CORE STUDY: MEMORY
TERRY (2005)
The multi store model of memory is supported by this lab experiment.
AIM
Terry aimed to show that a person’s memory is affected by factors such as time
(duration) and space (capacity).
SAMPLE
Terry used students as participants.
DESIGN
He used a repeated measures design, which meant that the participants took part
in both conditions (in both parts of the experiment).
PROCEDURE
Terry decided to test people’s memories for television commercials. The
commercials were about 10 months old at the time of the experiment, and each
commercial was for a different product. The commercials were no more than 30
seconds long and were presented in groups of fifteen. Terry varied the order in
which the commercials were presented.
VARIABLES
The independent variable was whether the participants recalled commercials
immediately after they were presented or whether they recalled them after a
delay. (During this delay they were doing a written task for 3 minutes).
The dependent variable was how many brand names the participants could recall.
They could recall them in any order they wished in both conditions.
RESULTS
The results generally showed a serial position effect. This means that whether a
commercial was recalled depended on where it was in the list (its serial position),
not on what the product was.
In condition where participants recalled the brand names straight away, there
was a primacy effect and a recency effect. Overall, the participants showed good
recall of the first few commercials (the primacy effect) and good recall of the
last few commercials (the recency effect). This supports the multi-store model
because it shows the importance of time and space. The first few brands were
remembered well because there was time to rehearse them and put them in LTM.
More recent brands were also remembered well because they were still in STM
and could either be recalled instantly or transferred into LTM.
*The middle commercials (from the fourth to the twelfth) were not remembered
very well - in most cases they had been forgotten. Some of the middle products
had been displaced from STM because there wasn’t the space for them. Other
products had decayed because there was no opportunity to rehearse them in
order to transfer them into LTM.
In the delayed recall condition (where the participants had to carry out a written
task before recall), there was a primacy effect but no recency effect. The first
few brands were still remembered well because they had been transferred to
LTM (through rehearsal) before the written task. However, the written task had
stopped participants from rehearsing the last few commercials in STM. Doing the
task has displaced the products and/or allowed them to decay.
CONCLUSION
**Terry concluded that memory for the television commercials was affected by
their serial position in the list and not by their meaning. Whatever product was
being advertised, it was poorly recalled if it was presented in middle of the list.
This was because commercials in the middle had been lost due to running out of
time and/or space.