memory and intelligence in algerian schooled children

141 Pages·2011·1.02 MB·English

PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

MINISTERY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

UNIVERSITY OF CONSTANTINE
FACULTY OF LETTERS & FOREIGN LANGUAGES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

MEMORY AND INTELLIGENCE

IN ALGERIAN SCHOOLED

CHILDREN

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Magister degree in Linguistic sciences &English Language Teaching

Submitted by: Dihia TAOUTAOU. Supervised by: Pr. Hacene SAADI

Board of Examiners:
- Chairman: Dr Ahmed MOUMENE MC, University of CONSTANTINE
- Supervisor: Pr Hacene SAADI Pr, University of CONSTANTINE
- Member: Dr Amor GHOUAR MC, University of BATNA
- Member: Dr larbi EL KOLLI MC, university of CONSTANTINE
2007
Dedication

I wish to dedicate my modest work to all my family:
-my parents who devoted their life to my education
- my brothers
-my sister for her intensive help and encouragement

Special thanks are due to my husband for his patience and care
Thanks to my friends for their moral support.

I
Acknowledgements

First of all, I am deeply grateful to my teacher and supervisor Professor Hacene Saadi for his
precious guidance, help and wisdom, without whom this work could not be achieved.

I am also thankful to all the children who participated with pleasure in this study.
My profound thanks to the primary school teachers who were totally cooperative during my
field study and who provided the adequate atmosphere to permit the achievement of my
experiment.

II
Abstract

Our objective in this study is to investigate whether the Algerian primary school
children who possess high mental abilities, in other words who are considered to be
intelligent, own effectively good memorizing aptitudes.

Since the problem we are faced with concerns the relationship between memory and
intelligence, the background ideas for our research have focussed on the theoretical
foundations and results on memory and intelligence studies that have been reported in the
literature. Mainly, two different theories have been proposed to investigate the memory
structure and functions: The information processing approach theory, interested in how the
information is organized and what are the processes used to access this information, and the
Piagetian approach that focuses on the appreciation of human ’s memory done closely linked
to the development of his logical competence.

In this study we will assume that there is a relationship between memory and
intelligence, and that Algerian primary school children who have a good memory have higher
intelligence scores than those with poor memorization capacities.

For this purpose, we used in our experiment two random groups of the same
instructional level and of an equal size. They are pupils of fourth primary year among a
population of 120 children aged between 10 and 11. Both groups were constituted of boys and
girls.
An intelligence test has been designed to gather enough information about the pupils ’
cognitive capacities. Another test consisting of a series of memory tasks has been constructed
to allow the collection of sufficient data about the primary school pupils’ memorization.

From the analysis of our results of the memory and intelligence tests, we have derived
that, in accordance with what was expected by theoretical studies, children intelligence
performances seemed to have a strong relation with their memory abilities. This relationship
can appear in terms of a good organization of knowledge in their memory structure or in
terms of their abilities to quickly process the information, basically helped by their already
acquired knowledge and previous experiences.
III
List of abbreviations and symbols

STM : Short Term Memory
LTM: Long Term Memory
STS: Short Term Store
LTS: Long Term Store
WM : Working Memory
r : Correlation coefficient
X,Y: Observations (Here the items of memory and intelligence tests)
N: number of individuals
pi: the pupil number “i”
IV
List of tables

Table 4.1. (a and b) : Inter-correlation matrix: Correlation between Memory and intelligence
items p 99
Table 4.2 Memory and intelligence score for a random pattern of 10 pupils p 104
Table Ap.1 Memory Scores p 119
Table Ap.2 Intelligence Scores p 120
Table Ap.3 Correlation between the memory item 1 and intelligence items (item.i.1, 2) p 124

V
List of figures

Figure 1.1 : The multi-store model of memory p 7
Figure 1.2 : Network representation of memory p 9
Figure 1.3: Declarative and Procedural knowledge p 10
Figure 1.4: Tripartite model of Working Memory p 30
Figure 1.5: Articulatory loop p 31
Figure 1.6: Central executive structure p 35
Figure 1.7: Structure of Working Memory with LTM links p 37
Figure Ap.1 : Different geometric forms (memory item 3) p 110
Figure Ap.2 : Images of different things and animals (memory item 5) p 111
Figure Ap.3 : Finding the letters of the word cat in a set of letters (intelligence item 5) p 112
Figure Ap.4: The five flowers ( Intelligence item 10) p 112
Figure Ap.5: Choice of the classroom ( Intelligence item 12) p 113
Figure Ap. 6: Identifying the normal or the abnormal situations (intelligence item 13) p 114
Figure Ap.7: Link the figures and the sentences (intelligence items 14) p 115
Figure Ap.8 : Identifying the morality of the story (the strip cartoon: intelligence item 16) p
116

VI
Contents:
Dedication .............................................................................................................................. I
Acknowledgement................................................................................................................. II
Abstract ................................................................................................................................ III
List of abbreviations and symbols ........................................................................................ IV
List of tables…………………………………………………………………………………. V
List of figures ....................................................................................................................... VI
Contents: ............................................................................................................................ VII

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 1
I. General Overview ........................................................................................................... 1
II. Aim of the study ............................................................................................................ 2
III. Statement of the problem and question.......................................................................... 2
IV. The hypothesis ............................................................................................................. 3
V. The methodology and research design............................................................................ 3
VI. Organisation of the thesis ............................................................................................. 3

CHAPTER 1. Memory: Overview of the different theories ..................................................... 6
1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 6
1.2 The multi-store Model of Memory ................................................................................ 6
1.3 Information Processing Model of Memory .................................................................... 8
1.3.a) Memory components ............................................................................................ 9
1.3.b) Spread or depth encoding .................................................................................... 10
1.3.c) The Three stage view of memory, History and Discussion .................................. 13
1.4 A Piagitian Model of Memory .................................................................................... 27
1.5 Working memory........................................................................................................ 28
1.5.a) Introduction ........................................................................................................ 28
1.5.b) Definition ........................................................................................................... 29
1.5.c) A new model for working memory ..................................................................... 36
1.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 38

VII
CHAPTER 2. Intelligence ................................................................................................... 40
2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 40
2.2 Psychometric Approach: ............................................................................................ 42
2.2.a) Foundations : ...................................................................................................... 42
2.2.b) Inter-correlation among tests............................................................................... 49
2.2.c) Characteristics of test scores ............................................................................... 50
2.3. New approaches......................................................................................................... 51
2.3.a) Multiple Forms of Intelligence ............................................................................ 51
2.3.b) Developmental Progressions ............................................................................... 52
2.3.c) Biological Approaches ........................................................................................ 52
2.4. Piaget’s Theory of Intelligence .................................................................................. 53
2.4.a) Introduction ........................................................................................................ 53
2.4.b) Key Concepts of Piaget’s Theory ........................................................................ 53
2.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 56

CHAPTER 3. Memory and its relation to Intelligence .......................................................... 58

3.1. Memory abilities and intelligence .............................................................................. 58
3. 1.a) Introduction ...................................................................................................... 58
3. 1.b) Working memory capacity and its relation to executive attention and general
factor “g” ...................................................................................................................... 58
3.1.c) Memory organisation and its relation to the speed of information-processing ...... 60
3.1.d) Organisation of LTM, Working memory capacity and its relation To the capacity
of modelisation and problem solving ............................................................................ 61
3.2.e) Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 62
3.2. Problem solving and Motivation ................................................................................ 63
3.2.a) Introduction ........................................................................................................ 63
3.2.b) Information processing Approach ....................................................................... 64
3.2.c) A Piagetian approach to problem solving ............................................................ 68
3.2.d) Theories of motivation ....................................................................................... 72
3.2.e) Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 75

VIII
CHAPTER 4. Experimentation ............................................................................................. 76
4.1 The condition of the experimental set. ........................................................................ 76
4.2. Memory tests. ............................................................................................................ 78
4.3 Intelligence tests ......................................................................................................... 87
4.4. Memory links to intelligence: .................................................................................... 98
4.4.a) Correlation between memory items and intelligence items ...................................... 98
4.4.b) Links between memory and intelligence global scores .......................................... 104

SUGGESTIONS FOR PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS…………………….………….106
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………………….108
APPENDIXES………………………………………………………………………………110

Appendix 1: Images used for memory and intelligence items.............................................. 110
Appendix 2: Global Memory and Intelligence scores ........................................................ 119
Appendix 3: Correlation analysis ..................................................................................... 123
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 126

IX