AS Psychology Coursework- Research on Deeper Processing

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AS Psychology Coursework

Research on Deeper Processing


Contents


  1. Introduction

Background Researches

- In Craik and Lockhart’s levels of processing approach (1972), they suggested that how we process information greatly influences whether we will remember something. Significant events are often remembered much better than mundane events because we have put extra consideration onto them – i.e. deeper processing. This produces a more elaborate and longer lasting memory and significantly improves the ability to recall. They have suggested that there are 3 different levels of processing, in increasing levels of deepness: structural (the appearance of something), phonetic (the sound of something), and semantic (the meaning of something). As the processing level gets deeper the ability to recall gets better.

- Craik and Tulving did a research in 1975 to prove their theory. They performed an experiment on the 3 different depth of processing and how they affect recall on words. The participants were presented with lists of words for a very short period of time. After the presentation, the participants were asked “yes” or “no” questions on specific aspects of the word which would stimulate either one of the 3 levels of processing. (such as “what does this word rhyme with?” which stimulates phonetic processing.)

Participants would answer the questions. After all the words were shown, they were unexpectedly asked to take a memory test requiring them to identify words they have just encountered in a list of random words. The results then showed that 70% of the semantically-processed words were recognized. However, only 35% and 15% of the words that were phonetically and structurally processed were recalled, respectively.

Rationale

According to the levels of processing theory, significant events improves memory, this suggests that if an idea is not only just presented to an individual, but also explained, it will be much easier to remember. Furthermore, the levels of processing experiment showed that semantic is the deepest processing level possible. This leads to a conclusion that semantic analysis results in deeper processing, which results in a longer lasting memory. Word definitions should be a way to help others process the words semantically. If examples of the words’ usage are shown then there would be a deeper processing. This study will find out how demonstrations of a word’s usages can help an individual remember that word better.

Aims

The aim of this experiment is to find out whether a list of words definitions with examples of the word usage can create deeper processing, hence leading to a better recall than just a list of word and definitions.

Hypotheses

H0 – There will be no difference between the number of words recalled correctly when the word definitions include examples and when the word definitions do not include examples.

H1 – More words will be recalled correctly when the word definitions include examples than when the word definitions don’t have examples.


2. Methodology

Method and Design

The Experiment Method was used because the variables are easily controlled and the relationships are shown between the independent variable and the dependant variable, hence making it very suitable for memory investigation. The design utilized was Independent Measure, the participants were randomly split into two groups, and one group received the list with examples whereas the other received the list without.

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Variables

The independent variable is whether or not the list of SAT vocabulary word definitions included examples on how the words can be used in a sentence. The dependant variable, on the other hand, is the number of words recalled correctly.

Participants

The participants were a class of 30 students from an International School in Hong Kong, age ranging from 16 to 18. Genders, cultures and ethnicity were all mixed. They were sampled using opportunity sampling; the people who were present and available in the class were asked to participate. This sampling method is chosen because it ...

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