The study that is to be investigated is derived from the cognitive area of psychology. A major area of this approach that relates to this study is memory, which more specifically looks at "investigating the serial position effect in memory."

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Introduction

 

        The study that is to be investigated is derived from the cognitive area of psychology. A major area of this approach that relates to this study is memory, which more specifically looks at “investigating the serial position effect in memory.”         

        In the past, a number of relevant studies to the ‘serial position effect in memory’ have been conducted. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968, 1971) introduced what was arguably the most influential model of memory, the two-process model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(A diagram illustrating Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi store model)

 

 

They suggested that incoming information is instantaneously transferred to sensory memory, which can uphold information for up to one second (Sperling, 1960) before being lost. If this information is attended to it is coded in short-term memory (STM). Similarly, information rehearsed adequately in STM is coded in long-term memory (LTM). This theory is widely accepted and shows the existence of STM and LTM. Therefore, it also provides reason for the serial position curve (SPC) as the two peaks in the curve (refer to diagram below) highlight the effect of STM and LTM; whereas information not attended to or rehearsed enough is lost. This explains the unique shape of the SPC.

 

 

        

(A graph showing the Serial Position Curve)        

 

 

LTM is thought to have unlimited capacity. STM has a limit and Miller (1956) proposed that its capacity is between five to nine chunks of information. A chunk of information refers to a unit of the material being presented. He believes a chunk is limited by how the information is organised into a meaningful unit. Miller’s theory explains the serial position curve because in the beginning the STM is empty, and information can be rehearsed effectively to the LTM. However as more information is being presented, not all can be rehearsed in time and stored in LTM, so many words in the middle are displaced and lost due to limited storage space of STM. Hence, items at the end are left in STM as they have yet to be displaced and thus explain better recall towards the end of the list.  

 

 

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) conducted two important experiments that demonstrated change in the outcome of the serial position curve.

 

Firstly, they discovered that delaying recall by 30 seconds destroys the recency effect causing recall of words to be similar to ones in the middle, however it does not influence primacy effect. Their second experiment had them slow the rate in which words were read out to subjects. This enhanced the primacy effect whilst not affecting the recency effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two experiments each change the primacy and recency effect individually causing no change to the opposite effect. This suggests that STM and LTM are separate stores of memory.

 

 

Rationale

 

        The issue to be investigated in this study is the serial position effect in memory.

Glanzer and Cunitz’s study demonstrated the effects of delaying recall on the recency effect. Repeating the experiment with a completely new set of words (using words that are of one syllable) from Glanzer and Cunitz can increase the validity and possibly reliability of the study.

        A wordlist is easier to measure recall rather than a sentence of words as it allows all words for recall to be one-syllable, although recalling a sentence does improve ecological validity. Words can easily be changed into percentages and displayed as a graph. It can also be used for comparison to previous studies as they were done in a similar manner.  

        Two conditions are also needed for comparison. A control condition (no delay) can then be measured up against the experimental condition (with delay).

 

Aim

        

        The aim of this experiment is to investigate the serial position effect in memory and its changes in relation to delay in recall in order to support, validate and demonstrate reliable the experiment of Glanzer and Cunitz.

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Hypothesis

 

        The presence or absence of delay in recall will affect which words (position) are recalled from a list.

 

 

 

 

 

Method

 

Method and Design

 

        The method used for this experiment was a laboratory experiment. It is the appropriate choice as this investigation looks at the manipulation of the independent variable (IV), time delay in recall and sees how it affects the dependent variable (DV), position of the list for the word(s) recalled. This demonstrates the ‘cause and effect’ relationship between the two variables, thus making it experimental.

        The design used ...

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