Effect of List Position on Free Recall Essay

Memory is divided into three categories. These categories consist of: sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory, out of these short term memory is the main focus in this essay. It has been widely researched due to interest of how much memory can be stored, how long this memory can be stored for and what information is memorised.

In the last half century several theories have emerged with regard to the best model for human memory. In each of these models there was a specific way to help people recall words and

This experiment is based on previous research done. For example, in 1969, in a research by Bower and Clark, no difference in the immediate recall scores of both groups was noted, but when later asked to recall, those who used narrative chaining recalled an average of 93% of the words compared to the control group which only recalled an average of 13% of words. In another experiment, participants who used narrative chaining remembered six times more information than participants who learned by simply repeating the words to themselves (Loftus, 1980). Narrative chaining is particularly useful when a person wants to remember information in a particular order. The aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of narrative chaining on memory. It is hypothesized that in a group of 59 participants aged 10-69 years old, participants who use narrative chaining to remember a list of words will remember a higher number and percentage of words when asked to write down as many words as possible through serial recall compared to participants who use maintenance rehearsal.

Memory span is a measure of short term memory and its capacity through the use of a list. Participants are asked to review a list of items, retain, and immediately recall as accurate as possible. The list may be conducted with a random list of numbers, words, or letters since these items may influence differently amongst each participant. The list is also varied in item length to test in which particular length the participant is subject to make the least of errors and determine their memory span. The average short-term memory capacity is ranged

There is substantial research backing this model. For example Murdock (1962) found the serial position effect which shows when presented with a list of items, participants recalled those shown at the beginning (primary) and those at the end (recency);

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this experiment was to test whether a delay before recall would affect the serial position effect. The experiment was done by getting participants to take part in a simple tests; hearing words read out, then after they are read out, recalling them and writing them down. Two of these tests took place, one without a gap before recall, and one with. The results only partly supported previous research, with both tests showing a higher number of people remembering words at the start of the list, but unlike previous research findings, the last words of the list were not remembered

Purpose: The purpose of the experiment was to see if there was any correlation between the spatial presentation of stimuli and a change in comprehension and memorizing information.

By doing so is finding support for hypothesis, “AA reflects a failure to consolidate short-lived encoded information into a durable form of memory” (Chen and Wyble,2016). In other words, AA shows brief information does not become a permanent and stable memory, stored in long-term memory. In order, find supporting evidence the authors performed 5 experiments. The first experiment tested consisted of elimination of AA by having participants report an attribute of the stimulus instead of the location, in order to separate the dependence of AA and location. The results suggested location information of the target was automatically stored. Experiment two tested, if AA only occurred because of the familiarity and repetition of targets However, despite eliminating the familiarities and repetition of targets AA still occurred. Lastly, the last three experiments were identical, but with changes in variables and tested the hypothesis. Experiment 3a results showed a weakening in AA by forcing the participants to consolidate the key attribute into memory. Experiment 3b showed the weakening in 3a was caused by having participants maintaining attributes in memory after delayed tasks. Lastly, 3c provided support the previous experiments in which participants were able to find the

Elliott (1973) examined the concept that those who used imagery would have better recall than those who used rehearsal memory techniques while performing an additional task of either looking at an unrelated picture, reading a short passage or listening to numbers being recited. He also hypothesized that words that were more concrete in nature would have a higher recall rate than those that were abstract. As he expected, Elliott (1973) found that those who used imagery to memorize information did better on recall during all three additional tasks and that concrete words overall had a higher recall rate. He further cemented this idea when he unexpectedly tested participants on their long-term memory after

Retrieval failure, this theory indicates that when information is stored in the memory [long term] and

The experiment consisted of 6 trials that contained words such as: sleep, bed, tired etc. The participants were asked to look at the rectangle on the screen before starting the trials. In the first trial, the participants were asked to press the “start trial” button because a fixation dot would appear in the middle of the screen. The participants were asked to stare at the computer until a sequence of words appeared, with each word was presented for one second. After a full sequence was presented, a set of buttons were shown, each labeled with a word. Some the words were on the list, and some were not. The participant’s task was to click or tap on the buttons to indicate which words were in the sequence. The sequence of words consisted of the actual words shown or related or unrelated words. For example, some trials consisted of all sleep related content to see if the participant would select items that were related or select items that were not in the sequence. After identifying the words that were shown in the sequence, they would receive feedback on the accuracy of their memory. After the participants were done

The primacy effect is a memory theory that claims items presented in the beginning of a series are more easily remembered than items presented later in the series. The primacy effect is mostly associated with short-term memory recall and has the greatest effect when there is no delay between the different pieces of given information (Straker, 2011). The primacy effect results from a cognitive bias that states items presented at the beginning of a sequential presentation are more easily remembered because at that time, the brain is more attentive and has fewer items to process, allowing them to be better stored and later recalled more easily (Weidman, 2016).

Prior to the early 1970s the prominent idea of how memories were formed and retrieved revolved around the idea of processing memory into specific stores (Francis & Neath, 2014). These memory stores were identified as sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. In contrast to this idea, two researchers named Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart proposed an idea linking the type of encoding to retrieval (Goldstein, 2015). This idea is known as the levels of processing theory. According to this theory, memory depends on the depth of processing that a given item is received by an individual (Goldstein, 2015). Craik and Lockhart stressed four points in supporting their theory. First, they argued that memory was the result of a series of analyses, each level of the series forming a deeper level of processing than the preceding level (Francis & Neath, 2014). The shallow levels of processing were believed to hold less importance and are defined as giving little attention to meaning of an item. Examples of which include focusing on how a word sounds or memorizing a phone number by repeating it over and over again (Francis & Neath, 2014) (Goldstein, 2015). The deeper levels processing involve paying close attention to the meaning of an item and relating that meaning to something else, an example of which would be focusing on the meaning of a word rather than just how the word sounds (Francis & Neath, 2014) (Goldstein, 2015). The second point Craik and Lockhart

Theoretically, the primacy effect represents recall from long-term memory and the recency effect represent recall from short-term memory (Ashcraft, 2010). In general, people will have better memories for recency effect than primacy effect. However, if people recall the first few items first, then the primacy effect will be greater than the recency effect. Thus it is important to know and understand how we remember such things so we can effectively recall them when necessary. Typically, we are not required to remember the exact order or position in which items were presented when recalling them. Stigler reported that a physicist Francis Nipher has first documented the serial position effect when he noted that he was better able to remember the first few and last few graphs and figures that were presented in a physics paper. Therefore, the initial observations on serial position effect may be owing to metacogitive judgment about the recallability of items in a series (Castel, 2008).

About Mnemonics: Mnemonic devices are useful memory aids that can be applied to many different aspects of daily life. There are always certain tidbits of information that people just can’t seem to remember in the form they are presented. People rely on mnemonics when they create some association between that information they wish to remember and other concepts that they already know, or find easier to remember. The use of mnemonics has also been shown to be of significant value in the field of education. Manalo has shown that instruction using a specific type of mnemonics known as “process mnemonics” produced improvements of mathematical ability in students classified as learning disabled [3].Process mnemonics are used