Maintenance Rehearsal Demonstration Langston, Cognitive Psychology

Instructions You are going to see three lists of words. Each list will be preceded by a task. The task will tell you what word to remember. Pay attention to the words and try to remember the appropriate word. When the instruction to recall appears, write down the word.

Task Recall the LAST word BEGINNING with the letter W…

REACH

JOINT

SAIL

WITCH

RIGHT

KING

WAND

PAINT

DRAIN

LOOK

NOUN

WELL

HOUND

CRACK

BIRD

WHEEL

SPOON

WIND

***RECALL WORD***

Task Recall the LAST word BEGINNING with the letter G…

DOG

OIL

RIFLE

GROW

GRAIN

TABLE

FRIES

ANCHOR

GLOVE

HARP

GEM

BIKE

LAKE

GIANT

PURSE

LAUGH

HOUSE

DEVIL

***RECALL WORD***

Task Recall the LAST word BEGINNING with the letter M…

JOKER

RING

KNIFE

MIND

HAPPY

MILK

SHORE

NAME

LOVE

CHORE

MOUSE

MAID

SPILL

DOUGH

MELON

RUN

PARTY

BATH

***RECALL WORD***

Ratings Task Rate each item on the following scale 1 = Really hard 2 3 = Neither easy nor hard 4 5 = Really easy

Ratings Task The difficulty of the W list was: The difficulty of the G list was: The difficulty of the M list was:

Ratings Task Assuming your ratings were different, why did one list seem harder or easier?

Memory Test Write down all of the words that you can remember from all three lists. This is a standard free recall task, so feel free to write them in any order. You have one minute…

Data Analysis The real goal of this demonstration was to give you varying amounts of maintenance (Type I) rehearsal and see what effect that would have on memory. Some words were only to be rehearsed for one position (one second) up to five positions (five seconds). What difference might this make?

Data Analysis If more rehearsal leads to better recall:

Data Analysis If more rehearsal doesn’t affect recall:

Scoring Table Number of seconds of rehearsal List Words Count W W Right, king, drain, noun, crack, bird G Table, fries, bike, purse, laugh, devil M Happy, shore, love, dough, run, bath 1 Wind, grow, mouse 2 Wheel, glove, mind 3 Witch, gem, maid 4 Well, grain, melon 5 Wand, giant, milk

Data Analysis Our class data:

End Maintenance Rehearsal Demonstration