memory 4

Aim: To test how long STM lasts when rehearsal is prevented

Procedure: P's were breifly shown a consonant trigram (three letters). P's were asked to count backwards in threes from a specified number to stop them rehearsing the letters. After intervals of 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds, participants were asked to recall the trigram. procedure was repeated several times with different trigrams

Findings: P's were able to recall about 80% of trigrams after a 3 second interval. Fewer trigrams were recalled as time intervals lengthend. After 18 seconds fewer than 10% of the trigrams were recalled correctly

Evaluation: Trigrams are artifical things to remember and may not reflect everyday memory. Possible that interference from earlier trigrams caused the poor recall

Aim: To see if people could remember short words rather than long words

Procedure: The reading speed of p's was measured, p's were then presented with sets of five words