PSY100Y5 Lecture 7: Lab 6- Recall and Recognition Experiments
PSY100
Lab 6: Free Recall & Recognition Memory Experiments
Free recall- 20 words and asked to memorize them and recall them in any order
2 independent variables for the lab report- 2(IV)x2(IV)
REP VIS
Male
Female
Within Subject Variables: Run 8 people for each list- the same 8 people each time
Allowed one between subject variable: left handed compared to right, old compared to
young, tall compared to short, male vs female, etc…
- No need to have Between subject variables
Experiment has to be Free Recall or Picture Recognition
Lab 6 Notes:
Memory- The brain is a powerful computer with separate types of memory in different brain
structures
A cognitive psychologist thinks that the brain is like a computer
Stage 1- Encoding
- Getting the information from the world into ourselves- into our senses (sensory
memory), into our mind
Stage 2- Comparison
Stage 3- Decision
Stage 4- Response
Sensory memory- idea that all our sensory organisms have a way for storing all the
information somewhere for a certain period of time- high capacity but short duration, long
enough to pay attention to it, to the stimulus (short term memory)
- We have a sensory memory for all our senses
- Short term memory only 7+/- 2 item capacity, may be overestimate
o More recently 4+/- 1
o Lasts around 20s (15-30 seconds) and is very limited
Long Term Memory
- All of our experiences, knowledge
- Vast capacity (infinite?)
- Very long duration
o Could fail due to storage (encoding) or retrieval error
When examining memory, researchers have found a few things based on SM,STM,LTM
- Studied peoples free recall performance (in the 1940-50s), and plotted results in a
serial position curve graph
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PSY100Y5 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
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