MULTI- STORE MODEL

MILLER 1956

• PROCEDURE: Gave ppts. a random numbers increasing the row lengths up to a max. of 10 numbers, (e.g. 3224, 35987...) 

• FINDINGS: Most people have a digit span of 7+/-2. This applies to digits, words or "chunks" of information. 

PETERSON AND PETERSON 1959

PROCEDURE:

• Asked subjects to rmeember a single nonsense syllable of three consonants (e.g. KPD) 
• Giving them an interpolated task (distractor task) to stop them rehearsing the trigram (decided to count backwards in three from four hundred)
• Testing their recall after 3 ,6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds

FINDINGS:

• Without rehersal, the duration of STM is very short... less than 18 seconds

BADDELEY 1966

PROCEDURE:

• Ppts. were divided into 4 groups for the following categories:
  acoustically similar words
  acoustically disimilar words 
  semantically similar words 
  semantically dissimilar words

FINDINGS:

• Acoustically similar words were much harder to recall in the correct order (55% accuracy) than words with dissimilar sounds (75% accuracy)
• Similarity of meaning had only a very slight detrimental effect

CONCLUSION:

• STM relies more on the sound of words than on their meaning, as shown by the difficulty ppts. had in recalling the correct order of words that sounded similar.