Starter: Jigsaw learning Part 1: Write as much as you know about your section Part 2: All the number 1’s sit together and share all the information they know about their section (Same for 2’s, 3’s and 4’s) Part 3: Go back to your normal seats and share your information with those around you. For example, if you are a 1, share all your information with the 2, 3 and 4 sitting next to you

Aims for Lesson 2: Introduce short term memory (STM) Encoding of STM Capacity of STM: Miller (1956) Jacobs (1887)

Basic structure to the Multi-Store Model

Short-term Memory… what is it?? Received from the sensory register Temporary place to store information It is an ever-changing memory system as it contains information currently being thought about

Again, psychologists investigate… Encoding – the form in which the information is stored Capacity – how much information can be stored Duration – how long information can be stored for

Short-term memory encoding Information arrives from the sensory memory in its original form (for example: sound or vision) This information needs to be encoded into a form which the STM can deal with more easily There are a number of ways you can encode information…. Imagine you needed to remember to buy a doughnut at the Supermarket

You could encode the information visually By thinking of an image of a doughnut or

You could encode the information acoustically Doughnut, doughnut, doughnut, doughnut, doughnut, doughnut, doughnut, doughnut You could encode the information acoustically For example, by repeating doughnut over and over again

You could encode the information semantically By applying pre-existing knowledge of doughnuts to the fact you need to remember them. For example, Homer Simpson’s favourite food Semantic = meaning

Activity: You will need a pencil/pen and paper On the next slide you will be presented with a sequence of words which appear in the centre of the screen, one after another. Try to recall as many as you can ONLY when you see the smiling face can you write the words down

Cat

Mat

Sat

Pit

Day

Cow

Big

Huge

Tall

Hot

Safe

Foul

Here are the words: Cat Sat Mat Pit How many did you recall?? Why do you think you remembered what you did? Do you notice any trends? This was a replica of an important study by Baddeley 1966 Day Cow Big Huge Tall Hot Safe Foul

Supportive evidence: Conrad (1964) Baddeley (1966) Aim: to find out if STM encodes acoustically (based on sound) or semantically (based on meaning) Procedure: STM participants asked to recall in serial order a list of words 1. Acoustically similar 2. Semantically similar 3. Acoustically dissimilar 4. Semantically dissimilar.

Baddeley (1966) Results: 1. Words with similar sounds = harder to recall than dissimilar 2. Similarity of meaning had very little effect on recall As meaning had little to no effect, it suggests STM does not rely on semantic encoding. Similar sounding words appeared to cause confusion, suggesting the information was stored dependent on their sound Conclusions: STM heavily relies on acoustic coding

Evaluation box: One strength of this study is the use of a laboratory experimental design This means it was conducted in a highly controlled environment This allows for extraneous and independent variables to be controlled for. This means a cause and effect relationship can be drawn between the IV and the DV Additionally, it is scientific which adds credibility to the research

Evaluation box: However, the artificial nature of the environment allows the results to be criticised of lacking ecological validity This means the results cannot be generalised to every day life.

Evaluation box: Another weakness of the study is the use of word lists In that, people don’t typically recall word lists in every day life. Specifically so with words which lack meaning The use of word lists are criticised over whether it is an effective way to measure someone's memory recalling ability This is referred to as lacking mundane realism – in other words, the task ppts were asked to do is nothing like they would do in their ordinary lives. This means it is hard to generalise from.

Activity 1: An interview with the researcher… In pairs, one of you will imagine you are the researcher (Baddeley), the other will imagine you are an interviewer The researcher must provide as much information as possible about their 1966 study The interviewer will gather in depth information and form notes from the interview which will be shared with the researcher

The interviewers questions… What was your aim when conducting the research? What procedure did you use when conducting your research? What did you find from your research? What can you conclude from the research? What are the greater implications of these findings? What do you think went well with your research? What would you improve for next time? Would using words that people are familiar with be a strength or a weakness of this experiment. What if the researcher had just used letters that sound alike PCBGE vs AFKLT?

Short-term memory capacity Activity 2: You will need a pencil/pen and paper On the next slide you will be presented with a sequence of letters which appear in the centre of the screen, one after another. Try to recall as many as you can ONLY when you see the smiling face can you write the words down

D

DN

DNA

DNAB

DNABB

DNABBC

DNABBCC

DNABBCCI

DNABBCCIA

DNABBCCIAI

DNABBCCIAID

DNABBCCIAIDY

DNABBCCIAIDYM

DNABBCCIAIDYMC

DNABBCCIAIDYMCA

DNABBCCIAIDYMCAF

DNABBCCIAIDYMCAFB

DNABBCCIAIDYMCAFBI

How many did you remember?? The capacity of STM is very limited as only a small number of information can be held there. Research by Miller (1956) indicates individuals can remember 7 plus or minus 2 pieces of information 7

The magic 7 This occurs because there are only a certain number of “slots” in which items can be stored If this is the case, how do people remember long phone numbers? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Supporting evidence… Jacobs (1887) Aim: To examine the capacity of STM using numbers and letters Procedure: 443 female students aged 8-19 in London College Shown series of digits/words Asked to recall in order The number of digits/words gradually increased until participant could no longer recall (similar to what you just done!)

Supporting evidence… Jacobs (1887) Findings: Average span of 7.3 digits and 9.3 letters Results: supports Miller’s notion of 7+/-2

Evaluation box: One strength of the study is the standardised nature of the experiment In that, all ppts were exposed to the exact same conditions and controls This allows for the study to be replicated easily to check reliability of the findings

Evaluation box: One weakness of the study is the use of meaningless word/number lists. This task was criticised over whether it is an effective way to measure one’s memory. More so, this mundane realism weakens the extent to which the findings can be generalised to the real world. Thus, we can say the study is lacking ecological validity

Evaluation box: The study suggests STM can hold 7+/-2 items. However, there is a lack of consideration towards factors which may affect ones STM capacity. For example, age does not appear to be considered. Literature suggests that one’s STM can increase with age

Activity 2: An interview with the researcher… The roles have now reversed, the researcher who took on the role of Baddeley is now the interviewer and the previous interviewer is now the researcher (Jacobs) Remember to provide and gather as much information as possible!

The interviewers questions… What was your aim when conducting the research? What procedure did you use when conducting your research? What did you find from your research? What can you conclude from the research? What are the greater implications of these findings? What do you think went well with your research? What would you improve for next time?

For example; try to remember How do we increase this?? Answer: Chunking Where items are cut into smaller sections Meaning is given to these smaller sections For example; try to remember DNABBCCIAIDYMCAFBI

For example; try to remember How do we increase this?? Answer: Chunking Where items are cut into smaller sections Meaning is given to these smaller sections For example; try to remember DNABBCCIAIDYMCAFBI What about now? DNA/BBC/CIA/ID/YMCA/FBI

Short-term memory capacity Miller 1956 Found that the capacity of STM could be considerably increased by combining/organising separate ‘bits’ of information, e.g. letters or digits, into larger ‘chunks’.

Try this…. (chunking activity) Remember Chunking involves making the info more meaningful, through organising it in line with existing knowledge from your LTM GCEBTECGCSEGNVQAS

Try this…. (chunking activity) GCE Remember Chunking involves making the info more meaningful, through organising it in line with existing knowledge from your LTM (chunked into abbreviations for qualifications) BTEC GCEBTECGCSEGNVQAS GCSE GNVQ AS

Miller (1956) showed that… STM has a limited capacity STM can be extended through chunking

On whiteboards… What have you learned today that you did not previously know? Can you apply this new knowledge to your everyday life?