Effects Of Materials And Processing Resource On Item Memory And Order Memory

The study of the relationship between item memory and order memory laid down its original foundation in the 1990s, and has undergone a tremendous evolution in the past decades. The past researches found disrupted memory for order is causally related to the superior item memory. Some researchers proposed "item order hypothesis" to explain this phenomenon. It suggests that the more unusual encoding condition attracts greater processing of item features at the expense of encoding order. Some researchers found that, in some condition, memory for order is disrupted but memory for item is not enhanced.Perceptual interference paradigm was used in this research to explore character of material and processing resource on item memory and order memory. Material type includes material's familiarity and material's bizarre, processing resource includes encoding condition and distribution tendency of processing resource.Three experiments were carried out in my research. The effects of material's familiarity and encoding condition on item memory and order memory were examined in the first experiment. The effects of material's bizarre and encoding condition on item memory and order memory were investigated in the second experiment. The effects of distribution tendency of processing resource and encoding condition on item memory and order memory were investigated in the third experiment.Some major results were obtained in these experiments. Firstly, character of material has effect on item memory, low frequency words have superior item memory than high frequency words, but there are no significant difference between low frequency words and non-words on item memory. The effect of encoding condition on item memory depends on material. For high frequency words, perceptual interference condition has superior item memory than intact condition, but for low frequency words and non-words, there are no significant difference between perceptual interference condition and intact condition. Effect of distribution tendency of processing resource on item memory is close to significant; item memory is a little low when the instruction emphasizes order memory contrast to instruction which don't emphasize it.Secondly, character of material has effect on order memory, high frequency words have superior order memory than low frequency words, but there are no difference between low frequency words and non-words on order memory. Encoding condition has significant effect on order memory. Intact condition has superior order memory than perceptual interference condition. Effect of distribution tendency of processing resource on order memory is not significant.Thirdly, the positive effects of unusual encoding condition on item memory can be dissociated from its negative impact on order memory.It is concluded that there is some demerit for item order hypothesis. Combing view of material's character and processing resource can explain the relationship between item memory and order memory more perfectly.