Demonstration 2: Short term memory: Words

The second demonstration deals with words. Mr. Anthony read out several words and the students listen. After all the words are read, the students were asked to retrieve as many words as possible. The mean number of correct words is, again, 7. This indicates that we can put only Secabout 7 pieces of information into our short term memory. From this demonstration, we learned 5 things about memory.

First, there is something called reconstructive memory. In the demonstration, 5 students out of 16 recalled the word "sleep", which, surprisingly, havent been said. This is because all other words have some kind of connection with the word "sleep" and that 5 students constructed the memory of the word from other words. This is also called "Dejavu".

Secondly, we tend to remember the first few words we hear and the last few words. The graph number of students who remember each word shows a curve in the middle of the graph. This is called a serial position effect.


Thirdly, most, if not all, of us remember the word "night" This is because the word "night" was said three times, while the other words were said once. This demonstrates that repetition plays an important part in memorization. Repetitions increase the tendency to remember.

Fourth, many students remember the word "pineapple" eventhough the word was said in the middle. This is because "pineapple" stands out as other words are all associated with "night".
Distinctiveness as shown in the pineapple example also increase the tendency to remember.

Lastly, chunking is, again, the key to memorization. People who remember the word "toss" also remember the word "turn" because they chunk "toss" and turn" together.

This demonstration of Sleepy words noticeably points out the mechanism beneath "memory"