Question

Human short-term memory has a limited span. This is a series of experiments to determine what that span is... if you have a group of students, then read this example carefully. "Once I went to the market..." In your group, one person starts off with "I went to the market and I bought a fish" (or some other produce, or whatever!). The next person continues "I went to the market and I bought a fish and I bought a bread roll as well". The process continues, with each person adding some item to the list each time. Keep going around the group until you cannot remember the list accurately. Make a note of the first time someone gets it wrong, and then record the number of items that you can successfully remember. Some of you will find it hard to remember more than a few, others will fare much better. Do this a few more times with different lists, and then calculate your average score and your group's average score. What does this tell you about short-term memory? What do you do that helps you remember? What do you estimate is the typical capacity of human short-term memory? Is this a good test for short-term memory?

          Human short-term memory has a limited span. This is a series of experiments to determine what that span is... if you have a group of students, then read this example carefully.

"Once I went to the market..."

In your group, one person starts off with "I went to the market and I bought a fish" (or some other produce, or whatever!). The next person continues "I went to the market and I bought a fish and I bought a bread roll as well". The process continues, with each person adding some item to the list each time. Keep going around the group until you cannot remember the list accurately. Make a note of the first time someone gets it wrong, and then record the number of items that you can successfully remember. Some of you will find it hard to remember more than a few, others will fare much better. Do this a few more times with different lists, and then calculate your average score and your group's average score. What does this tell you about short-term memory? What do you do that helps you remember?

What do you estimate is the typical capacity of human short-term memory? Is this a good test for short-term memory?

Added by Thomas R.

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