Short Term Memory

CAPACITY: (the amount of information the memory store holds). [7+/- 2 items]

- George Miller (1956) described the capacity as the magical number 7+/- 2 items.

- measured by the DIGIT SPAN TECHNIQUE, the experimenter reads out lists of numbers, asking participants to recall them in the same order as presented. The list is made longer each time by doing this the capacity of STM is measured.

-Miller suggested th Capacity of STM can be increased by chunking which is organising items of information into groups to make use of STM's limited capacity

DURATION: the length of time the memory store retains the information [30 secounds]

- Brown (1958) and Peterson & Peterson (1959). claimed information in STM disappears after 30 Seconds without rehearsel.

- method of measuring duration is known as the Brown- Peterson Technique, which is a method of measuring the duration of STM by preventing rehearsel of information.

- Brown-Peterson effect is the rapid loss of information from STM when rehearsel is prevented

ENCODING: the way information is coded in the memory store [mainly acoustically]