The Serial Position Effect

Short term memory is a part of the memory storage system. This is capable of storing information for a very short period of time as the duration that short term memory is limited. This was researched by psychologists Peterson and Peterson in 1959, they conducted a huge

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

The findings by Mayr et al. (2003) sparked a debate due to conflicts with the results found by Gratton et al. (1992). Gratton et al. (1992) had previously looked at the possibility of a repetition priming effect and found that there

The hypothesis that in Experiment 1, words at the beginning and end of a list would be better remembered while in Experiment 2, words at the beginning would be better remembered, was partially rejected, while still being partially true. The hypothesis that a delay would in fact make a difference was supported. In both tests, words in the first third seemed to be remembered by significantly more of the participants. However despite the predictions, words in the last third of experiment 1 seemed to be not significantly more than words in the middle third. experiment2 did seem to fit with the hypothesis, as the words at the start seemed to be higher than the rest, but there was a absurdity on word 16, “ocean,” which was recalled 7 out of the 9 times. Apart from this, experiment 2 seemed to support the hypothesis.

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

Our short-term memory is said to require the allocation of cognitive resources (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968). Peterson & Peterson (1959) conducted the classic study of short-term

The results indicated Mayra’s ability to process information that was being held within short-term memory was within the Above Average range (Working Memory standard score = 113). Mayra’s performance of the subtest Recall of Digits backward (T-Score = 60) was better than her performance on the Recall of Sequential Order subtest (T-Score = 55). Both tasks required Mayra to listen to a list of verbally presented words and/or numbers. She was required to hold the list in short-term memory while working on the list and re-ordering the words/numbers. Recall of Digits Backward was presented verbally. On Recall of Digits Backward, Mayra used an interesting strategy to successfully recall the numbers. When she struggled to remember the order of the numbers, she would verbally recall the list in the initial order and go back and say them in the required, backward form. On the Recall of Sequential Order subtest, the examiner presented the lists of body parts verbally. Mayra was required to encode the presented information and store it in her short-term memory. Then, she needed to mentally manipulate the encoded information to produce the body parts in a specific order. The ordering of the information required Mayra to visualize the body parts in sequential order from head to toe (e.g., elbow, foot, shoulder → shoulder, elbow, foot). Most

15. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of speed on the recall of abstract and concrete words. The hypothesis of this research is that words heard at normal speed will be easier recalled then those heard at a fast speed.

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

final experiment Johnson, Hollingworth, and Luck tested to see whether whole-array stimuli would generate a binding deficit. The main alteration that researchers used was color and shape rather than that of the use of color and orientation. This study used a 3-digit number that each participant was to repeat aloud during experiment. Displayed for participant was a stimulus randomly assigned a positon or centered on the display screen. A small time allotment was given for participants to respond. Findings suggest that overall accuracy was highest within the whole display in the color only condition. Johnson, Hollingworth, and Luck conclude that having a multitude of objects to focus on, memory performance remained near 65% correct in the dual-task binding condition. (Johnson, Hollingworth, & Luck, 2008)

This study will attempt to replicate the findings of Godden and Baddeley (1975) by examining the importance of context in learning and recall. In addition, we will examine whether lack of perceptual cues in the environment affects recall.

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

The recency effect is the concept that when we are presented with a list of items, we have a higher percent of recall for the last few items on the list than we do for items in the middle of the list. This effect only occurs when there

In 1962, Murdock preformed a simple free recall experiment, similar to Condition One of this study. He found that words in the middle of a list had been subject to displacement, in the sense that they had been stored too long to be put into short-term memory (STM), but not long enough to be stored into long-term memory (LTM). When primacy and recency effects are present, it is thought that information is recalled from both STM and LTM. In 1966, Glanzer and Cunditz preformed a very similar experiment, but added a distractor task. What they found was that the words at the end of the list are only remembered if recalled first and tested immediately, which delayed recall, eliminating the recency effect. If this explanation is correct, then we could anticipate our results for experiment one to feature both evidence of primacy and recency effects, while with conditions two and three, we can expect no recency effect. The data supported the hypothesis for the first and second conditions, however, did not for condition three because there was evidence of a recency

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).