Are participants more likely to recall a list of words, when words are accompanied by pictures?

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Emily Bridges

Are participants more likely to recall a list of words, when words are

accompanied by pictures?

Abstract:

The aim of my experiment was to discover whether words accompanied by an image is a better technique of remembering words than those without images. The experimental hypothesis was that there would be significantly more words recalled from a list of words accompanied by pictures than from the same list of words unaccompanied by pictures. An independent measures design was used to gain picture and non-picture scores from two sets of participants. A total of 32 participants were used from college using a casual sample. The results were in the form of scores and were analysed using the Mann Whitney U test, and were found to be significant at the 0.05 level of significance for a one tailed test. It was therefore concluded that the use of imagery, when remembering words is a more superior technique that trying to remember a list of words that is unaccompanied by imagery.

Introduction:

This study is designed to see if when words are accompanied by pictures the rate of retrieval is higher. To be able to predict a hypothesis we need to take a brief look at how the memory works, and some theories behind it.

Definitions of memory:

“the retention of learning or experience”*

“the capacity for storing and retrieving information”*

Components of memory: Memory is mostly used in one of three ways;

  1. A mental function in which information can be retrieved and retained. Memory is used when we organise something so it can be recalled later.
  2. A storage system where memories are retained, short-term and long-term memory are used with storage.
  3. The information we remember.

In this experiment we are concerned with the first use of memory, retaining and retrieving.

Retrieval: There are three types of remembering to do with retrieval:

  1. Recall – retrieval of information from memory
  2. Cued recall – when given information to help remember
  3. Recognition – when something seems familiar

Research has shown that the more items we have in the short-term memory the slower the rate of retrieval becomes. Sternberg (1966)*     demonstrated this by showing a participant a set of 1 – 6 digits that they had to retain in the short-term memory. After this they were then shown a probe digit and they had to reply whether or not this digit was in the list to be remembered. The participant rarely made an error, although the time it took for them to identify whether this word was in the list or not varied. It was

*        cited ‘Psychology – Remembering and Forgetting’

*        cited ‘Your Memory, A users Guide’

        

found that the decision time increased as the length of the list became longer. Each of the extra items put into the short-term memory added a fixed time to the retrieval process (approx. 40 milliseconds). This was not only true of digits but of things such as words, letters, peoples faces etc.

The research that Sternberg conducted has led researchers to believe that items are examined one at a time during the retrieval process, known as a serial search of the short-term memory. Other researchers have a similar theory that the information in which we retain is ‘catalogued’ so that the information can be accessed for whatever purpose it is needed. When something cues the information needed, memory knows exactly where it has been catalogued.

Once information reaches the short-term memory it can be retained in the long-term memory through rehearsal, otherwise it is lost.

An experiment similar to the one we are to conduct was under-taken by Murdock (1962)*    . Instead of investigating the amount of words that can be recalled Murdock investigated as to whether the positioning of the words in the list increased the likely-hood of them being recalled.

As you can see from the graph

the first words shown and the last words

shown were most likely to be recalled.

Murdock explained that the last words

were  still present in the short-term

memory, meaning they could be

recalled easily. The first few words were

entered into the short-term memory and

were rehearsed. Due to there being little

else in the short-term memory there was

time for them to be rehearsed. As the

short-term memory filled up with the

middle words the opportunity to rehearse

and transfer to the long-term memory was

reduced, therefore the middle words were

forgotten easily. This theory could affect the results of our experiment because it may mean that the middle words in the list may be forgotten about by the participants.

         In an experiment into imagery as an aid to learning Richardson (1974)*   tested the free recall of a list of ‘concrete’ and ‘abstract’ words. The interval at which the stimulus was presented and recalling it were varied, and Richardson concluded that words were recalled significantly more effectively from the long term memory (compared to ‘abstract’ words), compared to no difference with the recall from the short term memory.

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        Like Richardson, Bower (1972)*    conducted a study into the use of imagery as a learning aid. The experimenter showed two groups of participants 50 pairs of un-related nouns e.g. ‘dog’ and ‘hat’. The experimental group was asked to form a mental image whilst learning each of the pairs of words. The control group was asked to remember the words (with no reference to imagery being made). Both groups were given the same amount of time to remember the words. Later, each subject was shown first the first word in each pair and asked to recall the second word. The ...

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