DanielR IB Psychology HL

The fifth experiment involving memory was the Rumor Chain, when a person listens to the original paragraph, then passes it on verbally to the second person, and the second person tells the third. The paragaph wasn't short. It is about a hijacker in a plane who was caught at the end of the story.

We see evidences of levelling (simplifying materials), sharpening (highlighting or overemphasizing some materials), and assimilations (changing details to better fit the subject's own background or knowledge-schemas).

The first volunteer already showed sign of the incomplete sensory input, because she left out the part about the People's Liberation Army. Moreover, she forgot that Jane Smith was actually the pilot, showing signs of schema developing. Usually a pilot is associated with male, and air hostess with female, therefor she associated the name "Jane" with female (air hostess). Possibly, because the first person is a girl, she is not famliar with guns, therefore correctly restated the detail of the gun. The second person, who is a boy who plays a lot of shooting games, knows exactly how the gun is like. Normally speaking, the Magnum 357 is referred to as .357 (notice the decimal point), and not surprisingly, he told the third person .357. This assimilation device shows how he related the word he heard with his own background knowledge. The airline's name "Quantas" remained throughout all three speakers, possibly because of its unfamiliar sounding which caught attention.