The effect and role of organization on memory and recall

International Baccalaureate Psychology

PSYCHOLOGY PRACTICAL REPORT:

THE ROLE AND EFFECT OF

ORGANIZATION IN

MEMORY AND RECALL

Candidate Name : Tenzin Zomkey

Subject : IB 2 Psychology HL

Date of Submission : 5th Feb. 2009

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

This experiment was carried out in an attempt to test the role or effect of organization in memory and recall. Based on research done by Bower, Clark, Winzenz and Lesgold (1969), (which found that subjects showed better recall if presented with words in an organized format rather than just random), a less extensive reproduction of their work has been conducted in this report. Two different groups of participants were presented with identical sets of twenty two words to learn. For each group, the words were organized differently. One group had words that were organized in the form of an associative hierarchy, whereby one initial word is given at the top, followed by three words that had a strong association to the first and so forth, continuing this trend until a five level hierarchy comprising in total of twenty two words is achieved. Upon asking the participants to recall and write as many words as they could remember; the results showed that there indeed was, as Bower et al.’s research revealed, a better recall observed in the group that had the words in an organized format than the group with the random format. Thus, it supports the hypothesis and establishes the fact that organization does positively affect recall.

INTRODUCTION

Memory shares a very close, highly correlative relationship with learning. It serves as the most important, crucial part in the process of learning for humans and other animals. Since learning signifies some kind of permanent change in our behavior or a personal response benefitting/ derived from a past experience, it requires us to remember things; and memory is the process by which we are able to store, retain and recall information. The three main stages of memory are; encoding, which involves the perception of material, the initial registering of information into our brain; storage, which is the retention of those encoded information in our memory; and retrieval, which refers to the use of the information stored earlier in our memory. With the advent of the ‘cognitive revolution’ in the 1950s (Gross 277), researchers have produced a number of various theories on the subject of remembering and forgetting; one of which involves the role of organization in memory and recall. It has been observed that when we try to remember any kind information, our recall reflects the general organization of that given information. Even when people are presented with a list of words put in a random format, their recall show some order. This strongly implies that organization does affect our ability to recall.

Meyer (1973) claimed that ‘to remember is to have organized’, thus emphasizing on the importance of organization in memory. A large number of studies have been carried out to investigate the effects of a variety of methods of organizing information on recall. The major ones include; Bousefield (1953) presented his participants with a list of animals, places, names, etc. all organized in a random order to memorize. When asked to remember the list later, he found that subjects tended to recall words in a cluster of words all related to a certain category. For example, they recalled names of the animals together first and then the places and so forth in a certain order. Tulving (1980) claimed that even in the absence of an experimenter imposing organization, subjective organization occurs, whereby the learner organizes the material himself/herself. This could be observed in free recall studies where participants recall words in the same order despite changes in their presentation. He suggested subjects organized their material even when organization was not imposed. Mandler (1967) said that ‘if you organize something, you will learn it’. He asked subjects to organize a set of cards, each with a word on it, into seven columns. He instructed half the group to learn those words and didn’t say anything to the other. Later when they were asked to recall, he found that people in both groups were able to recall equally, laying forward the view that organization merely could be equivalent to learning.

And finally, Bower et al. (1969), upon whose research this report is based, carried out a study whereby one group of participants were presented with words that were organized in a form of an ‘associative hierarchy’ and another group was presented with the same words but in a random format to learn. Upon recall, it was found that that participants presented with the organized form could remember 47% more words than those who were given the random one.

Bower et al. suggest that subjects who were given the word in an organized format were able to work out a certain ...