STM has a very limited storage capacity. STM can only hold + or – 2 items so if too much information enters STM some of it will be pushed out. However we can retain more then 7 items if we chunk information into something that is easier to remember and group things that make sense to us, this way we are able to remember up 24 things. In STM we can only remember things up to 30sec. In LTM we have unlimited storage capacity. The duration of STM is no longer than 30sec founded by Peterson and Peterson (1959) while in your LTM your memory may last from up to a few minutes to a lifetime.
To retrieve memory in STM we search through them 1 at a time in the order that we received each piece of information for example if we view a sample of 20 pictures and are told to right each 1 down after viewing all 20 we will remember the first 1s we saw easily and find it hard to remember the last few, so we can conclude that information is stored in a sequence in our STM. To retrieve memory in our LTM we have to link it to other info already there, that’s why we may find it difficult to recall new material. The link gives the new material a meaning. An example of this is say you had a bike accident whilst you were a child and in your later age say around 60 when your grand children may have had the same experience you will remember your experience because while you were talking about it, your memory will be triggered by the new information entering your brain. If we think we have forgotten something but than get a clue we will most likely remember the whole process.
One reason why I chose to do this experiment is because we have done it previously in class so I have some experience with it. Previous research done on this subject is Millers experiment. Miller came up with the theory of the ‘magic number’, the magic number is 7 because he believed that most adults could remember between 5 and 9 things at one time and once the slots were filled up new information entering into the STM will push out the old info (7 + or – 2). He closed his theory with an experiment, in his experiment he gave a string of numbers to individuals, which they would most likely to forget after 30sec but this time he gave a meaning to the numbers like each number is the square root of 2 and also put the numbers into smaller groups. This proved that people could remember more than 7 + or – 2 if the information was chunked or given meaning to.
Some methodological considerations that may affect my results are things like the people I choose to take part in my experiment, if I choose the wrong people this could show a red hearing in my results for example if I chose a psychology student they would most likely know what I am doing and may previously have done the experiment them selves so would know the general idea behind the experiment. Another consideration is to make my instructions as clear and accurate as possible and make sure everyone has the same exact instructions to keep it fair and so that the situation does not change. I will also consider having each sample under the same exact conditions and at the same time of day so it’s fair and everyone has an equal chance to do the best.
The general aim of my experiment is to see if Millers theory is correct and that I can prove it in a practical way with taking practical problems into consideration and to prove that chunking information and giving meaning to information helps you remember more than you usually can.
Hypothesis
I predict that Millers theory will be correct and in my two groups people with the chunked list will remember more than the people with the letter string. My research aims are to learn more about memory and the theories behind it.
Method
Design - I chose the experimental method because this brings advantages like I can control most of my variables but not all. Some controlled variables which I have are that each participant gets the same instructions, each person gets the same amount of time this is to keep the experiment as fair as possible. Some variables that I will not be able to control are things like the time of day I ask each person because I got to see when I have some spare time to do so, I will proberly not be able to make sure each person is under the same surroundings again due to time and this could affect my results because people mite not be at there best at a certain time of day.
Participants – My experiment is aimed at 16yr olds students of a mixed gender. They were selected through the opportunity sampling method because they were situated in the same room as my self and are all from the same college QE.
Materials – I used equipment such as a stopwatch to time each individual to make sure each one had the exact same time, I provided a pen and a sheet of paper for everyone who took part in my experiment. I chose my list of abbreviations by thinking of a topic like TV and than I thought about all the channels and there abbreviations but all had to be 3 letters each.
Procedure – The first thing I did after I had chosen what experiment I was going to do was think of a list abbreviations that had to be 3 letters each and altogether had to be 24 letters. I than made simple instructions for the participants to follow and printed it out. Later on I went into the canteen around 11am and asked people if they would take part in my experiment, I told them that they did not have to take part against there will and could withdraw at anytime during the experiment but also reassured them that all there information would be kept confidential. I gave each participant 1min to have a look at the letters, letter string or chunked list and than recorded the results on a rough sheet of paper. After I had gathered up all the info I started writing up my experiment.
Discussion
My results show that my prediction was correct and that more people remembered the letters from the chunked list than the letter string also that Millers theory was correct that if we chunk information and give them a meaning we are more likely to remember more than 7 things in our STM so my results agree with Millers theory. If I could make any modifications it would be that I would ask participants at the same time of day rather than at different times because this could affect the results because participants mite not be at there best at a certain time of day or mite jus be having a bad day altogether. Another thing I would change is that I would use only students who do not do psychology because people who do psychology mite now what’s going on and may have already done the experiment before so this could affect the results if they know the theory behind the experiment. Criticism with my experiment is the location because the canteen was to noisy, I would like it be in a quite room were I could ask all the participants at the same time of day on the same day so it would be as fair as possible. If I was able to make these changes this may have affected my results because people may have remembered more letters in each situation and this may have even affected my hypothesis. Again the confounding variables were the noise, location, people may not have been at there best at that time of day and other general distractions occur in the canteen. Ethical issued were that I never forced anyone into participating and always gave them the option of withdrawing anytime during the experiment but also told them that all information would be kept confidential. Further work from this experiment is that I could use it to revise for final exams as it has lots of vital information.
Results
My results show that my prediction was correct and that chunking information increases capacity in your STM and also that Millers theory was correct
