Outline and evaluate research into the duration of memory
Outline and evaluate research into the duration of memory (12 marks)
Peterson and Peterson researched into the duration of the STM. They used trigrams and asked their participants to recall them after a retention interval, the retention interval was different every time. They found that after 3 seconds participants could recall about 90% correctly but after 18 seconds only 2% could be recalled correctly. Peterson and Peterson concluded that the STM has a limited duration and when rehearsal is prevented, it only lasts 20 seconds at the most.
One problem with this research is that it was a lab experiment so the conditions were artificial. This means it lacks ecological validity as it doesn’t reflect real life situations. However, the research does have high internal validity because it measured what they hypothesised and it is possible to repeat the experiment.
Furthermore, Bahrick et al (1975) carried out an investigation into very long term memory. They took 392 graduates from a high school in America, who were shown pictures from their year book. These graduates had left school anything from 1 to 50 years ago. Bahrick tested two conditions: recognition condition and free recall condition. In the recognition condition, participants were asked to match a list of names to the picture and in the free recall condition the participants were asked to name the person in the picture. They found that the participants in the recognition condition performed better than people in the free recall condition and that, after 47 years, they were 60% accurate in the recognition condition but only 20% were accurate in free recall. Bahrick et al concluded that people can remember information for a very long time, potentially a life time and that the accuracy of the LTM is improved by cues and recognition.
One advantage of this approach is that it has high ecological validity as it used meaningful stimuli and tested people for memory of things related to them, this means that it
Peterson and Peterson researched into the duration of the STM. They used trigrams and asked their participants to recall them after a retention interval, the retention interval was different every time. They found that after 3 seconds participants could recall about 90% correctly but after 18 seconds only 2% could be recalled correctly. Peterson and Peterson concluded that the STM has a limited duration and when rehearsal is prevented, it only lasts 20 seconds at the most.
One problem with this research is that it was a lab experiment so the conditions were artificial. This means it lacks ecological validity as it doesn’t reflect real life situations. However, the research does have high internal validity because it measured what they hypothesised and it is possible to repeat the experiment.
Furthermore, Bahrick et al (1975) carried out an investigation into very long term memory. They took 392 graduates from a high school in America, who were shown pictures from their year book. These graduates had left school anything from 1 to 50 years ago. Bahrick tested two conditions: recognition condition and free recall condition. In the recognition condition, participants were asked to match a list of names to the picture and in the free recall condition the participants were asked to name the person in the picture. They found that the participants in the recognition condition performed better than people in the free recall condition and that, after 47 years, they were 60% accurate in the recognition condition but only 20% were accurate in free recall. Bahrick et al concluded that people can remember information for a very long time, potentially a life time and that the accuracy of the LTM is improved by cues and recognition.
One advantage of this approach is that it has high ecological validity as it used meaningful stimuli and tested people for memory of things related to them, this means that it