Outline and evaluate research into coding in memory (8)
Coding is the format of which information is stored in the various memory stores. In short,
once information gets into the memory system, it is stored in different formats, depending on
the memory store. Baddeley gave different lists of words to four groups of participants.
Participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order.
When they had to do this recall task immediately after hearing it, they tended to do worse
with acoustically similar words. If participants were asked to recall the word list after a time
interval of 20 minutes, they did worse with the semantically similar words. Baddeley
concluded that because the acoustically similar words were more difficult to recall
immediately, the STM must rely on acoustic coding. Secondly, because the semantically
similar words were more difficult to recall after a 20-minute interval, LTM must rely on
semantic encoding.
A con of Baddeley’s study is that it lacks ecological validity due to the use of artificial stimuli.
The word lists used had no personal meaning to the participants so it doesn't reflect how
memory operates in real-life situations where information is often meaningful. As a result, the
findings may not generalize to everyday memory tasks, where people are more likely to use
semantic coding, even for (STM). This suggests that the study’s conclusions about STM and
(LTM) coding may be limited in their real-world application, reducing the study’s overall
external validity.
One strength of Baddeley’s coding study is that it identified a clear distinction between short-
term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM), supporting the multi-store model (MSM)
of memory. Baddeley found that STM is primarily coded acoustically, while LTM relies more
on semantic coding. This distinction provides strong evidence that STM and LTM are
separate stores, as proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin’s MSM. The study’s controlled
experimental design ensures that extraneous variables were minimized, increasing its
internal validity. Therefore, Baddeley’s research is a key contribution to our understanding of
memory and has been influential in shaping cognitive psychology.
,Outline and evaluate research into capacity in memory (8)
Capacity is the amount of information that can be held in a memory store. In short term
memory there is a capacity of 5-9 items and in long term memory there is an unlimited
capacity. Jacobs developed a technique to measure digit span. The researcher gives 4 digits
and then the participant is asked to recall these in the correct order out loud. If this is correct
the researcher reads out 5 digits and so on till the participant cant recall the order correctly.
This determines the person’s digit span. Jacobs found that the mean span for digits across
all participants was 9.3 items. The mean span for letters was 7.3. He concluded that the
capacity of short term memory is finite and that there is a limit on how much information can
be stored, and so recalled, accurately within short-term memory. Jacobs established the
capacity to be between five to nine pieces of information.
One con of Jacobs' study is that it was conducted a long time ago, meaning it may lack
internal validity due to inadequate control over extraneous variables. Early psychological
research often suffered from poor experimental control. Eg. Some participants may have
been distracted during testing, which could have negatively affected their performance and
led to an underestimation of memory capacity. This introduces the possibility of confounding
variables influencing the results, making them less reliable. However, later studies have
replicated Jacobs’ findings, providing support for the study’s validity and suggesting that his
conclusions about the capacity of short-term memory remain relevant.
One strength of Jacobs’ study is that it has been replicated and supported by later research,
increasing its reliability. Jacobs’ findings on short-term memory capacity have been
consistently confirmed by other studies, such as Miller’s research on chunking, which
suggests that the span of STM is around 7±2 items. The fact that Jacobs’ results have been
reproduced across multiple studies strengthens the credibility of his conclusions. This
reliability means that Jacobs’ findings remain relevant and continue to contribute to our
understanding of memory, supporting the validity of his study.
Outline and evaluate research into duration in memory (8)
, One duration study is Peterson and Peterson who aimed to test the hypothesis that
information which is not rehearsed is lost quickly from the Short-term memory (STM) and
aimed to investigate duration of STM. They conducted a lab experiment on 24 participants
who were asked to recall trigrams like 'CLS'. These trigrams were presented one at a time
and they had to be recalled at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds. After hearing the trigrams the
participants were asked to count backwards in 3’s or 4’s from a random number until they
saw a red light appear. This was known as the brown Peterson technique and its purpose
was to prevent rehearsal. From this experiment they found that the longer the participants
had to count backwards, the less they were able to recall the trigrams accurately. After 3
seconds 80 % of the trigrams were recalled accurately, after 6 seconds 50% of the trigrams
were recalled accurately and after 18 seconds less than 10% of the trigrams were recalled
correctly.
Bahrick's study on the duration of LTM was conducted with 392 participants aged between
17-74. Their high school yearbooks were obtained and recall was tested in (1) photo
recognition consisting of 50 photos some from the participants yearbook (2) free recall where
the participants recalled all the names of their graduation class. Participants who were tested
within 15 years of their graduation were 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years,
recall declined 70% for photo recognition. Free recall was less good than photo recognition.
After 15 years this was 60% accurate dropping to 30% after 48 years. This proves that LTM
can last a long time.
One strength of Peterson and Peterson's research is that they used fixed timings for
participants to count backwards from. They also eliminated noise and other factors that
could influence memory. By using these standardised procedures it enabled good control
and made sure all participants had the same process. This makes the study scientific as it
can be replicated and the reliability of finding can be checked to make sure they are not an
anomaly result.
A limitation of this research is that it lacked mundane realism and external validity as very
artificial stimuli were used. Trigrams are not like real-life memory activities we complete day
to day. Here they have only considered short-term memory duration for one type of stimuli
meaning findings may not be generalisable to other stimuli like memorising phone numbers
Discuss the multi-store model of memory (16)
The multi-store model is a widely accepted and linear framework for understanding the
human memory system; it helps to describe how information is transferred from 1 store to
another as well as how it is remembered and forgotten. It's comprised of 3 distinct stores:
the sensory register, the short-term memory (STM), and the long-term memory (LTM). The
sensory register is the memory store for each of our 5 senses and a stimulus will pass
Coding is the format of which information is stored in the various memory stores. In short,
once information gets into the memory system, it is stored in different formats, depending on
the memory store. Baddeley gave different lists of words to four groups of participants.
Participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order.
When they had to do this recall task immediately after hearing it, they tended to do worse
with acoustically similar words. If participants were asked to recall the word list after a time
interval of 20 minutes, they did worse with the semantically similar words. Baddeley
concluded that because the acoustically similar words were more difficult to recall
immediately, the STM must rely on acoustic coding. Secondly, because the semantically
similar words were more difficult to recall after a 20-minute interval, LTM must rely on
semantic encoding.
A con of Baddeley’s study is that it lacks ecological validity due to the use of artificial stimuli.
The word lists used had no personal meaning to the participants so it doesn't reflect how
memory operates in real-life situations where information is often meaningful. As a result, the
findings may not generalize to everyday memory tasks, where people are more likely to use
semantic coding, even for (STM). This suggests that the study’s conclusions about STM and
(LTM) coding may be limited in their real-world application, reducing the study’s overall
external validity.
One strength of Baddeley’s coding study is that it identified a clear distinction between short-
term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM), supporting the multi-store model (MSM)
of memory. Baddeley found that STM is primarily coded acoustically, while LTM relies more
on semantic coding. This distinction provides strong evidence that STM and LTM are
separate stores, as proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin’s MSM. The study’s controlled
experimental design ensures that extraneous variables were minimized, increasing its
internal validity. Therefore, Baddeley’s research is a key contribution to our understanding of
memory and has been influential in shaping cognitive psychology.
,Outline and evaluate research into capacity in memory (8)
Capacity is the amount of information that can be held in a memory store. In short term
memory there is a capacity of 5-9 items and in long term memory there is an unlimited
capacity. Jacobs developed a technique to measure digit span. The researcher gives 4 digits
and then the participant is asked to recall these in the correct order out loud. If this is correct
the researcher reads out 5 digits and so on till the participant cant recall the order correctly.
This determines the person’s digit span. Jacobs found that the mean span for digits across
all participants was 9.3 items. The mean span for letters was 7.3. He concluded that the
capacity of short term memory is finite and that there is a limit on how much information can
be stored, and so recalled, accurately within short-term memory. Jacobs established the
capacity to be between five to nine pieces of information.
One con of Jacobs' study is that it was conducted a long time ago, meaning it may lack
internal validity due to inadequate control over extraneous variables. Early psychological
research often suffered from poor experimental control. Eg. Some participants may have
been distracted during testing, which could have negatively affected their performance and
led to an underestimation of memory capacity. This introduces the possibility of confounding
variables influencing the results, making them less reliable. However, later studies have
replicated Jacobs’ findings, providing support for the study’s validity and suggesting that his
conclusions about the capacity of short-term memory remain relevant.
One strength of Jacobs’ study is that it has been replicated and supported by later research,
increasing its reliability. Jacobs’ findings on short-term memory capacity have been
consistently confirmed by other studies, such as Miller’s research on chunking, which
suggests that the span of STM is around 7±2 items. The fact that Jacobs’ results have been
reproduced across multiple studies strengthens the credibility of his conclusions. This
reliability means that Jacobs’ findings remain relevant and continue to contribute to our
understanding of memory, supporting the validity of his study.
Outline and evaluate research into duration in memory (8)
, One duration study is Peterson and Peterson who aimed to test the hypothesis that
information which is not rehearsed is lost quickly from the Short-term memory (STM) and
aimed to investigate duration of STM. They conducted a lab experiment on 24 participants
who were asked to recall trigrams like 'CLS'. These trigrams were presented one at a time
and they had to be recalled at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds. After hearing the trigrams the
participants were asked to count backwards in 3’s or 4’s from a random number until they
saw a red light appear. This was known as the brown Peterson technique and its purpose
was to prevent rehearsal. From this experiment they found that the longer the participants
had to count backwards, the less they were able to recall the trigrams accurately. After 3
seconds 80 % of the trigrams were recalled accurately, after 6 seconds 50% of the trigrams
were recalled accurately and after 18 seconds less than 10% of the trigrams were recalled
correctly.
Bahrick's study on the duration of LTM was conducted with 392 participants aged between
17-74. Their high school yearbooks were obtained and recall was tested in (1) photo
recognition consisting of 50 photos some from the participants yearbook (2) free recall where
the participants recalled all the names of their graduation class. Participants who were tested
within 15 years of their graduation were 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years,
recall declined 70% for photo recognition. Free recall was less good than photo recognition.
After 15 years this was 60% accurate dropping to 30% after 48 years. This proves that LTM
can last a long time.
One strength of Peterson and Peterson's research is that they used fixed timings for
participants to count backwards from. They also eliminated noise and other factors that
could influence memory. By using these standardised procedures it enabled good control
and made sure all participants had the same process. This makes the study scientific as it
can be replicated and the reliability of finding can be checked to make sure they are not an
anomaly result.
A limitation of this research is that it lacked mundane realism and external validity as very
artificial stimuli were used. Trigrams are not like real-life memory activities we complete day
to day. Here they have only considered short-term memory duration for one type of stimuli
meaning findings may not be generalisable to other stimuli like memorising phone numbers
Discuss the multi-store model of memory (16)
The multi-store model is a widely accepted and linear framework for understanding the
human memory system; it helps to describe how information is transferred from 1 store to
another as well as how it is remembered and forgotten. It's comprised of 3 distinct stores:
the sensory register, the short-term memory (STM), and the long-term memory (LTM). The
sensory register is the memory store for each of our 5 senses and a stimulus will pass
