Categorisation in Long-Term Memory

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Categorisation in Long-Term Memory

Introduction

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) designed the multi-store model of memory suggesting that we have three different memory stores and that information must be rehearsed and encoded to move through each stage, the long-term memory having the largest capacity and where memory is coded semantically.  This supports that there is in fact a short-term memory and a long-term memory.

The study I have chosen is based on memory from the cognitive approach to psychology.  Content that is stored in our long-term memory should be well arranged so that it can be retrieved easily.  Without organising material, information in the brain would be less accessible to recall.  Items in the long-term memory must be grouped together according to their meanings or recovering that information would be very difficult.  Support for this are in the paragraphs below.  Studies which involve free recall allow participants to recall material in any order they wish.  By doing this you can see how much material is actually grouped by its meaning in the long-term memory.

Bower et al (1969) showed 2 groups a list of the same 112 words.  The first group had the words organised in a hierarchy and were able to remember 65% of the words listed.  The second group had the words listed randomly and thus was only able to recall 18% of the words.  This implies that the long-term memory stores information by organisation as well as categorisation and that people will remember more information if the information organised.

Bousfield (1953) gave participants 60 words to study; they consisted of 15 names, 15 animals, 15 professions and 15 vegetables.  The participants were asked to recall as many words as possible.  The participants remembered the words in clusters according to their category.  This suggests that there must be some kind of semantic organisation in the long-term memory that helps improve recall.  

Rationale

Bower found that information stored in the long term memory is organised into categories.  Bower’s hierarchy mainly consisted of words that are not normally used in everyday language, therefore lacking ecological validity and cannot be applied to everyday life.  My experiment uses words that are frequently used in everyday life which improves the ecological validity. Atkinson and Shiffrin showed that memory is coded semantically in long-term memory.   My study is replicating Bousfield’s study however, I am changing the categories because I think that 60 words is too large for a group of young students and that words should be more related to a younger persons vocabulary.  My study will be looking at this as it involves organisation and memorisation in the long-term memory.  My study will show me if people can remember words better when from and organised list or from a random list of words, allowing me to claim cause and effect.  

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Aim

The aim is on categorisation in the long-term memory.  It be testing whether the grouping of words upon memorisation (learning) helps increase the accuracy of that information when it is retrieved or recalled.

Hypothesis

My study will show the differences in the accuracy of recall between words which are categorised and words which are listed randomly.  Words which are in some kind of order will improve the semantic coding and therefore more of the words will be recalled then with a random list of words.  

Method

The method used was a field experiment as it took ...

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