2.1.2 Short Term Memory

Holds information that we need for an ongoing task

• Limited duration of 18-30 seconds (Peterson)
• Limited capacity of 7+/-2 (Jacobs) The coding can be sensory or semantic but Baddeley found is mainly acoustic.

Peterson

Investigated the duration of short-term memory

Jacobs

Conducted a digit span test, where the amount of numbers you can recall correctly is the capacity of your short-term memory.

• The results indicated that participants could recall a maximum of 7+/-2 letters or numbers, suggesting that the capacity of short-term memory is limited.

Miller

Found that participants were able to recall more than 7+2 items.

This was done when items of information were grouped together, through a process called chunking.

Chunking

Grouping pieces of information together

e.g., breaking a phone number up into parts to remember it easier

• Hugely improves the capacity of short-term memory

KEY STUDY:

Baddeley

Assessed whether coding in short-term memory and long-term memory is mainly acoustic or semantic.

Asked participants to recall one of four words that either sounded similar, sounded different had similar meanings or had a different meaning.

Found that participants had more difficulty recalling acoustically similar words when tested immediately after learning and more difficulty recalling semantically similar words 20 minutes after learning

• In short-term memory, you rely on what the words sound like to remember them so mainly acoustic coding is used