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Introduction

Memory Test Introduction Research Method: Laboratory experiment Design: Repeated measures Aim Is recall of information improved when it is processed at a deep level rather than a shallow level? Background Research Atkinson and Schifrin proposed that memory can be thought of as a process which memory is divided into structural components including short-term memory (STM) which has a limited duration, and long-term memory (LTM) which has an unlimited duration. According to Atkinson and Schifrin's theory, information is passed from short-term to long-term memory through the process of rehearsal or repetition. Craik and Lockhart projected a different way of interpreting the evidence that short-term and long-term memory, are two different stores. They claimed that the idea of rehearsing information did not clarify whether or not the information gets stored in LTM. For information to be stored in LTM then the materials have to be deeply processed; however if the material is processed briefly then it would not be registered in LTM. Craik and Lockhart say that memory is a by-product of the way we process information. According to Craik and Lockhart, the more deeply we process information, the more likely we are to remember it. The three levels of processing they describe are: Level 1 - Structured, or Shallow level Visual - What the word looks like E.g. Is the word uppercase? ...read more.

Middle

To keep confidentiality, I need to make sure participants and the data gained from them, is anonymous unless they give their full consent. Also if participants initially agree, and then decide to withdraw that agreement at the end of the study or after they have been debriefed, all data and information about them must be deleted from the research. The participant suffering from distress also needs to be taken into consideration as I need to ensure that those taking part in the research will not be caused distress. Participants The target population I am using for my investigation are 16 to 18 year old students and I am experimenting on a sample of 10 participants. Materials For this investigation I would need the follow materials: ? A quiet room or area ? A table and chairs ? 30 flash cards with the relevant words and questions (Appendix A) ? A copy of the standardised instructions (Appendix B) ? A timer Procedure Standardised Procedures To ensure that all participants have the same experience, I have to ensure that they are all tested: ? In the same place, with the same equipment and materials placed in the same way. ? Under the same conditions, so the level of lighting, noise and heat remains the same for all participants; so the participants won't get distracted ? ...read more.

Conclusion

In my experiment Condition A required shallow processing and Condition B required phonemic processing. I found that there was a higher number of words recalled in Condition B than Condition A. This shows that we are likely to remember more words which require phonemic processing than shallow processing. Evaluation My overall research followed smoothly. The participants understood and responded well to my instructions, and justified my hypothesis. There are a number of critisisms of the levels of processing theory which include it does not explain how the deeper processing results in better memories. Deeper processing takes more effort than shallow processing and it could be this, rather than the depth of processing that makes it more likely people will remember something. The concept of depth is vague and cannot be observed. Therefore, it cannot be measured, Conclusion This experiment was based on Craik and Lockhart's theory on memory. Its aim was see whether recall of information improved when it is processed at a deep level rather than a shallow level? I found out that we are able to remember more information when you recall in deep level processing that shallow processing. As remember words in shallow processing would store the information in the short-term memory father than the long-term memory. This result support the findings Craik and Lockhart's study and concludes that processing information at a deep level would store the information in the long-term memory. ?? ?? ?? ?? Rianne Malcolm 12H ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Cognitive Psychology section.