Semantic memory “memory for meaning”

Most of the subjects remembered the “gist” of the story but did not remember the specifics. Over time the subjects added facts that were not true for example “a black cloud came out of his mouth” or “black smoke” or “black ghost” when in the real story it was just something black that came out of his mouth. Another subjected added “bushes” or that someone was “stabbed” when bushes was not mentioned in the story and no one was stabbed. Most people forgot about the seals! Some were very detailed and remained detailed throughout t1-t3. Some were very brief and remained brief throughout t1-t3.

This shows that memory can not be reliable. I learned this in criminal justice. Eye witnesses are a lot of the time inaccurate and miss or add details that are not true.

Concept Map

This concept map reflects previous knowledge of human body. I did not give my subject any prompts. He made this mind map on his own from an ipad application called Simplemind. His knowledge of body parts is rather general. To assess this knowledge a point scale can be used.  However, I cannot really rate this knowledge because I don’t have anything to compare it too. He should now learn something knew about the human body and then make a new map. The new map can then be compared to the old map in order to see new connections. I would also need someone else to rate his ability as well so we have inter-rater reliability. I may have failed this assignment!!! Above is the concept map!

What He Never Forgot

Immediate (1) An hour later (2) = What he remembered

Paper, 1

Seat, 1

Tire, 1

Love, 1 2

Beach, 1  2

Analysis,1

conjunction, 1 2

brush,

chairman, 1

accurate,

woods,

green,

hunger,

gift,

keyboard,

number, 1

bottle,

jogging,

wheel, 1

system

My subject did not know that he was going to have to recall these words an hour later so he did not use any mnemonic method in order to remember these words. If he had thought of a rhyme or an image location for these words he would have done better.  I asked the subject what his strategy was for remembering the words and he told me that he repeated the word over and over again (repetition), which has been proved not to work as well as other mnemonic methods such as the ones I mentioned above. My subject may be production deficient! However maybe we should give him a break because as time increases so does forgetting. Did he forget the words???? He was doing maintenance rehearsal so once he stopped doing this, the words vanished. I am going to have to say that these words were never stored in long term memory in the first place. However, when I told him after the experiment what the words were that he remembered in the immediate recall he said “oh yeah I remember those” but he didn’t remember the words he couldn’t immediately recall at all. His performance shows that he did not process these words very deeply and some he didnt process at all! One could also say that it was a failure of retrieval but some of the words were never stored in his long term memory, so can we say that he forgot? Not really because he never stored the words in the first place so he cant forget something he never stored.

What He Remembers

The following (IN BOLD) is what my friend recalled after I read to him each item.

1. 870314
2.71505436
3.2166872545
4.681437952470 ( he got overwhelmed)
5.284393482551
6.TSYLQP
7.CIMWODXA
8.QWERTYUIP
9.KWUCRALNYWGSJ (Flustered)
10.LABONNEMAISON
11. Leaf, Gift, Car, Fish, Rock
12. Paper, Seat, Tire, Horse, Film, Beach, Tree, Brush
13.Bag, Key, Book, Wire, Box, Wheel, Bananna, Floor, Bar, Pad, Black. Radio, Boy
14. Love, Emotion, Plan, Attempt, Rule, Law, Analysis, System, Fine, Payment
15. While I Was Walking Through The Woods a Rabbit Ran Across My Path

It seems that he remembers the first words and the last words, but has a harder time remembering the words, letters or numbers in-between. He stated that when he was trying to remember the last words/letters or numbers, he was forgetting the first and vice versa. He remembered the sentence perfectly probably because we think in syntax and words all together mean something to us.
        It was hardest for him to remember the numbers, the letters were a bit easier, the words were even easier and the sentence was easy as pie. The numbers and letters didnt mean anything to him ( maybe because he couldnt relate letters or numbers to anything meaningful) so he had a harder time remembering them.