Characteristics of memory

It's important that you know the characteristics of memory -

You're likely to get a definition question or a one that asks you to identify one/all of the characteristics of memory so learn the definitions and learn the table below!!



Capacity - The amount of information that can be held by the memory store

Duration - The time that information can be held by the memory store

Encoding - The way information is processed/changed into a form that can be stored in the memory store

You can use the sheet below to work out the characteristics of your own STM

It's also important that you know how you would research the characteristics of memory -

 

Capacity - Digit span test (reading a list of numbers increasing in length until the individual can't remember - the last number of digits they could remember fully is the capacity of their STM)

Duration - Nonsense trigrams (give participants a nonsense trigram and a distraction task for a certain amount of time and ask for recall, last successful recall is the duration of STM)

Encoding - Similar & disimilar words (the disimilar words should be recalled with fewer errors as there'd be less confusion in the memory store)