coding,capacity,duration

Question 1

Artificial stimuli

Answer 1

P-One limitation of Baddeley’s study was that it used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material
E-The word list had no personal meaning to participants which means we should be cautious about generalising the findings to different kinds of memory tasks
E-For example , when processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic doing even for STM tasks
L-This suggests that the findings from this study have limited application

Question 2

Lacking validity

Answer 2

P-One limitation of Jacob’s study is that it was conducted a long time ago. Early research in psychology often lacked adequate control
E-For example some participants may have been distracted while they were being tested so they didnt perform as well as they might.
L-This would mean that the results might not be valid because there were confounding variables that were uncontrolled.

Question 3

Not so many chunks

Answer 3

P-One limitation of Miller’s research is that he may have overestimated the capacity of stm.
E-For example, Cowan reviewed otheer research and concluded that the capacity of stm was only about four chunks.
L-This suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate is more appropriate than seven items

Question 4

Meaningless stimuli

Answer 4

P-A limitation of Peterson and Peterson’s study is that the stimulus material was artificial
E-Trying to memorise consonant syllables does not reflect most real life memory activities where what we are trying to remember is meaningful, so the study lacked external validity

Question 5

Higher external validity

Answer 5

P-One strength of Bahrick et al’s study is that it has higher external validity Real life meaningful memories were studied
E-When studies on LTM have been conducted with meaningless pictures to be remembered, recall rates were lower
E-The downside of such real life research is that confounding variables are not controlled
L- such as the fact that Bahrick’s participants may have looked at their yearbook photos and rehearsed their memory over the years