Sunday, 16 October 2011
Strategies for improving memory - Mnemonics
Mnemonics are techniques developed to aid memory. According to Craik and Lockhart's level of processing model, mnemonics work because you are putting effort into your learning, organising information in a distinctive way. this encourages deep processing, which in turn leads to long lasting, enduring memories.
Look at the following website for examples of verbal mnemonics:
verbal mnemonics
Look at the following websites for examples of visual mnemonics:
Loci
Key word method
Remember -
- Visual mnemonics are apparently better than verbal mnemonics due to dual-processing
- Mnemonics may not be suitable to everyone (learning styles and disabilities may have an impact on the success of the mnemonic used)
Eyewitness Testimony (EWT)
Research into eyewitness testimonies has proven that there are many factors that can have a negative impact on the accuracy and reliability of such reports.
The role of Anxiety and EWT
Read through the information of the following website:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/eyewitness-testimony.html
Answer the following questions to help you extend your knowledge and critical understanding of the topics covered in class -
1. What did Clifford and Scott find when studying the link between anxiety and recall? How does it link to the Yerkes-Dodson law?
2. What were the full details of Yuielle and Cutshall's real life research? What does this suggest about anxiety and memory?
3. Explain a criticism of Yuielle and Cutshall's real life research
Additional real life research into the role of anxiety and EWT was conducted by Christianson and Hubinette's. Follow this link to read more about this study:
Misleading information and EWT
Key research:
Loftus' research has been criticised for lacking ecological validity (e.g. you cannot generalise the findings to other settings). this has been confirmed by research into misleading questions in real life, such as Yuielle and Cutshall's research seen earlier.
Encoding, Capacity and Duration
Encoding = The way information is changed so that it can be stored.
Example: When you smell a blow off, you automatically think 'errrr, someone has done a blow off!'. you have automatically recoded a smell into an acoustic code, allowing it to pass on to the short-term memory store!
Capacity = How much information can be stored
Duration = The length of time information can be stored
| Sensory Memory | Short Term Memory | Long Term Memory |
Encoding | Information is stored in its raw form. Information floods the senses and enters the sensory store associated with each individual sense: For example: Iconic – Visual Echoic – Sound Haptic - Touch | Baddeley (1966) * Mostly Acoustic (through sounds) Additional research also points to visual encoding | Baddeley (1966) * Mostly Semantic (through meaning) Additional research shows other encoding methods are used, depending on what is being attended to. e.g. Visual encoding is used when storing faces |
Capacity | Iconic is much larger than Echoic | Jacobs (1987) * Digit Span Technique 7 +/- 2 units of information ‘Chunking’ increases capacity | Unlimited – cues required for retrieval |
Duration | Echoic – lasts up to 2 seconds Iconic – Lasts a mere 0.5 seconds | Peterson & Peterson (1959) 18 seconds, if rehearsal is prevented. | Bahrick (1975) * Year book study 90% recall of information from information stored over 48 years ago. A very long time – but cues are required to aid retrieval. |
* Research can be found at:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/Short%20and%20Long%20Term%20Memory.pdf
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