The human brain is highly adaptable. This activity demonstrates how the brain adapts to a new situation. Students investigate learning to toss beanbags at a target while wearing prism goggles.
Students collect and interpret data and then have an opportunity to design additional experiments.
The order in which information is learned determines how reliably it will be recalled. The first item in a list is initially distinguished from previous activities as important (primacy effect) and may be transferred to long-term memory by the time of recall. Items at the end of the list are still in short-term memory (recency effect) at the time of recall.
Students learn about short- and long-term memory by conducting an experiment where they try to remember a list of 20 words.
