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The working memory span
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Tomoko Ohno
2011
1
Contents
Abstract 1
Chapter One: Introduction of the Human memory
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 Memory 3
1.2.1 Long term memory 3
1.2.2 Working memory 3
1.2.3 Working memory span 6
1.3 Types of knowledge 7
1.3.1 Linguistic knowledge 7
1.3.2 Phonological knowledge 8
1.3.3 Reading and listening 8
1.4 Research questions 9
1.5 Conclusion 10
Chapter Two: The experiment 11
2.1 Introduction 11
2.2 The experiment 11
2.2.1 Introduction to the experiment 11
2.2.2 Method 12
1) Subjects 12
2) Test design – the experiment 12
3) Procedure 14
2
2.2.3 Results 15
2.3 Summary 25
Chapter Three: The discussion 26
3.1 Introduction 26
3.2 Summary of the result 26
3.3 Discussion of the results 27
3.3.1 Research question A 27
3.3.2 Research question B 28
3.3.3 Research question C 29
3.3.4 Research question D 29
3.4 Implications 30
3.5 Limitations of the Experiment 30
3.6 Further research 31
3.7 Conclusion 32
References 33
Appendix 34
Appendix 1: The groups of words used on the test 34
Appendix 2: The result of memorizing test 37
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Abstract
When we meet new things such as person, place, and so on, and if the name of the new
thing is unfamiliar word, it is difficult to memorize it soon. One of the important roles of
brain is to memorize. We can remember huge of things such as names of person, the name of
elementary school we went, our own address, and so on. However, we cannot remember the
new word we leant yesterday, the phone number we called a while ago. It is because the brain
works differently and the latter is the role of working memory which is focused on this thesis.
The working memory has important role to our communication and it has span.
Thus in this thesis, the experiment was conducted to confirm and measure our working
memory span by the oral memorizing test and the other elements which affect the memory
span were also measured. The test was to memorize written words and to memorize individual
words through listening. Subjects memorized about 23 to 29 groups of words from two group
of related words and group of unrelated words. From the test result, we found that our
memory can remember more than eight words while doing other tasks and it was same as
Millers (1956) seven plus or minus two theory. Memorizing written words were easier to
remember than memorizing individual words through listening. It was 1.25 times easier to
memorize related words than unrelated words. There were no big differences between the
delays among five to ten seconds.
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Chapter One: Introduction of the Human memory
1.1 Introduction
Have you ever experienced the situation that you go to your room to get a book, but you
forget what you look for? Why do we forget such an easy thing? Also when it comes to
learning new things, for example, language learning, we have to spend lots of time to
memorize new words. To remember something and not to forget them is not easy for us.
Despite the fact that there is no royal road to memorize new things, we are always searching
for a good way to learn and remember.
The brain operates a lot for doing many things, such as breathing, eating, walking,
talking, memorizing and so on. Also to remember something, we are all using the brain
especially around one of the part of brain functions called “working memory.” Working
memory has big roll for memorizing and doing tasks such as thinking, talking, listening,
reading, writing and so on.
Thus this paper focuses on the relation of working memory span with word
relationships and the delay, and the comparison between memorizing written words and
memorizing individual words through listening. The linguistic and phonological knowledge,
reading and listening knowledge, “long term memory,” “working memory” and its functions
will be discussed in Chapter One.
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1.2 Memory
1.2.1 Long term memory
In psychology, memory can be classified into three kinds: long term memory, working
memory and sensory memory. Long term memory is literally the kind of memory which
remains for the long term and it is the nearest to what we call “memory” generally. In long
term memory, we store a lot of information, for example our own names, the house you used
to live in your childhood, the place you were five minutes before and so on. Long term
memory is subclassified into “Episodic memory” (Tulving, 1972) and “semantic memory”
(Collins and Quillian, 1969). “Episodic memory” is a memory of an experience one thing
happened at one place and “semantic memory” is a memory of knowledge and meaning of
words. Long term memory can remain memories from infant to elderly and those amounts of
memories are unlimited
1.2.2 Working memory
Working memory is often compared with long term memory; however, working
memory is not actually opposite to long term memory. Working memory is a conceptual part
of brain to store some memory for a short time, for example, we can remember phone number
at one time; however, our brains are design to easily forget it after a while as it processes
other data. When we talk with someone, of course what we have to do is not only listening
what he or she is saying but also remembering them, or we cannot understand them. Thus we
have to remember what we read and heard for a while during processing information.
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Working memory helps us to store information for a while with doing other actions such as
talking, calculating and so on.
The model of working memory (Baddeley, 2000)
In this model, there are three systems: the Visuo-spatial sketch-pad, Episodic Buffer
and Phonological loop. Also there is a Central executive.
In working memory there is a component to store speech information, and it is called
the “Phonological loop.” In addition, there are subordinate systems to the phonological loop,
“phonological store” and “articulatory control process.” when we first hear a word, the
phoneme speech information is stored in temporary in the phonological store, but in the
phonological store, the speech information goes out in a few seconds automatically as other
data come in and our focus turn to that. So to keep the information in working memory, it is
needed rehearsing the word at articulatory control process.
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The visuo-spatial sketch-pad is the component to keep the visual information and it is
expected that visuo-spatial sketch-pad is divided into two systems. One is “visual cache”
which stores the visual information temporarily and the other is “inner scribe” which takes the
role for the rehearsal function of the visual information. (Logie, 1998)
The Episodic Buffer is a new subsystem of working memory. It is pointed that the
system which can correspond to the searching from long term memory which is performed at
every moment (Ericsson and Kintsch, 1995). Then Baddeley positioned episodic Buffer as a
subsystem to search for information from long term memory. This subsystem operates to store
information temporarily while performing a transaction from long term memory.
It is expected that the central executive has two main roles, to regulate the
phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch-pad and to process the information of the
phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch-pad. The phonological loop and the visuo-
spatial sketch-pad correspond to the conventional “short term memory” while the central
executive is the function which is not expected in conventional “short term memory” and it is
like the central concept of working memory. The central executive integrates each
information by having a connection with subsystems and exchanging the data with long term
memory. Thus, the central executive is a control system of attention, always turning up the
matter, though the central executive is independent form of long term memory in some
degree.
1.2.3 Working Memory span
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As noted above, long term memory has no limit, however, working memory has a
limited memory span. A cognitive psychologist, Miller (1956) said that working memory has
a span and it is seven plus or minus two in adults in his book “The Magical Number Seven,
Plus or Minus Two: Some Limit’s on our capacity for processing Information.” It is said that
we can remember from five to nine things at once. However, these figures are for normal acts
or every-day living and not for the use of memory tricks where we can remember more than
nine things at once, it is because we make a group of items and it is counted as one, for
example, one person can remember 21 numbers at once. In this case, he or she make seven
groups of three numbers and remember those groups of numbers. Recently, it is said that
young adult’s working memory span is about four chunks. (Cowan, 2001)
However working memory task has been developed and it became clear that the
memory span can be smaller if other task have to be conducted by working memory at the
same time.
1.3 types of knowledge
1.3.1 Linguistic knowledge
To communicate with others, there are some ways such as facial expression, body
language, sign language and so on. In those communication tools, language is one of the
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important communication tools because only human beings can use it for communication and
thinking. There are many languages around the world, such as English, Chinese, Spanish, and
so on and most of those world languages have three aspects, word, grammar and discourse.
However in this thesis, we will look at only words and grammar.
Words are the small unit of languages and compose sentence. There are many types
of words, such as content words and function words. Content words are the words which tell
us the main meaning of the sentence and the name of the objects, events and the centered
characteristics of the sentence. Nouns, main verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs are contents
words. On the other hand, articles, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, and prepositions
are function words and function words are needed to connect content words to content words,
and show the structure.
Grammars are the rules to make sentences. We can speak and listen to each other
because there is the grammar we share. In English, for example, if we hear a sentence and
there is a new word never heard before, we can predict that word is noun or from word order.
1.3.2 Phonological knowledge
Sound is the system to transform information fast and correctly. It is said that sound
is processed about ten times faster than any other signals and about the 50 percent of sound
is redundant(liberman, Cooper, Shankweiler & Studdert-Kennedy, 1967). That means the
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half of information is transmitted by various ways. Speech is understood not only by sound
but also meaning. The important rule to make the speech understood is that the process of
production of sound is composed with the process of speech perception.
1.3.3 Reading and listening
Working memory has a big role to read character pattern recognition to context
recognition. It is needed to keep the information which is processed while reading. Keeping
the information is all together with processing new information, for example, when we read
“dog” it is needed to perceive vertical, horizontal and round line segments which consist the
letter. To identify the letter as “d” “o” and “g” is needed. Then there is a word “food,” we
perceive the words and if those words are in the sentence, like “a woman bought the dog
food,” the operation process goes to the sentence comprehension.
When the new matter which we have to hold appears, the matters of articulatory
rehearsal are appropriately changed. That means the phonological store have a property of
updating. The phonological store works as a short term store which performs only in the term
needed to the goal from this characteristic, the articulatory rehearsal process is called “inner
voice,” on the other hand; the phonological loop is called “inner ear.”
1.4 Research Questions
From the literature review, we know working memory has capacity and three
systems; the Visuo-spatial sketch-pad, Episodic Buffer and Phonological loop. When we use
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chunks of information, the capacity of working memory can be more than seven. It is
important to know the better way to input information to remember it and also the kind of
information, for example, the groups of words are related things or unrelated things.
Therefore in Chapter Two, we will focus in more detail on the way to input and the kind of
information.
There are four research questions for this experiment.
(A) How many words can our brains hold in working memory while doing other tasks?
(B) Which is a better way to hold information in working memory, written words or through
listening?
(C) How much the related words can be memorized easier than unrelated words?
(D) How much does the delay affect the capacity of memory?
1.5 Conclusion
In this chapter, we have looked at the types of memory, the way to input and working
memory and working memory’s functions. There are several views about working memory
span. Miller (1956) said 7±2 things are memorized at one time in adult average. Also
knowledge of linguistics and phonologic, and listening and reading were mentioned.
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Thus in Chapter Two, we will examine to see how many words we can memorize with doing
other task and which the better way to remember is and how related words are easier to
memorize than unrelated words. Also we will look at the effect of delay to our memory
capacity.
10
Chapter Two: The Experiment
2.1 Introduction
In Chapter One, we looked what the working memory and long term memory were.
Also we discussed the capacity of working memory. It showed us that the average memory
span was said 7±2, however, here were some people who could remember more than 7±2 by
dividing information into chunks but if we have to perform other tasks, the memory span limit
came soon regardless of the amount of information.
In this chapter, we will examine to see how many words can we memorize while
doing other tasks, how much the input method, listening or reading words and the relationship
of information can affect working memory span and how long the memory would last by
looking at four kinds of questionnaires.
2.2 The experiment
2.2.1 Introduction to the experiment
In this section, there is information about the overview and the aim of the test, the
subjects, procedure, and the results. The test was conducted in the form of oral memorizing
test one on one and all conversations were recorded. The subjects looked at or listened to five
to eight words and memorized them. Then subjects were asked some easy questions. After the
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question, subjects answered what they remembered. All subjects were asked about 23 to 29
questions.
The aim of this experiment was to find out how many words they can remember while
doing other tasks and how long the memory would last and also how much the input method
and relationship of the words can affect on the working memory’s span.
2.2.2 Method
1) Subjects
19 Japanese females who are 20 to 23 years old were selected as the subjects for this
experiment. All the subjects agreed to participate voluntarily. The subjects who took the test
were students of Notre Dame Seishin University. They have studied English, linguistics and
literature for two years and their major is English linguistics or literature in third grade.
2) Test design – the experiment
This test was to confirm the capacity of working memory while doing other tasks, a
better method to input the information and how much related words and unrelated words
make a difference in memory span. In addition, we wanted to know the effect of delay on our
working memory span. The test was conducted orally by Japanese and it was all recorded.
To find a better way to remember much more information, two input methods were
used; memorizing written words or memorizing individual words through listening. When
memorizing written words, subjects were shown five to eight words written on a paper and
12
subjects remembered them. Besides, memorizing individual words test was that subjects
listened to five to eight individual words and memorized them. To confirm how much related
words were easier to remember than unrelated words, in this questionnaire, words were
classified into two types based on the relationship of words meanings, the group of related
words and the group of unrelated words. The group of related words is the group of words
which are in the same category, for example, the words, “red, blue, yellow, black, white and
green” are all included in the superordinate “color”. In contrast, the group of unrelated words
are the words which are not included in the same category, for example,” wall, tea, notebook,
cardigan, chair, email.” The questions were shown at random to get more adequate data.
Also to confirm how much we can retain in working memory, three types of delays
were used; five, ten and fifteen seconds. At first, they memorized the words and then there
was a distracter, subject was asked easy questions like what subjects had for dinner yesterday.
After the delay; five, ten or fifteen seconds, subject answered words which they remembered.
Figure 1: The groups of words used on the test
Category Type Word items Delay Number
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of items
related soundチワワ・トイプードル・ダックスフンド・パグ・柴犬 5 5
related word教育学・文学・法学・経済学・言語学・心理学・社会学・哲学 15 8
unrelated sound 未来・ダンス・おはし・森・クジラ 15 5
unrelated word屋台・お城・ベンチ・古着・コンビニ・レゲエ・新幹線 10 7
This is the table of words the groups and subjects were asked to remember in the 20
to 29 questions they were asked at random, for example, Subject 3 listened to related five
words,未来、ダンス、おはし、森、クジラ and Subject 3was asked to remember that
words. While fifteen seconds delay, Subject 3 was asked to say her name backwards and after
the delay, she answered the words listened to. Then, Subject 3read seven unrelated words, 屋
台・お城・ベンチ・古着・コンビニ・レゲエ・新幹線 and she was asked to remember
them. While ten seconds delay, she was asked easy question, where do you want to go and
after the delay, she answered seven words read before the delay.
3) Procedure
14
The outline of the test is as follows. The subjects were shown 5, 6, 7 or 8 words and
asked to remember them. Then I distracted them from memorizing words by asking questions
or action such as ‘say your name backward.’ After five, ten or fifteen seconds, I asked them
what they remembered. The subjects were asked to remember 20 to 29 questions.
Subject read a paper which the 5, 6,7 or 8 words were written, for example a paper
written 赤 青 黄色 白 黒 緑 and read for a while. Then subject returned the paper
and was asked an easy question like “how many questions have you already answered?”
Subject answered the question in ten seconds. After that subject was asked the words which
were written on the paper.
Listening tests were also taken in the same way as the reading test. At first, the
subjects listened to 5, 6, 7 or 8 words said orally and were asked to remember them, for
example, I said えんぴつ・ペン・消しゴム・定規・はさみ・のり・修正テープ・ホッ
チキス and asked the subject to remember them. Then the subject asked an easy question
“Recently do you watch any TV drama?” and they answered the question in ten seconds.
After that they were asked the words listened to before the distracter.
2.2.3 Results
15
In this section, we will look at the result of the experiment. First we will look at the
whole result of the memorizing test.
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Table 1: List of Oral Memory Test result
Category Type Time
delay(second)Number of
itemsNumber of subjects
Correct
Percentage correct
related
word
5
5 11 10 91%6 7 2 29%7 11 10 91%8 7 1 14%
10
5 11 11 100%6 11 10 91%7 11 4 36%8 8 2 25%
155 8 5 63%6 11 5 45%7 11 7 64%8 11 4 36%
sound 5
5 11 7 64%6 7 0 0%7 8 2 25%8 10 5 50%
10 5 11 2 18%6 11 5 45%
17
7 11 4 36%8 11 0 0%
155 11 7 64%6 7 7 100%7 7 3 43%8 11 3 27%
unrelated
word
55 8 6 75%6 11 2 18%7 7 1 14%8 11 0 0%
105 11 3 27%6 8 0 0%7 11 0 0%8 11 0 0%
155 11 5 45%6 7 2 29%7 11 2 18%8 10 1 10%
sound 5
5 11 1 9%6 11 1 9%7 11 0 0%8 12 0 0%
10 5 11 0 0%
18
6 11 0 0%7 11 0 0%8 11 0 0%
155 8 2 25%6 11 0 0%7 11 1 9%8 10 0 0%
19
In Table 1, “Number of items” means how many items subjects had to remember,
and they were asked five, six, seven and eight items. “Delay” means the time delay between
when subjects were asked after they remembered the items, and in this test, there were three
delay times; five, ten, and fifteen seconds. “Relation” means whether the items in each group
of items are related or not. “Type” means how to show the items to subjects and there are two
types “word” and “sound”; “word” means whether the test content was to show the words to
the subjects and the subjects read them and “sound” means to read the words to subjects and
subjects listen to them. “Subjects” means how many subjects took this question. “Correct” is
how many subjects answered all correct items, and “Percentage” is the rate of subjects who
could answer words perfectly. In this table we can find out that there are many groups of
unrelated words which subjects listened to. However, we could not find out detail, so let us
look at each point.
Table 2: The percentage of subjects who could answer all words
Related Unrelated Number of items
Delay(Second)
5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8
Words5 91% 29% 91% 14% 75% 18% 14% 0%10 100% 91% 36% 25% 27% 0% 0% 0%15 63% 45% 64% 36% 45% 29% 18% 10%
Sound5 64% 0% 25% 50% 9% 9% 0% 0%10 18% 45% 36% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%15 64% 100% 43% 27% 25% 0% 9% 0%
20
Figure 2: The percentage of subjects who could answer all related written words
5 6 7 80%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
51015
Figure 3: The percentage of subjects who could answer all related individual words
input by listening
5 6 7 80%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
51015
21
Figure 4: The percentage of subjects who could answer all unrelated written words
5 6 7 80%
10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%
51015
Figure 5: The percentage of subjects who could answer all unrelated words input by
listening
5 6 7 80%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
51015
22
Table 2 shows the percentage of subjects who could remember and answered all the
words. The left four columns are about related words and right four columns are about
unrelated words. Then upper three line numbers are about words they read and the below
three line numbers are about words they listened to, for example, in this figure, 43% is the
percentage of subjects who could answer seven all related words memorized by listening after
fifteen seconds delay.
Figure 2 shows the percentage of subjects who could answer all related written
words. Figure 3 shows the percentage of subjects who could answer all related individual
words input by listening. Figure 4 shows the percentage of subjects who could answer all
unrelated written words. Figure 5 shows the percentage of subjects who could answer all
unrelated words input by listening.
From Table 2, we can see many 0% results from the subjects who could not answer
all unrelated words, especially the input method to memorize individual words through
listening. In contrast, unrelated words, percentages of the subjects who could answer all
words look higher than right side of the table. From Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5,
we cannot find out clear patter, however, in these figures, the percentage of subjects who
could answer the eight all words is fewer than the percentage of subjects who could answer
five all words.
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Table 3: The percentage of subjects who could answer all the words according to the number
of items and the average
Number of Items Correct percent Average
5 48% 82%
6 31% 77%7 28% 74%8 14% 67%
The data in Table 3 shows the percentage of the subjects who could correctly answer
all words and the average of numbers of items which subjects could answer. From these data,
it is clear that as the number of items increased, the percentage of subjects who could answer
all words decreased as we expected. About half of the total subjects could answer all five
words questions correctly, however, on eight word questions, the subject who could answer
all words is one seventh of all subjects. From this result, we can see that usually we can
remember five all words, and it is difficult to remember eight all words.
Table 4 : The percentage of related or unrelated words correctness
Related Unrelated
Word 57%48%
20%12%
Sound 39% 4%
Table 4 has the data for the percentages of subjects who could answer all words and
unrelated word groups and unrelated word groups. From this table, there was a big difference
between related words groups and unrelated words groups to answer all words. The average
24
of subjects who could answer related words was 48% and unrelated words was 12%, so
related words are four times easier to remember than unrelated words.
Table 5: The percentage of the correct of two ways to memorize: written words and individual
words through listening
Method PercentageWord 38%
Sound 22%
Table 5 shows the percentage of the subjects who could answer all words on two
types of test, memorizing written words or memorizing individual words through listening.
From this data, memorizing written words was easier than memorizing individual words
through listening.
Table 6: Percentage of the correct by each delay
Delay (seconds)All correct percentage
word sound Total5 42% 20% 31%10 35% 13% 24%15 39% 34% 36%
Table 6 shows the percentage of the subjects who could answer all words and
classified by the delay. In the test, three delays were set up; five, ten and fifteen seconds. This
data shows that for five seconds delay, 31% of the subjects could answer all words, however,
at fifteen seconds delay, 36% of subjects could answer all words. Thus we found out from the
data in Table 6 is that delay did not have any big effects of working memory span.
2.3 Summary
25
In this chapter, we looked at the experiment. The 19 subjects took the oral
memorizing test. They were shown words by visual or audio induction and memorized those
words and after the distracter question, they answered the words which they input. The results
of questionnaire were shown and we looked them individually.
In the next chapter, we will look at the data more precisely and discuss about the
capacity of working memory and the relationship among different kinds of information and
memory span and delay with relating to all results. Besides, the subjects’ interesting answers
will be also discussed.
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Chapter Three: The discussion
3.1 Introduction
In Chapter One, we looked at long term memory, working memory, and working
memory span and functions. Also we looked at some knowledge, linguistic knowledge,
phonological knowledge, reading knowledge and listening knowledge. The test outlines and
its data were shown in Chapter Two.
In this chapter, we will focus on the result of the test and discuss about the
questionnaires in more detail by relating with all results.
3.2 Summary of the results
In Chapter Two the aim, subjects, method and the result of the experiment were
presented. 19 subjects took memorizing oral test. Subjects had to remember groups of words
which they read or listened to. The groups had two types, related words groups and unrelated
words groups. There were five to eight words to remember and the three types of delays were
set up, five, ten and fifteen seconds.
The result of tests showed that number of words makes difference to the memory
span. The percentage of subjects who could answer five all words was 34% higher than the
subjects who could answer eight all words and this data was absolutely the data as expected.
The relation of words groups affected the memory span and it was also we could expect. The
27
two types of input method which was memorizing written words and memorizing individual
words through listening made differences. The percentage of subjects who memorized written
words could answer all words was 16% higher than the percentage of subject who memorized
individual words through listening.
However, the delay did not make big differences, rather, it was unexpected result.
The percentage of the subjects who could answer all words after 15 seconds delay was the
highest. From this data, we found that the time length between five to fifteen seconds delay
does not affect our memory span.
3.3 Discussion of the results
In Chapter Two, we looked at the result of each point briefly. Thus, in this chapter,
let us look at the result deeper. Also we will focus on the result with relating them.
3.3.1 Research question A
Research question A was how many words our brains can hold in working memory
while doing other tasks. In Chapter Two, Table 3 shows the percentage of subjects who could
answer all words and the percentage of words subjects could answer in each group of words.
The result was as expected and the memory span depends on the number of words. The more
number of words increases, the less subjects who can answer all words decreases.
Furthermore, let us look at how much the percentage of subjects who could answer
all words and the percentage of words subjects could answer on each groups of words
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decreased. The percentage of subjects who could answer five all words is 17% higher than the
percentage of subjects who could answer seven all words and the percentage of subjects who
could answer seven words are 14% higher than the percentage of subjects who could answer
eight all words. So the percentage of subjects who could answer six all words is 4% higher
than the percentage of subjects who could answer seven all words. There is a gap between
five to six and seven to eight words and six to seven words. From this data, it is expected that
to memorize six and seven words is in same level, and it can be said that to remember five all
word is easy and to remember eight words is difficult.
3.3.2 Research question B
Research question B asked which a better way to hold information in working
memory, written words or through listening is. In Chapter Two, we found that the percentage
of the subjects who could answer all written words was 16% higher than the subject who
could answer all individual words through listening from table 5. Thus it can be said that to
memorize written words is easier than to memorize individual words through listening.
Also we could expect this result, because while doing tests, subjects looked
struggling to memorize individual words through listening more than to memorize written
words. Subjects had to perceive and try to memorize the words they listened to together.
When subjects tried to memorize individual words through listening, working memory works
busier. Thus working memory span had to perform many tasks and memory span went to
small.
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3.3.3 Research question C
How much can the related words be memorized easier than unrelated words? It was
research question C. The result was shown by Table 4 and it was also as expected. We could
find out that to remember related words are four times easier to remember unrelated words.
When subjects memorized related words, they related those words to one category, for
example, five related words, にんじん・じゃがいも・キャベツ・大根・きゅうり・トマ
ト, subjects remembered them as a category of vegetable. Thus some subjects said a word like
なす which was not in the word items. This occasion is expected that to remember the related
words they memorized, they remember not only each words but the category of words like
vegetable and pick up the words from that category. That is one of the differences between the
subject who could memorize many words and the subject who could not memorize well. It is
said that to memorize something with relating is a useful strategy.
3.3.4 Research question D
Research question D asked how much the delay affects the capacity of memory.
From table 6 it could be said that the delay between five and fifteen seconds did not affect the
memory span.
30
The working memory span did not effected from the delay time, but the emotions
among the delay prevent working memory from holding the words. While delay, subject 4
was asked about her favourite person and she got excited. Then it was difficult for her to
remember the words she tried to hold. Thus it is expected that the working memory was trying
to hold the words but at that time, the other task which is thinking about her favourite person
prevented the working memory from holding words.
3.4 Implications
In this memorizing test, there were subjects who could memorize well. From those
subjects’ comments among the test, it became clear that they tried to remember by relating the
groups of words even unrelated words. Also that strategy can be seen from word order which
subject answered. When subjects answered unrelated eight words, 図書館・踏み切り・カレ
ンダー・神戸・ガソリン・ハンバーガー・神社・カウントダウン, some subjects
answered 神社 and next word was カウントダウン. It is expected that the subject make
relation between 神社 and カウントダウン and remember it as a pair. Furthermore, when
subject 12 tried to memorize unrelated words, she said she cannot find any relation from this
group of words. Thus the memory span is affected on the words’ relation.
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3.5 Limitations of the Experiments
There are some problems when testing in this experiment. First, the number of
subjects who took the test is not enough and they are all female. Besides, some of the
subjects took test more than 45 questions, so in this thesis data is the average young female
adults data.
Second, the number of words is five to eight and it is small. The range of memory
span cannot be found from this data. The subjects who could answer eight all words are not
so many, but the subject who could answer eight all related word are about one quarter on
average. Thus, if there is more number of words such as nine or ten words to memorize, we
can find out other interesting data.
Third problem is the delay. In this test, three types of delay are set up and the result is
not enough because the data does not become what expected, the percentage of subjects who
could answer all words after 15seconds delay is 36% and it is the highest. Thus longer delay
is needed.
Therefore, if I were to do the test again, I would like to do the test to more subjects
around 50. The six to twelve words to memorize would be prepared. Then the three kinds of
delay would be prepared such as ten, thirty and sixty seconds delay.
3.6 Further research
32
In this thesis, the words in the test are all Japanese. Subjects know those words well
and it makes easier to memorize the words. Besides, some words are easier for particular
subject to memorize such as the related words group about the instruments, one subject who is
interested in music and knows about the instruments well can memorize more words than the
subject who is not interested in music and does not know about the instruments.
Thus, if the subjects have to memorize unknown words such as foreign language,
another data can be found. That data does not depend on subjects memories and the test can
measure subjects memorizing ability more precisely.
3.7 Conclusion
In this thesis, we focused on long term memory, working memory, functions of
working memory, working memory span and the memorizing test and its result to confirm
how much working memory can hold memory and the effect from other elements such as
input method, words relation, and delay time. Most of the results were as we expected.
However, it became clear that delay time between five to fifteen seconds does not make
difference to memory span. Rather, the most effective elements to well memorizing is the
relation of group of words. Related words can be held better than unrelated words. Thus it can
be said that this fact is useful to our daily learning to relate something new to what we already
know. It is not just for studying, we can use this strategy to other things in our lives.
33
References
Baddeley, A. (1982). Your memory a user’s guide. Penguin Books.
Clark, H.H. , & Clark, E. V. (1977). Psychology and language an introduction to psycholinguistics. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
苧阪満里子著 （2002）。『脳のメモ帳 ワーキングメモリ』東京：新曜社
苧阪直行（編）（2010）。『脳イメージング ワーキングメモリと視覚的注意からみた脳』 東京：培風館苧阪直行（編著） 『ワーキングメモリの脳内表現』 京都：京都大学学術出版
34
Appendix
Appendix 1: The groups of words used on the test
Category Type Word items DelayNumber of items
related soundチワワ・トイプードル・ダックスフンド・パグ・柴犬 5 5
related soundはと・カラス・ツバメ・スズメ・にわとり・白鳥 5 6
related sound水星・木星・火星・金星・土星・天王星・冥王星 5 7
related soundパン・うどん・ごはん・スパゲティ・そば・ラーメン・素麺・ちゃんぽんめん 5 8
related soundあぶらかたぶら・ちちんぷいぷい・いないいないばあ あっかんべー・いたいのいたいのとんでいけ
10 5
related sound眼科・耳鼻科・内科・外科・皮膚科・整形外科 10 6
related soundネガティブ・雨・傘・長靴・晴れ・ポジティブ・サンダル 10 7
related soundえんぴつ・ペン・消しゴム・定規・はさみ・のり・修正テープ・ホッチキス 10 8
related sound野球・サッカー・バスケットボール・バレーボール・テニス 15 5
related soundお父さん・お母さん・お姉ちゃん・お兄ちゃん・妹・弟 15 6
related sound医者・教師・弁護士・裁判官・警察官・消防士・アイドル 15 7
related soundピアノ・バイオリン・フルート・クラリネット・トランペット・オーボエ・チューバ・チェロ
15 8
related word 川・海・池・湖・みずたまり 5 5
related wordにんじん・じゃがいも・キャベツ・大根・きゅうり・トマト 5 6
related word保育園・幼稚園・小学校・中学校・高校・大学・大学院 5 7
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related word車・自転車・バス・電車・タクシー・飛行機・ヘリコプター・フェリー 5 8
related wordキリスト教・仏教・ヒンドゥー教・ユダヤ教・イスラム教 10 5
related word 赤・青・黄色・白・黒・緑 10 6
related word京都、大阪、滋賀、兵庫、奈良、和歌山、三重 10 7
related word学校・テスト・勉強・先生・友達・数学・部活動・教 10 8
related wordタイヤ・ハンドル・アクセル・ブレーキ・ウィンカー 15 5
related word 岡山・倉敷・津山・玉野・新見・総社 15 6
related wordミッキー・ミニー・ドナルド・グーフィー・チップ・デール・プルート 15 7
related word教育学・文学・法学・経済学・言語学・心理学・社会学・哲学 15 8
unrelated sound 先輩・プリン・下駄箱・カメラ・信号 5 5
unrelated sound津波・ふすま・雑誌・田んぼ・けんか・サンダル 5 6
unrelated sound夢・真珠・加湿器・香水・バス・カウンター・心理学 5 7
unrelated sound昨日・うた・白・温かい・子供・木・総理大臣・博物館 5 8
unrelated sound 親子・ボタン・階段・運転手・部活 10 5
unrelated sound卓球・蒜山・竹馬・ゲーム・インコ・プリクラ 10 6
unrelated sound感謝・連絡・カツラ・銀行・食事・冬・スーツ 10 7
unrelated sound図書館・踏み切り・カレンダー・神戸・ガソリン・ハンバーガー・神社・カウントダウン
10 8
unrelated sound 未来・ダンス・おはし・森・クジラ 15 5
unrelated soundチャック・商店街・傘・おにぎり・鹿・ボート 15 6
unrelated soundスカート・手すり・車・ドーナッツ・地下・坊主・予約 15 7
unrelated sound アルバイト・病気・待ち合わせ・コンロ・袋 15 8
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・三角・掃除・ギターunrelated word 東京・散歩・ハンバーガー・黒・消しゴム 5 5
unrelated word壁・お茶・ノート・カーディガン・椅子・メール 5 6
unrelated wordかぼちゃ・手紙・道・頭痛・予約・あり・ありがとう 5 7
unrelated word猫・本棚・コスモス・ほうき・パンプス・肩・消しゴム・マスカラ 5 8
unrelated word呼吸・バイク・おもち・インターホン・おみくじ 10 5
unrelated word以心伝心 疑心暗鬼 四面楚歌 才色兼備 臨機応変 支離滅裂 10 6
unrelated word屋台・お城・ベンチ・古着・コンビニ・レゲエ・新幹線 10 7
unrelated word噴水・キャンプ・くじら・ストラップ・体育・カラオケ・韓国・忘れ物 10 8
unrelated word 船・バナナ・ソファー・高速道路・成績 15 5
unrelated word旅行・男・ケチャップ・サッカー・おもちゃ・かがみ 15 6
unrelated wordアドバイス・はさみ・みつあみ・卵焼き・看板・登山・刑事 15 7
unrelated wordエレベーター・子供・英語・コーヒー・バッグ・まばたき・草・教科書 15 8
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Appendix 2: The result of memorizing test
category type Time
delaynumber of
itemsNumber of subjects
correct
Percentage
correctrelated word 5 5 11 10 91%related word 5 6 7 2 29%related word 5 7 11 10 91%related word 5 8 7 1 14%related word 10 5 11 11 100%related word 10 6 11 10 91%related word 10 7 11 4 36%related word 10 8 8 2 25%related word 15 5 8 5 63%related word 15 6 11 5 45%related word 15 7 11 7 64%related word 15 8 11 4 36%
related sound 5 5 11 7 64%
related sound 5 6 7 0 0%
related sound 5 7 8 2 25%
related sound 10 5 11 2 18%
related sound 10 6 11 5 45%
related sound 10 7 11 4 36%
related sound 10 8 11 0 0%
related sound 15 5 11 7 64%
related sound 15 6 7 7 100%
related sound 15 7 7 3 43%
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related sound 15 8 11 3 27%
unrelated word 5 5 8 6 75%
unrelated word 5 6 11 2 18%
unrelated word 5 7 7 1 14%
unrelated word 5 8 11 0 0%
unrelated word 10 5 11 3 27%
unrelated word 10 6 8 0 0%
unrelated word 10 7 11 0 0%
unrelated word 10 8 11 0 0%
unrelated word 15 5 11 5 45%
unrelated word 15 6 7 2 29%
unrelated word 15 7 11 2 18%
unrelated word 15 8 10 1 10%
unrelated
sound 5 5 11 1 9%
unrelated
sound 5 6 11 1 9%
unrelated
sound 5 7 11 0 0%
unrelated
sound 5 8 12 0 0%
unrelated
sound 10 5 11 0 0%
unrelat soun 10 6 11 0 0%
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ed dunrelat
edsoun
d 10 7 11 0 0%
unrelated
sound 10 8 11 0 0%
unrelated
sound 15 5 8 2 25%
unrelated
sound 15 6 11 0 0%
unrelated
sound 15 7 11 1 9%
unrelated
sound 15 8 10 0 0%
40
