MURDOCK (1962) - EVIDENCE FOR 2 MEMORY STORES

• Evidence for two separate memory stores already exists in amnesiac case studies.  Murdock conducted a study also showing support for this concept.

AIM:

To see if there are separate stores for STM and LTM.

METHOD:

• Murdock asked participants to learn a list of words that varied in length from 10 to 40 words and free recall them.
• Each words was presented for 1-2 secs.

RESULTS:

• The probability of recalling any word depended on its position in the list (its serial position).  Words presented early in the list - primacy effect - and at the end of the list - recency effect - were recalled well but ones in the middle were often forgotten.  This is called serial position effect.
• Highly unusual words were also remembered well, wherever they were placed on the list.

CONCLUSION:

• Words at the start of the list were recalled because information had been passed over to the LTM.
• Words at the end of the list were recalled because information was still in STM.
• Words in between were lost because the STM was full and there had not been time to transfer them to the LTM.

Glazer & Cunitz (1966) conducted a similar study with similar results (see separate card).