Y163 Tma 01

Memory is the processing of new information, retention of that data and being able to recall it when later needed. To answer the question posed I am going to consider the three methods of memory organisation that may help to improve our memory; mental images, concepts and schemas. I will consider each one individually giving an explanation of what this technique involves and looking at an experiment or case study that demonstrates the technique, how that experiment was conducted and how the results can be used to prove the effectiveness in recalling information. After I have considered these different memory techniques I will conclude my findings and thoughts.
Firstly I am going to look at mental images. These are a mental representation formed through pictures (also referred to as iconic thought). For example when many of us read a novel we will picture how we think the characters look, this helps us to form a memory of them that can be used again later when we return to our reading. One technique to consider is mnemonics these can help us remember information that may otherwise make no sense, or is too abstract to recall it accurately. They are commonly used to remember things that don’t change such as “Very Easy Method Just Simplifies Us Naming Planets" which uses the first letter of each of these words to represent a planet in the correct order, or, “Spring forward, fall back” to remember how to reset our clocks twice a year. They act as a prompt to remind us of the information we already hold in our memory but that we cannot successfully access. One way to use mental images to improve memory is the key word technique which was developed by Raugh and Atkinson (1975). This is commonly used to help learn a new language and is easiest to explain using the ‘poubelle’ (meaning “bin”) example from the “Y163 Starting with Psychology” text book, to begin with you would think of an English word that sounds like the French word, or part of the French word, in this case...