Evaluating Memory Studies in Psychology

When assessing famous psychology memory experiments, it's important to consider their strengths and limitations:

Strengths:

• Bahrick's study used real-life memories, enhancing external validity
• Multiple studies have confirmed the general findings of the digit span task

Limitations:

• Peterson & Peterson's study used artificial stimuli, potentially reducing ecological validity
• Jacobs' digit span research is quite old and may not have controlled for all confounding variables
• Participants in Bahrick's study may have reviewed yearbooks over the years, affecting results

Highlight: While these studies have provided valuable insights into memory processes, their limitations underscore the need for ongoing research in memory psychology.

These classic experiments form the foundation of our understanding of memory, but current research continues to refine and expand upon these findings. For students preparing for AQA A level Psychology memory exam questions and answers, it's crucial to understand both the seminal studies and more recent developments in the field.

Example: Modern memory research often incorporates neuroimaging techniques to observe brain activity during memory tasks, providing new insights into the neural basis of encoding, storage, and retrieval processes.

By critically evaluating these studies, students can develop a deeper understanding of research methods in psychology and the complexities of human memory systems. This knowledge is essential for success in Psychology Memory A Level coursework and exams.

Research on Coding in Memory Psychology

Baddeley's 1966 coding study examined how information is encoded in short-term and long-term memory. Participants were given different types of words to recall:

• Acoustically similar (sound alike)
• Acoustically dissimilar (sound different)
• Semantically similar (similar meanings)
• Semantically dissimilar (different meanings)

The results showed that for immediate recall (STM), participants performed worse with acoustically similar words. For delayed recall after 20 minutes (LTM), they performed worse with semantically similar words. This suggests that short-term memory coding is primarily acoustic, while long-term memory coding is primarily semantic.

Highlight: The study provides evidence that STM and LTM use different coding processes.

Vocabulary: Coding refers to the process of converting information from one memory store to another.

However, this study has limitations:

Example: The use of artificial word lists may not generalize well to real-world memory tasks.

Capacity and Duration of Short-Term and Long-Term Memory

Research on STM capacity includes:

• Jacobs (1987) digit span test: Found mean spans of 9.3 for digits and 7.3 for letters
• Miller's (1956) "magical number seven": Proposed STM capacity of 7 +/- 2 items
• Cowan's (2001) revised estimate: Suggests true STM capacity may be closer to 4 items

Definition: Chunking is the process of grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful units to increase memory capacity.

Studies on memory duration include:

• Peterson & Peterson (1959): Demonstrated rapid forgetting in STM without rehearsal
• Bahrick (1975): Showed impressive long-term retention of high school memories decades later

Quote: "Photo recognition: 15 years after graduation - 90% accurate, 48 years -70%"

These studies highlight the stark differences between short-term memory duration (seconds without rehearsal) and long-term memory duration (potentially lifelong).