The Brown-Peterson task was used to assess the of short-term memory.
a. capacity
b. function
c. accessibility
d. duration
The correct answer and explanation is :
The correct answer is d. duration.
Explanation:
The Brown-Peterson task was a psychological experiment designed to assess the duration of short-term memory. It was developed by psychologists Brown and Peterson in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The task was intended to explore how long information can be held in short-term memory before it is forgotten.
In the experiment, participants are presented with a set of three consonants (e.g., “XGT”) to remember. Immediately after seeing the letters, they are given a distracting task, such as counting backward by threes from a random number (e.g., starting at 298). This distraction prevents rehearsal, which is the process of repeating the information mentally to keep it in memory. After a certain amount of time (e.g., 3, 6, or 18 seconds), the participants are asked to recall the letters they were shown.
The results showed that as the delay between the presentation of the letters and the recall increased, participants’ ability to recall the letters decreased significantly. This suggests that short-term memory has a limited duration, and without rehearsal, the information tends to fade quickly.
The Brown-Peterson task highlights the fragility of short-term memory in the absence of rehearsal, and it provides evidence that short-term memory lasts for only a brief period, typically ranging from 15 to 30 seconds, unless actively rehearsed. The focus of the experiment was not on capacity (the number of items short-term memory can hold) or accessibility (the ease with which memories can be retrieved), but rather on how long information remains accessible before it is lost, making duration the correct answer.
Thus, the Brown-Peterson task is a classic demonstration of the limited duration of short-term memory.