Outline and evaluate research in to the duration, capacity and encoding information in short term memory.
Outline and evaluate research in to the duration, capacity and encoding information in short term memory.
Introduction
Memory is divided into three categories. These categories consist of: sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory, out of these short term memory is the main focus in this essay. It has been widely researched due to interest of how much memory can be stored, how long this memory can be stored for and what information is memorised.
Duration
Short term memory is a part of the memory storage system. This is capable of storing information for a very short period of time as the duration that short term memory is limited. This was researched by psychologists Peterson and Peterson in 1959, they conducted a huge study about how long we can store information for in our short term memory. They gathered twenty-four university students to participate in this study. Peterson and Peterson announced a consonant syllable to the participant, which was followed by a three digit number (for example TRW 439). The experimenter made sure that none of the consonant syllables had any meaning (for example BBC), as this may trigger an easier way to remember because it has a meaning. Immediately after hearing the consonant syllable and three digit number, the participant was asked to count backwards from this number in 3’s or 4’s, as this prevents rehearsal. By rehearsing the syllable this would cause the experiment to be incorrect as it would not give a clear answer to how long short term memory is stored. The participant was given two practice trials which were then followed by a further eight trials. Each trial the retention interval was different, so three, six, nine etc. up to eighteen seconds.
This study found that participants were able to remember around ninety percent when the interval was three seconds. However, participants were able to remember 2 percent when the interval was eighteen seconds. The Petersons discovered that without rehearsal,
Introduction
Memory is divided into three categories. These categories consist of: sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory, out of these short term memory is the main focus in this essay. It has been widely researched due to interest of how much memory can be stored, how long this memory can be stored for and what information is memorised.
Duration
Short term memory is a part of the memory storage system. This is capable of storing information for a very short period of time as the duration that short term memory is limited. This was researched by psychologists Peterson and Peterson in 1959, they conducted a huge study about how long we can store information for in our short term memory. They gathered twenty-four university students to participate in this study. Peterson and Peterson announced a consonant syllable to the participant, which was followed by a three digit number (for example TRW 439). The experimenter made sure that none of the consonant syllables had any meaning (for example BBC), as this may trigger an easier way to remember because it has a meaning. Immediately after hearing the consonant syllable and three digit number, the participant was asked to count backwards from this number in 3’s or 4’s, as this prevents rehearsal. By rehearsing the syllable this would cause the experiment to be incorrect as it would not give a clear answer to how long short term memory is stored. The participant was given two practice trials which were then followed by a further eight trials. Each trial the retention interval was different, so three, six, nine etc. up to eighteen seconds.
This study found that participants were able to remember around ninety percent when the interval was three seconds. However, participants were able to remember 2 percent when the interval was eighteen seconds. The Petersons discovered that without rehearsal,