The Complexity of Memory: Literature Review

The Complexity of Memory: Literature Review Wynham Guillemot I. The first article that I decided summarize is labeled: The Production Effect: Costs and Benefits in Free Recall. The Research report was written by Angela C. Jones of John Carroll University and Mary A. Pyc of Washington University in St. Louis. It is found in the 2014 edition of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. This experiment was aimed at examining the costs and benefits of production, through use of free recall paradigm. Paradigm is defined as a typical example or pattern of doing something. Free recall is defined as the process in which participants study a list of items, and then are prompted to recall the items in any order. The production effect is the memorial benefit of reading aloud compared to reading silently. Some studies have shown the production effect as a simple memory improvement method. â€Å"The production effect is additive to the benefits of generation and semantic processing, extends to a delayed retention interval, and has been demonstrated with nonwords, word pairs, and sentences† (Jones and Pyc 300). As we can see the production effect does have certain advantages, but does it actually augment the ability of our memory? Is the effect due to increased memory for items read aloud, or is it something else? Even though at the advent of this experiment statistical tests had not been reported, Jones and Pyc hypothesized that the benefit of production was possibly instead due to a memory reduction for silent items, and thus the goal of their experiment was to prove this. What causes the production effect to alter memory ability? Jones and Pyc decided it had to do with the way in which information is organized when read silently or aloud. â€Å"The increases in recognition accuracy for items read aloud may be the result of item-specific gains associated with production, and the costs to silent items may be the result of minimal relational encoding afforded by the typical production effect paradigm† (Jones and Pyc 300). The authors addressed this issue by splitting the study into two experiments. The goal of Experiment 1 was to discover the benefits and costs underlying the production effect. Thus, the study included one mixed list (silent and aloud items) and two pure lists (one silent, one aloud). After this the participants completed a free recall final test. The study included 48 undergraduate students from John Carroll University. First they underwent the encoding phase. The students were shown 30 items. Fifteen of the items were in blue font, and the other 15 were in red font. The words were split into two different colors because it allowed for relational processing, which increases recall when added to items that naturally elicited item-specific processing (the random non-associated words that the students were to memorize). They did this because, based on prior experiments, they were led to believe that, â€Å"the increases in recognition accuracy for items read aloud may be the result of the item-specific gains associated with production, and the costs to silent items may be the result of minimal relational encoding afforded by the typical production effect paradigm† (Jones and Pyc 300). 17 of the students were assigned to read words of one color aloud and the words in the other color silently. This group was labeled the mixed group. 16 of the students read every word silently, while the remaining 15 read all words aloud. These two groups were the pure groups. Thus, there were four variables in the experiment: silent pure, silent mixed, aloud pure, and aloud mixed. The pure list was used to allow the experimenters to assess the costs and benefits of production. After the encoding phase the students were directed to type every word that they remembered from the phase. The results showed that there was no effect of list type, or basically that recall data was not influenced by mixed or pure list reading. Production showed greater recall from students who read aloud than those who read silently. The most notable and interesting result of the experiment was the interaction of list type and production. Production only played a benefit on the mixed list group. The most significant jump in data was between the mixed silent group (around 8% recall), and the mixed aloud group (around 24% recall). All results considered, the experimenters concluded that the production effect for the mixed list group was most likely driven predominantly by the costs to silent items. Basically, the significant variation between silent-mixed and aloud-mixed groups was less due to the benefit of reading the mixed group aloud, and more so due to the negative cost of reading the mixed group silently. The second experiment replicated the first experiment mostly, however there was one change. Now 30 five letter words were represented, half of which were high frequency words (words that are more common in the english language), and the other half were low frequency words (words that are less common). They decided to do this because almost all previous experiments on the production effect used high frequency words, and therefore they wanted to see if the production effect extended to low-frequency words. 23 students read words from the mixed list, 23 of the students read from the pure silent list, and 23 read from the pure loud list. The recall percent for the high frequency words correlated very closely with the results from experiment 1, as predicted. The low frequency words had higher recall percents across the board for each category, and the rise in word recall for each category was proportional to the trends in the higher frequency words. In other words, the relationship between the categories was the same, with the difference being that each category was higher in word recall in low frequency than its high frequency counterpart. The general results of this experiment gives us good insight on the ability of memory. â€Å"We demonstrated that the production effect is not simply the result of enhanced memory for items read aloud but instead results from a cost to memory for items read silently† (Jones and Pyc 300). Both experiments reflected that the benefits of production were less than the costs of silent items. Thus, this experiment discredits the belief that the production effect is a memory tool, as memory is rather decreased by reading silent items, not increased by reading aloud. II. The second article I selected is titled: Parametric Effects of Word Frequency in Memory for Mixed Frequency Lists. This research report was written by Lynn J. Lohnas and Michael J. Kahana of the University of Pennsylvania. It was published on July 8, 2013, in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. An important concept to consider, as the article is built around this concept, is word frequency paradox. As defined in the abstract of the article, word frequency paradox is the finding that low frequency words are better recognized than high frequency words yet high frequency words are better recalled than low frequency words. However, based on prior experiments, this view is partially challenged, as the types of word that are recalled better can vary between high and low frequency. Thus an important question in the article is brought up. Why is item recognition consistently favorable towards low frequency words in mixed lists, but during superior recall of mixed lists there can be variations in which word frequency type is superior? Previous experiments showed instability in recall results. The authors believe that the instability is due to the substantial difference in the range of word frequencies between the high and low frequency groups. The main goal of this experiment was â €Å"to quantify the functional relation between word frequency and memory performance across the broad range of frequencies typically used in episodic memory experiments.† (Lohnas and Kahana 1). The authors address their questions concerning relations between high and low frequencies by conducting an experiment aimed at collecting data on both recognition memory and free recall. For the free recall portion of the experiment, instead of just collecting data on results from high frequency words and low frequency words, the authors decided to use mixed frequency lists that included all the frequencies in between the high and low as well. 132 participants were used in the overall experiment. For each session of the experiment there were 16 lists of 16 words. One list containing sixteen words would be presented on a computer screen, one at a time. Each word would be accompanied by between 0 and 2 encoding tasks (these tasks included a size judgment and an animacy judgment. The number of encoding tasks changes not by each photo, but by each list. Following each list was an immediate free recall test. The results showed that participants recalled higher proportions of both low and high frequency words than words of intermediate frequency, forming a sort of U shape. This U shape held true for both items without an encoding task, and those with an encoding task. However, when no task was presented, the recall probability for each frequency was higher by about .05 to .08. At the end of the 16 lists presented in the session, participants would be presented with a recognition test. For half of the sessions (randomly selected) students would be given a final cumulative free recall test, in between the recall test from the 16th list and the recognition test. During this free recall test participants were asked to recall all possible items from all the lists in the section. For the recognition test, 320 words were presented one at a time on a computer screen, and participants had to select which words had showed up in the lists, and which one’s hadn’t. The results from the recognition tests show us that with increasing word frequency, participants were more likely to incorrectly accept lures and less likely to correctly recognize targets. Thus the lower the frequency, the more likely participants were to select them in recognition tests. When no encoding tasks were presented, participants were just a little more likely to have a higher hit rate in the recognition test. III. The final article that I decided to summarize is: Learning to Remember by Learning to Speak. The article was written by Marc Ettlinger of the Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System, Jennifer Lanter of the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, and Craig K. Van Pay of the University of Houston. This article is found the 2014 edition of Developmental Psychology. The goal of this experiment was to test if a child’s memory can be impacted by language. Many psychological studies regarding language had been conducted before, however none had ever had directly connected memory and language, and thus these authors were interested in digging into this topic. The authors predicted that the children’s ability to recall the plurality of different items depended on the phonology of the word, which is the sounds associated with a certain word. The authors saw it best to use three different categories of plural words. â€Å"We also considered the correlation between children’s ability to recall the plurality of sibilant-final words and their ability to articulate the plural for sibilant-final words, their recall and articulation of plosive-final words, and their recall and articulation of vowel-final words† (Ettlinger 432). For the experiment the authors selected monolingual children that were ages 3–5 years old. In total there were 50 participants. Once they started to undergo the tests, children were show pictures of 36 objects, either shown as a singular object, or the same object four times. The child is later tested on 18 of the photos seen earlier by moving the picture he or she saw into the middle, lower box in the center of a board. If it was one of the photos with four objects, and the child selected, it means that he or she most likely understands the phonology of the name of the object selected. A certain production task, called the wug test was used to test their ability to produce the plural. In this test, the experimenter took a photo of a novel item that the child had not yet seen yet, and told him the name of the object, which was a nonce word. He then shows the child a photo of multiple units of the same object, and asks the child to tell him what it he or she is seeing in the ph oto, in a complete sentence. In the data collected, the researchers found an interesting correlation between plosive final words and sibilant final words. There was no connection with vowel-final words. As stated in the article, â€Å"This suggests that memory mirrors the development of plural production, where children first develop mastery of the pluralization of vowel-final words but still struggle with sibilant final words, with plosives somewhere in the middle† (Ettlinger 436). As a result of their studies, these psychologists were able to accurately prove a connection between language and memory.

BSC Implementation process and initiatives Essay

The balanced scorecard is a system that helps business people to become savvy in strategic management. Companies have a life line through this system to make self evaluation and plan for a successful business path. This system was meant to help companies and businesses achieve the best possible results for the business endeavors. BSC has caused ripples among various practitioners across the vast business fraternity at first nobody seemed to have a clue as to how to describe the perspective it sought to create about business operations. The result of these perceptions caused misunderstanding among both proponents and opponents of the system. The system however does not seem to follow the same path as other systems developed before its emergence; it lacks the technical aspect. (Neiger et al, 2009) In any type of business management is a serious concern that needs to be looked in to keenly without prejudice. Management in any company or business plays a major role that cannot be wished away at whatever cost. Where there is good leadership then a business stands to reap fruits; providing a course to prosperity and decent profits. Bad management results in the crippling of business activities as well as the eventual death of a business initiative. What does strategy and operational control entail? In leadership or corporate governance how one runs a business matters a lot; in some aspects it draws parallels between success or profitability and in the worst scenarios may result in losses. Management is seriously intertwined with actions and action measures. A leader has to always monitor stringently the daily performance of the business. Business operations gather moment when a number of aspects are put to play; one is diagnostic measures that are used for controlling processes. The culture that a business relates to or wants to be associated with also may give a pointer as to what direction the company intends to move. Business leaders are also tasked with developing interaction systems in their own jurisdiction that work and translate in to good relations among staff. Policy framework should be established and adhered to knowing very well that boundaries have to be set; any crossing of the lines ramifications are there. Control mechanisms can be tailor made to suit various sc enarios; personal controls may be merged with cultural work practices. (Neiger et al, 2009) What were the efforts undertaken to effect BSC in to BAE? There was an evolution in BAE when the company sought to make a number of changes in the way they did their operations. The company decided to make a shift from their traditional modalities of doing things and sought to make changes in regard to their culture. BAE evolved over a period of time; they moved from a system that was not as coherent as the balanced score card to one that was, the balanced score card. They had a system that embraced the Business Value Scorecard; this is the method that came before balanced score card at the BAE. The BVS approach carried along it the vision that top management at the BAE had set it out to achieve and it came as a welcome relief when their profits margins begun to soar. BVS came in to being because the leadership at BAE wanted a system they deemed sufficient to lead the company in to a smooth changeover and also have the effect of ensuring cultural change takes place. Financial and the non-financial aspects of execution of pillars of the culture were discussed to great lengths by the management. (Eisen, 2000) BAE made strides in terms of its market share in Europe; in the year 1999 the company had become a market leader in Europe. The company deals with making defense equipment and it was during the same year that they got themselves being positioned second largest company in the world. The company is divided in to eight subsections with each making specific items. In the year 1994, the company found itself in a precarious situation whereby despite of the wish to carry out cultural change; they were unable to perform competitively. Members who formed part of the managerial team embarked on an exercise to analyze the weaknesses and the strong points that the company had to showcase. The realization that the company seemed to be stalling pushed the Chief Executive and his team in to action; they brainstormed on how best to make amends before it was too late. (Eisen, 2000) The chief executive and his support decided on modalities on how to push through changes and better work and operational ethics to keep the company head above water. The chief executive also decided to push a raft of measures through; among them was reviewing business practices as well engage experts beyond the company walls to help out. He engaged everyone regardless of rank or position within the company as a means to rectify the situation at hand. (Kaplan and Norton, 2008) Was the approach a success? The company not only made an upward movement in profitability but they were now having functional systems. Employees were able to feel and share in the new changes; they were getting the befitting treatment they deserved. They were also accorded a raft of benefits and the practices at the Human Resource departments were well streamlined and the employee retention level had begun to improve. The changes at BAE were a welcome success and the company is continuously reaping the benefits of those bold steps towards change. (Kaplan and Norton, 2008) References Neiger, D., Churilov, L., Flitman, A., & Rotaru, K. (2009).  Value-focused process engineering: A systems approach : with applications to human resource management. New York: Springer Eisen, P. J. (2000).  Accounting. Hauppauge, N.Y: Barron’s Educational Series. Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2008).  The execution premium: Linking strategy to operations for competitive advantage. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Press. Source document

Comparison of Hinduism to Christianity - 703 Words

Hinduism is one of the earliest religons that is still practiced around the world. It seeks to answer the same questions that Christianity does, but arrives at different answers. It seeks truth, but fails to find it. Hinduism seeks to ask the question of where do we come from? This question is not easily answerable. Because of the nature of Hinduism, everything is in a cycle. There is no beginning and there is no end. Hinduism also does not have a set of defined rules because of it’s views on multiple views and believes. Because of this, we see a few different origins for human kind, but Hinduism fails to give a definite definition. Hinduism would next ask the question of Identity. What does it mean to be human? Ultimately Hinduism has a rather selfish view of this, even if it believes in peace and harmony. It looks at people as all part of the same â€Å"god essence†. Humanities purpose is to be brought back to nirvana. It is me centric. You try over and over to live the â€Å"perfect† life. There is no grace for the things you do. Ultimately you are responsible for living the perfect life and reaching Nirvana, a place where you are one with the â€Å"god essence†. So what is the meaning of all of this? Humanity must get to Moksha, which is known as the release. It is a release from wanting and desiring. It is where you are basically liberated from your humanity. It is the Hindu kind of salvation. So what about Morality? How do we know what is right or wrong? Hinduism does not reallyShow MoreRelatedIslam, Hinduism, Buddhism And Christianity Comparison1025 Words   |  5 PagesPractices of Hinduism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity Comparison Hinduism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity developed centuries ago and have been practiced since then to today. Groups of people who practice these religions are bound to the conventional norms, beliefs, cultures and way of life of each. Each religion has a particular faith in a supreme being (Woodhead, Partridge Kawanami, 2016). Muslims believe in Allah, Christians believe in Jesus Christ, Hindus believe inRead MoreChristianity And Hinduism : A Theological Perspective1391 Words   |  6 PagesWhen looking at Christianity and Hinduism there are many ways to look at each religion from a theological perspective. This is why the best way to look at the broad view of these religions would be to analyze each by comparing and contrasting what each religion is about. The first point to look at would be at how Hinduism and Christianity are very similar in how they view the world. This can be seen in how they both strive to achieve a state of higher being whether it be with the eternal stateRead MoreReligion : Hinduism, Islam, And Christianity1079 Words   |  5 Pagesworship and to follow their practices. A few of the main religions over time have been Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. These three religions consist of ideas and practices that may be very different, but are made up of the same general idea expressed in a new form. Although their main differences, each religion seeks one thing, and that s an afterlife. Most religions are made up of a god or many gods. Hinduism is considered a polytheistic religion, which means more than one god. Hindu beliefs,Read MoreComparison And Contrast Of World Religions1194 Words   |  5 PagesComparison and Contrast of World Religions The religions of the world, while differing greatly in their specifics, are surprisingly similar. The three most prevalent religions in the world are Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, in that order. All believe in a higher power that presides over and created man. Islam originated in approximately 609 C.E., or Common Era, and Christianity originated around 33 C.E. which is supposedly when Jesus Christ was crucified. The main prophet of Islam, MuhammadRead MoreWhat Is Spiritual Conditions May Impact The Success Of Patient s Treatment And How Helpful Human Faith?1394 Words   |  6 Pagescan be.The aim of this paper is to share the spiritual perspectives of people with diverse faiths and to analyze those with Christian philosophy of faith and healing. People from distant beliefs, which include Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam were interviewed. Summary of the interview, comparison of diverse belief systems and writer’s personal insights gained from the interviews are discussed in the paper. There are various religious beliefs, values and traditions among people around the world. NursingRead MoreChristianity And Hinduism .According To The Human Truth1601 Words   |  7 PagesChristianity and Hinduism According to the human truth foundation (2017) â€Å"religions are shared collection of transcendental beliefs that have been passed on from believers to converts, which are held by adherents to be actively meaningful and serious and either based on formally documented doctrine or established cultural practices.† There are many religions in the world some are old as the beginning of time and some are newer. Hinduism is one of the oldest organized religion in the world. Read MoreSimilarities and Differences Between Christianity Hinduism1635 Words   |  7 PagesExamine and comment on contrasting standpoints about God and/or existence in relation to the topic you have investigated. Christianity and Hinduism seem to have profoundly different views in relation to God and/or existence. For example, creation within Christian belief is primarily ex-nihilo (out of nothing). God created everything in 7 days from the light and darkness, to the day of rest. This can be illustrated by reference to Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a â€Å"In the beginning God created the heavens andRead MoreReligion And Its Impact On Religion Essay1277 Words   |  6 Pagespractice contrasting customs in daily life leading to inaccurate stereotypes especially in Christianity and Hinduism. Studying beliefs worldwide can be concluded in one simple idea. Most religions have more similarities then first seen on the surface. In Christianity followers of Christ seek salvation through redemption of Jesus of Nazareth being crucified and therefore accepting salvation is a gift. In Hinduism members of the culture believe through good works they will achieve salvation from reincarnationRead MoreEssay on Hinduism1657 Words   |  7 PagesHindu religion combines rich ethnical and standard beliefs. We will take a closer look and try to understand the Hindu religion and culture. The Hindu religion is the oldest religion of the five major religions, which are Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism (Major World Religions, 2006). The Hindu religion began to develop about 4.000 years ago in India, but it there was no single founder or system of belief (Major World Religions, 2006). There are many diverse and various Gods inRead More Eastern and Western Religions Essay 899 Words   |  4 Pagespermanent entity, which is either reborn or sentenced to a permanent heaven or hell. Christianity views the soul as the permanent entity within oneself, which is judged by God. The purity of one’s soul decides whether it passes to heaven or hell. Christianity shares this basic belief with both Islam and Judaism which also say heaven or hell is the final resting place of the soul. The Eastern religion, Hinduism, preaches that Atman, or permanent soul, is in every being and is the embodiment of the

Using TDictionary for Hash Tables in Delphi

Introduced in Delphi 2009, the TDictionary class, defined in the Generics.Collections unit, represents a generic hash table type collection of key-value pairs. Generic types, also introduced in Delphi 2009, allow you to define classes that dont specifically define the type of data members. A dictionary is, in a way, similar to an array. In an array you work with a series (collection) of values indexed by an integer value, which can be any ordinal type value. This index has a lower and an upper bound. In a dictionary, you can store keys and values where either can be of any type. The TDictionary Constructor Hence the declaration of the TDictionary constructor: In Delphi, the TDictionary is defined as a hash table. Hash tables represent  a collection of key-and-value pairs that are organized based on the hash code of the key. Hash tables are optimized for lookups (speed). When a key-value pair is added to a hash table, the hash of the key is computed and stored along with the added pair. The TKey and TValue, because theyre generics, can be of any type. For example, if the information you are to store in the dictionary is coming from some database, your Key can be a GUID (or some other value presenting the unique index) value while the Value can be an object mapped to a row of data in your database tables. Using TDictionary For the sake of simplicity, the example below uses integers for TKeys and chars for TValues.   First, we declare our dictionary by specifying what the types of the TKey and TValue will be: Then the dictionary is filled using the Add method. Because a dictionary cannot have two pairs with the same Key value, you can use the ContainsKey method to check if some key-valued pair is already inside the dictionary. To remove a pair from the dictionary, use the Remove method. This method will not cause problems if a pair with a specified key is not a part of the dictionary. To go through all the pairs by looping through keys you can do a for in loop. Use the TryGetValue method to check if some key-value pair is included in the dictionary. Sorting The Dictionary Because a dictionary is a hash table it does not store items in a defined sort order. To iterate through the keys that are sorted to meet your specific need, take advantage of the TList -- a generic collection type that supports sorting. The code above sorts keys ascending and descending and grabs values as if they were stored in the sorted order in the dictionary. The descending sorting of integer-type Key values uses TComparer and an anonymous method. When Keys and Values Are of TObject Type The example listed above is a simple one because both the key and the value are simple types. You can have complex dictionaries where both the key and the value are complex types like records or objects. Heres another example: Here a custom record is used for the Key and a custom object/class is used for the value. Note the usage of a specialized TObjectDictionary class here. TObjectDictionary can handle objects lifetime automatically. The Key value cannot be nil, while the Value value can. When a TObjectDictionary is instantiated, an Ownerships parameter specifies whether the dictionary owns the keys, values or both -- and therefore helps you not have memory leaks.