MEMORY (AQA A-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY) EXAM
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH COMPLETE
SOLUTIONS LATEST UPDATE
How are STM and LTM distinguished?
STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their coding, capacity and duration.
STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their coding, what does this refer to?
Coding refers to the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.
- Information enters the brain via the senses (e.g. eyes and ears) and then is changed to another form so
that it can be stored in memory. It can be stored in the form of sounds (acoustic), images (visual) or
meaning (semantic)
STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their capacity, what does this refer to?
Capacity refers to the amount of information that can be held in a memory.
STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their duration, what does this refer to?
Duration refers to the length of time that information can be held in memory
What is the Sensory Register? (Sensory Store)
- how it works
,- environmental stimuli ( the sound of someone talking) enter the sensory register, comprising five
separate stores for each sense
- the primary stores are iconic (for visual information, initially encoded visually) and echoic (for sound-
based information, initially encoded acoustically).
sensory store coding
depending on the sense that is picked up - e.g. visual, auditory or tactile. (modality specific)
sensory store duration
less than half a second
sensory store capacity
huge capacity (millions or receptors)
What is Short-term memory (STM)?
Short term memory is your memory for immediate events. It temporarily stores information received
from the sensory register.
How is information transferred from the sensory register to Short term memory?
attention
What happens if information is not attended to when it enters the sensory register?
leads to spontaneous decay
STM coding
acoustically (Baddely 1966)
STM capacity
,between 5 and 9 items (Miller 1946)
STM duration
18-30 seconds unless it is rehearsed (Peterson and Peterson 1959)
How is information transferred from STM to LTM?
prolonged rehearsal e.g verbally repeating a telephone number
How is information transferred from LTM to STM?
retrieval
What is Long-term memory (LTM)?
memory for events that have happened in the more distant past
LTM coding
semantically (Baddeley 1966)
LTM capacity
potentially unlimited
LTM duration
lifetime (Bahrick 1975)
Baddely (1966) on coding in STM and LTM
- procedure
LABORATORY EXPERIMENT
- participants were given four sets of words to learn
, - acoustically similar words (cat, cap, can) or dissimilar (pit, few, cow)
- semantically similar (great, large, big) or dissimilar (good, huge, hot).
- they were required to recall the words in the original order either immediately (testing STM) or after a
20-minute delay (testing LTM)
Baddely (1966) on coding in STM and LTM
- findings
- immediate recall worse with acoustically similar words -> indicates acoustic coding in short-term
memory (STM)
- recall after 20 minutes worse with semantically similar words -> suggests semantic encoding in long-
term memory (LTM)
Why was immediate recall worse with acoustically similar words?
STM causing acoustic confusion and becoming distracted by sounds of words thus not recalling in order
Why was prolonged recall worse with semantically similar words?
LTM causing semantic confusion and becoming distracted by meaning of words thus not recalling in
order
What is a strength of Baddeley's 1966 study on coding in STM and LTM?
✓ Showed differences between stores
• showed differences between stores.
• Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley's findings, e.g. types of coding.
• However, the idea that STM uses mostly acoustic coding and LTM mostly semantic has stood the test of
time.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH COMPLETE
SOLUTIONS LATEST UPDATE
How are STM and LTM distinguished?
STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their coding, capacity and duration.
STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their coding, what does this refer to?
Coding refers to the format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.
- Information enters the brain via the senses (e.g. eyes and ears) and then is changed to another form so
that it can be stored in memory. It can be stored in the form of sounds (acoustic), images (visual) or
meaning (semantic)
STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their capacity, what does this refer to?
Capacity refers to the amount of information that can be held in a memory.
STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their duration, what does this refer to?
Duration refers to the length of time that information can be held in memory
What is the Sensory Register? (Sensory Store)
- how it works
,- environmental stimuli ( the sound of someone talking) enter the sensory register, comprising five
separate stores for each sense
- the primary stores are iconic (for visual information, initially encoded visually) and echoic (for sound-
based information, initially encoded acoustically).
sensory store coding
depending on the sense that is picked up - e.g. visual, auditory or tactile. (modality specific)
sensory store duration
less than half a second
sensory store capacity
huge capacity (millions or receptors)
What is Short-term memory (STM)?
Short term memory is your memory for immediate events. It temporarily stores information received
from the sensory register.
How is information transferred from the sensory register to Short term memory?
attention
What happens if information is not attended to when it enters the sensory register?
leads to spontaneous decay
STM coding
acoustically (Baddely 1966)
STM capacity
,between 5 and 9 items (Miller 1946)
STM duration
18-30 seconds unless it is rehearsed (Peterson and Peterson 1959)
How is information transferred from STM to LTM?
prolonged rehearsal e.g verbally repeating a telephone number
How is information transferred from LTM to STM?
retrieval
What is Long-term memory (LTM)?
memory for events that have happened in the more distant past
LTM coding
semantically (Baddeley 1966)
LTM capacity
potentially unlimited
LTM duration
lifetime (Bahrick 1975)
Baddely (1966) on coding in STM and LTM
- procedure
LABORATORY EXPERIMENT
- participants were given four sets of words to learn
, - acoustically similar words (cat, cap, can) or dissimilar (pit, few, cow)
- semantically similar (great, large, big) or dissimilar (good, huge, hot).
- they were required to recall the words in the original order either immediately (testing STM) or after a
20-minute delay (testing LTM)
Baddely (1966) on coding in STM and LTM
- findings
- immediate recall worse with acoustically similar words -> indicates acoustic coding in short-term
memory (STM)
- recall after 20 minutes worse with semantically similar words -> suggests semantic encoding in long-
term memory (LTM)
Why was immediate recall worse with acoustically similar words?
STM causing acoustic confusion and becoming distracted by sounds of words thus not recalling in order
Why was prolonged recall worse with semantically similar words?
LTM causing semantic confusion and becoming distracted by meaning of words thus not recalling in
order
What is a strength of Baddeley's 1966 study on coding in STM and LTM?
✓ Showed differences between stores
• showed differences between stores.
• Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley's findings, e.g. types of coding.
• However, the idea that STM uses mostly acoustic coding and LTM mostly semantic has stood the test of
time.
