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Methods Used For The Measurement of Human Memory

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Methods Used For The Measurement of Human Memory

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ara
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What are the various methods used for the measurement of human

memory?
Memory is an internal and unobservable process. At times we feel that we don’t
remember all that we have learnt earlier. In such a situation, we come face to
face with the imperfect nature of our own memories- our cognitive system for
learning, storing, and retrieving information and throwing a challenge for its
assessment. The credit for the first systematic assessment of memory goes to
Ebbinghaus (1900).

Since then, several studies have been reported in which various methods of
assessing (measuring) memory have evolved. The amount of information
retained in memory can be inferred from observable performance on various
tasks. There are both direct and indirect methods of measuring memory.

The direct methods of assessing memory are: (i) recall, (ii) recognition, (iii)
relearning, and (iv) reconstruction. The indirect method focuses on the amount
of transfer of previous learning to a subsequent learning situation.

Recall

The most widely used method of testing memory or measuring retention is the
method of recall. It is a passive, but direct method of measuring retention.
Reproduction of learnt materials after a time span is recall. It is repetition of
learned material, i.e., verbatim (word for word) recitation. For example, one
may recall a poem by reciting it even if he does not remember the
circumstances under which he had learned.

Recall involves verbal reproduction or repetition of previously learnt material.


Recall becomes easier when materials are meaningful, interesting, short, and
over learned. Recall is often categorized into: (i) Free Recall and ii) Serial
Recall.

I. Free Recall:

Free recall allows us to summon up pieces of information out of order. For


example, we may listen to a lecture and afterwards remember a few important
quotes without recalling the order in which they were presented. Thus, in free
recall, pieces of learnt materials may be recalled freely without following any
specific order.

II. Serial Recall:

In serial recall the material is recalled in a very specific order i.e., in which it
has been learned. For example, there are people (who) when asked the
question- what is twelve multiplied by seven- may start from the beginning of
multiplication chart twelve, and only then can recall the correct answer.

Ebbinghaus (1885) used recall method for studying remembering and


Forgetting. He was of the view that retention can be tested either by the method
of (i) immediate recall or, (ii) delayed recall, when recall is made immediate
after learning, it is called ‘immediate recall’; whereas, when recall is made after
an interval of time, it is called ‘delayed recall’.

It may be noted that failure to recall does not necessarily mean that there has
been no retention. Fail to recall despite retention is known as recall amnesia.
Sometimes due to emotional disturbances like fear, anxiety and sudden shock,
one fails to recall. Further, when the subject is motivated to learn, she/he can
recall the items easily. Thus, motive plays a major role in recall.

Recognition

Recognition is considered as a sensitive method of measuring retention It is an


active process where identification of elements takes place. Recognition is a
common experience which refers to the fact that once the remembered event or
word is in front of us, we know that we have stored it away before is familiar to
us. Guilford (1917) viewed that recognition means knowing again Further, the
essential difference between recall and recognition is that in first case, the
stimulus is not there for one’s identification, whereas it is there in the second
case.

Thus, recognition is the identification of learnt material object from a


combination (combined list) of learned and unlearned material The correct
identification will provide the raw retention score. The percent of recognition
can be derived by using certain formula.
Percentage of Recognition =

R – W/ K-1 x 100/n

Where R =Total number of items correctly recognized.

W = Total number of items incorrectly recognized.

K= Total number of alternatives given for recognition (old + new).

N= Number of items originally presented for learning.

For example, let the learner recognize 4 out of 10 items with 10 alternates.

Then, percentage of Recognition

4- 6 / 20-1 X 100/10 = 36.8%

Recognition is easier than recall, because in recognition, the object present in a


mixed form with certain new elements. The sensitiveness is greater in case of
recognition, which is sometimes influenced by the subject’s attitude, prejudice,
values, and other inner motives. Seeleman (1940) conducted an experiment on
the role of motivation in recognition and observed that pleasant experiences are
better remembered than unpleasant experiences.

Further, it has been reported from other studies that with the increase of
similarity between original learning materials to that of the new materials,
recognition becomes difficult. While studying the process of recognition,
usually two kinds of errors are noticed. They are:

(i) Failure to recognize the familiar items, and

(ii) False cognition of the new and unfamiliar items.

We fail to recognize the familiar object, when it is seen under changed


circumstances. We accept a new stimulus as the old stimulus when there is lot
of similarity between the two. The greater amount of similarity facilitates larger
errors in recognition.
Studies conducted by Skaggs and Robinson suggest that as similarity between
the interpolated activity and original learning is reduced to a near identity,
retention falls to a minimum and then rises again, but with decrease in
similarity it never reaches the level obtained with maximum similarity.”

Relearning

The method of relearning is the most sensitive among all measures of retention.
This method is otherwise known as the method of ‘saving’, which was
introduced by Ebbinghaus (1885) for measuring the quantitative aspect of
memory. In this method, a list of materials is presented to the subject up to
perfect learning, and after a time gap, she/he is presented with the same list to
relearn. The experimenter records the number of trials and time taken by the
subject in relearning condition. The percentage of saving is found by the
formula-

OLT-RLT / OCT X 10

Where OLT = Original learning trials RLT = Relearning trials For example, if a
child takes 8 trials to learn the original task and 6 trials to relearn it, then the
percentage of saving is = (8-6 / 8) X 100 = 25%

Reconstruction

Reconstruction involves the reproduction of the learned materials.


Reconstruction technically means rearranging the parts of an original task,
presented randomly. In this method, the stimuli are first presented in a certain
arrangement, then this arrangement is broken up and the stimuli are handed
over to the subject with instruction to reconstruct the original order.

Suppose the parts of a plastic doll are joined to get a full figure of a doll, then
the experimenter breaks it into pieces and asks the subject to rearrange the
items to form a doll. If the subject can rearrange, then she/he gets the full credit
for the test. Similarly while writing an essay on Second World War, we recall
that the United States entered the war in 1941 after the attack on Pear Harbour,
and an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Hence, we are able to
reconstruct the events that took place between these two times.

The limitation of this method is that only such materials, which are breakable
into parts, can be used for experimentation.
The methods of testing retention i.e., recall, recognition, relearning and
reconstruction are the basic units of assessing memory. But the question how
information is stored in memory has encouraged the researchers in the past.

William James distinguished memory into primary memory and secondary


memory. But with the advancement of research and electronic devices, the idea
of multiple memories came into light. Most researchers believe that computer
memory can be used as a rough working model for understanding human
memory.

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