How to Improve Memory
- activate relevant past knowledge (e.g. names)
- seek meaningful structure (e.g. shopping list)
- actively elaborate (e.g. jokes, music)
- use mental imagery
- explain yourself
- use context (helpful for exams)
What is Part Set Cueing?
- The effect of impaired recall of remembered items when presented items when presented with some of the items from the set
- (i.e. having half of the list given to you doesn’t necessarily help)
- e.g. shopping list, remembering items to buy
What did this study measure?
Bartlett’s ‘War of the Ghosts’
Measured 2 effects:
1. repeated recall
* story recalled every so often by same person in as much detail as possible
* after a week, they copied out the story again and sent it to him - then again after a month, 2 months, etc
* had to recall as much detail as possible each
2. serial recall
* story is told by one person to another in a chain several people long
.
Both recall methods share elements:
* details are lost
* bizarre elements reinterpreted
* elements that don’t ‘fit’ dropped
But effects of serial recall are much stronger
Fuzzy Trace Theory
Brainerd & Reyna (2002):
2 types of memory you make about a subject:
1. verbatim traces
* detailed representations of a past event
2. gist traces
* bottom line meaning, but overall a fizzy representation of past events
Fuzzy Trace Theory in relation to Bartlett’s study
- Bartlett’s ppts only developed a gist-trace for the story
- that’s why you introduce elements of schemas, because they’re other things you have a ‘gist’ of
