Categorisation in Long-Term Memory Essay Example for Free

Categorisation in Long-Term Memory Essay The method used was a field experiment as it took part in a classroom. This method was chosen because the independent variable can be manipulated to find the effect on the dependent variable, which can draw conclusions about cause and effect. Doing this allows reasonable control of extraneous variables and where the experimenter has a significant amount of control. An independent groups design was most appropriate because it prevents order effects and demand characteristics to a certain extent. There will be two groups, a control group who will be shown a random list of words and an experiment group who will receive a categorised list. This enables me to compare the number of words each group can recall and therefore claim the cause and effect. Independent variable Whether participants are presented with an organised list of words or not. Dependant variable Memory as measured by the number of words the participant recall from the list of words. Participants It was an opportunity sample of International school students from 13 to 14 years old. 10 participants were allocated into each condition randomly (condition 1: control group who received a random list of words, condition 2: experiment group with an organised list of categorised words). Each condition had 5 females and 5 males. Anyone that was available was asked if they would take part in the experiment. None of the participants dropped out and only 2 students refused to take part, because they were not ‘free’ at that moment. This sampling method was chosen because it was quick and convenient. By using independent designs, some extraneous variables were controlled. Order effects were prevented since different participants were allocated in different conditions. Having clear and concise standardised instructions reduced confusion. The procedures were standardised to reduce any experimenter effects. The room was kept in a constant temperature to reduce it from possibly affecting participant’s memory. Students were ranged from 13-14 years old. Other noise from outside the room may have distorted the results and therefore all windows and doors were closed so that as little noise as possible was allowed into the room. The group of participants who received the organised lists of words recalled more words than the participants with the randomly categorised list. It was distinctive from the graph that people given categorised words recalled more words than people who received a random list. The results support my hypothesis of better recall from students if words were categorised. The relationship between the independent and dependant variable was if the words were categorised, the higher the recall. Discussion Validity Validity is if the measuring apparatus measures what it’s meant to measure. By looking at the number of words remembered, it’s an indicator of memory as it is clear that the more words you recall the more words were remembered, this is called face validity and its purpose is to see if the experiment is testing what it’s supposed to measure. I chose 3 categories of words to use in my experiment and I think that they were the correct categories to use as they were all only 1 syllable and are generally used in everyday life. This is related to construct validity which is whether the method can be used to support the variable that is being measured. (If the experiment was replicated, we would see similar results) I think that I chose the words that best measure organisation and that my test was valid. Ecological validity is if the experiment measures a naturally occurring behaviour. This was a field experiment which has good ecological validity but it’s not usual for someone to be taken into a room and to participate in a test on a daily life setting. The participants were aware they were taking part in a psychology experiment so the results could have been affected by demand characteristics. Suggestions for improving validity Participants were aware they were talking part in a psychology experiment which could have created demand characteristics and possible experimenter bias. To obtain a higher ecological validity I could have applied my study to school/everyday life. For example, asking participants to recall a list of ingredients that they had used to bake a cake. This could prevent demand characteristics and experimenter bias as participants might not be aware this that it is a psychology experiment and could possibly make my results more valid. Doing this however, would make it harder to control any extraneous variables and the study would be more difficult to replicate and standardise. Reliability Reliability is whether the measuring method can measure consistently. If the experiment was repeated, similar results would appear. I have increased reliability using the same words in both lists. Two different lists of words decreases reliability as some words are easier to remember than others. Therefore using the same words will reduce this effect. In the list of organised words it was obvious that the experiment was testing memory which led to demand characteristics. The experiment were standardised which meant it’s easy to replicate. However, because participants were already told that they were taking part in a psychology experiment on memory, they knew what the experiment was about and could try harder to perform better on the test (demand characteristics). Improving reliability If I were to choose a different sampling method results would be much more representative, because my sample was an opportunity sample with only people who were ‘free’ at that moment. I could have chosen a random sample to increase reliability since there are different levels of cognitive abilities in students and not only people who were ‘free’. This method could be done by picking 10 males and females randomly (picking out names from hat) from each year group. This means a total of 70 subjects would be used instead of just 20 and doing this would give me more reliable results and a much more representative sample of school students. Also, to reduce demand characteristics the purpose of the experiment shouldn’t have been told to the participants until after the experiment, which is called debriefing. Implications of study Bousfield found that we have semantic organisation in our long-term memory. Bower et al found that organising words into a categorised hierarchy would help to improve recall. In this study I found that participants recalled more words when the words on this list were organised. This means that the findings of my experiment support both Bower’s and Bousfield’s findings. This implies that there is in fact a short and long-term memory and that there is some kind of semantic organisation of the information in the long-term memory which can improve people’s re-call. Generalisation of findings Target population is the age and group of people an experimenter plans to generalise their findings on. In my experiment the target population was Island School students between the ages 13-14 years old. This was hard to generalise due to the sampling method. The method was biased because only students who were available and around at that time were asked to participate. This could be improved if a larger sample of students were used and not only people who were ‘free’ to participate. My experiment only involved 20 people, which was too little to generalise a school of 1500 students. It was hard to generalise beyond the target population, as there are individual differences, psychological differences and cultural differences between much of the population. In addition my sample was too small to generalise beyond target population. Applications of everyday life It was found that an organised list of categorized words would be more efficient to remember than a randomly placed list of words. This can be applied to everyday life, for example when teachers teach children they have to teach in a systematical order so it is easier to recall the majority of information. As for a high school there is a syllabus which is organized by categorising the same type of information together. This is the most efficient way for remembering information and recalling it for exams. Categorisation in Long-Term Memory. (2017, Sep 17).

Partition of India and how Its Shaped Modern Day India Essay

Partition of India and how Its Shaped Modern Day India - Essay Example In order to avoid that Britain deliberately divide India based on religion. Thus Muslim dominated Pakistan and Hindu dominated India were formed in 1947. Until, Britain divide India based on religion; both Hindus and Muslims were living in harmony in India. However, the enmity started to grow between India and Pakistan after the independence of India. The major unresolved problem for enmity between India and Pakistan is the Kashmir issue. Pakistan still believes that the Muslim dominated Kashmir is part of Pakistan even though at the time of partition Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdulla decided to attach Kashmir as a part of India. The struggle for the ownership of Kashmir is still going on between India and Pakistan and many wars were fought between these two nuclear powers in the past. Many people believe that if India and Pakistan are joined together, they would become the most powerful superpower nation in the world. However, the increasing conflicts between India and Pakistan are ret arding the economic progress not only in India but also in Pakistan. Amidst all these challenging political environments, India achieved tremendous economic growth in the past few decades. According to political analysts, India may become another superpower in the near future itself. This paper analyses how the partition in 1947 shaped modern day India. The principles of India's foreign policy have stood the test of time: a belief in friendly relations with all countries of the world, the resolution of conflicts by peaceful means, the sovereign equality of all states, independence of thought and action as manifested in the principles of Non-alignment, and equity in the conduct of international relations  (India's Foreign Policy - 50 Years of Achievement) India opted for a neutral approach after its independence, instead of polarising towards any of the superpowers of that time. In fact India was a prominent country which worked for the formation of a non-aligned movement (NAM). Ja waharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India worked together with Egyptian leader Abdul Nazar and Yugoslav President Tito for the formation of NAM. This foreign policy helped India to avoid any major struggle with the superpowers. In fact India treated former Soviet Union and America in the same manner, even though some political analysts visualise some close connections between India and USSR in the past. When Britain decided to divide India, their major objective was to prevent India from becoming a global power. The initial decades immediately after the independence of India created a feeling among the rest of the world that Britain succeeded in its mission to prevent India from achieving rapid growth. In 1965 and in 1971, India engaged in a fierce war with Pakistan over the Kashmir issue and the costs of these wars were more than enough for India like a heavily populated country to bear. India faced the two major challenges after its independence; the threat from Pakistan a nd the growing population size. India implemented some family planning measures in order to reduce the rate of population growth. Small family with one of two children maximum was a slogan encouraged in India after the independence. Economists in the 60’s and 70’s warned India that if India fails to control its population growth, economic progress would be

Body Image Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Body Image - Essay Example During the year 1870s, anorexia nervosa first existed and was initially perceived as a nervous disorder associated with young women. But in the 19th century, anorexia is defined as: "(1) a refusal to maintain a normal body weight with body weight at least 15 percent below that expected; (2) an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat despite being underweight; (3) body image distortion, 'feeling fat' and overvaluation of thinness; and (4) a reduction of food intake, avoidance of fattening foods, often with extensive exercise, self-induced vomiting, laxative or diuretic abuse so as to achieve the weight loss and maintain a low body weight" (qtd. in Malson 3). Out of many studies from different researchers about the severity of eating disorder, it was Lacey's (1985) "false self" and "borderline" eating-disordered patients that corresponded to the most severe forms of the illness. Lacy's (1985) idea on "false self" was actually motivated from observations of Winnicott (1975) that discrepancies in the self came out either as an adaptation to a lack of emphatic encouragement and support from the primary caretaker, or as an unintentional consequence of miscuing between mother and child. Consequently, due to this disruption, it might cause problems in introspective/reflective awareness, or insufficient consolidation of self-regulatory skills. Since there is already a lack of inner awareness, an adolescent eating-disordered woman might present with an undemanding, compliant personality that is sensitive to outer, but not inner signs (Eliot 2004). Accordingly, the woman might tend to be a "people pleaser" whose pseudo-maturity and intuitive auto nomy are part of the false pretense. On the other hand, the so-called "borderline" patients encompassed the most seriously ill group even up to the present day. Particular characteristics portrayed by these patients are the perception of themselves as overwhelmed, always in danger, of no value, and unattractive. Correspondingly, they see other people as corrective, controlling, and insensitively critical. Their fragmented sense of self and fragile ego boundaries often result in poor impulse control and a anxious search for external tension regulation. Behaviors that are exhibited in order to lessen and alleviate a sense of internal emptiness and despair cause these patients to be poly-symptomatic and particularly difficult to help. Factors Affecting Anorexia Nervosa There are in point of fact numerous factors that can be enumerated that affect eating disorders in women. It may be due to socio-cultural factors, family problems, individual vulnerability as a result of trauma or things that might have gone wrong in the difficult early mother-child relationship, and the influence brought about by the mass media. In sticking with the scope of this paper, the socio-cultural factors and the mass media are the only factors that are further discussed aligning to this paper's purpose. Socio-cultural Factors As women reach adolescence, they undergo a lot of physical changes like their size and shape. It is also during this time when culture