Aims: To determine the capacity of STM
Procedure: Two groups of Ps were presented with the same list of words. Group A were tested on immediate recall; Group B recalled after 30 seconds in which they completed a distracter task.
Findings: There was some evidence of the primacy effect (Ps could recall items from the start of the list more accurately because they'd been transferred to LTM), but the recency effect disappeared.
Conclusion: Miller's suggestion of a STM capacity of 7 is affected by the primacy effect, and the true capacity of STM is only 3 or 4 "chunks"
Strength: Isolated the effect of STM recall whilst minimising the effect of LTM influences
Weakness 1: Lacks mundane realism: word lists does not comprise a reflection of the memory tasks used in everyday life.