AQA A Level Psychology Memory
Study of capacity of STM - ANSMiller (Immediate Digit Span Test)
Jacobs Support
Study of duration of STM - ANSPeterson and Peterson (Trigrams)
24 students given a consonant syllable and a three digit number ie. THX 512.
They were asked to recall the consonant syllable after a retention interval of 3, 6 , 9, 12 or 15
seconds. During this interval they had to count backwards from their three digit number.
Participants were 90% correct after 3 seconds, 20% correct after 9 and only 2% correct after 18
seconds.
Suggesting it is less than 18 seconds.
Study of duration of LTM - ANSBahrick (Free recall, photo recognition and name recognition
tests)
400 people of various ages were tested on their memory of high school classmates.
They were given a free recall to recall as many class mates as they could. Then they were given
50 photos, some with people from their school year book. Bahrick found that recall after 15
years of graduation was 90% accurate from photos, and after 48 years was 70%. With free
recall it was about 60% accurate and 30%.
Showing that it is possibly an unlimited duration for LTM.
Study of encoding - ANSBaddeley (Semantically and Acoustically Similar/Dissimilar words)
Baddeley had lists of acoustically similar words such as: Cat, cab, can, map, mat, max etc.
And also semantically similar words: Huge, big, large, titanic, massive etc.
He found that participants had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in the STM and
in the LTM struggled with semantically similar words.
He concluded that STM is largely encoded acoustically whereas LTM is encoded semantically.
Capacity of STM - ANS7+_ 2 units
Capacity of LTM - ANSPotentially unlimited
Duration of STM - ANS30 seconds
Duration of LTM - ANSpotentially unlimited
Encoding in STM - ANSMainly acoustically
Encoding in LTM - ANSMainly semantically
, MSM of memory - ANSSensory Memory-> Attention->STM->(Maintenance rehearsal or)
elaborative rehearsal->LTM->(Retrieval, Interference, Decay Retrieval failure, displacement for
STM)
What does the MSM model suggest - ANSIt attempts to explain how memory works
Memory Consists of multiple stores
There is a sequence between these stores
Evidence to support the MSM - ANSGlanzer and Cunnitz (primacy and recency effect)
HM (LTM gone)
Beardsley (Prefrontal cortex for STM and Hippocampus for Ltm)
(Bahrick Peterson and Peterson, miller, baddeley)
Evaluate the MSM - ANSToo simple (but easier to understand)
Supporting Evidence
What does the WMM suggest - ANSSTM is made up of multiple stores and the MSM is too
simple
What does the Central Executive do - ANSdirects attention to particular tasks and controls the 2
slave systems (phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad)
What does the phonological loop do - ANSprocesses and retains the order of heard information
can be divided into 2 substores
What can the phonological loop be divided into - ANSphonological store (stores heard
information, inner ear)
articulatory process (subvocal repetition, inner voice)
What does the visuo-spatial sketchpad do - ANSplans spatial tasks and stores visual or spatial
information
What can the visuo-spatial sketchpad be divided into - ANSVisual cache (visual information)
Inner scribe (processes spatial relations)
What does the episodic buffer do - ANSintegrates information from all other STM stores
What study provides evidence for the WMM - ANSHitch and Baddeley ( dual tasks "B is
followed by A")
KF (Verbal bad Visual Fine)
Evaluate the WMM - ANSLack of evidence for the CE
Supporting evidence for separate stores of STM (Hitch and Baddeley)
Study of capacity of STM - ANSMiller (Immediate Digit Span Test)
Jacobs Support
Study of duration of STM - ANSPeterson and Peterson (Trigrams)
24 students given a consonant syllable and a three digit number ie. THX 512.
They were asked to recall the consonant syllable after a retention interval of 3, 6 , 9, 12 or 15
seconds. During this interval they had to count backwards from their three digit number.
Participants were 90% correct after 3 seconds, 20% correct after 9 and only 2% correct after 18
seconds.
Suggesting it is less than 18 seconds.
Study of duration of LTM - ANSBahrick (Free recall, photo recognition and name recognition
tests)
400 people of various ages were tested on their memory of high school classmates.
They were given a free recall to recall as many class mates as they could. Then they were given
50 photos, some with people from their school year book. Bahrick found that recall after 15
years of graduation was 90% accurate from photos, and after 48 years was 70%. With free
recall it was about 60% accurate and 30%.
Showing that it is possibly an unlimited duration for LTM.
Study of encoding - ANSBaddeley (Semantically and Acoustically Similar/Dissimilar words)
Baddeley had lists of acoustically similar words such as: Cat, cab, can, map, mat, max etc.
And also semantically similar words: Huge, big, large, titanic, massive etc.
He found that participants had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in the STM and
in the LTM struggled with semantically similar words.
He concluded that STM is largely encoded acoustically whereas LTM is encoded semantically.
Capacity of STM - ANS7+_ 2 units
Capacity of LTM - ANSPotentially unlimited
Duration of STM - ANS30 seconds
Duration of LTM - ANSpotentially unlimited
Encoding in STM - ANSMainly acoustically
Encoding in LTM - ANSMainly semantically
, MSM of memory - ANSSensory Memory-> Attention->STM->(Maintenance rehearsal or)
elaborative rehearsal->LTM->(Retrieval, Interference, Decay Retrieval failure, displacement for
STM)
What does the MSM model suggest - ANSIt attempts to explain how memory works
Memory Consists of multiple stores
There is a sequence between these stores
Evidence to support the MSM - ANSGlanzer and Cunnitz (primacy and recency effect)
HM (LTM gone)
Beardsley (Prefrontal cortex for STM and Hippocampus for Ltm)
(Bahrick Peterson and Peterson, miller, baddeley)
Evaluate the MSM - ANSToo simple (but easier to understand)
Supporting Evidence
What does the WMM suggest - ANSSTM is made up of multiple stores and the MSM is too
simple
What does the Central Executive do - ANSdirects attention to particular tasks and controls the 2
slave systems (phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad)
What does the phonological loop do - ANSprocesses and retains the order of heard information
can be divided into 2 substores
What can the phonological loop be divided into - ANSphonological store (stores heard
information, inner ear)
articulatory process (subvocal repetition, inner voice)
What does the visuo-spatial sketchpad do - ANSplans spatial tasks and stores visual or spatial
information
What can the visuo-spatial sketchpad be divided into - ANSVisual cache (visual information)
Inner scribe (processes spatial relations)
What does the episodic buffer do - ANSintegrates information from all other STM stores
What study provides evidence for the WMM - ANSHitch and Baddeley ( dual tasks "B is
followed by A")
KF (Verbal bad Visual Fine)
Evaluate the WMM - ANSLack of evidence for the CE
Supporting evidence for separate stores of STM (Hitch and Baddeley)
