Investigating the Variation between Memorizing Words

Investigating the Variation between Memorizing Words

AIM

The aim of the study was to investigate the variation between

memorizing words from organised lists and non-organised lists.

INTRODUCTION

The investigation was similar to the ‘Bower et al’ study (1969) of

whether organisation of data facilitates memorizing it. Methods of

organisation to assist in enhancing memorizing objects have been

performed, by, for example, asking participants to categorise lists of

objects into a meaningful arrangement prior to memorizing it; this

technique is called organisation. Participants in one condition, (the

experimental group) were presented with 4 groups of words which each

consisted of seven words in the form of a list. All of the words in

each group were categorised in a meaningful way. Participants in the

second condition, (the control group) were presented with all the

twenty-eight words randomly jumbled. When the experimental group

participants are asked to recall the words, they complement each word

with the group it originated from by using the meaning of the word and

categorising it accordingly. This study aimed to test the efficacy and

helpfulness of the organisation technique as assistance to memory and

recall.

HYPOTHESIS

People will remember and recall words more easily when the words are

organised into meaningful groups than when the words are not organised

into meaningful groups.

METHOD

A matched participant design was used in this investigation.

Participants from the experimental group were each asked to memorize

words from lists that were categorised in groups. Subsequently, they

were asked to recall as much words as possible. In condition 2,

participants were presented with words which were disorganised

randomly. They were also asked to recall as much words as possible. A

matched participant design was chosen because it necessitated a lot of

participants since there would need to be an experimental group and a

control group. Therefore, the repeated measures design was not

possible. Compared to the independent measures design the matched

participant design was better in ensuring that participants in each