How Different Levels of Processing free essay sample

How the change between physical and semantic processing affects the accuracy of word recall Psychology group 11-1 Siobhan Mackenzie Introduction The level of processing approach, founded by Craik and Lockhart, 1972, is a theory of memory in which the accuracy of recall is directly affected by the level of analysis of any given material. The level of processing model of memory was put forward to try and overcome criticism aimed at an earlier research multi store model. Shallower processing has proven through research, to only retrieve physical characteristics whereas deeper processing is linked to the retrieval of semantic information. Deeper levels of processing have shown to result in better memory recall than shallower processing. Hyde and Jenkins (1973) findings supported Craik and theory; they found that during different orienting tasks participants recall was affected by the level of processing that the task required. The more complex processing resulted in a 51% more recall of stimuli compared to weaker, semantic processing methods. We will write a custom essay sample on How Different Levels of Processing or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Some researchers into this field of research believe that processing leads to memory traces being formed in the brain for the stimuli presented. Morton(1970) suggested that deeper levels of analysis of the stimuli is linked to more elaborate traces, and so stronger recall. Craik and Tulving (1975) conducted a study which aimed to investigate how these different types of processing, semantic and physical, affected the accuracy of memory recall. The study looked at the depth of processing which involved two tasks, a superficial task in which the participants were asked about the physical characteristics of a given stimulus word and a semantic task in which the participants were asked a question in which they had to process the information at a more complex level. The results were derived from an unannounced memory test within which participants were instructed to recall as many words as they were able to, these findings were gathered and the two conditions were compared. They concluded that semantic processing was most effective in retaining information for recall. Nyberg (2002) investigated the brains activity during the encoding period of stimuli through brain scans. He found that the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain were more active during deep processing than shallow, showing that more cognitive effort is involved in the processing of deep information than shallow. Eysenck (1990) criticised this research however as Craik and Tulving fail to provide an adequate explanation for their results and merely described the findings. The research has also been criticised for its lack of ecological validity, the study was done on a small sample size of only 60 participants and therefore is unlikely to be representative of the population as a whole, therefore it is harder to generalise the findings. However the model has been supported by others replications, Rajaram (1993) also found these results during his study on the depth of processing effect. He concluded that words which were given deeper procession were better recalled by participants than those only processed at a shallow level. Insraub and Nicklos (1985) replicated Craik and Tulving’s study but replaced the stimuli with pictures instead of the originally used words and found the findings became reversed. They found a higher accuracy of recall when the orienting questions were based on the physical characteristics of the pictures rather than the semantic characteristics. However it is hard to compare these two findings made by Craik and Lockhart and Insraub and Nicklos as they are two separate studies and have many extraneous variables that could cause the changes in results, for example the age of participants used and the culture within each decade. As these pieces of research have only focused upon either photo processing or word processing stimuli separately this study has brought the two stimuli into one study so that comparisons can more easily be made. The aim of this research was to find, just as Craik and Tulving had, the effect that different levels of processing had on memory recall.