ERIC Number: ED170640
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1978-Aug
Pages: 7
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Factor Analysis and Cognition: A Study of Memory Processes.
Masson, Michael E. J.
A battery of memory tests was administered to 243 male university students. Factor analysis with oblique rotation of factors revealed five factors: (1) associative memory (particularly important in paired-associate tests), (2) short-term visual memory (the ability to derive information from briefly presented visual displays), (3) meaningful memory (based on vocabulary and memory for text material), (4) visual memory (defined by memory tests involving geometric figures), and (5) span memory (the ability to remember a short series of items in their presented order). Second order factoring produced two factors--strategic memory (defined by associative, meaningful, and visual memory); and nonstrategic memory (defined by short-term visual and span memory). Tests loading on the strategic memory factor afforded the use of various processing strategies while tests loading on the nonstrategic factor did not provide much opportunity for the use of strategic processing. Cluster analysis of subjects produced five categories, three of which had fairly uniform score profiles across the five first order memory factors. The remaining two groups had profiles that exhibited good short-term visual and span memory abilities, relative to other memory abilities. General results support the second order factor analysis and the distinction between strategic and nonstrategic memory abilities and tasks. (Author)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, August, 1978)