Effect of Deeper Levels of Processing On Word Retention

Today it seems everyone is interested in improving memory. With new herbs and miracle drugs that now "promise" better memory, memory problems should be a thing of the past. This, however, is not the case. Although these alternatives may be somewhat helpful in increasing memory, our study hopes to replicate previous experiments that dealt with ways to improve memory without the use of drugs.

In a study conducted by Craik and Tulving (1975), the effects of deeper levels of processing on retention of words was tested. They found that the deeper level the word was processed on, the more likely

The presenter instructed participants to be silent while the first set of instructions were placed on the student's desks. The participants who received a set of instructions were then asked to quietly move into the hallway. Group A now received instructions and were asked not to look at them until asked. The presenter then explained the instructions on the chalkboard telling Group A to respond to whether words fit the CVC pattern (see Figure 1 attached). Group A was then led into the hallway while Group B returned and received their instructions. They were asked to respond if the word fit into a given sentence (see Figure 1 attached). Group A returned and both groups were instructed to look down. A word was uncovered on the projector in the front of the room and the participants were told to look up. They had two seconds to look at the word and three seconds to record an answer. This procedure was repeated for each remaining word. The presenter then tallied the correct number of words each participant recalled by groups on the chalkboard and the mean number of words retained was calculated.

These findings are not only important in the laboratory or in research, but also for students, people in the work place, elderly, or anyone interested in ways to improve memory. Before any of these ideas are applied, there are a few problems with the design of the experiment that should be corrected. Further experiments to control, and correct for these errors and replicate this study is necessary.

The experiment was conducted in a classroom which conta

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