Chapter 1. Memory

1.1 Introduction

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1.2 Slide 2

Start list

Welcome to your first Try This! research experience. As you learned when reading Chapter 1 of Psychology: The Science of Person, Mind, and Brain, it is a test of your memory ability.

In this activity, you will be shown three lists of words; the words will appear one at a time on the screen. After each list has been presented, you will be given 90 seconds to recall the words from that list.

Good luck. Please click on Start list to begin.

1.3 Slide 3

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1.4 Slide 4

Start recall

Now your task is to recall as many words as you can in 90 seconds. On the next screen, please type as many words from the list as you can recall, each word followed by ENTER. When ready to start, click [Start recall]

1.5 Slide 5

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List the words you recall here:

90

1.6 Slide 6

Start list

Now you will move on to viewing the next list of words. Press START LIST to begin.

1.7 Slide 7

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1.8 Slide 8

Start recall

Now your task is to recall as many words as you can in 90 seconds. On the next screen, please type as many words from the list as you can recall, each word followed by ENTER. When ready to start, click [Start recall]

1.9 Slide 9

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List the words you recall here:

90

1.10 Slide 10

Start list

Now you will move on to viewing the next list of words. Press START LIST to begin.

1.11 Slide 11

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1.12 Slide 12

Start recall

Now your task is to recall as many words as you can in 90 seconds. On the next screen, please type as many words from the list as you can recall, each word followed by ENTER. When ready to start, click [Start recall]

1.13 Slide 13

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List the words you recall here:

90

1.14 Slide 14

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Pass the experiment to see your results.

1.15 Slide 15

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Pass the experiment to see your results.

1.16 Slide 16

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Pass the experiment to see your results.

1.17 Slide 17

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Pass all experiments to see your results.

1.18 Slide 18

Using List 3 as an example, notice that many of the words on the list are related in meaning to “sweet,” and a few words rhyme with “sweet.” Together, these words so strongly activate the idea of “sweet” in memory that many people conclude that “sweet” was on the list. Studying this phenomenon was actually the point of the research studies that inspired this activity. Research findings show that, for any given word list created in the form of the one you see here, about half the people who read the list will “remember” a word like sweet that was not actually in the list. You will learn about psychological theories that explain exactly how this activation process works when you read Chapter 6: Memory.
HONEY
BITTER
ICE CREAM
SUGAR
BEET
TART
TASTE
FUDGE
SYRUP
WHEAT
CANDY
DESSERT
CHOCOLATE
TREAT
FROSTING

1.19 Slide 19

End

For now, take note of something else: You have experienced a surprising fact about memory – people may have “false” memories, that is, memories for material that was not actually present. We know this thanks to studies using carefully designed research methods. The research methods allow us to move beyond mere speculation about how memory works by providing firm scientific evidence that, in some circumstances, people may experience memories that are false.

When you return to Chapter 1, you will learn more about this result, and in Chapter 2 you will learn about the research methods that provide the scientific evidence on which the field of psychology is built.

This activity is based on and inspired by:

Roediger, H. L., III, and McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating False Memories: Remembering Words Not Presented in Lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803-814.

Watson, J. M., Balota, D. A., and Roediger, H. L., III (2003). Creating false memories with hybrid lists of semantic and phonological associates: Over-additive false memories produced by converging associative networks. Journal of Memory and Language 49, 95-118.