Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology)
1. Psychologists Short term memory (STM) = The limited capacity memory store
broadly agree Long term memory (LTM) = Your memory for events that have happened in the
that there are more distant past
two main types • STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their coding, capacity and
of memory: duration.
- what are these?
(2)
- how are
they distin-
guished? (3)
2. STM and LTM Coding refers to the format in which information is stored in the various memory
are often distin- stores.
guished in terms - Information enters the brain via the senses (e.g. eyes and ears) and then is
of their coding, changed to another form so that it can be stored in memory. It can be stored in
what does this re- the form of sounds (acoustic), images (visual) or meaning (semantic)
fer to?
3. STM and LTM Capacity refers to the amount of information that can be held in a memory.
are often distin-
guished in terms
of their capacity,
what does this re-
fer to?
4. STM and LTM Duration refers to the length of time that information can be held in memory
are often distin-
guished in terms
of their duration,
what does this re-
fer to?
, Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology)
5. What is the Sen- A stimulus from the environment (e.g. the sound of someone talking) passes
sory Register? into the sensory register along with lots of other sights, sounds etc. This part of
(Sensory Store) memory is not one store but five, one for each sense.
- how it works The two main stores are iconic (visual information is first encoded visually) and
echoic (sound based information is first encoded acoustically)
6. Coding, duration • Coding: Information is coded depending on the sense that is picked up - e.g.
and capacity of visual, auditory or tactile. (Modality specific)
the Sensory Reg- • Duration: Sensory memory has a very limited duration of less than half a
ister? (Sensory second.
Store) • Capacity: The sensory registers have a huge capacity (millions or receptors)
7. How is informa- Attention is the key process.
tion transferred If you pay attention to or 'think about' the information it will pass on to STM,
from the sensory whereas information which is not attended to disappears quickly through spon-
register to Short taneous decay.
term memory?
8. What is Short term memory is your memory for immediate events. It temporarily stores
Short-term mem- information received from the sensory register.
ory (STM)? • Coding: Information is encoded acoustically in STM. (See Baddeley 1966)
- coding, capaci- • Capacity: STM has a limited capacity between 5 and 9 items before forgetting
ty, duration takes place. (See Miller 1946)
• Duration: STM has a duration of around 30 seconds unless it is rehearsed. (See
Peterson and Peterson, 1959)
9. How is informa- Maintenance rehearsal is the key process.
tion transferred Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat (rehearse) material verbally to
from STM to ourselves. This allows us to keep information in STM long enough for us to use it -
LTM? i.e. verbally repeating a telephone number. Secondly, if we rehearse information
long enough it will eventually pass into LTM.
10.
, Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology)
What is • Coding: Information is encoded SEMANTICALLY in terms of meaning (See
Long-term mem- Baddeley, 1966)
ory (LTM)? • Capacity: Capacity is potentially unlimited.
- coding, capaci- • Duration: Duration is also potentially a lifetime. (See Bahrick, 1975)
ty, duration
11. What did Sper- • Sperling (1960) conducted a laboratory experiment in which a 3 × 4 grid of
ling (1960) find letters was projected onto a screen for 50 milliseconds, before participants were
about the capaci- asked to recall the letters of one row.
ty of the sensory • He sounded different tones (high, medium, or low) to indicate which row had
register? to be recalled (1st, 2nd or 3rd).
• Recall of the indicated row was high, typically 3 out of 4, which suggests that all
information was originally there, indicating the capacity of the SR is quite large.
12. Baddely (1966) Using a LABORATORY EXPERIMENT, participants were given four sets of words to
on coding in STM learn.
and LTM - Acoustically similar words such as (cat, cap, can) or dissimilar such as (pit, few,
- procedure cow). - Semantically similar such as (great, large, big) or dissimilar such as (good,
huge, hot).
- Participants were asked to recall the words in the order (not about recalling the
words, but recalling them in order) first given either immediately (to test STM) or
after a delay of 20 minutes (to test LTM).
13. Baddely (1966) Immediate recall was worse with acoustically similar words (STM causing acoustic
on coding in STM confusion and becoming distracted by sounds of words thus not recalling in
and LTM order) --> suggesting that STM is coded acoustically.
- findings Recall after 20 minutes was worse for semantically similar words (LTM causing
semantic confusion and becoming distracted by meaning of words thus not
recalling in order) suggesting that information is encoded semantically in LTM.
14. What is a • Showed differences between stores.
strength of Bad- • Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley's findings,
deley's 1966 e.g. types of coding.
, Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology)
study on coding • However, the idea that STM uses mostly acoustic coding and LTM mostly seman-
in STM and LTM? tic has stood the test of time.
Showed differ- • This was an important step our understanding of the memory system, which led
ences between to the creation of the MSM.
stores
15. What is a • A strength of Baddeley's study is that there is a high degree of control over
strength of Bad- extraneous variables.
deley's 1966 • This allows us to see clearly that the IV (coding: semantic or acoustic) was what
study on coding affected the DV (recall), improving the validity of results.
in STM and LTM?
there is a high
degree of control
over extraneous
variables
16. What is a limi- • A limitation of Baddeley's study is that it didn't use meaningful material.
tation of Badde- • The words used in the study had no personal meaning to participants. When
ly's 1966 study processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even
on coding in STM for STM.
and LTM? • This means that the results of this study have limited application in the
it didn't use real-world. We should be cautious about generalising the findings to different
meaningful ma- kinds of memory task.
terial.
17. Jacobs (1887) on • Used a digit span - researcher read four digits and increased until the participant
capacity of STM could not recall the order correctly.
- procedure
18. Jacobs (1887) on • Digits = 9.3
capacity of STM • Letters = 7.3
- findings
1. Psychologists Short term memory (STM) = The limited capacity memory store
broadly agree Long term memory (LTM) = Your memory for events that have happened in the
that there are more distant past
two main types • STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their coding, capacity and
of memory: duration.
- what are these?
(2)
- how are
they distin-
guished? (3)
2. STM and LTM Coding refers to the format in which information is stored in the various memory
are often distin- stores.
guished in terms - Information enters the brain via the senses (e.g. eyes and ears) and then is
of their coding, changed to another form so that it can be stored in memory. It can be stored in
what does this re- the form of sounds (acoustic), images (visual) or meaning (semantic)
fer to?
3. STM and LTM Capacity refers to the amount of information that can be held in a memory.
are often distin-
guished in terms
of their capacity,
what does this re-
fer to?
4. STM and LTM Duration refers to the length of time that information can be held in memory
are often distin-
guished in terms
of their duration,
what does this re-
fer to?
, Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology)
5. What is the Sen- A stimulus from the environment (e.g. the sound of someone talking) passes
sory Register? into the sensory register along with lots of other sights, sounds etc. This part of
(Sensory Store) memory is not one store but five, one for each sense.
- how it works The two main stores are iconic (visual information is first encoded visually) and
echoic (sound based information is first encoded acoustically)
6. Coding, duration • Coding: Information is coded depending on the sense that is picked up - e.g.
and capacity of visual, auditory or tactile. (Modality specific)
the Sensory Reg- • Duration: Sensory memory has a very limited duration of less than half a
ister? (Sensory second.
Store) • Capacity: The sensory registers have a huge capacity (millions or receptors)
7. How is informa- Attention is the key process.
tion transferred If you pay attention to or 'think about' the information it will pass on to STM,
from the sensory whereas information which is not attended to disappears quickly through spon-
register to Short taneous decay.
term memory?
8. What is Short term memory is your memory for immediate events. It temporarily stores
Short-term mem- information received from the sensory register.
ory (STM)? • Coding: Information is encoded acoustically in STM. (See Baddeley 1966)
- coding, capaci- • Capacity: STM has a limited capacity between 5 and 9 items before forgetting
ty, duration takes place. (See Miller 1946)
• Duration: STM has a duration of around 30 seconds unless it is rehearsed. (See
Peterson and Peterson, 1959)
9. How is informa- Maintenance rehearsal is the key process.
tion transferred Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat (rehearse) material verbally to
from STM to ourselves. This allows us to keep information in STM long enough for us to use it -
LTM? i.e. verbally repeating a telephone number. Secondly, if we rehearse information
long enough it will eventually pass into LTM.
10.
, Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology)
What is • Coding: Information is encoded SEMANTICALLY in terms of meaning (See
Long-term mem- Baddeley, 1966)
ory (LTM)? • Capacity: Capacity is potentially unlimited.
- coding, capaci- • Duration: Duration is also potentially a lifetime. (See Bahrick, 1975)
ty, duration
11. What did Sper- • Sperling (1960) conducted a laboratory experiment in which a 3 × 4 grid of
ling (1960) find letters was projected onto a screen for 50 milliseconds, before participants were
about the capaci- asked to recall the letters of one row.
ty of the sensory • He sounded different tones (high, medium, or low) to indicate which row had
register? to be recalled (1st, 2nd or 3rd).
• Recall of the indicated row was high, typically 3 out of 4, which suggests that all
information was originally there, indicating the capacity of the SR is quite large.
12. Baddely (1966) Using a LABORATORY EXPERIMENT, participants were given four sets of words to
on coding in STM learn.
and LTM - Acoustically similar words such as (cat, cap, can) or dissimilar such as (pit, few,
- procedure cow). - Semantically similar such as (great, large, big) or dissimilar such as (good,
huge, hot).
- Participants were asked to recall the words in the order (not about recalling the
words, but recalling them in order) first given either immediately (to test STM) or
after a delay of 20 minutes (to test LTM).
13. Baddely (1966) Immediate recall was worse with acoustically similar words (STM causing acoustic
on coding in STM confusion and becoming distracted by sounds of words thus not recalling in
and LTM order) --> suggesting that STM is coded acoustically.
- findings Recall after 20 minutes was worse for semantically similar words (LTM causing
semantic confusion and becoming distracted by meaning of words thus not
recalling in order) suggesting that information is encoded semantically in LTM.
14. What is a • Showed differences between stores.
strength of Bad- • Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley's findings,
deley's 1966 e.g. types of coding.
, Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology)
study on coding • However, the idea that STM uses mostly acoustic coding and LTM mostly seman-
in STM and LTM? tic has stood the test of time.
Showed differ- • This was an important step our understanding of the memory system, which led
ences between to the creation of the MSM.
stores
15. What is a • A strength of Baddeley's study is that there is a high degree of control over
strength of Bad- extraneous variables.
deley's 1966 • This allows us to see clearly that the IV (coding: semantic or acoustic) was what
study on coding affected the DV (recall), improving the validity of results.
in STM and LTM?
there is a high
degree of control
over extraneous
variables
16. What is a limi- • A limitation of Baddeley's study is that it didn't use meaningful material.
tation of Badde- • The words used in the study had no personal meaning to participants. When
ly's 1966 study processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even
on coding in STM for STM.
and LTM? • This means that the results of this study have limited application in the
it didn't use real-world. We should be cautious about generalising the findings to different
meaningful ma- kinds of memory task.
terial.
17. Jacobs (1887) on • Used a digit span - researcher read four digits and increased until the participant
capacity of STM could not recall the order correctly.
- procedure
18. Jacobs (1887) on • Digits = 9.3
capacity of STM • Letters = 7.3
- findings
