Memory is a word that refers to the structures and processes involved in the storage and rehearsal of information i.e. image, sounds or meanings. Memory is a cognitive function of our brain that can be defined as the ability to store and gain information. “Memory is a method of storing information over time” (Matlin 2005) “Memory is the means by which we use our past experiences in order to aid us in the present” (Sternberg, 1999).
Craik and Lockhart created a theory that there are different levels of processing and that distinctiveness is part of the levels of processing. They argued that there is no difference between the STM and LTM except that the memory is either long term or short term due to the depth of the memory rather than the rehearsal…show more content… Eysenck’s procedure involved him giving the participants a list of words to say and made them say the words in different ways, such as spelling them out, instead of just reading them; and then the participants were asked to recall them. Results showed that the participants who were made to recite the words in different ways recalled them faster and more accurately than those who did not. This proves Craik and Lockhart’s theory of that there are different levels of processing.
Tyler et al conducted an experiment involving anagrams consisting of two sets, either difficult or simple, such as “rtoodc” or “doctro”. After solving the anagrams, the participants had to recall the words, which they found. Results showed that the participants recalled the difficult anagrams more accurately than the simple ones. This disproves Craik and Lockhart’s theory, as the results weren’t the same in both sets. The more accuracy with recalling the difficult anagram words suggests that this is perhaps due to the fact that more effort was put into them making them easier to…show more content… In the group that was shown the categorized words, the mean number of words remembered 11.6, and the standard deviation was 2.90 (raw data in appendix 5). Figure 1 shows that the mean number of words recalled in the group that was uncategorized (indicated in blue) is 10.7 and the mean of the group where the words are categorized (indicated in pink) is 11.6. So the words recalled were 10.7 to 11.6. The standard deviation shows that the mean in group I is smaller as in group II, but only have a difference of 0.05.
Results: Inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney Test):
The inferential statistics test chosen is Mann-Whitney (appendix 6). This test was chosen because the experimental design was independent groups design with ordinal data with a small sample size.
The U-Value is 36 and the critical value of U at p<0.05 at a 95.00% our results were not significant. Therefore the experimental hypothesis is rejected and null hypothesis is accepted. That categorizing the words will not have an effect on the number of words recalled, any difference would be purely due to