Craik and Tulving 1975

psychology lesson 7

Aim

To investigate how deep and shallow processing affects memory recall

participants

24 male and female students from a university

Sampling

convenience sampling

independent variable

the type of encoding used to memorize a list of words

dependent variable

number of words recalled

Key findings

Semantically encoded words involve elaboration rehearsal and deep processing which resulted in more accurate recall. Phonemically and structurally processed words involve shallow processing and showed less accurate recall

Contributions to society

Provided empirical evidence for Craik and Lockheart’s levels of processing

widened the focus from seeing long term memory as a simple storage unit to seeing it as a complex processing system

Highlights the way in which elaborative / deeper processing of information can aid memory

Limitations

deception was used and there is insufficient information available to know if debriefing occurred