Peterson and Peterson (1959) - Not as detailed sorry

Uses: Multistore Model

Participants were presented with a trigram, 3 random letters, no vowels.

• The participants then was given a number and were asked to count backwards in 3 (interference task)

To measure the effect of inhibiting rehearsal on the duration of STM.

True experiment

In the absence of rehearsal, STM can at most retain up to 20 seconds

Replicability reproduced many time

Strictly controlled, internal validity, cause can be separated from effect, time delay does cause recall to decline.

• A delay of 3 seconds produces a mean score of 80%

• A delay of 18 seconds the score dropped to 6%

In the absence of rehearsal, the time of duration is around 20 seconds

Results can be replicated, reproduced many times

Strictly controlled, cause can be separated from effect, therefore it can be said time delay made recall to decline/interference can cause time delay to decline.

Weakness: remembering trigrams is not an everyday occurrence, questionable ecological validity.

Different memory techniques, different abilities

Peterson, L., & Peterson, M. J. (1959). Short-term retention of individual verbal items. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58(3), 193–198. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0049234