity for numbers = 9 items
● Capacity for letters = 7 items
● A03 = artificial task so lacks mundane realism
● A03 = Jacob’s study was conducted a long time ago - early research in psychology often
lacked adequate control e.g. participants may be distracted while being tested which
reduces the validity of the results
LONG TERM MEMORY:
● Stores information for up to a lifetime ( more than 30 seconds) processes are spread
through multiple regions of the brain
● Coding - information is strongest when it is processed at its deepest level ( semantic=
memory, procedural = motor skills, episodic =experiences)
● Capacity - unlimited
● Duration - lifetime
FROST (1972):
, ● Gave ppts 16 drawings in 4 categories differing in visual orientation, like angle or viewing
perspective
● The order of recall items suggested ppts used visual and semantic coding, implying
evidence for the visual as well as semantic code in LTM
NELSON AND ROTHBAT (1972):
● Showed that acoustic coding also occurs in LTM, as ppts made recall errors involving
homophones ( words that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings) like
‘knight’ and ‘ night’, again suggesting that coding in the LTM has several varieties
● A03 = difficult to see smells and tastes, but they can be coded semantically and reason
suggests songs are encoded acoustically supporting the idea of several forms of
encoding in LTM
● A03 = different types of LTM involving different brain areas, with research suggesting
that they are encoded in different ways, which implies that there are various forms of
coding within the LTM
AO3
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:- Mary Mullen (1994) carried out the first cross-cultural
research into memory. She asked more than 700 Caucasian and Asian students to
describe their earliest autobiographical memories (memories of things that happened to
them). Asian students' first memories happened six months later than the Caucasian
students' first memories - the earliest memory being from around age 4 for Asians and 3
years 6 months for Caucasians.
GLANZER AND CUNITZ- showed that when participants are presented with a list of
words, they tend to remember the first few and last few words and are more likely to
forget those in the middle of the list, i.e. the serial position effect. This supports the
existence of separate LTM and STM stores because they observed a primacy and
recency effect. Words early on in the list were put into long term memory (primacy effect)
because the person has time to rehearse the word, and words from the end went into
short term memory (recency effect)
SHALLICE AND WARRINGTON (1970) - KF who had been in a motorcycle crash
where he had sustained brain damage. His LTM seemed to be unaffected but he was
only able to recall the last bit of information he had heard in his STM.
2) The multistore model of memory
AO1
MSM:
● Devised by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
● The model describes how information flows through the memory system
● Suggests that the memory is made up of 3 stores :
, 1) Sensory register/ memory
2) Short term memory
3) Long term memory
SENSORY MEMORY:
● Automatic response to sensory information
● Coding - stored as raw, unprocessed information ( echoic=sound, iconic=sight, haptic=
touch, gustatory= taste, olfactory)
● Capacity - unlimited and highly detailed
● Duration - limited - decreases with age and through trace decay
CROWDER (1993):
● Found that the SR only retains info in the iconic store for a few milliseconds, but for 2-8
seconds within the echoic store which supports the idea of sensory information being
coded into different sensory stores
● A03 - after images of visual events provide good evidence of sensory memories e.g. the
light trail produced by a moving light stick was noted as early as 1740
● A03 - sensory memory stores may consist of several sub-stores e.g. visible persistence
and informational persistance within the iconic memory store
SHORT TERM MEMORY:
● Temporarily stores information received from the SM
● Coding - stored as raw information ( visual, acoustic, semantic)
● Capacity - limited - 5-9 items
● Duration - 18-30 seconds- can be extended through rehearsal
JACOBS (1987):
● Tested STM capacity with the serial digit span test, where ppts are presented with
increasingly long lists of numbers of letters and have to recall them in the right order
● E.g. 391 followed by recall, 8539 followed by recall etc.
● When ppts fail on 50% of their tasks, they are judged to have reached their capacity
● Capacity for numbers = 9 items
● Capacity for letters = 7 items
● A03 = artificial task so lacks mundane realism
● A03 = Jacob’s study was conducted a long time ago - early research in psychology often
lacked adequate control e.g. participants may be distracted while being tested which
reduces the validity of the results
1) Coding, capacity and duration of STM and LTM
AO1
SHORT TERM MEMORY:
● Temporarily stores information received from the SM
● Coding - stored as raw information ( visual, acoustic, semantic)
● Capacity - limited - 5-9 items
● Duration - 18-30 seconds- can be extended through rehearsal
POSNER AND KEEL ( 1967):
● Found ppts were faster in assessing that ‘A’ followed by ‘A’ was the same letter than
when ‘A’ is followed by ‘a’ as the visual code differs
● Findings show that visual coding was occuring ,which illustrates how codes other than
the acoustic one occur in STM
● A03 = although research shows that coding in STM is mainly acoustic, other sensory
codes e.g. visual is used to too
JACOBS (1987):
● Tested STM capacity with the serial digit span test, where ppts are presented with
increasingly long lists of numbers of letters and have to recall them in the right order
● E.g. 391 followed by recall, 8539 followed by recall etc.
● When ppts fail on 50% of their tasks, they are judged to have reached their capacity
● Capacity for numbers = 9 items
● Capacity for letters = 7 items
● A03 = artificial task so lacks mundane realism
● A03 = Jacob’s study was conducted a long time ago - early research in psychology often
lacked adequate control e.g. participants may be distracted while being tested which
reduces the validity of the results
LONG TERM MEMORY:
● Stores information for up to a lifetime ( more than 30 seconds) processes are spread
through multiple regions of the brain
● Coding - information is strongest when it is processed at its deepest level ( semantic=
memory, procedural = motor skills, episodic =experiences)
● Capacity - unlimited
● Duration - lifetime
FROST (1972):
, ● Gave ppts 16 drawings in 4 categories differing in visual orientation, like angle or viewing
perspective
● The order of recall items suggested ppts used visual and semantic coding, implying
evidence for the visual as well as semantic code in LTM
NELSON AND ROTHBAT (1972):
● Showed that acoustic coding also occurs in LTM, as ppts made recall errors involving
homophones ( words that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings) like
‘knight’ and ‘ night’, again suggesting that coding in the LTM has several varieties
● A03 = difficult to see smells and tastes, but they can be coded semantically and reason
suggests songs are encoded acoustically supporting the idea of several forms of
encoding in LTM
● A03 = different types of LTM involving different brain areas, with research suggesting
that they are encoded in different ways, which implies that there are various forms of
coding within the LTM
AO3
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:- Mary Mullen (1994) carried out the first cross-cultural
research into memory. She asked more than 700 Caucasian and Asian students to
describe their earliest autobiographical memories (memories of things that happened to
them). Asian students' first memories happened six months later than the Caucasian
students' first memories - the earliest memory being from around age 4 for Asians and 3
years 6 months for Caucasians.
GLANZER AND CUNITZ- showed that when participants are presented with a list of
words, they tend to remember the first few and last few words and are more likely to
forget those in the middle of the list, i.e. the serial position effect. This supports the
existence of separate LTM and STM stores because they observed a primacy and
recency effect. Words early on in the list were put into long term memory (primacy effect)
because the person has time to rehearse the word, and words from the end went into
short term memory (recency effect)
SHALLICE AND WARRINGTON (1970) - KF who had been in a motorcycle crash
where he had sustained brain damage. His LTM seemed to be unaffected but he was
only able to recall the last bit of information he had heard in his STM.
2) The multistore model of memory
AO1
MSM:
● Devised by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
● The model describes how information flows through the memory system
● Suggests that the memory is made up of 3 stores :
, 1) Sensory register/ memory
2) Short term memory
3) Long term memory
SENSORY MEMORY:
● Automatic response to sensory information
● Coding - stored as raw, unprocessed information ( echoic=sound, iconic=sight, haptic=
touch, gustatory= taste, olfactory)
● Capacity - unlimited and highly detailed
● Duration - limited - decreases with age and through trace decay
CROWDER (1993):
● Found that the SR only retains info in the iconic store for a few milliseconds, but for 2-8
seconds within the echoic store which supports the idea of sensory information being
coded into different sensory stores
● A03 - after images of visual events provide good evidence of sensory memories e.g. the
light trail produced by a moving light stick was noted as early as 1740
● A03 - sensory memory stores may consist of several sub-stores e.g. visible persistence
and informational persistance within the iconic memory store
SHORT TERM MEMORY:
● Temporarily stores information received from the SM
● Coding - stored as raw information ( visual, acoustic, semantic)
● Capacity - limited - 5-9 items
● Duration - 18-30 seconds- can be extended through rehearsal
JACOBS (1987):
● Tested STM capacity with the serial digit span test, where ppts are presented with
increasingly long lists of numbers of letters and have to recall them in the right order
● E.g. 391 followed by recall, 8539 followed by recall etc.
● When ppts fail on 50% of their tasks, they are judged to have reached their capacity
● Capacity for numbers = 9 items
● Capacity for letters = 7 items
● A03 = artificial task so lacks mundane realism
● A03 = Jacob’s study was conducted a long time ago - early research in psychology often
lacked adequate control e.g. participants may be distracted while being tested which
reduces the validity of the results
