The depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory has been replicated in this experiment. According to this theory, words that are processed more deeply will produce higher recall rates than words that have not been processed on a deeper level. Forty undergraduate college students of different age, sex and background were tested using three levels of processing. Participants had to quickly respond by hitting Yes/No keys on the keyboard if they had previously seen the words flashed on the computer monitor. A paired t-test was used and it showed a significant difference between the three compared groups. The results of this experiment show that words that had the highest recognition scores were at the level of processing that involved, Is the word in the category____? The other two levels of processing that were tested, namely, Does the word rhyme with_____? and Is the word in capital letters? had smaller recognition rates. This finding is consistent !
             with the hypothesis that the deeper the level of processing, the more the participants will remember the words and recall them later.
             Depth of Processing and the Retention of Words
             Depth of processing and the retention of words refers to the notion that episodic memory is an automatic by-product of operations carried out by the cognitive system and the strength of the memory is based on the depth of processing. Depth of processing refers to the greater degrees of semantic involvement. Semantic memory is explicit memory for information not tied mentally to a particular event. It includes knowledge of word meanings in connection with one's general understanding of the world and concept representation of schemas and scripts.
             Researchers believe that memory consists of links between related concepts and that experiencing one concept immediately activates related concepts. Previous research dealing with the notion that knowledge is organized in terms...