Picture Superiority Effect

According to this approach, dissociation between an implicit and explicit memory test reflect dissociation in different cognitive operations required at the time of the tests (Roediger, 1990). While explicit memory depends on conceptually-driven cognitive operations during encoding and retrieval, implicit memory depends on perceptually-driven (data- or visually-driven) mechanisms (Boehm & Sommer, 2012; Mulligan, 2012). More is the extent of overlap of these cognitive operations between encoding and testing conditions, better is the performance on explicit and implicit memory tests (Lee, 2002; Yoo,

1. Hockenbury, Don H., and Sandra E. Hockenbury. "Chapter 6- Memory." Psychology. 5th ed. New York: Worth, 2010. 282-83. Print

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

In conclusion, I have looked at how we think and shown that by organising our thoughts we can improve our memory. Mental imagery allows us to use pictures, concepts allow us to categorise information, and by developing schemas we can compartmentalise relevant information about specific things.

“…unless our words, concepts, ideas are hooked onto an image, they will go in one ear, sail through the brain, and go out the other ear. Words are processed by our short-term memory where we can only retain about seven bits of information (plus or minus 2) […]. Images, on the other hand, go directly into long-term memory where they are indelibly etched.” (qtd. in Gutierrez)

In experiments of scene memory, subjects viewed hundreds of photographs of natural scenes. Afterward, they were asked to identify which photograph they had seen and which ones they had never viewed before. Even though subjects can recognize previously viewed pictures very well, the memories were not linked to the precise visual form. In addition, subjects failed to detect changes when the images were mirror-reversed. These

Psychology researcher, Linda Henkel, discovered the ‘Photo-taking impairment effect’. It is the idea that taking pictures instead of concentrating in the event prevents the memory holding skills. The effect appeared more frequently these days as the use of cameras and smartphones increased. No matter what researches were found, there are people who prefer preserving valuable memories inside their camera by the means of keeping it forever. When they travel to different places, the first thing they usually do is taking a picture of the beautiful scene.

The results show that there is a difference in the words being recalled in the imagery method and in the words being recalled in the rote rehearsal method. The data showed that there was a greater amount of words recalled by imagery than there was in rote rehearsal. Rote rehearsal had a mean value of 8.28, which wasn’t that close to imagery. Imagery had a mean value of 12.96. The median and mode for rote rehearsal had a value of 8, and both the median and mode for imagery had a value of 13. It wasn’t until the standard deviation that rote rehearsal increased higher than imagery. Rote rehearsal had a standard deviation of 5.11, while imagery had a standard deviation of 4.67.

In both of the tasks, the research participant confidently listed a word that was not originally part of the picture or the list of words. For example, the participant in test A1 listed the word ``door`` and omitted other details that he was not attention to it in the original picture. He added the words that made sense in completing the missing parts of the picture in his memory. In test A2, the research participant circled the words ``sleep`` because some of the words such as night, bed and snoring interfered with his information and made him imagined that this word was listed. After the distractive discussion about what he ate for breakfast, he also circled the words table and chair as he remembered the details of the moment breakfast and he recreated a memory that he believed it was accurate.

The influence of context on memory recall was examined in an experiment based on Godden and Baddeley’s (1975) Context Dependent Memory study. Previous research suggests that memory recall is improved when learning and recall occur in the same environment. The current experiment examined the importance of context and perceptual clues in memory recall by manipulating the learning and recall environments for a memory task using a list of 30 random words tested on three groups of participants: each group learnt a list of words in one environment and recalled them in

The children accurately identified more images that were shown from the first part of the experiment than the adults. This proves that the myth, “children memorize much more easily than adults” is true. Based on the results it is easier for the children to remember what they see or trying to remember because its easier for them to use their basic skills than adults. Children have more capabilities to easily remember because they pay more attention to the details than adults. On the other hand, adults prefer to categorize what they see or trying to remember because it makes it easier for them to remember, therefore they don’t easily remember every details unless they are prompted to remember them. Adults are also good at memorizing but they

One of the ways we organise our thinking is by using mental images. By forming a mental image, we are thinking about something by constructing a mental picture of it in our mind. There are various ways of constructing mental images which can lead to better recall when trying to remember things. The mental image will give us a cue when we come to recalling the information. We will have

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

It involves the oral presentation of a list of semantically related words and then requires the subject to remember as many words from the list as possible. Typically, results show that subjects recall related but non-presented “lure” words as frequently as other presented words. This paradigm has sparked much research in the area of cognitive psychology including a study performed by Blair, Lenton, and Hastie, aiming to examine the reliability of the paradigm as a measure of individual differences. They examined this through a 2-week test-retest design. The primary focus of this study was to determine whether the overall levels of correct and false recognition demonstrate similar or different levels of reliability. The subject pool for this study consisted of 59 University of Colorado students, who participated in the study in partial fulfillment of a course requirement. They were presented with five word lists, four of which were taking from the DRM (1995) and the last one consisted of stereotypical social roles associated with males and females. After studying the lists, the subjects were asked to complete a recognition test that consisted of words from all of the lists and both related and unrelated lures of the list words. Approximately 2 weeks later, the participants completed the same study-test sequence. The social role list was added to investigate the influence of social associations on false memories. This was included in the investigation because nearly all of the research with the DRM paradigm studied strictly nonsocial associations. After analysis, the study concluded that the false memories produced in the paradigm were both globally and specifically stable across the 2-week period. It was suggested that these results could have been influenced by the study’s methodology. The same lists and tests were used in both study-test sessions, therefore,

However, half of the participants were assigned a File A containing 8 words while the other half were assigned a File A containing 2 words. Furthermore, all the participants were assigned a File B containing 8 words. When the results were analyzed, experimenters discovered that for trials in which File A contained 8 words and trials in which File A contained 2 words, participants that saved File A remembered a significantly larger proportion of the words from File A than participants who did not save File A. Participants that saved a File A containing 8 words also remembered a significantly larger proportion of words from File B than participants who were assigned a File A containing 8 words but did not save it. However, participants that saved a File A containing 2 words and participants who were assigned a File A containing 2 words but did not save it did not significantly differ in the proportion of words they remembered from File B.