Question

Lily gets a new debit card and must memorize her PIN, vto8o6. To remember this sequence, she thinks of vtas representing Vermont. She thinks of o8o6 as representing August 6 th, her husband's birthday. With this combination in mind, Lily remembers the PIN easily. She has used a. maintenance rehearsal to encode information into long-term storage b. the primacy effect c. the working memory strategy of chunking d. the recency effect

Short answer

Lily used the working memory strategy of chunking (c) to remember her new debit card PIN.

Step-by-step solution

Understanding maintenance rehearsal

This refers to repeating or reviewing information to remember it. Lily does not simply repeat her PIN; she uses meaningful associations to remember it. Therefore, the answer is not (a).

Exploring the primacy effect

The primacy effect involves better memory for items presented at the beginning of a list. This scenario does not involve a list. Hence, the answer is not (b).

Understanding chunking

This is a strategy of breaking down information into chunks or units to make them easier to remember. In this case, Lily divided her PIN into chunks (vt and o8o6) and associated them with Vermont and a date. This matches Lily's strategy.

Checking the recency effect

The recency effect involves better memory for items at the end of a list. Since there's no list in this scenario, the answer is not (d).

Key concepts

Maintenance Rehearsal

To bolster memory retention, individuals can employ maintenance rehearsal, a straightforward yet potent technique. This method is all about repetition—think of it as the mental equivalent of muscle memory. By continuously reviewing or reciting information, the brain reinforces the neural pathways associated with the memory, promoting its transition from short-term to long-term storage.

Despite its effectiveness, maintenance rehearsal has its limitations. It primarily enhances the ability to recall rote information and might not be as beneficial for understanding complex concepts or making meaningful connections. In Lily's case, she opts for a technique that involves more than mere repetition; she seeks to forge significant links between new information and what she already knows, which leads her beyond maintenance rehearsal and towards more sophisticated memory strategies.

Primacy Effect

A peculiar aspect of our memory is the primacy effect. This cognitive phenomenon occurs when the information we encounter first is recalled with greater accuracy than the information that follows. Essentially, the beginning of any list or sequence gets a privileged spot in our memory.

Why does this happen? It's thought that because the information at the start of a list is given more mental processing time, it's more likely to be transferred to long-term memory. However, it's important to note that the primacy effect really shines in situations involving sequences or lists. In the exercise we're analyzing, Lily's memory challenge does not involve a long list but rather a single PIN code, making this concept less pertinent to her circumstance.

Working Memory

At the crux of our daily problem-solving and information processing is working memory. This isn't just a passive storage space; it's an active, dynamic system that juggles various pieces of transitory information while we're using them. To make the most of our working memory, we often use strategies to organize information more effectively.

In our textbook example, Lily cleverly breaks her PIN into memorable chunks—a process reinforcing the efficiency of her working memory. By associating these chunks with personally meaningful data, she transforms a random string of characters into something her brain can handle better. This method of chunking is not a mere memory trick but a fundamental principle to enhance cognitive processing and retention.

Recency Effect

As if complementing the primacy effect, there's another memory-related phenomenon known as the recency effect. This effect is all about how we tend to remember the last items in a sequence more efficiently than the middle ones. Essentially, if you read a list of grocery items, you're more likely to recall the last few items when you're shopping.

Similar to the primacy effect, the recency effect is linked to how we process lists or sequences, with a focus on the end portions. Since the last bits of information we receive before a test or a recall activity are fresher in our working memory, they have a higher chance of being remembered. But, just like with the primacy effect, the scenario with Lily does not represent a situation where the recency effect is at play since her task is to recall a single set of information, rather than items from a list.