Monday, 9 January 2012

Encoding of STM - Conrad (1964)

The 3 main types of encoding 
  1. Acoustic coding - the sound of a stimulus 
  2. Visual coding - the physical appearance of a stimulus 
  3. Semantic coding - the meaning of a stimulus
Conrad 1964

Aim - Investigate the nature of coding in STM

Procedure - Conrad presented p's with several series of 6 letters visually at a rate of 0.75 per letter. The letters used were selected from B,C, F, M, N, S, P, T, V and X. P's were told that they had to write down each list in the order they were given after the presentation. Conrad analysed errors rather than correct answers. 

Results - P's tended to make errors by substituting letters that sounded the same rather than looked the same ( B for V) 

Conclusion - Letters are encoded by sound even when presented visually. 

Evaluation - There are no serious ethical issues
- Consent is needed
- Artificial stimuli
- Non-representative 

1 comment: