Memory

3 Pages 681 Words

Memory has been an ongoing topic for study throughout the years. How and why we remember certain pieces of information has led to decades of research and investigation. Studies conducted in recent years have explored the interests of college students. The article, What Aspects of Their Memories Do College Students Most Want to Improve?, discusses the results of these studies in order to answer that question.
The author of the article, Kenneth L. Higbee, initially conducted a study to learn what aspects of memory are important to people. A general audience of people attending a memory-improvement seminar responded to an open-ended question. That question was, “What aspects of memory do you most want to improve?” Another group was then given a survey based on the responses of the first group. It was found that the most important aspect of memory was remembering people’s names.
The purpose of Higbee’s research was to compare the results of that first study (conducted among a general audience) to two other linked studies, which dealt with responses of college students. In a pilot study, 41 college students from a memory skills class were asked the question, “What are the main benefits you hope to get from taking a memory-improvement class?” The students’ responses were tallied and placed into four main categories. The categories were as follows:
1. Schoolwork : 51%
2. People’s names and faces: 24%
3. Everyday tasks: 15%
4. What I read: 10%
It was found that no substantial differences existed between males and females, low-GPA and high-GPA students or among years in school.
An additional study was then conducted to more deeply explore what aspects of memory college students most want to improve. Like the other study, the participants were college students enrolled in a memory skills class. Mr. Higbee was the teacher of this class. 36 students participated, including 23 males and 13 ...