Number Of Items example essay topic

Introduction The effect of age and category-blocked and random presentation on free recall and clustering is an important aspect of learning. Learning is a basic foundation of cognitive development. From the many aspects of learning, what we do to learn (the process) and what we learn (the outcome) are of great importance. From the day a child is born, she is exposed to a variety of stimuli; some of which she will pay attention to, others she will not. From those things which require her attention, she will either sort the information or compare it with what she already knows. In a previous study, Kail (1990) found that children memory capacity develop...

It appears that individuals are able to recall items when they are categorically grouped (Lucariello & Nelson, 1985). There is evidence that age and presentation order has an affect on free recall (Yoshimura, Moely, & Shapiro, 1971). Memory / Recall Presentation Method Hypothesis The ability to learn new things and recall information is an important developmental task. As in the case of physical abilities, the appears to be a peak age for mental abilities.

In examining the processes of memory, how the information is organized and presented has been of great discussion... In another study of free recall and clustering, Moely and Shapiro (1971) found "clustering increased with age, but only with block presentation; and clustering was higher for the category blocked condition than for any other condition" (p. 490). MethodParticipantsTen children of kindergarten er age and ten adults, ranging in age of 18-35 will participate in the study. The adults will be recruited through class announcements (Dr. Appleby's B 105) and email notifications (B 346). The kindergartners will be recruited from the IUPUI Child Development Center. There will be consent forms given to the parents of the kindergartners and the adults will be asked to complete a consent form.

Materials 23 black and white drawings of common items will be used (3 practice cards and 20 test items). The items are from common categories (food, toys, furniture, vehicles, body parts). The drawings will be mounted on 3 X 3 inch cards. We will use an individual data sheet to record the responses of each participant. Procedures Half of the participants in each age group will be presented with the pictures in block order; half are presented the pictures in random order. The experimenter will present the 20 items on at a time, along with a verbal label.

The participant will repeat the verbal label after viewing each item. After the 20 items have been viewed, the participant will be asked to recall as many items as possible. The assigned list with the particular presentation order will be copied on the left column of the individual data sheet. The pictures will be arranged in a pile in the corresponding order. The participant will be seated across from the experimenter. The experimenter will state", (Subject's name), I'm interested in how well people remember what they see.

I have a group of 20 pictures that I am going to show you one at a time. I will name each thing as I show it to you, and you repeat the name right away aloud. After I show you all of the pictures, I want you to tell me all the ones that you remember, okay? Let's practice with these first with these three". The experimenter will present one of the practice cards, label the picture, and ask the participant to repeat the label. If the label is not given promptly, the experimenter will say, "Say it". , count "one second" silently, and then place the next item over the first.

These steps will continue until all three are shown. After the three practice cards are shown, the experimenter will say, "Tell me which pictures you saw", and write down the responses. The experimenter will draw a line on the data sheet and begin the test. The experimenter will say, "That was good. Now I'm going to show you a lot more".

The 20 items will be presented and labeled as done in the practice trial. All pictures will be removed and the experimenter will say, "Now tell me all of theses that you remember". The participant answers will be recorded in the exact order in which they are given. The participant will be given time to answer and given encouragement with statements like "Can you remember some more?

What others did you see?" The experimenter will praise the performance upon completion of the test. The total number of responses of each participant will be counted. The experimenter will record how many of the responses are practice items or incorrect responses (intrusions). The number of repetitions will also be recorded. The number of intrusions and repetitions will be subtracted from the total number of responses.

This will be the number of items recalled. The number of categories provided by the participant will also be recorded to include the number of items in each category accurately stated by the participant. The experimenter will circle items recalled from a category that occur together (run), circle each run, and enter the number of runs in the summary. The number of items in each of the circles will be counted. These numbers will be added and divided by the number of runs. This will provide the mean length of run.

The item clustering index (ICI) will be calculated. This score will include the number of category pairs occurring continuously in recall divided by the number of categories represented in the participant's recall multiplied by the number of items per category in the stimulus list. Proposed Analysis Each participant scores will be recorded on a master data sheet for the appropriate subgroup. The means, medians, and standard deviations for the amount recalled and the ICI scores will be computed. A 2 (presentation condition) X 2 (age) analysis of variance on the recall and ICI scores will be conducted. A Pearson r correlation between recall and clustering scores will be analyzed.

The results regarding main effects of presentation condition and age, interactions, significance levels for recall and clustering scores will be given.