Levels of Processing Theory

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Levels of Processing Theory

Depth of Analysis

Craik and Lockhart believed that depth is a critical concept for

levels of processing theory.

* The depth of processing of a stimulus has a substantial effect on

its memorability, i.e. how well it is remembered.

* Deeper levels of analysis produce more elaborate, longer lasting

and stronger memory traces than do shallow levels of analysis.

Craik (1973) defined depth as "the meaningfulness extracted from the

stimulus rather than in terms of the number of analyses performed upon

it". Rehearsal or repetition is not a form of deep processing because

it only involves a repeated "number of analyses", and not and

extraction of meaningfulness.

Craik and Tulving used semantic processing to represent deep

processing and the physical analysis to represent shallower

processing. As the theory would predict, participants remembered those

words that were deeply processed better than those processed

shallowly. The findings of Hyde and Jenkins (1973) also support this

theory.

Elaboration

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Craik and Tulving's study also looked at how the elaboration of

processing can lead to a greater recall. In a further experiment, the

participants were presented on each trial with a word and a sentence

containing a blank. They were then asked to decide whether the word

fitted into the uncompleted question. Recall was twice as high for

words accompanying complex sentences, suggesting that elaboration

benefits long term memory. There is a difference between elaboration

as in the complexity of the sentence, and the time spent on the task,

as in the phonemic proces...

... middle of paper ...

...ken at the very moment of the event and every detail

indelibly printed in memory. The emotional nature of such events

contributes to the way in which they are stored in memory. Brown and

Kulik suggested that flashbulb memories were distinctive because they

are both enduring and accurate. The concept of flashbulb memories

seems to contradict the notion that through processing in short term

store is needed for good long term memory, and to support the idea

that distinctiveness and emotional factors are important in memory.

Brown and Kulik suggested that a special neural mechanism might have

been responsible for flash bulb memories. Other psychologists have

suggested that flashbulb memories are so memorable because they are

repeated so often, on occasions when people recall these emotionally

significant lifetime events.

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