AQA A-level Psychology Memory Paper 1

Duration of memory - Length of time information can be stored in memory Capacity of memory - Volume of information/data that can be stored in any memory store at any one time Coding of memory - Process by which sensory information is modified and stored in the brain Types of memory stores - Sensory memory (SM), Short-term memory (STM), Long-term memory (LTM) Capacity of sensory memory - Very large capacity, not typically aware of it Capacity of STM - Limited capacity (between 7+/-2 items) Capacity of LTM - Potentially unlimited capacity Assessment of STM - Measured using a digit span task, remembering numbers Jacob's 1887 research on capacity - Found average span for numbers to be 9.3 items, for letters the average decreased to 7.3 items Miller's research on capacity - Concluded that 'the magic number is 7 plus or minus 2', people can recall around 7 dots, 7 letters, 7 musical notes Chunking - Process of grouping items together to increase capacity of STM Cowan's research on STM capacity - Capacity of STM is closer to 4 chunks of information Simon's research on STM capacity - Found that people have smaller STM capacity with larger chunks, supporting the limited capacity of STM Jacob's research on age and digit span recall - Digit span recall increased steadily with age, showing possible increase in brain capacity or development of better strategies Ecological validity of capacity research - Findings lack ecological validity as research often carried out in artificial settings Duration of sensory memory - Less than one second Duration of STM - Approximately 18-30 seconds unless information is rehearsed Duration of LTM - Potentially lasts infinitely Procedure of Peterson & Peterson - Participants given consonant trigrams and three-digit numbers, asked to recall after intervals while counting backwards Findings of Peterson & Peterson - Recall declined with longer intervals, concluding duration of STM is less than 18 seconds