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Essay / Psych - 749
The experiment carried out aimed to test the participants' memory using a list of 15 words read by the experimenter during 5 repeated trials. Trials were conducted according to a repeated measures design, using the same subjects in each trial and the same 15 words in the same order read aloud to participants. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) theorized that human memory has three distinct, sensory components. register, short-term memory and long-term memory, called MSM or Multi-Store Model. Murdock (1962) suggested that words at the beginning of the list were stored in long-term memory and words at the end of the list were stored in short-term memory, thus determining the serial position effect . The purpose of the present study was to reinforce original ideas and observe the effects of hypotheses in the classroom.Hypothesis1. This memory performance will follow a learning curve.2. That the first words will be remembered more frequently than the middle words.3. Let the end words be memorized more frequently than the middle words. Data, Analysis, and Discussion The learning curve, first described by Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885), is a concept that describes how knowledge or new skills may be acquired initially, but subsequent learning then becomes much slower . Minimal investment of resources yields significant results, but continued effort yields lesser results. The data obtained in the present study support the learning curve theory. From the graph (Figure 1), rapid acquisition was evident in Trial 1 as participants remembered an average of 8.38 words out of 15. This shows that words can initially be memorized effectively. In Trials 2 and 3, the average number of words stored in the middle of a sheet of paper......the multi-store model suggests that memory is made up of a series of stores, Sensory memory, Short term Memory and long-term memory. Information enters sensory memory after detection by the sense organs. This information then enters short-term memory and, if repeated, is transferred to long-term memory. The information is lost if the repetition does not take place. Conclusion The present study was conducted to test the three hypotheses in a controlled environment. In this case, support for all three hypotheses is strong. The results from the trials showed that the data followed the learning curve, resulting in a significant improvement in trial 1 and a plateau in performance for the last 2 trials. The results also showed that Primacy and Recency effects were present, with the first and last words being remembered much more effectively than the middle words...