| Reviewed: |
Feb 05, 2007 by Psychology |
| Overview: |
This site offers a combination of textual background information and a downloadable software package that is a great interactive learning tool via 10 classic experiments in cognitive psychology. Also included in the download is a student manual that gives the background on the experiments as well as exercises for the student to perform on the data, an instructor's package for examining the data. The author states that "MemCog was developed to help you learn some of the basic principles of memory and cognition much better, more easily, and more enjoyably than just by reading about them in a textbook." An instructor software package is also available for download that provides additional student management tools. |
| Learning Goals: |
Via the interactive software experiments, the major learning goals include:
1. Levels of Processing (covers both Levels of Processing experiments
2. Recall, Recognition and the Encoding Specificty Principle (covers 3 experiments)
3. Semantic Memory (covers 1 experiment and 2 semantic models)
4. Sentence-Picture Verification
5. Constructive Processes in Prose Comprehension (covers 3 experiments). |
| Target Student Population: |
The target population is college students studying cognitive psychology and/or psychological research methods. |
| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
Although the material and activities can stand alone, students with a background in psychology will find the reading much more understandable. |
| Type of Material: |
There are two types of material: students participate in actual experiments by responding to screen prompts in one of these ten experiments:
Levels of Processing I (Craik & Tulving, 1975)
Levels of Processing II (Craik & Tulving, 1975)
Encoding Specificity I <br/>Encoding Specificity II (Thomson & Tulving, 1970)
Encoding Specificity III (Watkins & Tulving, 1975)
Semantic Memory (Smith, Shoben, & Rips 1974)
Constructive Processes I (Schallert, 1976)
Constructive Processes II (Keenan & Kintsch, 1974)
Constructive Processes III (Harris, 1977)
In addition, there is detailed and comprehensive descriptive text to accompany
each experiment. |
| Recommended Uses: |
This site can be used by students in preparation for course coverage of the subject matter, or as a means of review. |
| Technical Requirements: |
The Adobe Reader is required, as is use of Windows. |
