IB Psychology HL/SL IA 7점

Introduction

Miller investigated the chunking theory to show how chunks help the human mind to organize information for repeated exposures to stimuli. He suggested that 7 pieces of information can be held in our short-term memory while each ‘chunk’ can store different amounts of information. Additionally, in 1970 Bower and Springston researched the impact of chunking on recall. The researchers hypothesized the optimal and non-optimal pause in the letter series would affect the recall of letters. For instance, an optimal pause for the chunk would be FBI PHD TWA IBM which creates meaning to the letters, whereas a non-optimal phrasing would be FB IPH DTW AIB M that is meaningless. The result showed that the ‘meaningful’ letter series had the most recall with a mean of 10.1 letters, while 8.4 letters were recalled with ‘non-optimal pause’ string. This can be explained by the Levels of Processing Model created by Robert Lockhart and Fergus Craik who suggested that the depth of mental process affects memory functioning. Craik explained depth as: ”the meaningfulness extracted from the stimulus.” (1973, p. 48) This means the ’meaning’ in the letter chunk lead to deeper processing which makes the information lasts longer, resulting in better recall…