Measuring Rote Against Eidetic Memorization Techniques

Measuring Rote Against Eidetic Memorization Techniques

Researcher: Patrick Mahirwe

Date: 2/1/2017

Abstract 

This report explains the memorization techniques by the experiment. It aims to provide more details about the difference between rote and eidetic memorization techniques. To conduct the experiment, I had four participants who formed two groups and there were ten words to use in this research. Each participant had to recall the words from ten words they were assigned to memorize. I wanted to know which memorization technique is effective, for I divided participants into two groups; two participants in Group One and other remaining two participants in Group Two. Which means that the first two participants would memorize words by using rote and other remaining two participants would memorize words by eidetic. The results from my experiment have shown that both groups had different ability to memorize information, based on the memorizing techniques they have used.  I have found that Group Two (eidetic) had the ability to recall correct words in a long time than other participants in another group after one minute and 24 hours. This means that the group of eidetic memorization had less forgetting rate than participants who memorized words by using rote memorization.

Introduction 

Many students have always confusion about the best memorization technique, so I decided to conduct an experiment to support all people to understand the best technique by using this experiment. Ideally, for a person to understand this, it is recommended to comprehend the psychology of thoughts and memory, cognitive. Cognitive is a part of psychology which deals with the people’s perceiving, processing and retrieving information. Therefore, there are two types of memorization in the cognitive psychology which are Rote and Eidetic. Rote is a type of memorization technique which is based on repetition. This means that one will be able to rapidly recall the content by the more repetition. However, eidetic is a type of memorization technique which is the ability to memorize things in memory after some time of exposure. Thus, based on the information we have gotten from those two types of cognitive psychology, we can figure out which memorization technique is more effective between Rote and eidetic.

Hypothesis 

An eidetic memorization is an effective technique for long-term memory than rote memorization. In my expectation, a person with rote tends to forget easier and faster than a person with eidetic memorization technique.

Methods 

I have conducted this experiment using four participants, and I have used a sample of three boys and one girl of different ages. These four participants represented the total target population of 300 people of my community at the workplace. I split them into two groups where Group One learned the same 10 random word pairings by rote memorization.  Whereas, the Group Two learned the same random word pairings by eidetic memorization. Each participant of any group had his or her recall tested twice—first one minute after memorization, and then a second time after 24 hours.
I instructed each participant to memorize the 10 randomly generated word pairings for five minutes. Participants of Group One used only rote memorization (simple repetition). However, participants of Group Two used only eidetic memorization (using a vivid mental picture that associates the two words). I have measured the time because all participants had a one-minute break between memorization and the first recall test, during the recall test, they produced the “Response” word when given the “Prompt” word for Group Two. While Group One provided a response to the words memorized without the prompt word.

Data 

While recording data, I have recorded the words of two groups after one minute and 24 hours respectively.
The graph below shows the data collected after one minute and 24 hours for both groups.

Results

According to experiment, the Group one(rote) got 9.5 words correct after one minute, but the Group Two(eidetic) got only 6.5 words correct at the same time as the Group One. After 24 hours, the Group One remembered 8.5 words while the Group Two recalled again 6.5 words. It is clear that the Group Two was able to recollect 100% of the words between one minute and 24 hours, for it got 6.5 words after one minute and the rate of forgetting was zero after 24 hours.

The experiment confirmed my hypothesis because the Group Two which used the eidetic memorization technique had zero forgetting rate after 24 hours. Therefore, an eidetic memorization technique facilitates longstanding memory than rote memorization technique. In addition, a person with rote memorization technique is able to memorize many words in short time, but s/he forgets easier and faster than a person with eidetic memorization technique. However, a person with eidetic memorization technique can memorize few words, but s/he is able to recall at the highest level over a long time.

Discussion 

The result of my experiment is consistent with current theories and research. As Gomentalpsych (2016) researched, that experiment has used two groups. Between one minute and 24 hours, Rote Group recalled 9 to 7 correct words while Eidetic Group got correct 5 to 6 words after 24 hours. The research concluded that rote is short-term memory where you can memorize by repetition without an understanding of the words which favors to forget them easily. But, eidetic is a long-term memory by storing the information over a long period of time without forgetting. This experiment has the same result as mine. Unfortunately, I have used the participants of the same community, and they had approximate age as well as education level. This is an error because there are similarities between that that could provide not completely result.

I wonder to know, what might be the result in case each participant practices both Rote and Eidetic memorization experiment at the same time?Briefly, the main contemporary perspectives of psychology include behaviorism, cognitive, psychodynamic and humanist perspectives. As McLeod (2007) noted, behaviorism is concerned with how environmental factors known as stimuli affect observable behavior(response). Cognitive is the branch of psychology deals with how people perceive, process and recover data. Therefore, this experiment fits cognitive psychology perspective. Psychodynamic perspective deals with the expression of human’s daily life such as subconscious, denial, and repression. However, humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person identified as holism. The humanistic perspective centers on the view that each person is unique and individual, and has the free will to change at any time in his or her lives.

Perspectives of Psychology

According to Open Learning Initiative (n.d.), the table below provides the details about the contemporary perspectives of psychology.
Perspectives Meaning
Behavioral Neuroscience It emphasizes on genetics and the links among brain, mind, and behavior.
Biological It deals with the connection between bodily systems and chemicals and how they influence behavior and thought of people.
Cognitive It focuses on people’s thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, memory, language, and information processing.
Social It is about the concepts of self and social contact and how they differ across cultures and shape behavior.
Developmental It deals with the way and reasons people change or stay the same over time from conception to death.
Clinical Diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and promotion of psychological health. Individual Differences/ Personality Uniqueness and differences of people and the consistencies in behavior across time and situations.

Psychology of memory refers to a branch of psychology which deals with the way people perceive, process and retrieve information. Memory is essential to all our lives. Without a memory of the past, we cannot operate in the present or think about the future (McLeod, 2013).
The psychology of memory includes rote and eidetic memorization technique. As explained above in the experiment, the eidetic memorization technique is effective to recall the content over a long period of time.
Explicit memory refers to knowledge or experiences that can be consciously remembered. However, Implicit memory refers to the influence of experience on behavior, even if the individual is not aware of those influences (Saylor Foundation, n.d.). This experiment is about the explicit memory.
And the sub-type is semantic because students were required to use their prior knowledge in order to recall the answers for those 10 paired words. I would like to start by defining these terms. Sensory memory refers to the brief storage of sensory information; short-term memory is the place where small amounts of information can be temporarily kept for more than a few seconds but usually for less than one minute. The next, long-term memory storage that can hold information for days, month, and years (Saylor Foundation, n.d.).

The picture describes the types of sensory, short-term and long-term memory (Saylor Foundation, n.d.)According to these definitions, my experiment is about long-term memory because they were able to recall the words after 24 hours. Specifically, the eidetic group had Zero forgetting rate, so they could remember the information after a long time of a month or year. Briefly, encoding is the process by which we place the things that we experience into memory. Except information is encoded, it cannot be recalled. Then, retrieval refers to the process of reactivating information that has been stored in memory. Storage is where information is stored, and it mainly concerns with nature of memory stores (McLeod, 2013). From the meaning above, an eidetic group in the research had effective and favorable memory encoding, retrieval and storage than the rote group. For the reason that eidetic group’s participants used a vivid mental picture that associates the two words which were known as a prompt word.

This group was able to recollect 100% of the words between one minute and 24 hours, for it got 6.5 words after one minute and the rate of forgetting was zero after 24 hours. Psychologically, the independent variable is variable that an experimenter manipulates or controls in the experiment such as temperature and stimuli used. The dependent variable is variable that an experimenter measures or observes such as participant response and others measurable things. Then, Operational definition refers to how an experimenter will define and measure a specific variable as it is used in this study (McLeod, 2008). In this study, the prompt words I provided for the eidetic group to stimulate their memorization are independent variable while participant’s responses of recalled words are the dependent variable.

Moreover, the variables include quantitative and categorical. Quantitative variables refer to numerical values, and they can be ordered and measured. Whereas categorical variables are also called qualitative variables or attribute variables. The values of a categorical variable can be put into the different groups (Minitab, n.d.). Therefore, while correcting the number of recalled words per group, I have used quantitative variables.  Also, my operational definitions are all descriptions, measurements, and calculations I have done to explain this study.

In an experiment, a sample is a representative group of the population under study during the research. Whereas population is the total target group of individuals from which the sample might be drawn. In my study, it was reliable to conclude on the result from the sample as representative of the target population. Because in my sampling, I have chosen the participants of different ages and gender, so the entire population was represented. The Scientific method is a method of procedure which consists a systematic observation and measurement where the experiment tests the hypothesis to be correct or not and it might be modified after the study. Credibly, my experiment has used the scientific method, for I have started with a hypothesis to test using experiment. In addition, measurement and calculation were considered to approve the reality of the hypothesis. At the end, the study approved the hypothesis to be correct which was “Eidetic memorization is an effective technique for long-term memory than rote memorization”.

References

Gomentalpsych. (2016, September 18). How People Effectively Memorize and Process Information. Retrieved from https://gomentalpsych.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/how-people-effectively-memorize-and-process-information/
McLeod, S. (2014). Sampling Methods. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/sampling.html
Psychology Glossary. (n.d.). Operational Definition definition. Retrieved from http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Operational%20Definition
Saylor Foundation. (n.d.). Introduction to Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Introduction%20to%20Psychology.pdf#page=352
Minitab. (n.d.). Comparison of categorical and quantitative variables. Retrieved from http://support.minitab.com/en-us/minitab/17/topic-library/basic-statistics-and-graphs/introductory-concepts/data-concepts/cat-quan-variable/
Open Learning Initiative. (n.d.). Contemporary Psychology: Interconnected Perspectives. Retrieved from https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/workbook/activity/page?context=df3e6fde0a0001dc738ae5093177784a