STRATEGIES FOR MEMORY IMPROVEMENT

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STRATEGIES FOR MEMORY IMPROVEMENT

• ORGANISING INFORMATION

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MANDLER

• TO REMEMBER IS TO HAVE ORGANISED

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SHUELLS FINDINGS

• Recall of words is much better when they are
  presented in an organised way
• When asked to retain information, people
  categorise the material. This is known as
  categorical clustering
• Those who use categorical clustering the most are
  best at recalling the words
• So organising material helps learning and
  retrieval

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STUDIES OF ORGANISATION IN MEMORY

• TULVING AND PEARLSTONE found that free recall was
  much higher when Ps were given categories as
  retrieval cues. This is CATEGORICAL CLUSTERING
• BOWER asked Ps to learn 112 words, presented
  either randomly or in hierarchies. The ones who
  learned them in hierarchies recalled 3 and a half
  times more words

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MEMORY IMPROVEMENT

• METHOD OF LOCI
• PEGWORD SYSTEM
• STORY METHOD

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METHOD OF LOCI

• The pegword system relies on rhymes whereas the
  method of loci relies on places.
• Think of a regular route you take.
• Visualise 10 locations along the way.
• Now associate the to-be-remembered information
  with one of the locations

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ROSS AND LAWRENCE

• Found that people using the method of loci could
  recall 95 of a list of 50 items after a single
  trial.
• It is effective because it provides a way of
  organising random material
• However it is of little use when learning complex
  material

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PEGWORD SYSTEM

• One is a bun
• Two is a shoe
• Three is a tree
• Four is a door
• Five is a hive
• Six are sticks
• Seven is heaven
• Eight is a gate
• Nine is a line
• Ten is a hen

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STEP 2

• Make a shopping list. Hang each item on to a
  peg. For example you need milk and butter
• Picture a bottle of milk on top of a bun.
• Picture a packet of butter in a shoe
• The stronger the mental image, the better it is
  remembered

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VISUAL IMAGERY

• This helps memory enormously, but much of memory
  does not consist of concrete nouns
• In everyday life we need to understand complex
  ideas and concepts
• Bartlett showed that schemas help us to remember
  semantic information

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EVIDENCE FOR PEGWORD SYSTEM

• Moris and Reid found that twice as many words
  were recalled when pegword system was used
  compared to when it was not
• It produces powerful retrieval cues, but
• It requires extensive training
• It is easier to use with concrete rather than
  abstract material
• We dont often need to memorise lists of words
• Interference can occur

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STORY METHOD

• This is an effective method because it imposes
  meaning on material in the context of a story.
• BOWER AND CLARK gave Ps lists of words to
  recall.
• Those who had used story method- 93 recall
• Those who had not 13 recall

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EVALUATION OF STORY METHOD

• It requires training and practice
• It is hard to use if the information is presented
  rapidly

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CUE DEPENDENT FORGETTING

• If a memory can be triggered by offering an
  appropriate cue, it is available but is not
  accessible by free recall.
• This is called RETRIEVAL FAILURE
• Some Psychologists claim that much information is
  stored but not accessible.
• It is hard to disprove this if the information
  cannot be retrieved

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ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE

• Tulving proposed that
• The more similar the cue is to the memory trace,
  i.e. the more specific it is, the more the
  likelihood that the cue will trigger the memory
• Crimewatch uses this principle, by reconstructing
  events as similar as possible in order to trigger
  memories in possible witnesses

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CONTEXT AND STATE DEPENDENT MEMORY

• Context refers to external cues
• State refers to internal cues.
• ABERNETHYS STUDY (1940)
• Procedure group 1 2 learned information in a
  room
• Group 1 were tested in same room
• Group 2 were tested in a different room

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FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

• Group 1 (same room, same lecturer,) recalled
  more.
• Concluded that same context improves recall.
  This could be because the surroundings acted as a
  cue to trigger the memory

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SCHEMA THEORY

• Bartlett suggested that the process of
  remembering is an ACTIVE reconstruction of the
  bits that are stored
• Schema theory indicates that prior expectations
  will influence our perceptions
• Brandford and Johnson asked Ps to listen to a
  passage. Some were given the schema washing
  laundry.
• This group was able to organise the information
  more efficiently and enhanced storage for later
  recall.
• So in terms of your prior expectations, schemas
  affect what you remember

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STRENGTHS OF RESEARCH ON ORGANISATION

• It shows that organisation enhances learning
• This is seen most with the story method
• Organisation provides a retrieval plan to assist
  recall
• Organisation works because of our limited ability
  to chunk information into more than around 7 bits

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LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH INTO ORGANISATION

• Some mnemonic devices are limited because they
  can only be used with concrete material
• They are hard to apply to abstract material

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MIND MAPS

• These are also effective
• HUSSAIN AND HENNESSEY presented medical students
  with a 600 word text to learn.
• Half the students had been trained in mind
  mapping.
• Mind map group recalled 10 more facts one week
  later

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ACTIVE PROCESSING

• CRAIK AND LOCKHART suggested that memory depends
  on deep and meaningful processing
• If you process information deeply, then it will
  be stored
• But if you only process superficially, then it
  will not be stored in LTM

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LOP EXPERIMENT

• Ps were asked 3 types of question
• Is the word in capital letters
• Does it rhyme with dog?
• Does it fit into the sentence I sat on the
• They found that group 3 had best recall.
• Conclusion semantic processing is the most
  effective.
• Evaluation deep processing is hard to define,
  also people may elaborate the material in an
  experiment whether or not they are told to

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ELABORATION

• Craik and Tulving showed that if you learn
  something deeply and elaborate that memory, it is
  better remembered, e.g. by elaborating the word
  schema.
• Think of a time you were unable to understand
  and store a memory because you had no schema.
• Sometimes students go OOOOooh
• You are more likely to remember your definition
  of schema

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DISTINCTIVENESS

• If an item appears unique, then it will be
  remembered
• The surname Smith stands out in a list of foreign
  names, but not in a list of English names, and
  will therefore be remembered in the former but
  not in the latter.

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EVALUATION OF LOP

• STRENGTHS
• It does not explain memory in terms of separate
  stores in the brain
• Depth, elaboration and distinctiveness are all
  important in determining LTM
• It has practical applications in revision