Duration of STM STARTER Quick Quiz 2 minutes

Duration of STM STARTER: Quick Quiz – 2 minutes Swap papers – Mark (as a class) Hand back – How did you do? What do you need to go over?

Experiment • I am going to show you a trigram (3 consonants), I want you to look at them and then count backwards in 5 s from the number I give you. I will then ask you to write the trigram down, after a timed period.

CPW

NGV

RPW

TMK

FGH

TWY

LFR

MJG

CXZ

PDW

SBQ

Class Graph Findings from our study into the duration of STM Percentage of trigrams correctly recalled 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 Recall interval in seconds 24 27 30 33

Peterson and Peterson (1959) • Using your text books on p. 83 complete the table in your booklet. • How do our results compare to theirs?

Peterson and Peterson 1959 • Aim: To investigate the duration of short-term memory. • Procedure: A lab experiment was conducted in which 24 participants (psychology students) had to recall trigrams (meaningless three-consonant syllables, e. g. TGH). To prevent rehearsal participants were asked to count backwards in threes or fours from a specified random number until they saw a red light appear. This is known as the Brown Peterson technique. Participants were asked to recall trigrams after intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds. • Results: The longer the interval delay the less trigrams were recalled. Participants were able to recall 80% of trigrams after a 3 seconds delay. However, after 18 seconds less than 10% of trigrams were recalled correctly. • Conclusion: Short-term memory has a limited duration when rehearsal is prevented. It is thought that this information is lost from short-term memory from trace decay.

Factors affecting the duration of STM • Read through the texts on p. 83 -84 • Summarise each factor into one sentence, add to the page in your booklet

Factors affection duration • Rehearsal – Helps things stay longer in the STM, without rehearsal it is quickly lost • Deliberate intention to recall – Unless we are trying to remember the information it is lost within seconds • Amount of info to be retained – as with capacity, it is the number of chunks that are important not the number of letters.

Short Term Memory Exam Questions Outline and evaluate research into the nature of short-term memory (12 marks)

Essay Plan using Assessment Objectives AO 1 AO 2 • Knowledge and Understanding - OUTLINE • Application of Knowledge EVALUATE CAPACITY ENCODING DURATION

Homework • Complete essay on STM • To be handed in Monday 22/09/14 or Wednesday 24/09/14