- Psychologist World

Psychologist World: Psychology articles, tests, approaches, explanations and more.

Click here for more information.

Peterson & Peterson (1959) - How fast does our Short-term Memory Decay? - Memory - Hypnotic World Psychology

Peterson & Peterson (1959)

How fast does our Short-term Memory Decay?

Peterson and Peterson investigated one of the factors that causes our short-term memory to decay, i.e. why we forget information in our short-term memory. In 1959, they conducted an experiment that revealed how time between remembering something and having to recall it affected the life of a memory.

Procedure

What is at Trigram, and why use it?

Peterson and Peterson showed participants a trigram - a set of 3 consonant letters, such as ADW. This method would be known as the Brown-Peterson technique, and can be used to remove a number of factors that might affect someone's memorization of a piece of information:

1) The trigram has little or no meaning, unlike asking a person to remember a word which they may associate with something and be able to remember better.

2) There are no vowels in the trigram, preventing any easy pronunciation of the trigram as a word, which makes it more difficult to remember on any other basis than as a trigram.

3) Unlike words, the trigrams are equal in length, making the experiment less biased in terms of the information it requires participants to remember.

In the experiment:

Participants were asked to remember a trigram (see right).
Next, they were given a delay between recall in which they were required to perform an interference task, which would reduce the chances of them using techniques to rehearse the data and remember it better. The delay between being shown the trigram and asked to recall it varied between participants - one of the following intervals: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds.
Participants tried to recall the trigram.

Findings

Recall success was around 50% after an interval of 3 seconds and interference task, but this reduced gradually to around 10% over intervals of 6, 9 and 12 seconds, and gradually to around 5% success after 18 seconds.

This suggests that time does result in decay in the short term memory.

Evaluation of the Experiment

Peterson and Peterson were careful to eliminate factors other than time that might affect recall:

Interference tasks reduced the chances of rehearsal before recall.

In addition to this trigrams were used to eliminate the attached meaning that might be used to remember, for example, words, better.

Lacks ecological validity - how often is a person needed to remember trigrams in reality?

Memory and Chewing Gum: How research at two universities found memory recall can be improved by chewing gum.

Memory and Association: Has someone you know come up to you in the street, and try as you might, you just could not remember this person's name? Put Names and Faces together and don't forget names again with this associative memory technique.

Conditioning Introduction: What is conditioning? What Pavlov's dogs experiment teaches us about how we learn.

Craik & Lockhart (1972) Levels of Processing Theory: Traditional theories of memory segmented human memory into different stores for example, the multi-store model with sensory, short-term and long-term stores. Find out how Craik & Lockhart's Level's of processing theory opposes this.

Craik & Tulving (1975) Levels of Processing: Craik & Tulving wanted to test whether the level of processing affected how well we remember information. Read an explanation and evaluation of this research.

What affects Classical Conditioning?: Issues affecting classical conditioning.

More articles in this section...

Still looking? Search this site:

Receive fascinating and informative insights
on psychology topics with our newsletter:

	Email:
	Name:

Most Read in May, 2008:

1. Memory: Levels of Processing

2. Biological Approach

3. Behavioral Approach

4. Memory Psychology

5. Are You Angry? Test

6. Fight-or-Flight Response
7. Left Handedness

8. Personality Type Test

9. Cognitive Approach

10. Psychology of Emotions

Related Articles:
Memory and Chewing Gum
How research at two universities found memory recall can be improved by chewing gum. ...
Memory and Association
Has someone you know come up to you in the street, and try as you might, you just could not remember...
Conditioning Introduction
What is conditioning? What Pavlov's dogs experiment teaches us about how we learn. ...
Craik & Lockhart (1972) Levels of Processing Theory
Traditional theories of memory segmented human memory into different stores for example, the multi...
Craik & Tulving (1975) Levels of Processing
Craik & Tulving wanted to test whether the level of processing affected how well we remember informa...
What affects Classical Conditioning?
Issues affecting classical conditioning. ...

Browse Areas:

Biological Psychology

Cognitive Approach

Influence & Personality

Mental Disorders

By Approach

By Psychology

Issue Reference

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

General Anxiety Disorder

Seasonal Affective Disorder
more...

Self Help Psychology

Succeed in Exams

Memory Improvement

Still looking? See our Site Map

About Psychologist World™
About Us

A.S. Revision Index

Subscribe Today

Page Tools:

Tell a friend about this page | Printable version | Link to this Page | Subscribe for access to all 2,200+ pages

Psychologist World

Psychology Articles

Personality Tests

Freudian Psychology
Memory
More...

Body Language

    How to Read it
   Self Image
   Effective Communication
   Posture
   More...

Dream & Sleep Psychology

Dream Interpretation Guide

How to Remember Dreams

   Psychology of Sleep
   Sleep Deprivation
   More...

About Psychologist World

Contact Information

Privacy Statement

Subscribe for full access

© 2006-2008
Psychologist World™ & partners.
Parts licensed under GNU FDL.
Psychologist World Home