Depth of Processing and the Self Reference Effect
There have been many experiments done on depth of processing and the self reference effect. The Depth of Processing model of memory maintains that how deep something is encoded into a person's memory depends on using certain types of processing. This relates to the self reference effect because it is believed that people have the tendency to remember something better when they can relate it to themselves. People who can personally relate to something have the tendency to embed it deeper into their memory.
Craik and Tulving did a series of experiments on the depth of processing model. They had participants use a series of processing methods to encode words at different levels; shallow, moderate, and deep. The subjects were shown a series of words and ask questions about the words that would provide a "yes" or "no" response. At the shallow level they were asked questions about whether or not the word was written in capital letters. At the moderate level of processing, the subject was asked questions as to whether or not two words rhymed. Finally, the subjects were asked about words in sentences and whether or not they fit. This was the deep level of processing. After participants had completed the task they were then given a surprise recognition test with the words that they were just asked questions on (target words) and then words that they have never seen before (distraction words). The results of the experiment showed that people remembered the words better that were at deeper level of processing (Craik and Tulving 1975).
Although there was some criticisms about the above experiment, Craik and Tulving performed more experiments each time refining the D.O.P. model. There were thoughts that the structural tasks were easier and not as much time had to be spent on them therefore people did not have as long to look at those words and could not study them like the other tasks. Craik and Tulving then made the structural task take equally as long as the other tasks. The results remand the same as the previous experiments. Craik and Tulving also originally started with five tasks, but then narrowed it down to three to avoid a ceiling effect. The self-referent task was later added to model by Rogers.
The nature of the Stroop effect results as a consequence of automaticity. People have difficulty ignoring the meaning of a word because, through practice, reading has become an automatic process. The two main explanations accounting for the Stroop effect in the past have been cognitive attentional processes involved in learning, controlled and automatic. As previously mentioned, when a process is automatic (for example reading), it is not only faster; it also does not rely on other cognitive resources. Controlled processes, for example color naming, are slow and demand more attentional resources. The theory is that an automatic process cannot successfully suppressed without causing interference of a controlled process. The second explanation, relative speed of processing, argues that the two processes involved in color naming and word reading are accomplished in parallel, but that word reading is carried out faster, assuming that the faster process will then interfere with the slower ones such as color naming (Dunbar and McLeod, 1984 as cited in Mel, 1997)
...all, the lack of general knowledge of the non-words made the experiment a cumbersome process, especially during the experiment’s incipient stage. However, the process was worthwhile as I experienced firsthand the dissociation of learning and memory.
Mischel, Walter, and Yuichi Shoda. 1998. "Reconciling Processing Dynamics." The Annual Review of Psychology 49: 229-58.
Human memory is flexible and prone to suggestion. “Human memory, while remarkable in many ways, does not operate like a video camera” (Walker, 2013). In fact, human memory is quite the opposite of a video camera; it can be greatly influenced and even often distorted by interactions with its surroundings (Walker, 2013). Memory is separated into three different phases. The first phase is acquisition, which is when information is first entered into memory or the perception of an event (Samaha, 2011). The next phase is retention. Retention is the process of storing information during the period of time between the event and the recollection of a piece of information from that event (Samaha, 2011). The last stage is retrieval. Retrieval is recalling stored information about an event with the purpose of making an identification of a person in that event (Samaha, 2011).
Running head: THE GENERATION EFFECT 1 THE GENERATION EFFECT 6 The Generation Effect Name Institution affiliation The Generation Effect The generation effect is the impact of a stimulus that leads to enhanced memory performance and self-generating information, which is remembered and recalled easier than the one read (Salamoura & Williams, 2006). This memory phenomenon involves active production of certain data during the process of encoding that helps to improve the performance of the memory. The primary objective of this paper is to support the claim that the generation effect is an essential memory technique, which is used in social psychology, neuroscience, and neurobiology.
Dehaene provides many studies within the book to explain how the unconscious is capable of processing semantic information. In the 1970s Anthony Marcel produced a study in which participants were flashed the word red or blue under the threshold of consciousness, then asked to pick a corresponding color, even though the participant stated that he/she was not able to perceive any word being shown. The study showed that participants were able to choose a corresponding color one-twentieth of a second faster when the word flashed ahead of time was red or blue, instead of an unrelated word. Since the participant was better able to pick the color patch based on the congruent primed word, it can be suggested that the brain is able to unconsciously process
The Extended Mind Hypothesis does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a theory suggesting that the human mind is not necessarily limited to a mental capacity. According to Clark and Chalmers the mind can extend to include information storage devices (such as computers, diaries, or even other peoples minds) to which we can have ready access, can rely on and trust as we would our own minds. These devices would be in a similar mode or state as the subconscious mind, that is; they would embody dispositional beliefs. This is known as active externalism.
At the cognitive level of analysis humans are seen as behavioral entrepreneurs. Cognitive researchers have been interested in how verbal reaction is effected during interference or inhibition. According to Craig and Lockhart (1972) information is processed two ways. Shallow processing takes two forms one being structural processing (appearance), this occurs when only the physical qualities of something is encoded i.e. what the letters spell versus the color of the word. Shallow processing only involves maintenance rehearsal and leads to fairly short-term retention of information. Deep processing involves elaboration rehearsal which is a more meaningful analysis (e.g. images, thinking, associations etc.) of information and leads to better recall. It is generally easier for people to interpret the word itself which involves deep processing than to interpret the colors of the word which involves shallow processing. According to the speed of processing model word processing is much faster than color processing, thus, in a situation of interference between words and colors, when the task is to report the color, the word information arrives at the decision process stage earlier than the color information, and in result processing confusion.
In 2013, The Journal of Memory and Language published a research-backed cognitive psychology article titled “How many words can we read at once? More intervenor effects in masked priming” by Kenneth I. Forster. Forster, a professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona, assesses that “when a masked word intervenes between the prime (L1 (native language)) and the target (L2 (second language), three words must be processed simultaneously, and that under these conditions, form priming is eliminated altogether and identity priming is reduced, suggesting that the capacity of the lexical processor does not extend to three words”. It is argued that the differential effect of the intervenor on identity and form priming can be explained using the assumption that priming takes place at the level of form as well as the level of meaning. Forster, through this research, generalizes the information collected from all the higher degree seeking individuals as if to say that since this is true for college freshman it must be true for all grade levels. Even though I understand his questions and his motives in not only the questions he asks but also his experiments and the objectives he was trying to achieve by stating that “each time we read a word, we must recover the stored information about the phonology, syntax, and semantics of that word. Moreover, this information must be retrieved extremely rapidly and because so much processing has to be done, it seems obvious that the processing of one word must overlap to some degree with the processing of the next word” (1). Though Forster offers many valid points pertaining to the amount of words we can read at once, he fails to acknowledge those who do not fall into this category by only testing U...
They first proposed this model in 1947 after they had studied the Atkinson-Shiffrin model (McLeod, S. A. 2012). One piece of evidence found for this model's existence is the span-test. The span-test is a test where individuals are to repeat a set of letters. After every representation back to the presenter, another letter is added making the sting of letters longer. Typically once people reach 7 or 8 letters in length they begin to mix up letters and make mistakes (Cognition, p. 16). Sometimes people will replace letters with other letters that sound similar, such as the letters “e” and “b”. When people first take this test they subconsciously store the letters in the articulatory rehearsal loop and in the central executive. If the participant were to repeat this span test but this time maintaining a hum noise or repeating one word over and over again. They would have a more difficult time remembering and restating the group of letters back. When your brain is multitasking in this way the articulatory rehearsal loop is not available to store information, since it’s internal path is broken up by the word being spoken or noise being made from the
Flowers would show a color word like “yellow” and “blue” on a colored background. There was a pause with a blank screen, then the subjects were shown a two different colors that were half and half on the page, like yellow or blue. The subjects then had to indicate which color word initially was presented to them. “He did not investigate the influence of this paradigm on normal Stroop interference, however, and his task differs from traditional tasks in having a delayed, binary response”
Van Gompel, R.P.G., Pickering, M.J., & Traxler, M.J. (2001). Reanalysis in sentence processing: Evidence against current constraint-based and two-stage models. Journal of Memory Language, 45, 225-258.
Interference and automaticity is a major concept in the Stroop experiment. Interference occurs when one memory interferes with another, impairing memory and many think that it has plenty to do with memory loss. While automaticity, is the ability to do work without occupying the mind with low level of attention which can affect learning, repetition, and practice. The Stroop task is a common way to measure reaction time and the ability to process two conflicting sets of information at a single time. It can be administered in various ways including, but not limited to, colors and numbers. Originally, the Stroop task was presented with a color word written in a conflicting color ink and the participants were asked to name the color in which the color word was printed. The first condition had 70 participants who had to name a list of color names instead of the color. The researcher recorded the time it took for each participant to go through the list without errors. The second condition required participants to name the colors out loud in the same order as the first experiment. While the third , the participants practiced color naming of reading the word. For example, if the word red was shown in blue ink, the correct answer was blue. The results showed that there was a greater effect in reaction time in word stimuli with naming colors (the word blue was written in yellow ink with the answer being yellow) than color stimuli in reading words (the word blue was written in yellow ink with the correct answer being blue) (Stroop, 1935). Results also showed that participants respond slower to ink-color when the meaning of the word is incongruent than when its neutral (Stroop,1935).
Question # 2: Identify similarities and differences among Theory X and Theory Y, the Pygmalion effect, and self-concept.
McClelland, J. L., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1981). An interactive activation model of context effects in letter perception: I. An account of basic findings. Psychological review, 88(5), 375.