Experiment

Submitted By

Syeda Zoha Fatima

Fa18/BPY/069

Submitted to

Ma’am Batool

Course:

Foundations of Psychology Lab

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

COMSATS UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD CAMPUS

Experiment: 2

Measurement of memory

Abstract:

The experiment was comparing the speed of learning for Meaningful and Meaningless materials.
For this purpose, subject had performed an experiment with two list of learning material of same
length, one list of Meaningful words and another one of Meaningless syllables are presented.
Each letter consists of 5 alphabets. The experiment was conducted using AB BA design and so
the lists were divided accordingly. The counterbalance design was used to control practice
effects and to control the transfer of training. Also, the method of complete presentation was
used. The subject was presented with the List B (Meaningful Words) first followed by List A
(Meaningless Syllables). He was given 1 minute to recall. It continued till one errorless trial. The
data were collected and analyzed for both the lists following the same instructions which was he
was given 1 minute to recall. It can be clearly seen in the results that the Meaningless Materials
are easier than the Meaningless Syllables and there is individual difference in speed of learning

Problem Statement: To study the memory through learning meaningful and meaningless
material

Purpose of the experiment: To understand how performance is a function of what is: -

I) To measure the speed of learning of meaningful and meaningless materials.

ii) To compare the performance of the object on both the materials.

iii) To gain an insight on whether transfer of training occurs in either of the two practices.

Introduction:

Psychologists refer to learning as measurable change in behaviour as a result of practice and the
condition that a company practice.

Verbal Learning - Man is primarily a verbal learner. Every subject has unique own sets of
verbal response. Each subject has his own complex association, meanings, and preference in
relation to that material. For this response nonsense syllables are employed. The nonsense
syllables consist of a vowel letter between two consonants and has no dictionary meaning. The
method of complete presentation - The total series is presented to the subject, and he is allowed
to read it and explore it at his own sped. A time limit is usually set, but within the allotted time
the learner behaviour is not controlled, and he is free to linger over some parts, skip lightly over
others nor the experimenter can be sure at what point the subject begin to rehearse the material
and to react to himself. When the experimenter finally lists the subject's retention, he may find it
difficult to interpret the results for he has no information about the ways in which the subject
attached his task or about the temporal course of his task or about the temporal course of his
learning.

In learning three main variables play a key role:

 The nature of the materials or activities learned.

 Condition of practice under which learning takes place,
 The personal characteristics of subject.

Types:

The three major types of learning described by behavioral psychology are classical conditioning,
operant conditioning, and observational learning.

Classical conditioning is a learning process in which an association is made between a

previously neutral stimulus and a stimulus that naturally evokes a response. For example, in
Pavlov's classic experiment, the smell of food was the naturally occurring stimulus that was
paired with the previously neutral ringing of the bell. Once an association had been made
between the two, the sound of the bell alone could lead to a response.

Operant conditioning is a learning process in which the probability of a response occurring is

increased or decreased due to reinforcement or punishment. First studied by Edward Thorndike
and later by B.F. Skinner, the underlying idea behind operant conditioning is that the
consequences of our actions shape voluntary behavior. Skinner described how reinforcement
could lead to increases in behaviors where punishment would result in decreases. He also found
that the timing of when reinforcements were delivered influenced how quickly a behavior was
learned and how strong the response would be. The timing and rate of reinforcement are known
as schedules of reinforcement.
Observational learning is a process in which learning occurs through observing and imitating
others. Albert Bandura's social learning theory suggests that in addition to learning through
conditioning, people also learn through observing and imitating the actions of others. As
demonstrated in his classic "Bobo Doll" Experiments, people will imitate the actions of others
without direct reinforcement. Four essential elements are essential for effective observational
learning: attention, motor skills, motivation, and memory.

Ebbinghaus theory of memory:

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve describes the decrease in ability of the brain to retain memory over
time. The theory is that humans start losing the memory of learned knowledge over time, in a
matter of days or weeks, unless the learned knowledge is consciously reviewed repeatedly. He
discovered that information is easier to recall when it's built upon things you already know.
Every time you reinforce the training, the rate of decline reduces. The testing effect says that by
simply testing a person's memory, that memory will become stronger, information is easier to
recall when it's built upon things you already know. Every time you reinforce the training, the
rate of decline reduces. The testing effect says that by simply testing a person's memory, that
memory will become stronger.

Hypothesis: It is hypothesized that the subject will take less time and will commit less errors in
memorizing meaningful words as compared to non-sense syllables.

Apparatus: pencil, paper, stopwatch, list of meaningful words and nonsense syllables

Subject Biodata:

 Name: Ayesha
 Age: 22

 Gender: Female

 Qualification: BS psychology

Variables:

 IV- Nature of material (list of meaningful words and list of meaningless syllables)
  DV- Numbers of trials taken to reach one errorless trial.2) Number of correct words
recall per trial.

Scoring Method :1) Total numbers of trials to be calculated .2) Average of the subject to be
calculated .3) To find out transfer of effect by seeing the differences.

Procedure:

Rapport Formation: The subject was made comfortable and well settled in the laboratory
setting and since the subject was already acquainted with the experimenter, so rapport formation
was not difficult, and the subject was asked whether the subject is ready to begin the experiment

Instruction: The following instruction was given to the subject “The experiment will be
conducted in two sessions instruction for session 1 is you will be given a list of string of letters;
your task is to read the stings of letters carefully and try to memorize them. For this you will be
given 30 seconds and after that you must try and recall as many strings of letters as you can by
spelling them out for this you will be given 1 minute, we will start when you are ready.
Instruction for session 2 is you will be given a list of words; your task is to read the words
carefully and try to memories them. For this you will be given 30 seconds and after that you
must try and recall as many words as you can by spelling out them for this you will be given 1
minutes, we will start when you are ready.

Experiment: The experiment was conducted in the department laboratory; the aim of the
experiment is to understand how performance is a function of what is learnt. For this purpose,
two lists, one containing 12 strings of letters and another one containing 12 series of words,
stings of words given to them, were noted down on the record sheet. Data was collected and
analyzed.

Result:

Quantitative Report:

Meaningful Words:

Sr Trial Trial Trial Trial

no. Words 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
 1 Dog ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
2 Rat ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
3 mat ✔ ✔ ✔
4 Hat ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
5 cat ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
6 Fat ✔ ✔ ✔
7 Mug ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
8 Rug ✔ ✔ ✔
9 Top ✔
10 Set ✔ ✔ ✔
11 New ✔ ✔
12 Bat ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Errors 2 4 3 zero

Time 6 5 5 5
taken seconds second seconds second
s s

Nonsense Syllable:

Sr Trial Trial Trial Tria

no. Words 1st 2nd 3rd l
4th
1 Poc ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

2 Loc ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

3 mel ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

4 Pax ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

5 Niw ✔

6 Lal ✔ ✔ ✔

7 kip ✔ ✔ ✔

8 oek ✔ ✔ ✔

9 Zik ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
 10 ruz ✔ ✔

11 tob ✔ ✔ ✔

12 sid ✔ ✔ ✔

Errors 5 errors 3 errors zero 2

Time taken 5 5 6 6
seconds seconds secon seco
ds nds

Qualitative Report: The subject was mentally and physically fit during the conduction of the
experiment. The subject find meaningful words easier to learn than meaningless syllables the
subject said it was hard to learn meaningless syllables because they don’t hold any meaning so
the subject said it was hard to learn and for remembering the words, she use to remember
those word that are easier to remember and for the meaningless syllables the subject tried to
learn those letters which have same pronunciation.

Use of the experiment :

1) Improving the retrieval of information from external sources.

2) Short- term memory for complex meaningful visual configurations : A demonstration of

capacity

3) cognitive Structure and the facilitation of meaningful verbal learning.

Discussion and Conclusion: In the experiment of meaningful words and meaningless syllables
the hypothesis is accepted since their is less trials taken for the meaningful words than
meaningless syllables which clearly means that the meaningful words are easier to learn than the
meaningless syllables..
 References
Postman and Egan (2016), page -312, Measurement of Learning.

Dorothy VM Bishop , Hsinjen Julie Hsu BMC Psychology 3(1),3,2015, The system in
children with the specific language impairment : A comparison of meaningful and
meaningless auditory – visual pair associate learning.

Frank Smith Harvard Educational Review 47(3), 386-395, 1977, Making sense of reading –
and of reading instruction.