The MSM research;
Encoding, Duration
and Capacity for STM
and LTM
Experiment on the Capacity of the STM
Aim - Whether the
pronunciation time, rather than
times recalled, determines
STM capacity
Procedure - reading speed was
measured. presented with 5 words on a
screen. Two sets 1) one syllable words
& 2) polysyllabic words.
asked to recall the 5 words in serial
order. They recalled several lists of
short and long words.
Findings - considerably more short than long
words.able to recall as many as they could say in 2
secs. strong positive correlation with speed&memory
Natural Experiment on the duration of the LTM
Procedure - tracked down
grads from an American high
school over a 50 yr period.
over 400 were shown
photographs and names,
some from their yearbook.
had to identify faces then
names of classmates.
Findings - 90% correct in
recognising faces and names
15 yrs after grad. correctly
recalled 80%names & 70%
faces 48 after grad.
Study on the Duration of the STM
Procedure - ppts were
briefly shown a trigram
(three letters such a CGW),
immediately asked to count
backwards in threes from a
given number to stop
thinking of the letters
after intervals of
either 3,6,9,12,15
and 18 secs, they
had to recall the
trigram. repeated
several times using
different trigrams
Results - 80% could recall trigrams
after 3 sec interval. after 18 secs
fewer than 10 recalled the trigram.
conc = stm is limited to 18 seconds
if rehearsals prevented.
Study of encoding in STM and LTM.
Procedure - shown a list of 5 words,
asked to immediately recall them in serial
order. the list were either acoustic similar
words, acoustic dissimilar words,
semantically similar & semantically
dissimilar. LTM was increased to 10 and
recall after 20 seconds.
Findings for STM -similar sounds = more
difficult to remember than dissimilar
words. 10% accuracy on strings of
similar words. 82% accuracy on
dissimilar words.
Findings for LTM - 20 minutes after
seeing the semantic similar had a
negative effect. much better at recalling
words with different meanings.