Memory Experiments

MILLER:

• He read a number of digits outloud that participants had to repeat and list back in order
• He suggested that capacity in the STM can be enlarged with groupings
• His results showed STM can hold 7(+-2digits)

FACTORS AFFECTING:

• age: as you grow older you develop strategies
• You also can not be sure if the numbers mean something to someone

Peterson and Peterson

• The aim was to measure how long STM can last for
• They got 24 students to remember a trigtam of 3 letters and 3 numbers while minusing 3 off to reduce the chance of rehersal 
• After each time they had to recall it
• It was found the duration lasted 30 seconds

Factors Affecting

• Reapeating something can keep the memory trace alive
• Can't stop rehersal
• Age
• It may mean something to them

BAHRICK:

• Took 392 graduates in the USA over a 50 year period where somewhere in those 50 years the had graduated highschool
• THey were spilt into 2 groups and shown their yearbook:

-one were given a list of pictures with names

-the others were asked to same the name of the people without the names

• It was found people can remember certain times of information for almost a lifetime

FACTORS AFFECTING

• You don't know how often they have seen those people
• Age - memory fades over time
• Can't generalise worldwide has it was only down in america