3/24/25, 7:45 Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology) Flashcards |
AM
MEMORY (AQA A-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY) EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS VERIFIED
Terms in this set (174)
How are STM and LTM distinguished? STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their coding, capacity and duration.
Coding refers to the format in which information is stored in the various memory
STM and LTM are often distinguished in stores.
terms of their coding, what does this refer - Information enters the brain via the senses (e.g. eyes and ears) and then is changed
to? 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 Capacity refers to the amount of information that can be held in a memory.
terms of their capacity, what does this refer
to?
STM and LTM are often distinguished in Duration refers to the length of time that information can be held in memory
terms of their duration, what does this refer
to?
- environmental stimuli ( the sound of someone talking) enter the sensory register,
What is the Sensory Register? (Sensory
comprising five separate stores for each sense
Store)
- the primary stores are iconic (for visual information, initially encoded visually)
- how it works
and echoic (for sound-based information, initially encoded acoustically).
depending on the sense that is picked up - e.g. visual, auditory or tactile.
sensory store coding
(modality specific)
sensory store duration less than half a second
sensory store capacity huge capacity (millions or receptors)
Short term memory is your memory for immediate events. It temporarily stores
What is Short-term memory (STM)?
information received from the sensory register.
How is information transferred from the attention
sensory register to Short term memory?
What happens if information is not leads to spontaneous decay
attended to when it enters the sensory
register?
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 prolonged rehearsal e.g verbally repeating a telephone number
LTM?
How is information transferred from LTM to retrieval
STM?
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)
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, 3/24/25, 7:45 Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology) Flashcards |
AM
LABORATORY EXPERIMENT
- participants were given four sets of words to learn
Baddely (1966) on coding in STM and LTM - acoustically similar words (cat, cap, can) or dissimilar (pit, few, cow)
- procedure - 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)
- immediate recall worse with acoustically similar words -> indicates acoustic
Baddely (1966) on coding in STM and LTM coding in short-term memory (STM)
- findings - recall after 20 minutes worse with semantically similar words -> suggests
semantic encoding in long-term memory (LTM)
Why was immediate recall worse with STM causing acoustic confusion and becoming distracted by sounds of words thus
acoustically similar words? not recalling in order
Why was prolonged recall worse with LTM causing semantic confusion and becoming distracted by meaning of words thus
semantically similar words? not recalling in order
• showed differences between stores.
• Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley's
What is a strength of Baddeley's 1966 findings, e.g. types of coding.
study on coding in STM and LTM? • However, the idea that STM uses mostly acoustic coding and LTM mostly
✓ Showed differences between stores semantic has stood the test of time.
• This was an important step our understanding of the memory system, which
led to the creation of the MSM.
• A strength of Baddeley's study is that there is a high degree of control over
What is a strength of Baddeley's 1966
extraneous variables.
study on coding in STM and LTM?
• This allows us to see clearly that the IV (coding: semantic or acoustic) was
✓ there is a high degree of control over
what affected the DV (recall), improving the validity of results
extraneous variables
- This also means the experiment can be easily replicated
• A limitation of Baddeley's study is that it didn't use meaningful material.
• The words used in the study were artificial had no personal meaning to
What is a limitation of Baddely's 1966 study participants. When processing more meaningful information, people may use
on coding in STM and LTM? semantic coding even for STM.
✘ it didn't use meaningful material. • This means that the results of this study have limited application in the real-
world. We should be cautious about generalising the findings to different kinds of
memory task.
LAB EXPERIMENT using a dual task paradigm.
Baddeley et al. (1975) procedure - participants engaged in separate visuo-spatial sketch pad tasks - tracking a moving
point of light and mentally navigating a capital 'F.'
• Participants found it harder to complete two visual tasks at the same time
than to complete the visual and verbal task.
Baddeley et al. (1975) results • The greater difficulty is because both visual tasks compete for the same
limited resources, but when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously,
there is no competition.
LAB EXPERIMENT
Jacobs (1887) on capacity of STM
• Used a digit span - researcher read four digits and increased until the
- procedure
participant could not recall the order correctly immediately.
Jacobs (1887) on capacity of STM • Digits = 9.3
- findings • Letters = 7.3
2/
10
AM
MEMORY (AQA A-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY) EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS VERIFIED
Terms in this set (174)
How are STM and LTM distinguished? STM and LTM are often distinguished in terms of their coding, capacity and duration.
Coding refers to the format in which information is stored in the various memory
STM and LTM are often distinguished in stores.
terms of their coding, what does this refer - Information enters the brain via the senses (e.g. eyes and ears) and then is changed
to? 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 Capacity refers to the amount of information that can be held in a memory.
terms of their capacity, what does this refer
to?
STM and LTM are often distinguished in Duration refers to the length of time that information can be held in memory
terms of their duration, what does this refer
to?
- environmental stimuli ( the sound of someone talking) enter the sensory register,
What is the Sensory Register? (Sensory
comprising five separate stores for each sense
Store)
- the primary stores are iconic (for visual information, initially encoded visually)
- how it works
and echoic (for sound-based information, initially encoded acoustically).
depending on the sense that is picked up - e.g. visual, auditory or tactile.
sensory store coding
(modality specific)
sensory store duration less than half a second
sensory store capacity huge capacity (millions or receptors)
Short term memory is your memory for immediate events. It temporarily stores
What is Short-term memory (STM)?
information received from the sensory register.
How is information transferred from the attention
sensory register to Short term memory?
What happens if information is not leads to spontaneous decay
attended to when it enters the sensory
register?
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 prolonged rehearsal e.g verbally repeating a telephone number
LTM?
How is information transferred from LTM to retrieval
STM?
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)
1/
10
, 3/24/25, 7:45 Memory (AQA A-Level Psychology) Flashcards |
AM
LABORATORY EXPERIMENT
- participants were given four sets of words to learn
Baddely (1966) on coding in STM and LTM - acoustically similar words (cat, cap, can) or dissimilar (pit, few, cow)
- procedure - 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)
- immediate recall worse with acoustically similar words -> indicates acoustic
Baddely (1966) on coding in STM and LTM coding in short-term memory (STM)
- findings - recall after 20 minutes worse with semantically similar words -> suggests
semantic encoding in long-term memory (LTM)
Why was immediate recall worse with STM causing acoustic confusion and becoming distracted by sounds of words thus
acoustically similar words? not recalling in order
Why was prolonged recall worse with LTM causing semantic confusion and becoming distracted by meaning of words thus
semantically similar words? not recalling in order
• showed differences between stores.
• Later research showed that there are some exceptions to Baddeley's
What is a strength of Baddeley's 1966 findings, e.g. types of coding.
study on coding in STM and LTM? • However, the idea that STM uses mostly acoustic coding and LTM mostly
✓ Showed differences between stores semantic has stood the test of time.
• This was an important step our understanding of the memory system, which
led to the creation of the MSM.
• A strength of Baddeley's study is that there is a high degree of control over
What is a strength of Baddeley's 1966
extraneous variables.
study on coding in STM and LTM?
• This allows us to see clearly that the IV (coding: semantic or acoustic) was
✓ there is a high degree of control over
what affected the DV (recall), improving the validity of results
extraneous variables
- This also means the experiment can be easily replicated
• A limitation of Baddeley's study is that it didn't use meaningful material.
• The words used in the study were artificial had no personal meaning to
What is a limitation of Baddely's 1966 study participants. When processing more meaningful information, people may use
on coding in STM and LTM? semantic coding even for STM.
✘ it didn't use meaningful material. • This means that the results of this study have limited application in the real-
world. We should be cautious about generalising the findings to different kinds of
memory task.
LAB EXPERIMENT using a dual task paradigm.
Baddeley et al. (1975) procedure - participants engaged in separate visuo-spatial sketch pad tasks - tracking a moving
point of light and mentally navigating a capital 'F.'
• Participants found it harder to complete two visual tasks at the same time
than to complete the visual and verbal task.
Baddeley et al. (1975) results • The greater difficulty is because both visual tasks compete for the same
limited resources, but when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously,
there is no competition.
LAB EXPERIMENT
Jacobs (1887) on capacity of STM
• Used a digit span - researcher read four digits and increased until the
- procedure
participant could not recall the order correctly immediately.
Jacobs (1887) on capacity of STM • Digits = 9.3
- findings • Letters = 7.3
2/
10
