1. Maintenance Rehearsal Demonstration
Langston,
Cognitive Psychology

2. 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.

3. Task
Recall the LAST word BEGINNING with the letter W…

4. REACH

5. JOINT

6. SAIL

7. WITCH

8. RIGHT

9. KING

10. WAND

11. PAINT

12. DRAIN

13. LOOK

14. NOUN

15. WELL

16. HOUND

17. CRACK

18. BIRD

19. WHEEL

20. SPOON

21. WIND

22. ***RECALL WORD***

23. Task
Recall the LAST word BEGINNING with the letter G…

24. DOG

25. OIL

26. RIFLE

27. GROW

28. GRAIN

29. TABLE

30. FRIES

31. ANCHOR

32. GLOVE

33. HARP

34. GEM

35. BIKE

36. LAKE

37. GIANT

38. PURSE

39. LAUGH

40. HOUSE

41. DEVIL

42. ***RECALL WORD***

43. Task
Recall the LAST word BEGINNING with the letter M…

44. JOKER

45. RING

46. KNIFE

47. MIND

48. HAPPY

49. MILK

50. SHORE

51. NAME

52. LOVE

53. CHORE

54. MOUSE

55. MAID

56. SPILL

57. DOUGH

58. MELON

59. RUN

60. PARTY

61. BATH

62. ***RECALL WORD***

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

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

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

66. 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…

67. 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?

68. Data Analysis
If more rehearsal leads to better recall:

69. Data Analysis
If more rehearsal doesn’t affect recall:

70. Scoring Table Number of seconds of rehearsal List Words Count WW
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

71. Data Analysis
Our class data:

72. End Maintenance Rehearsal Demonstration