Salem Witch Trials

Abstract

The experiment performed was a partial replication of an experiment done by Hyde and Jenkins (1973). In the experiment participants were to perform an orienting task while listening to an audio tape that presented a list of 28 unrelated words at a rate of one word every three seconds. There were two independent variables (IV) with two conditions each. The experiment was to determine whether deep or shallow processing through task orientation had any effect on the amount of words recalled from the list. The experiment also attempted to determine whether incidental or intentional learning would make a significant difference in word recall. To test this theory we used Psychology students, split up into four conditions. The results were recorded in all four conditions. Our findings indicated deep encoding was more effective in memory retention than shallow encoding, incidental or intentional learning resulted in similar memory retention, and that there was no interaction between Orienting Task and Type of Learning. We had three major hypothesis based on Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) Levels of Processing theory. The first is that deep orienting task should yield significantly better memory than shallow. The second is that memory performance should be similar for incidental and intentional learning. The third hypothesis is that there should not be an interaction between Orienting Task and Type of Learning.

Word Recollection 3

Word Recollection During Task Orientation With Varied Types of Learning

Everyday we experience millions of sensory stimulus’ with very few retained in our Long Term Memory (LTM). What is it that keeps all of this knowledge from being transferred from perception into Short Term Memory (STM), or even LTM? This question was test by two different groups of experimenters almost simultaneously, without knowledge of each other’s project. Craik and Lockhart (1972) performed an experiment with the Levels of Processing Theory. Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) experiment on levels of processing was set up to examine the concept of stores and the transfer of information among them. Hyde and Jenkins (1973) hypothesis was that the groups performing the semantic tasks would perform better than the groups performing the nonsemantic tasks. Hyde and Jenkins’ (1973) experiment parallels our experiment more than Craik and Lockhart’s, even though all of the experiments looked at task orientation, Hyde and Jenkins (1973) also looked at intentional and incidental learning. Based partially on an experiment by Hyde and Jenkins (1973), our experiment worked under the theory that the way information was encoded determined how well the information was retained and that incidental or intentional learning does not effect encoding. The experiment consisted of psychology participants who were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions according to their lab section. Every condition had to be assigned to at least two lab sections with two different teaching assistants. The four different conditions in this experiment were shallow incidental, shallow intentional, deep incidental, and deep intentional. This experiment was designed to determine if deep encoding was more effective in memory retention than shallow encoding, whether incidental or intentional learning resulted in better memory retention. We also tested to see if there was interaction between Orienting Task and Type of Learning. We had three major hypothesis based on Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) Levels of Processing theory. The first is that deep orienting task should yield significantly better memory than shallow. The