The Idea behind the Working of Memory - Lab Report Example

A number of researchers have tried to expound on the idea behind the working of memory. Uncovering the principles involved in spatial information and working memory has been the primary goal of most psychologists and neurologists (Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben & Prinz, 2001). Spatial information entails those forms of information that a human being encounters in his day-to-day activities. The research done by Humphreys & Riddoch (1992) reveals that the way spatial information is perceived and perceptually organized may shape the emerging cognitive representation sometime before processes of memory storage or retrieval come into play. Such information is acquired through the senses.
A number of theories and principles have been developed with the purpose of unveiling the truth behind the relationship between mind, brain, and memory. The principle of Gestalt psychology was developed to explain the functioning of the brain. The principle argues that the brain is best described by considering its holistic nature rather than describing its parts independently (Coren & Girgus 1980).
According to Gestalt psychology, understanding the whole issue is the best way through which one can understand the parts making the issue. Despite the fact that several theories and principles related to Gestalt psychology have been developed, there is still insufficient information explaining the effects of gestalt on the maintenance of spatial information in working memory. The aim of this paper is to report on the experiment that was carried out to determine the relationship between spatial information and the functioning of the brain (Coren & Girgus 1980).
Methods
The study involved 34 participants from the upper-level psychology class. The participants were expected to participate voluntarily in the study. There were two main variables used in the experiment. The dependent variable was determined by the ability of the participants to detect a change in the stimuli. On the other hand, there were two independent variables were the gestalt presence and the stimulus change. There were two classes of gestalt. The first class was presented by the absence of the gestalt whereas the other class had gestalt (Coren & Girgus 1980). On the other hand, the stimulus change was categorized into five categories. These were: (no change, in-in, in-out, out-out, out-in). In this experiment, the participants were presented with spatial information and were expected to encode it.
The information was in form of keys. “Z” key was used to indicate no change and the “/” key was used to indicate a change. The encoded information would definitely get stored in the working memory. This was followed by the presentation of either a gestalt or a blank screen. However, care was taken to ensure that the information was maintained. The participants were then tested on how well they remembered the information. However, some of them had gestalt whereas others could not access it (McNamara, 1991). The last action that was carried out was t compare the trials where gestalt was and was not presented. It should be noted that the whole process was computerized such that detection of any change could be tracked to detect the stimuli affected. The analysis of variance was then used to analyze the findings (Coren & Girgus 1980). Read More