PSYC 3030 Study Guide - Interference Theory, Lucky Number
Document Summary
We can talk about the duration and capacity of stm just like sm. Peterson & peterson (1959) were the first to study duration of stm. They gave participants a list of letters (3 at a time) and then they were asked to count, and then repeat the letters. The purpose of the counting task is to prevent rehearsal of the letters. They found that the longer the counting time, the worse they were at recalling the digits, reflecting decay. The problem with the way that they looked at their data was looked at by keppel and. There was no proactive interference, when info learned earlier interferes with the ability to recall information learned later. They found that the duration of stm was about 15-20 seconds if you have no interference. George miller (1957) looked at the magic number 7.
