The Components of Memory

The memory is divided into two important components that are related to the information and context of the use or processing. Temporary information is stored in the short term memory while other infinite information of endless capacity is stored in the long-term memory.  The study of serial position effect on short-term memory exploited the availability of current information and past research to involve students in a study of psychology behavior related to short-term memory (Thorn & Page, 2008).  Various theories support this area of study through giving a research environment that favors exploration of the psychological field in memory (Neath, 2010).  This mainly focuses on the implications of the findings in which lists of words are read and them the research participants given a chance to write those they can remember. The assumption is that words are remembered in regard to the short-term memory capacity and the serial-position effect (King, 2008). All the appropriate statistical methods are used to analyze the data and give inference with respect to the findings.

The field of human psychology with specificity in short-term memory has been often explored by many researchers. The study of the serial effect on various components of memory function has been done. Particularly, the major focus has been the memory behavior of the brain and its impacts on several entities of the environment in which one is present. In this study, the focus on short-term memory brings clarity to several elements of short-term memory (Weigel, Rosenbaum, Huelshorst & Schack, 2009).

This theory gives information about the storage and transfer of information. The sensory stores keep information but the memory selects to which extend this information is stored. This is defined by the total efforts that are employed in regard to relating that information with the brain and familiarizing with it.  Information that is given attention by the brain makes it possible to process and keep it within the memory access which further leads to easy remembrance (Jonides, 2018).

This is related to the information processing stages that are found in regard to the amount, type or weight of the information being handled. The model describes how memory storage of information is divided into different levels of processing.  The interpretation of information and perception is changed or adapted to the kind of information or type of prompt given regarding the package of information.

This theory suggests that information only exists in one kind. The ability to keep the information in remembrance is depended on the depth to which the information is processed.  In short-term memory, there is a tendency to forget more because information is shallowly processed. This explains the reason for the serial position effect. The memory naturally processes the first and the final bunch of information and tends to forget the middle (King, 2008). 

Short-Term Memory and Serial Position Effect

This theory explains the behavior of the memory to remember the first and the last items when one is given a chance to put in mind a list of items.  The capacity to remember items in the lists is affected by the recency of items in the list. This explains why one remembers the first and the last bunch more than the middle one (Ohno, et al, 2011).  This theory is the basis of the hypothesis that serial position has an explicit effect on short-term memory.

A research design is considered to be a blueprint for conducting a study or research with the capacity to maximally control any factor that interferes with the validity of the study findings.  In this study, the intention is to give a rough approximation statistic of the overall findings. This was achieved by taking our class as the sample population of the whole population (Schuck, Gaschler & Frensch, 2012). The data was collected through the use of written scripts by the students. These scripts contained the presumed word lists to match the one that the lecturer had earlier read to them. These words would be written in any order. The sheet below was used as a template for the script.

The research participants indicated their gender in the correspondent sheet so that the data would be analyzed with gender under consideration. The lecturer used an excel file to combine all the data that the students presented. This data included the written words in the lists in relation to the original lists as presented by the lecture.  The Lecturer’s file used had the following format and features (Tydgat & Grainger, 2009).

The final results from the student word lists as submitted to the lecturer are compared to the original word list by the lecturer. The students identified the positions of the words they got correct. The lecturer thus analysis this information in respect to the last information availed by the word list. (Mantonakis, Rodero, Lesschaeve & Hastie, 2009). Statistical analysis is then done using available social statistics software. The data as presented by the lecture after comparison with the original word lists is as in the figure below

Excel was used to collect the data for analysis in the final stages. After recording of the data in the excel file, the data need statistical analysis to show the different implications underlying in the results being in place (Lewandowsky & Farrell, 2008). The main evaluation methodology concept used here is comparison and evaluation of the final results. This being a quantitative research, the data was present in Ms. Excel and was presented by the use of a line graph.

Current Research on Short-Term Memory

The study involved several logical steps that were followed in order to satisfy the required standards for research

Procedure of study 1. The lecturer’s presentation of the original word list to the students. 2. The students pay attention to the details as the words are read out. 3. The students are given scripts to write their word lists according to their memory abilities. 4. Submission of the scripts to the lecturer. 5. Recording of data, analysis, and presentation of the results 6. Research report, recommendations, and conclusions.

.Fig 1.3 Study procedures

The results indicate a close relativity between the study and the past results of different activities of research on the topic of serial position effect on short-term memory. The available data indicate that most students remember words in the first bunch and the last bunch. This indicates the serial position effect on the short-term memory of the students. In the general tally, most students fall under this category. They are overall ability to remember the first words and the last words more clearly than the middle words.

The graph shows the analyzed results and the final distribution after representation in the graph.

According to the appearance of the curve, this indicates that the distribution of the correct words appears at the beginning of the words list, descends at the middle then ascends at the end of the word list.  This is a further indication of the pattern of serial position. The standard deviation is good and indicates proper relativity of the variables. After analysis, these results indicate that the serial position affects the short-term memory.  This is because the distributions of the graph curve itself favor this implication (Baddeley, 2012).  Studies in this field have found that there might be multiple factors that contribute to the stages of information processes as depicted by the graph and analysis of the data given. Individual studies have shown different point views in regard to the serial position effect and the overall study that relate to memory information skills.

The fundamental goal of research in dealing with the issues that concern short-term memory and shedding more light on the comparative studies that have been made as pre-research. The available information is very outright and of important as it gives a much information to the students about their ranking in recency and correct word lists’ submissions (Cowan, 2008).

This study also showed that there was limitation especially due to many other types of research that have exploited the field of psychology. It contains limited resources to use in the investigation carried out. These experiments that were done by students could contain or a little or comfort. There still is more need for further research and guidance in the future research. The study was limited because of a lack of enough tools that could capture all the data available through different means.

Research Design and Methodology

Conclusion

In this study, it is observable the serial position effect is very out rightly key in the final decisions regarding the results. The hypothesis in this study has been greatly favored by all literature in the study.  Since this study intended to find the relationship between serial position and short-term memory. The results have proved that most students forgot the very middle bunch of words and remembered the first and the last bunch of words. This is a distributed population and the graph representation is an indication that the hypothesis is true.  Further study is recommended with different components being incorporated in order to achieve the better and accurate results. The indications by the graph prove that the study met its purpose and that the final understanding remark concerning the short-term memory.  The research methods used in this study have contributed to the results for the present and for any future dates.  It is recommended that the information provided by the study will become a foundation for a deeper and intensive study in this field.

References

Baddeley, A. (2012). Working memory: theories, models, and controversies. Annual review of psychology, 63, 1-29.

Cowan, N. (2008). What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory?. Progress in brain research, 169, 323-338.

Jonides, J., Lewis, R. L., Nee, D. E., Lustig, C. A., Berman, M. G., & Moore, K. S. (2008). The mind and brain of short-term memory. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 59, 193-224.

King, L. A. (2008). The science of psychology: An appreciative view. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Lewandowsky, S., & Farrell, S. (2008). The phonological similarity in serial recall: Constraints on theories of memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 58(2), 429-448.

Mantonakis, A., Rodero, P., Lesschaeve, I., & Hastie, R. (2009). Order in choice: Effects of serial position on preferences. Psychological Science, 20(11), 1309-1312.

Neath, I. (2010). Evidence for similar principles in episodic and semantic memory: The presidential serial position function. Memory & Cognition, 38(5), 659-666.

Ohno, T., Hasegawa, T., Tsuruoka, T., Terabe, K., Gimzewski, J. K., & Aono, M. (2011). Short-term plasticity and long-term potentiation mimicked in single inorganic synapses. Nature Materials, 10(8), 591.

Schuck, N. W., Gaschler, R., & Frensch, P. A. (2012). Implicit learning of what comes when and where within a sequence: The time-course of acquiring serial position-item and item-item associations to represent serial order. Advances in cognitive psychology, 8(2), Economics.

Thorn, A., & Page, M. (2008). Interactions between short-term and long-term memory in the verbal domain. Psychology Press.

Tydgat, I., & Grainger, J. (2009). Serial position effects in the identification of letters, digits, and symbols. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35(2), 480.

Weigelt, M., Rosenbaum, D. A., Huelshorst, S., & Schack, T. (2009). Moving and memorizing: Motor planning modulates the recency effect in serial and free recall. Acta Psychologica, 132(1), 68-79.s