Murdock (1962)

Murdock (1962)

1. Aim

   • Investigating free recall and the effect it had on a person's memory

2. Method

   • Participants were given a number of words to remember and were asked to recall as many as they could (in no order)

3. Results

   • First words to be recalled were the words that were heard last (the recency effect); and the other words recalled were those heard first (the primacy effect)

4. Conclusion

   • We remember the first and last words on a list well
     • Remember the first words because they have been encoded and stored in long-term memory.
       • Last words are remembered because they are recalled straight from short term memory

5. Evaluation

   • Lacks ecological validity because the setting is artificial therefore doesn't represent a real life situation
   • Researchers collect quantitive data which is easier to analyse