What shapes our sense of self and our evolving place in the world?
Memory
The psychology of memory is foundational to understanding human experiences.
Who was the first to experimentally study human memory with rigorous methodology?
Ebbinghaus (1885)
He emphasized measuring performance by comparing studied material vs recalled material.
What method did Ebbinghaus use to eliminate the influence of prior knowledge?
Nonsense syllables
Examples include ‘gex’ and ‘yoj’ to ensure controlled learning conditions.
True or false: Ebbinghaus’s methodology relied on introspection.
FALSE
Prior psychologists used introspection, which is subjective and unverifiable.
What are the two types of memory distinguished by William James?
- Primary memory
- Secondary memory
Primary memory is immediate awareness, while secondary memory involves retrieval from long-term storage.
What did Ebbinghaus aim to isolate in his research?
Pure memory processes
He minimized external variables to study learning by heart and retention.
What is the savings formula used by Ebbinghaus to measure recall?
[(original - repeat) / original] x100
This indicates the efficiency of relearning.
What relationship did Ebbinghaus find between initial practice and relearning efficiency?
Linear relationship
More repetitions on day 1 led to less time needed to relearn on day 2.
What does forgetting follow according to Ebbinghaus’s findings?
Logarithmic curve
More time elapsed equals more forgetting, but at a slowing rate.
What was the aim of Bartlett’s study in 1932?
Investigate how prior knowledge and cultural schemas affect memory recall
He used the folk tale ‘War of the Ghosts’ for his research.
What did Bartlett find about verbatim recall in his study?
Difficult and culturally biased
Memory became shorter and more coherent, with culture-specific details forgotten.
What does proactive interference refer to?
Earlier learning disrupts new learning
It is a major contributor to forgetting.
What did McGeoch and MacDonald (1931) investigate?
How interpolated activity affects memory retention
They found that resting led to better recall than learning new material.
What did Underwood (1957) conclude about forgetting?
Caused by earlier learned material
Up to 75% of forgetting occurred due to prior lab learning.
What did Miller (1956) identify about human cognitive systems?
Capacity limits in categorization, subitizing, and immediate serial recall
He supported the idea of a limited capacity short-term memory store.
What did Peterson and Peterson (1959) demonstrate about short-term memory?
Limited duration of approximately 18 seconds
Without rehearsal, information quickly fades.
What concept did Sperling (1960) introduce related to visual memory?
Iconic memory
It is a brief high capacity visual store.
What did Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) find regarding word position in recall?
U-shaped serial position curve
Primacy effect for early items and recency effect for later items.
What model did Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) propose?
Multi-store model of memory
It involves sensory register, short-term store, and long-term store.
What did Baddeley and Hitch (1974) investigate about short-term memory?
Its role as a mental workspace for complex cognitive tasks
They proposed the working memory model with three components.
What did Baddeley (1966) conclude about short-term memory encoding?
Primarily encoded acoustically
High interference from similar sounding words.
What did Baddeley, Thompson, and Buchanan (1975) find about memory span?
Limited by articulatory duration, not item count
Recall accuracy decreased as word length increased.
What role does the phonological loop play in vocabulary acquisition?
Involved in language acquisition, especially vocabulary development
Nonword repetition scores predicted vocabulary growth.
