Culture and Memory

Factors Affecting Memory Performance Oral Tradition Ross and Millson (1970) American v Ghanian college students asked to remember stories  Ghanian students better! This effect may be limited to meaningful material Schooling Chunking and techniques to aid in processing large amounts of information Cole & Scribner (1974) Rehearsal No serial position effect in Kpelle tribespeople from rural Liberia

Cole and Scribner (1974) Studied memory of Kpelle tribespeople in rural Liberia. Worked closely with college-educated local Liberians- acted as experimenters. Procedure Viewed a list of objects from 4 categories: Utensils, clothes, tools, fruits/vegetables Asked to recall the words Repeated over several trials

Cole & Scribner’s word list Plate Cutlass Calabash Hoe Pot Knife Pan File Cup Hammer Potato Trousers Onion Singlet Banana Head Tie Orange Shirt Coconut Hat

Cole & Scribner (1974) Results WHY??? Interesting…. Liberian children showed no regular increase in memory performance after the age of 9 Recalled 10 items, then 12 after 15 practice trials UNLESS they had attended school Learned the material quickly- same rates as US kids WHY??? Schooled children used categories and chunking to help remember Interesting…. When the items were incorporated into a story, the non-schooled Liberian children recalled the items with ease- clustered them according to the roles they played in the story.

Cole & Scribner (1974) Significance Ability to remember is universal. HOW we remember is culturally bound! Many memory studies examine memory performance that is associated with schooling. How does schooling affect memory? Exposure to information processing tasks Lots of practive in memorizing large amounts of information! Able to apply the techniques they learn to similar situations.