Participant profile: 22 year old, sophomore, undergrad student
Immediate recall(in order): paper, woods, green, seat, tire, wheel, gift, keyboard, bottle, brush, accurate, number, analysis, system
1 hour later (in order): paper, green, woods, seat, wheel, tire, gift, bottle, brush, keyboard, numbers, system
What is going on?
Both in the immediate and delayed recall the primacy and recency effects seems to be obvious. Compared to last week`s experiment, the rate at which the words were read was slower in that there were 10 seconds among the words not 1 second or so. In other words, the rate was slower. So, think this facilitated recall of more words this week simply because the participant had a chance to employ any memory strategy. No matter what these were, it seems that they also affected the delayed recall performance as well. Consequently, after the delayed recall, I asked the participant whether she implemented any memory strategy to recall the words. She said that she really loves her bedroom and tried to insert the ‘images’ of the words in some places in her room. This seems to refer to facilitative effects of visual imagery on recall. She also said that she was able to rehearse the words through inner speech while creating images in her mind and locating them in her room. Locating the words in her room does seem to be a mnemonic device called method of loci. More interestingly, she said that she located some items next to each other. For instance, the words “gift, keyboard, bottle, brush” were placed on her desk next to her computer basically her computer`s keyboard substituting for “keyboard”. Her chair represented the word “seat’ having a “wheel” with “tires” under it. To me, these refer to organization of the word list in a categorical way that was abstract (there does not seem to be a direct link among gift, keyboard, bottle, and brush). Also, gift was represented by a real gift she got two weeks ago. I think this indicates people are able to associate new things with familiar prior knowledge and can activate both during retrieval. Moreover, regarding ‘paper, woods, green” she claimed that she located the word “paper” in her room again in her room and when she heard “woods”, she located a “forest” painting on one of the walls and “green” was added as the color of the trees in the painting. However, while adding “green” to the “woods” painting she said she came up with this connection: “Paper is made from woods that are green.”, which seems to be elaborative rehearsal. She also said that when asked to remember the words in question, she went through all these again. This seems to suggest that she turned it into an autobiographical memory. It is also interesting that she employed both method of loci and elaborative rehearsal simultaneously. This flexibility seems to be awesome in that when she realized that her beginning strategy could not apply to new words (locating “green woods” in her room), she managed to employ another strategy and embed it into the former. Finally, in creating “accurate number analysis in a system” she seems to have employed elaborative maintenance again and she created a visual image of an “abacus” again placed in her room.
The participants` performance on the delayed recall does not seem to be quite different from the one on the immediate recall except for the order of some words. This seems to indicate that what she did was quite effective. I think this is because she did not only remember the words but also the context (strategies) as well. In other words, especially, on the delayed recall she does not seem to have tried to remember her room full of “words” but also employed the mnemonics and rehearsal again. This might explain even the word order similarity between immediate and delayed recalls better, I think. Two words “analysis” and ‘accurate” does not exist on the delayed recall list. This seems to me to show that even though memory strategies like elaborative rehearsal work effectively, they can fail as well. Maybe, the “abacus” image was not as strong enough to integrate “analysis” and “accurate” as it does “number” and “system”.
At the very end, I also asked her whether she could name all these strategies in memory terms. She said these were mnemonics but could not identify the subcategory (e.g., method of loci), which seems to show that she employed these strategies spontaneously at least without prior planning after she learned that she needed to remember them.
1 hour later (in order): paper, green, woods, seat, wheel, tire, gift, bottle, brush, keyboard, numbers, system
What is going on?
Both in the immediate and delayed recall the primacy and recency effects seems to be obvious. Compared to last week`s experiment, the rate at which the words were read was slower in that there were 10 seconds among the words not 1 second or so. In other words, the rate was slower. So, think this facilitated recall of more words this week simply because the participant had a chance to employ any memory strategy. No matter what these were, it seems that they also affected the delayed recall performance as well. Consequently, after the delayed recall, I asked the participant whether she implemented any memory strategy to recall the words. She said that she really loves her bedroom and tried to insert the ‘images’ of the words in some places in her room. This seems to refer to facilitative effects of visual imagery on recall. She also said that she was able to rehearse the words through inner speech while creating images in her mind and locating them in her room. Locating the words in her room does seem to be a mnemonic device called method of loci. More interestingly, she said that she located some items next to each other. For instance, the words “gift, keyboard, bottle, brush” were placed on her desk next to her computer basically her computer`s keyboard substituting for “keyboard”. Her chair represented the word “seat’ having a “wheel” with “tires” under it. To me, these refer to organization of the word list in a categorical way that was abstract (there does not seem to be a direct link among gift, keyboard, bottle, and brush). Also, gift was represented by a real gift she got two weeks ago. I think this indicates people are able to associate new things with familiar prior knowledge and can activate both during retrieval. Moreover, regarding ‘paper, woods, green” she claimed that she located the word “paper” in her room again in her room and when she heard “woods”, she located a “forest” painting on one of the walls and “green” was added as the color of the trees in the painting. However, while adding “green” to the “woods” painting she said she came up with this connection: “Paper is made from woods that are green.”, which seems to be elaborative rehearsal. She also said that when asked to remember the words in question, she went through all these again. This seems to suggest that she turned it into an autobiographical memory. It is also interesting that she employed both method of loci and elaborative rehearsal simultaneously. This flexibility seems to be awesome in that when she realized that her beginning strategy could not apply to new words (locating “green woods” in her room), she managed to employ another strategy and embed it into the former. Finally, in creating “accurate number analysis in a system” she seems to have employed elaborative maintenance again and she created a visual image of an “abacus” again placed in her room.
The participants` performance on the delayed recall does not seem to be quite different from the one on the immediate recall except for the order of some words. This seems to indicate that what she did was quite effective. I think this is because she did not only remember the words but also the context (strategies) as well. In other words, especially, on the delayed recall she does not seem to have tried to remember her room full of “words” but also employed the mnemonics and rehearsal again. This might explain even the word order similarity between immediate and delayed recalls better, I think. Two words “analysis” and ‘accurate” does not exist on the delayed recall list. This seems to me to show that even though memory strategies like elaborative rehearsal work effectively, they can fail as well. Maybe, the “abacus” image was not as strong enough to integrate “analysis” and “accurate” as it does “number” and “system”.
At the very end, I also asked her whether she could name all these strategies in memory terms. She said these were mnemonics but could not identify the subcategory (e.g., method of loci), which seems to show that she employed these strategies spontaneously at least without prior planning after she learned that she needed to remember them.