The Role of Rehearsal in Short-Term Memory

S states that there are four phases to the human memory. He suggests that using a filing cabinet approach to learning things help with memorization. “Human memory is a four - stage process: input, encoding, rehearsal, and retrieval. A problem at any stage affects memory and learning”, (S, 2013). The author goes on to discuss how each process works within his system of learning and memorizing. Inputting information into the filing cabinet is through sensory. We are using taste, smell, sight, hearing and touching at this point just to organize and get the information into the brain but not memorizing or learning anything yet. This phase is the same as the first step in “Tips from the Science of Memory-for Studying and for Life”. Arranging the information in a way that it gives the best structure for remembering it. Next, we encode the information with short term memory, only knowing that the information is there but it is not yet fully understood or committed to long term memory. After that we will rehearse and practice the information that is organized and filed neatly in the filing cabinet because now we know where to go to look for the correct information when we need it for retrieval, the final step of the process. We need to know where to look for the things we have rehearsed and practiced over and over, this information is now committed to long term memory and the only way to keep what we have learned in long term memory is to rehearse it continuously. The author gave some tips on how to maximize our memory capabilities such as studying in a well-lit area, be organized with study material and have everything you need before beginning, get 6-8 hours of sleep every night, and take planned breaks during studying

Outline and evaluate research in to the duration, capacity and encoding information in short term memory.

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.

The independent variable was represented by three conditions; three word lists printed in a variety of color inks. Two of the lists consisted of word colors; one in black ink and the other in incongruent colors. The third list consisted of square blocks in contrasting colors. The dependent variable was the time taken to name the black ink words, the square block colors, and the color names in

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

The results of Roediger and McDermott’s experiment were very significant. The participants recalled the critical distractor words 40% of the time compared to 14% recall of the normal distractor words. When they

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

Atkinson’s and Shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store model was extremely successful in terms of the amount of research it generated. However, as a result of this research, it became apparent that there were a number of problems with their ideas concerning the characteristics of short-term memory. Building on this research, Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they called working memory. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) argued that the picture of short-term memory (STM) provided by the Multi-Store Model is far too simple. According to the Multi-Store Model, STM holds limited amounts of information for short periods of time with relatively little processing. It is

2. A teacher is interested in comparing the effects of three different types of rehearsal methods (Rote rehearsal, Imagery, and Story) on number of words recalled. Participants are randomly assigned into three different groups. In each group, participants are asked to study a list of words using the assigned method. The following table

The Stroop test consisted two major posters of word lists: Incongruent list and Neutral list. Each poster included 20 words in 2 columns of 10 words each. All letters were stenciled, capitalized and 1 ¾ inches high. Both incongruent and neutral words were listed on the 56 x 71 cm posters Stopwatch with 0.01-second accuracy was used to time to measure how long participants took to read both incongruent and neutral word lists, which is a dependent variable for this experiment.

The same number of words and their length were the same in both conditions. The same colour shades and the order they were used, as well as how many times each word was presented, to negate practice effects, was equal in both conditions. The order of the conditions was alternated consecutively, participant one starting with condition one and then participant two starting with condition two and so on, again to negate any practice effects.

Each experiment had the same procedure among different participant groups. The participants in the first experiment was thirty-one undergraduate or graduate student from the University of Cambridge. For the second experiment, fifty-nine people were recruited by community advertisement. And in the last experiment, twenty-seven survivors from fatal motor vehicle accidents, who developed PTSD (PTSD+) or never suffered from PTSD (PTSD-), were recruited through newspaper advertisements and from local clinics. In each trail of the experiment, the participants need to complete a storage task, which required them to remember 4 to 7 words, and an operation task, which asked them to count the number of a specific shape before and after the present of words. The words and shapes was shown over a neutral or negative background. In each trail, the participants need to complete the task 6 times. In each task, over a background image, four shapes popped up with 250ms each, and a word would appear for 350ms, and the other three shapes would show up with 250ms each. After that, the background image disappeared and the participants need to answer a question about the number of a specific shape they saw. After repeat this for 7 times, the participants were asked to write down all the words they saw in the order they presented. The percentage they correctly recalled was recorded. In each experiment, the independent variables were the negative background

• Condition 1 – 25 participants were given a printed grid of 30 random words and given 2 minutes to memorise them. Participants were seated at a table/desk in a quiet room. After learning there is then a 2 minute pause after which participants were given a further 2 minutes in which to recall the words.

This study is a conceptualized replication of the Howes and Solomon (1951) experiment investigating word accuracy and word frequency in short duration trials. It is hypothesized that words that appear more often in printed text (easier to access in the lexicon) will be more accurately identified rather than words that appear less commonly. A total of 83 participants in the study were presented with words taken from the Throndike-Lorge database. The words were presented for one second with a six second rest in the middle. This was done sixty times and the results suggest a moderate strong relationship between word accuracy and frequency. Though there are multiple factors that may have influenced these results.

This data is very similar to the study done by Huang, Tomasini, and Nikel (1977), where there was roughly a 50% difference between words presented in the beginning of the list and those presented later. The current study most resembled this study, as they both had to do with sequential positioning of words on a list, and short-term memory recall. The other two studies, performed by Asch (1946) and Furnam (1986), are harder to compare to the current study because they differ in setup, and give results in a different format. However, both studies confirmed the primacy effect theory, similarly to the current study.