STRATEGIES FOR
MEMORY
IMPROVEMENT
Cognitive Psychology
Learning Objectives
◦ Describe at least two strategies for memory improvement
◦ Apply knowledge of strategies to novel situations
How do you
remember
things/revise??
Method of Loci
• Look at the hand-out
• Write a short summary of this memory improvement strategy in the
box provided in your booklet
• This should only be a few sentences long – how exactly does the
strategy work?
• Include an example
• NOTE: MNEMONICS ARE MEMORY IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES BASED ON
ENCODING INFO. IN SPECIAL WAYS
Method of Loci
◦ Involves linking the item/concept you need to remember to a place you are familiar
with, for example, your house, school or place of work
◦ EXAMPLE – Given a list of words to recall including paper, apple etc… Imagine a giant
piece of paper greeting you at the door as you enter your house, then loads of apples
rolling down your stairs towards you…
◦ The more unusual, the more likely you are to remember!
Organisation
• We can create hierarchies or mind-maps which organise materials into meaningful
patterns
• Come up with your own category – organise concepts in this category into a
hierarchy
(if you can’t think of one, use the cognitive psychology module)
• Bower (1969)
- Two groups of participants with 112 words to learn
- One group saw the words organised in a hierarchy, the other group saw the words
presented randomly
- The organised group – 65% recall
- The random group – 19% recall
Elaborative Rehearsal
• Normal/maintenance rehearsal (going over it in your head)– allows information to be
retained in STM
• Need elaborative rehearsal for it to remain in LTM - memorizing verbal information by
linking it to information already stored in long-term memory
• Involves a deep level of information processing: the information is transformed into
something that has meaning.
•
-
For example:
Rewriting a concept’s definition in your own words
drawing a picture that represents the meaning of the concept
thinking of examples of the concept – i.e. in everyday life
DO THIS FOR THE
CONCEPT OF
“ELABORATIVE
REHEARSAL” !
Context-dependent Memory
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFrrKbpAFK0
◦ Using Page 111 of your textbook, complete the APRC of Godden
and Baddeley’s research.
◦ Answer the question below – how can the results be applied to
real-life?
Godden and Baddeley
◦ Aim: To investigate whether we recall information better when the environment is the same for learning as well as
retrieval.
◦ Procedure: 18 divers were split into four groups and all participants took part in all conditions. The participants took part
in one condition per day where they learnt a list of words then had to recall them at a later stage:
1. Learn on land and recall on land (dry/dry)
2. Learn under water and recall underwater (wet/wet)
3. Learn on land and recall underwater (dry/wet)
4. Learn under water and recall on land (wet/dry)
◦ The participants were asked to recall the words when in the different conditions.
◦ Results: The participants were able to recall the words more accurately when in the same condition in which they learnt
them in.
◦ Conclusion: We remember things better when we're in the same context in which we learnt them in.
Exam Q
◦ A psychologist carried out an experiment using an independent groups design. The
psychologist wished to investigate the effectiveness of a strategy for memory
improvement.
◦ In one condition, participants were taught a memory improvement strategy.
◦ In the other condition, participants were not taught this memory improvement
strategy.
◦ All participants were asked to memorise 10 pictures of familiar objects. For example,
the first was a doll, the second was an apple. All participants were then given 50
pictures each, and asked to select the original 10.
◦ Outline one strategy for memory improvement which the psychologist could have
taught the participants in this experiment. ( 4 marks)
Exam Q
◦ Psychology students sometimes revise for an exam by reading their notes over and over
again. However, psychologists suggest that other memory improvement strategies may be
more effective.
◦ Explain how a student could use their knowledge of strategies for memory improvement
(other than repetition) to help revise for a psychology exam (4 marks)
◦ Candidates’ answers should focus on how strategies could be used to help revision for a
psychology exam. They may select strategies based on visual imagery such as method of
loci or peg word method; those based on organisation such as creating hierarchies or mind
maps; acronyms or acrostics; deep processing etc. Context and state dependent recall
could be credited as long as the candidate makes their answer relevant to revising
psychological research. The question refers to psychology revision, so strategies which could
lead to memory improvement in short term memory, such as chunking, should not be
credited. Simply naming “mnemonic” should not be credited.
Cognitive Psychology – DONE!
Can you…
• Outline what Psychologists have found about the duration, capacity and encoding of STM
• Outline what Psychologists have found about the duration, capacity and encoding of LTM
• Describe and evaluate the Multi-store model of memory
• Describe and evaluate the Working memory model
• Discuss misleading information as a factor which affects the accuracy of eye witness
testimony
• Discuss age of witness as a factor which affects the accuracy of eye witness testimony
• Discuss anxiety as a factor which affects the accuracy of eye witness testimony
• Describe and evaluate the cognitive interview as a method of improving EWT
• Describe at least two strategies for memory improvement