MEMORY

MEMORY

1. Peterson & Peterson

   • Aim- To see if rehearsal was necerssary to hold information in the short term store
   • Method- Participants were given sets of three letters, but were immediately asked to count backwards in threes out loud for different lengths of time. his was done to prevent rehearsal
   • Results- Participants had forgotten virtually all of the information after 18 seconds
   • Conclusion - We cannot hold information in the short term store unless we can rehearse it.

2. Murdock

   • Aim- To provide evidence to Support the Multi Store explanation of memory
   • Method- List of words presented one at a time for 2 seconds per word- recall in any order
   • Results- Words at the end of the list were recalled first (Recency Effect) the words at the start of the list were then remembered next (Primacy Effect)
   • Conclusion- Provides evidence for separate short term and long term stores.

3. Bartlett

   • Aim- To see if people when given something unfamiliar to remember will alter the information
   • Method- Read a story called 'The War Of The Ghosts' Native American legend there were then asked to recall as accurately as possible. The retelling was repeated in the weeks that followed.
   • Results- Participants found it hard to remember parts of the story concerning spirits so they changed the story so it made more sense to them. Each time they retold it some more of the story changed.
   • Conclusion- Our Memory Is Influenced by our beliefs.

4. Wynn & Logie

   • Aim- To see if the recall of familiar stories changed in the same way that Batlett found with the unfamiliar stories.
   • Method- They asked university students to recall details of their first week at uni. They were asked to do this several times throughout the year.
   • Results- Accuracy of description remained the same no matter how many times they were asked to recall the information.
   • Conclusion- Memories for familiar events will not change over time

5. Craik & Lockhart

   • Aim- To see if the type of question asked about words will have an affect on the number of words recalled.
   • Method- Participants were presented with a list of words, one at a time, and asked questions about each word to which they had to answer 'yes' or 'no'. Some questions required Structural processing of the words,others required semantic processing and the remainder required phonetic processing.