The nature of memory: STM, LTM & Duration

Duration
1. STM
  1. Doesn't last very long
  2. Example
    1. Remembering 7 digit phone no
      1. Maintained in STM via repetition
        Fades when convo starts
  3. Rehearsal
    1. Repetition to keep re-presenting to STM
    2. Keeps memory active
    3. Result of verbal rehearsal
      1. STM held in STM store and eventually become LT
  4. Lloyd & Margaret Peterson (1959)
    1. Landmark study of duration of STM
    2. 24 Students attending uni
    3. Experimenter says consonant syllable
      1. Followed by 3-digit no (e.g. WRT 303)
      2. Selected to have no meaning
        'BBC' meaningful
      3. Immediately after hearing syllable & no
        Count backwards in 3s /4s until told to stop
        Interference to stop rehearsal
        After - ppts recall nonsense syllable
        Each ppt given 2 practice trials
        Each trial, retention interval (time spent counting backwards) different - 3, 6, 9, 12, 15,& 18 secs
    4. Ppts remembered about 90% - 3 sec interval
      1. 2% remembered - 18 sec interval
      2. When rehearsal prevented STM lasts about 20 mins at most
2. LTM
  1. 2 hours to 100 years
    1. Anything that isn't short term
      1. Some are long lasting
  2. Shepard (1967)
    1. Showed ppts 612 memorable pics, one at a time
      1. Hour later
        Shown some of these pics among others
        Almost perfect recognition
      2. 4 months later
        Still able to recognise 50% of pics
  3. Bahrick et al (1975)
    1. Ask people of various ages
      1. Put names to faces from high school year book
        48 years later
        75% Accuracy
Evaluation
1. Duration of STM may be shorter
  1. Peterson & Peterson
    1. Findings been challenged
      1. Argue
        Ppts relying on more than STM alone
        Knew they were going to recall items after interval
  2. Other research (e.g. Marsh et al)
    1. Suggested - ppts do not expect to be tested after this interval
      1. Forgetting may occur after just 2 secs
    2. Suggests - our understanding of duration of STM may not be as clear-cut as once thought
2. Not quite so STM
  1. More recent research
    1. Suggests - duration of STM
      1. Not as short as Peterson & Peterson study suggests
    2. Naime et al (1999)
      1. Found - items could be recalled after as long as 96 secs
        Seems, that info remains in STM
        Quite a while unless other material replaces / overwrites it
      2. Ppts asked to recall same items actross trials
        Other studies, different items used on each trials
        Led to interference between items, decreasing recall
3. Validity
  1. Criticism of Peterson & Peterson
    1. Psychologists only studying 1 kind of memory
      1. For syllables & words
      2. Much of time our memories concerned w/ other things
        E.g what happened last night, what my children look like
        Times when remembering words
        E.g. Ordering drinks, remembering someones phone no
    2. Another critism
      1. Peterson & Peterson not actually testing duration
        When Ppts counting backwards
        Nonsense syllable could've been displaced in STM
        By nos, wiping out memory for syllables

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The nature of memory: STM, LTM & Duration

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