Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences, Stanford University.īaddeley, A.D., & Hitch, G. The control processes of short-term memory. The rapid loss of information from memory when rehearsal is prevented is taken as an indication of short term memory having a limited duration.īaddeley and Hitch (1974) have developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they call working memory.Ītkinson, R. Peterson and Peterson (1959) showed that the longer the delay, the less information is recalled. Using a technique called the Brown-Peterson technique which prevents the possibility of retrieval by having participants count backwards in 3s. Items can be kept in short term memory by repeating them verbally (acoustic encoding), a process known as rehearsal. The duration of short term memory seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds, according to Atkinson and Shiffrin (1971). The average span for letters was 7.3 and for numbers it was 9.3. He found out that people find it easier to recall numbers rather than letters. He used the digit span test with every letter in the alphabet and numbers apart from “w” and “7” because they had two syllables. Miller’s theory is supported by evidence from various studies, such as Jacobs (1887). Indeed, if we can “chunk” information together we can store a lot more information in our short term memory. However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot. He though that short term memory could hold 7 (plus or minus 2 items) because it only had a certain number of “slots” in which items could be stored. This idea was put forward by Miller (1956) and he called it the magic number 7. Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory. The Magic number 7 (plus or minus two) provides evidence for the capacity of short term memory. There are two ways in which capacity is tested, one being span, the other being recency effect. encoding (primarily acoustic, even translating visual information into sounds). limited duration (storage is very fragile and information can be lost with distraction or passage of time)ģ. limited capacity (only about 7 items can be stored at a time)Ģ. The duration of STM seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds, and the capacity about 7 items.ġ. Short-term memory (STM) is the second stage of the multi-store memory model proposed by the Atkinson-Shiffrin.
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