Evaluation Practical applications One strength is that knowledge of memory stores has practical applications. For example, the limited capacity of STM can be increased through ‘chunking’. There are 15 letters in this list: C A R D O G L I T P E N B U Y. This is more than double the average capacity of STM. But the letters are organised: CAR DOG LIT PEN BUY. Putting the letters into bigger ‘chunks’ (words) means the number of items to be stored is ve, well within most people’s STM capacity. This ‘chunking approach’ is applied to vehicle registrations, post codes and phone numbers. This shows how understanding the characteristics of memory stores can help to improve memory. Research support Another strength is evidence showing there are three memory stores with different characteristics. The studies on the facing page demonstrate this clearly in terms of duration. STM lasts up to about 30 seconds (Peterson and Peterson 1959) but LTM is up to a lifetime (Bahrick et al. 1975). A study by George Sperling (1960) found that information in the iconic sensory store (vision) lasts for about 50 milliseconds. There are also many studies showing differences in capacity and encoding. Therefore, SM, STM and LTM are separate memory stores because they differ so much in their characteristics. Issues with research One weakness is that a lot of research is not typical of everyday memory. For example, the participants in one study had to remember consonant syllables such as ‘YCG’, which have no meaning (Peterson and Peterson 1959). Other studies have used letters and digits. But in everyday life we form memories related to many useful things (faces, facts, places, etc.), which is more meaningful to us than the materials used in many studies. This means that the different characteristics of the memory stores may not be so clear when we use our memories in everyday life. Digit span in STM Here are four digits: 4 5 2 9 Close your eyes and try to repeat them in the same order. Was that easy? Now repeat the process with the following lists: 5 digits: 7 2 8 6 3 6 digits: 2 6 1 8 3 4 7 digits: 8 6 9 2 5 6 1 8 digits: 5 2 7 9 6 4 2 7 9 digits: 3 6 2 5 9 7 1 8 2 10 digits: 4 8 1 7 3 9 1 5 2 7 1. How many digits was the last list which you got completely right? 2. How does this relate to capacity of STM? ACTIVE GET A1 Cognitive approach Learners must be able to understand and apply knowledge of key concepts to explain aspects of human behaviour, including: ● Characteristics of sensory, short-term, and long-term memory (encoding, capacity, duration). Specification content List some examples of short-term and long-term memories you have recalled today. Aside from duration, can you identify any dierences between these short-term and long-term memories? What conclusions can you draw about STM and LTM? An issue to consider When Jo was revising for a psychology exam, they started by trying to learn a list of ten key concepts, but forgot some of them. However, they kept trying and in the exam two months later Jo was able to remember nearly all of the concepts. 1. Identify one characteristic of long-term memory that could be a reason for Jo’s exam performance. (1 mark) 2. Describe how capacity of short-term memory may explain what happened when Jo rst started revising. (2 marks) 3. Describe two characteristics of sensory memory. (4 marks) 4. State what is meant by ‘encoding’ in relation to memory. (1 mark) 5. Describe what psychologists mean by ‘duration’ in relation to memory. (2 marks) 6. During revision, Jo learned some psychological theories by trying to apply them to their own life and found that they could remember these theories better in the exam. Describe how encoding in long-term memory could be a reason for this. (3 marks) 7. Brie«y evaluate one characteristic of Jo’s short-term or long-term memory. (3 marks) Exam-style questions Cara says, ‘Here is my own yearbook photo (taken and scribbled over some 50+ years ago when I was an American schoolgirl). Good old Karen, excelled at everything, Betsy not so much.’ Less is more Each of our spreads includes three evaluation points. One is usually about practical applications, one usually covers support from research and the third is a weakness of the key concept. This gives you a good range to choose from. You need to choose because you don’t need all of these points for Content area A. LESS IS MORE – it is always better for you to describe ONE of these points in MORE detail than just to list all three. 13 Copyright: Sample material
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