Memory Lab - Middletown High School



Memory Lab

Do not write on this sheet, it is a class set

Working with a partner, complete all seven memory activities.

The lab sheet for each person should have the name of the activity, your observation of the activity and a conclusion.

• The observation should detail what you and your partner did during the activity and the results.

• Your conclusion should explain your results – i.e. –“The lab proved that we tended to remember more words at the beginning and end of the list than in the middle due to the serial position effect.”

In the first activity, one partner will read the instructions and test the memory of the other person. Then switch, the other person reads/controls the experiment while the other person’s memory is tested.

When partners have completed the activity, written their observations and made their conclusions (on their own lab sheet) partners may move on to the next activity.

Memory Activity #1

Penny – Use the Common Cents handout

We’ve seen thousands of pennies, but what does one really look like? WITHOUT LOOKING A REAL PENNY, each partner should guess which penny is a picture of an actual penny. Your conclusion should explain why this task is so difficult even though we’ve seen so many pennies…

Memory Activity #2

Concrete Words

Here are three lists of words: concrete words, abstract words and nonsense words. See which list is easier to memorize. Read the first list to your partner (concrete words – about one per second). Then check write down how many your partner remembers. Continue with the Abstract Words column, then move on to the Nonsense words. Then switch and have your partner read the lists to you checking to see how many you remember. Your conclusion should include whether or not you were able to remember more words from one list than another and why do you think that was.

|Concrete Words |Abstract Words |Nonsense Words |

|alligator |hammer |anger |

|apple |house |belief |

|arrow |lemon |boredom |

|baby |microscope |chance |

|bird |ocean |concept |

|book |pencil |effort |

|butterfly |rock |fate |

|car |shoes |freedom |

|corn |table |glory |

|flower |window |happiness |

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|Only one of these images of a penny is correct. Which one is it? |

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Handout #5

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