The aim of the study was to investigate the variation between memorizing words from organised lists and non-organised lists.

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AN INVESTIGATION TO EXAMINE THE DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE MEMORIZING OBJECTS FROM ORGANISED AND NON-ORGANISED OBJECTS.

AIM

The aim of the study was to investigate the variation between memorizing words from organised lists and non-organised lists.

INTRODUCTION

The investigation was similar to the ‘Bower et al’ study (1969) of whether organisation of data facilitates memorizing it. Methods of organisation to assist in enhancing memorizing objects have been performed, by, for example, asking participants to categorise lists of objects into a meaningful arrangement prior to memorizing it; this technique is called organisation. Participants in one condition, (the experimental group) were presented with 4 groups of words which each consisted of seven words in the form of a list. All of the words in each group were categorised in a meaningful way. Participants in the second condition, (the control group) were presented with all the twenty-eight words randomly jumbled. When the experimental group participants are asked to recall the words, they complement each word with the group it originated from by using the meaning of the word and categorising it accordingly. This study aimed to test the efficacy and helpfulness of the organisation technique as assistance to memory and recall.

HYPOTHESIS

People will remember and recall words more easily when the words are organised into meaningful groups than when the words are not organised into meaningful groups.

METHOD

A matched participant design was used in this investigation. Participants from the experimental group were each asked to memorize words from lists that were categorised in groups. Subsequently, they were asked to recall as much words as possible. In condition 2, participants were presented with words which were disorganised randomly. They were also asked to recall as much words as possible. A matched participant design was chosen because it necessitated a lot of participants since there would need to be an experimental group and a control group. Therefore, the repeated measures design was not possible. Compared to the independent measures design the matched participant design was better in ensuring that participants in each group were similar in abilities, so it was much more sensitive to the dependent variable than in the independent measures design.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

The independent variable was the use of the Organisation technique, arranging words meaningfully, to facilitate memory and recall.

DEPENDENT VARIABLE

The dependent variable was the number of words that each participant recalled.

EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES

One of the extraneous variables in this experiment was identified as the time given for reading (in the mind) and learning, the lists of words. The amount of time given to each participant for recalling the words was also identified as an extraneous variable. A third one was distractions and interruptions which may have affected the concentration of the participants in the two conditions. Memory ability of participants was also an extraneous variable.

CONTROL OF EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES

8 minutes was given to read in the mind and learn the lists for both conditions. 5 minutes was given for the recall of words in both conditions. The times given to learn the lists and recall the lists were both conducted in silence. Prior to allocating the participants to a control group or experimental group, they were each given a simple memory test; scores were matched in pairs in order to pair participants in twos. A participant from each pair was randomly allocated to either the experimental group or control group. In this way, memory ability was fairly similar in both groups.

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PARTICIPANTS

The experimental group and control group each consisted of 8 participants. Out of all 16 participants, 5 were male and 11 were female all aged 16 years. Therefore differences in age were not identified as an extraneous variable. An opportunity sample was utilised, since a large number of potential participants would have been difficult to acquire. Participants were chosen from friends; this is the people who were available without any trouble, and who were willing to partake in the experiment.

MATERIALS

The materials for this experiment were simply, 20 pieces of A4 Paper. 8 of these ...

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