Date of Award
1-1-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Psychology
First Advisor
Matthew Reysen
Second Advisor
Rebekah Smith
Third Advisor
Andrew Hales
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Both survival processing and storytelling have been shown to enhance memory performance relative to control conditions. We examined the extent to which combining these two techniques improves participants’ memory abilities relative to comparable control conditions. In one experiment, participants (n = 100) were randomly assigned to write sentences using unrelated common nouns in a sentence creation control, storytelling, survival, or survival plus storytelling condition. Participants who were instructed to write a story about survival were predicted to remember more words on a subsequent free recall test than participants in the other conditions. Mechanistically, we predict that combining predominantly item-specific processing (survival) with predominantly relational-processing (storytelling) will lead to an additive effect, thereby resulting in superior recall performance. Results indicate that storytelling, survival, and survival plus storytelling conditions led to a higher number of recalled items compared to the control condition but there was not a significant difference between the three experimental conditions. We also hypothesized, using cumulative recall curves, that the item-specific, relational, and both kinds of processing combined would yield cumulative recall patterns that differ across the recall period. Results indicated that the three experimental conditions demonstrated similar cumulative recall curves despite the hypothesis that the different conditions elicit different types of processing.
Recommended Citation
Fischer, Zoe Helena, "Do Storytelling and Survival Processing Have Additive Effects on Recall Performance?" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3012.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/3012
