Psychology

Event Title

Physical Activity as a Context for Memory

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Location

Indianapolis, IN

Subject Area

Psychology

Start Date

13-4-2018 3:30 PM

End Date

13-4-2018 4:15 PM

Description

The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the effort of a simple motor task can be used as a context cue for memory retrieval. Context dependent memory is based on the premise that memory is improved when the context is the same at encoding and at recall. There are many studies which support context dependent memory. Do the actions we do while encoding information act as a context for recall? Few studies have formally addressed this, and the purpose of my study is to examine if the type of movement people do can help with recall. Per the method of the experiments, participants will have to learn the location of objects on two grids. One grid will be learned while rolling a golf ball in a circle on a table. The other grid will be learned while rolling a golf ball vertically between the palms of the hands. At the recall phase, only one movement will be reinstated while recalling the images of both grids. The type of movement reinstated at recall is the independent variable. The accuracy of recall on identifying and locating objects on the grids is the dependent variable. I predict that participants will be more accurate in recalling objects from the grid learned while doing the reinstated movement. The results of the study will be used to determine the possibility that physical effort can be considered a retrieval cue for context dependent memory.

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Apr 13th, 3:30 PM Apr 13th, 4:15 PM

Physical Activity as a Context for Memory

Indianapolis, IN

The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the effort of a simple motor task can be used as a context cue for memory retrieval. Context dependent memory is based on the premise that memory is improved when the context is the same at encoding and at recall. There are many studies which support context dependent memory. Do the actions we do while encoding information act as a context for recall? Few studies have formally addressed this, and the purpose of my study is to examine if the type of movement people do can help with recall. Per the method of the experiments, participants will have to learn the location of objects on two grids. One grid will be learned while rolling a golf ball in a circle on a table. The other grid will be learned while rolling a golf ball vertically between the palms of the hands. At the recall phase, only one movement will be reinstated while recalling the images of both grids. The type of movement reinstated at recall is the independent variable. The accuracy of recall on identifying and locating objects on the grids is the dependent variable. I predict that participants will be more accurate in recalling objects from the grid learned while doing the reinstated movement. The results of the study will be used to determine the possibility that physical effort can be considered a retrieval cue for context dependent memory.