Learn lists of words with 2 secs per word. Then were told to recall the
words in any order. Words from the end of the lost were recalled the best
and the ones at the beginning were also quoted quite well
Primacy/recency effect
Evaluation
Lacks ecological validity and mundane realism - Not very realistic
Not everything in the world has to be recalled only remembered
Practical Implication
Helps us understand why it is so difficult top remember phone
numbers as the primacy and recency effect will mostly remember the
first and last numbers
Practical apps
Car registrations not being longer than 7
Postcodes not longer than 7
Reconstructive memory
Bartlett
See if people would alter the information in a story to make it seem more familiar
if it seemed odd to them. Recalled the war of the ghosts several times in following
weeks .
.Each time they told it they replaced unfamiliar elements with more familiar times. Changing it more
each time they retold it
Evaluation
Very difficult to measure accuracy of retelling of story. High Mundane realism as the situation is quite real
Practical Applications
Explains why two different people may give two completely different version of the same event
Does not necessarily mean one of them is lying
Be careful with eyewitness testimonies
Whilst thinking they might be accurate they may be altering the information without meaning to
Levels of processing
Structural processing - Physical appearance of words
Phonetic processing - Sounds of the words
Semantic processing - Meaning of the words
Craik and Lockhart
Participants presented with a list of words one at a time. Had to answer questions about the words with yes/no
answers. Required different kinds of processing for each question. 70% identified words which required semantic.
35% phonetic. 15% Structural
Evaluation - Doesn't explain why semantic is better only
proves it is. Some say that deeper processing takes a lot
more time. Low ecological validity and mundane realism
Practical applications
Improve study skills
Forgetting
Interference
Underwood and Postman
2 groups A and B. Group A had two lists of two word pairs they had to learn. Group B only having 1 list.
Group B's first list more accurate then group A. New learning interfered with the learning of the first list with the group A
Retroactive interference - recently learnt
information hinders our ability to recall other
information we recently learnt
Proactive interference - when information
we have already learnt hinders our ability
to recall new information
Context
Godden and Baddeley
Deep sea divers in 4 groups. Group 1 underwater recall and learn words. Group 2
Learn underwater recall above water. Group 3 Learn on shore and recall on shore.
Group 4 learn on shore and recall underwater.
Groups 1 and 3 recalled 40% more words than Groups 2 and 4.
Recalling will be better if it is the same place as it learnt
Practical application - Studying in same place as exam will
help to remember information
Brain Damage
Anterograde amnesia - being unable to
lean new information after suffering brain
damage
Retrograde amnesia - Loss of memory for
events that happened before the brain damage
occured
Eyewitness testimonies
Factors affecting eye witness testimonies
Leading questions
Loftus and Palmer
Participants shown videos of car crash and asked how fast
the other car 'hit' the other one or 'smashed'. Those who were
asked smashed instead of hit gave a higher average speed than
those who didn't
Leading questions can affect accuracy of recalled information
Unfamiliar faces
Bruce and Young
Psychology lecturers were caught on security cameras at
the entrance of a building. Students were asked to identify
the faces that they saw from a set of photographs. The
Lecturers' students made more correct identification than
that of other students and experienced police officers.
Familiarity helps with identifying faces
Evaluation
Watching film or video not the same as a real life experience. In a film you are expecting something to happen
and are in a safe enviornment where as in real life in something happens you are not usually expecting it