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A memory advantage for serial lists composed of active words
S Lamarche1, M Campbell, P Matheson
1Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Perceptual and Motor Skills
|December 1, 1993
Summary
Active words, whether pleasant or unpleasant, are better recalled than passive words. A formula incorporating serial position and word activation effectively predicts recall performance, explaining over half the variance.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Memory Research
- Linguistics
Background:
- Understanding factors influencing memory recall is crucial in cognitive psychology.
- Emotional valence and word activation are hypothesized to impact memory retention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the differential recall of active versus passive words.
- To determine the predictive power of word activation and serial position on memory recall.
Main Methods:
- Subject-wise and word-wise analyses were conducted on recall data.
- Four types of emotional word lists (pleasant/unpleasant, active/passive) were used.
- 14 subjects participated in the memorization and recall tasks.
Main Results:
- Active words demonstrated significantly better recall compared to passive words.
- A standardized formula, recall = 0.68 (serial position) + 0.24 (activation), was developed.
- This formula successfully predicted 53% of the variance in recall (R = 0.73).
Conclusions:
- Word activation is a significant predictor of memory recall.
- The findings support the role of word properties in memory performance.
- The developed formula offers a quantitative model for predicting recall accuracy.