Stm Duration, Capacity and Encoding Essay Example
'Outline and evaluate research into the duration, capacity, and encoding of information in short term memory'. -12 marks
>>>PLAN<<<
CAPACITY
.(George miller1956) seven +/- 2 immediate memory. Chunking,
.(simon 1974) shorter chunks much easier to remember
.(cown 2001) found that the STM is likely only 4 chunks
.(vogel et al. 2001) agrees
ENCODING
.(Bradely 1966a and 1966b) tested effects of acoustic and semantic similarity on short and long term recall. Gave participants words that were acoustically and semantically similar and dissimilar. Participants difficulty in remembering acoustically in STM but not LTM. Semantically similar words easily remembered in short term recall but not so in long term recall
.(Brandimote et al. 1992) found participants used visual coding in STM if given a visual task, as no verbal task took place visual encoding stayed instead of acoustic coding
.(wickens et al. 1976) showed Semantic coding sometimes used in STM
.LTM encoding not entirely semantic
.(frost 1972) longterm recall related to semantic and visual meaning
.(nelson and rothbart 1972) found evidence of acoustic coding in LTM
. in general STM is acoustic and visual
DURATION
.
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In a very early psychology experiment: in 1887 Joseph Jacobs used the digit span technique to assess the capacity of participants STM. His findings were that the capacity for short term memory was roughly 9 digits and roughly 7 letters. Jacobs suggested that a STM could remember digits easier as there are only 9 digits and 26 letters, so with digits you theoretically had to remember less.
In 1956 George Miller wrote an article called ‘The magic number: seven plus or minus 2’ in which he came to a conclusion that the human capacity for the STM was 7 items +/- 2 and that we “chunked” items or letters together to help us remember them by giving them semantic meaning. And in 1974 Simon discovered that the longer the chunk the more
>>>PLAN<<<
CAPACITY
.(George miller1956) seven +/- 2 immediate memory. Chunking,
.(simon 1974) shorter chunks much easier to remember
.(cown 2001) found that the STM is likely only 4 chunks
.(vogel et al. 2001) agrees
ENCODING
.(Bradely 1966a and 1966b) tested effects of acoustic and semantic similarity on short and long term recall. Gave participants words that were acoustically and semantically similar and dissimilar. Participants difficulty in remembering acoustically in STM but not LTM. Semantically similar words easily remembered in short term recall but not so in long term recall
.(Brandimote et al. 1992) found participants used visual coding in STM if given a visual task, as no verbal task took place visual encoding stayed instead of acoustic coding
.(wickens et al. 1976) showed Semantic coding sometimes used in STM
.LTM encoding not entirely semantic
.(frost 1972) longterm recall related to semantic and visual meaning
.(nelson and rothbart 1972) found evidence of acoustic coding in LTM
. in general STM is acoustic and visual
DURATION
.
>>>END PLAN<<<
In a very early psychology experiment: in 1887 Joseph Jacobs used the digit span technique to assess the capacity of participants STM. His findings were that the capacity for short term memory was roughly 9 digits and roughly 7 letters. Jacobs suggested that a STM could remember digits easier as there are only 9 digits and 26 letters, so with digits you theoretically had to remember less.
In 1956 George Miller wrote an article called ‘The magic number: seven plus or minus 2’ in which he came to a conclusion that the human capacity for the STM was 7 items +/- 2 and that we “chunked” items or letters together to help us remember them by giving them semantic meaning. And in 1974 Simon discovered that the longer the chunk the more