The aim of this investigation was to look to see if there is a difference in the recollection if the format in which information is presented is different. Lists of words and images were compared to find the most effective source of recollection. This topic of research has many real life applications for instance how students study in preparation for exams. If there is a format that is more successful at recollecting memory then that would help with studying and can be expanded to how general education is taught. This field of psychology could help to revolutionise memory and its capabilities if enough study is concentrated on it.
Miller (1956) though that through short-term memory only 7 (plus or minus two) items could be remembered due to his belief that there is a certain amount of 'slots' that information can go into. This means that using this study we can estimate that 7 (plus or minus two) item will be recollected from each list using short-term memory. However if information can be grouped together then a higher amount of information can be stored. This can be done with words that are similar and fit into the same group, e.g. technology, nature, clothing, etc.
Serial Position Effect is separated into two effects, the primary effect which is the tendency to remember items at the beginning, and the recency effect which is the likelihood that the items at the end of the list will be recalled due to their positioning. Murdock (1962) found that the position of the word (its serial position) in his experiment influenced the probability of that word being recollected. Words at the beginning and at the end had a higher probability of being recollected that those in the middle. Murdock thought that the initial words at the beginning of the list were allocated into long-term memory due to the participant having a moment to rehearse each word. On the other hand words at the end of the list were put into short-term memory using the recency effect. However the words in the middle of the list were not there for a long enough duration to be held in long-term memory and were not there for a short enough period to be classed as short-term which is referred to as an asymptote.
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
Penney (?)
In this memory investigation
• The Null Hypothesis is that there will be no difference in the recollection between the two formats of visual memory.
• The Alternate Hypothesis is that images will have a higher rate of recollection than words.
Method
The research method used was field. This means that the data was collected in natural and everyday environments. An advantage of this method of research is that the results are more likely to reproduce real world data. In this research method the IV is controlled however due to the natural set-up it is difficult to control EV).
Repeated measures were used in this experiment as the same group did both the words and the images in the investigation. An advantage of this is that this method saves time as fewer participants are needed to compete the experiment. However there is a disadvantage in that the practice effect may occur meaning that the participants would do better in the second condition (images) as they have had a practice beforehand. Another disadvantage is that participants may be bored by the second condition and may underperform as they could lose concentration. Both of these could influence the validity of the results causing untrue conclusions to be made.
Certain variables influenced the results of our experiment such as situational variables like noise and lighting. This was due to the experiment being tested in various locations that had different surroundings for example there was background noise and talking whilst the experiment was taking place for some of the participants. Another issue that was found was that the participants talked amongst themselves which could result in some answers being shared, compromising the validity of the findings.
The experiment was tested using an ethics checklist before the investigation commenced by the teacher at Fife College. This covered ensuring that no participants would be deceived of the events of the investigation and others for example that the procedures ensure anonymity and confidentiality.
In this experiment thirty participants were selected using convenience sampling. This means that certain members of a chosen population were approached asking if they were interested in participating rather than choosing participants and then getting their consent. Using convenience or opportunity sampling has an advantage in that it is a method that is quicker than alternatives such as stratified or simple random sampling therefore it is easier to gain a large sample which would offer better results than a smaller one. However this method has some disadvantages too as the sample could be unrepresentative of the population as a whole due to not all stratas being included within the sample.
All of the participants were above the age of 16 and were all in their sixth year of high school. This controls the population in the sample making it equal as there was little chance of participants having a certain advantage over others due to life experience or age. Participants had to be over the age of 16 to be able to take part as investigating anyone younger would be a breach of the ethical guidelines set by the teacher at the beginning of this experiment.
Various materials were used in this investigation. Firstly there was the Briefing Form and Consent Form and then following this was the PowerPoint with the slides of words and images. The participant wrote their answers on paper which was handed back for marking once completed. This marking was done by an experimenter with reference to an answer list (Source 3.1). The final material that was used in the investigation was the Debriefing Form that was given to the participants upon completion of the experiment. This contains an active email address that participants can use to send in any questions or queries that they may have.
The participants were give their briefing forms followed by the consent form (Source 2.3 and 2.2, found in appendices). This means that the participants were aware of what was going to occur in the investigation in accordance with the British Psychological Society's ethical guidelines. In both of these documents the participants were made aware of the fact that they could withdraw from the experiment at any given time. They were then shown a PowerPoint of twenty words followed by a two minute break to write their answers down and then repeated again with images instead of words. Each word and image was shown for three seconds and this was on a timer so it was exactly the same every time. Following this the participants were given a debriefing form (Source 2.3) that explained the experiment and had an email should they have any questions or queries.
Results
The results of the experiment clearly show little to no difference between the levels of recollection between the different formats of visual memory. As shown in Source 1.2 there is a difference of 0.1 between the means of words and images. However the most common score for words was 10 in comparison to 16 with images. This suggests that the results are being influenced by significantly higher or lower scores otherwise known as outliers. For example Participants 20 and 14 have scores for both words and images that are significantly high which influence the means in a positive way however participants like 10 and 15 bring the mean score down as they have low scores.
As shown in Source 1.4 there is no linear relationship between words and images. This means that if a participant has a high score in one variable then the other has no effect. This is shown in some examples in Source 1.1 for instance participant 17 has a high score of 17 on images but this is not reflected in their words result of 9.
This means that there is insufficient evidence to reject the alternate hypothesis which says that images will have a higher rate of recollection than words.
The Mean
• Words- 12.9
• Images- 13
The Median
• Words- 13
• Images- 14
The Mode
• Words- 10
• Images- 16
Discussion
The research discovered in this experiment disproves the alternate hypothesis as it shows that there is little to no difference between the rate of recollection between the different formats of visual memory, words and images. The results found that the mean score of images was 0.1 higher with 13 than words that had a mean score of 12.9.
The research variables that may have affected the overall results are that the sample was predominantly female by a large margin. This means that males were unfairly unrepresented in comparison to the large female section that dominated the sample. This could have affected the results in certain ways if there is a difference between the recollection abilities of males and females which could mean that one gender influenced the results positively or negatively. Another variable that could have affected the results was that the whole sample was 17-18 year olds. This means that with increasing the variation of ages in the sample a more representative sample could be made with more conclusive data. With increasing the age variation of the sample the alternative hypothesis may be reflective of the results found.
The time that the participants had to write down as many of the words/images down was two minutes which may have been too much or too little time for them which in result could affect the results of the experiment. This could result in participants being worried about not having enough time and underperforming or getting bored with too much time and losing motivation to complete the task.
Participants may have undisclosed medical conditions which although they do not prevent the person to take part in the experiment, it may affect their results for example people with ADHD are known to be inattentive which might mean that they get distracted and stop paying attention to the PowerPoint. There is also the possibility of participants sharing answers or copying from one another. This would cause false evidence to be collected and could influence the overall results of the experiment as a whole.
To avoid any variables influencing the results of the experiment then there are certain action that could have been taken. Firstly the participants could have been tested individually to prevent any cheating or sharing answers. This also would make the participant more focused and less prone to distractions from others. Another thing that could have been done would be to do all the testing in the same location. As this investigation was done in several locations there was different extraneous variables in each. To make the experiment precise then the same location would have to be used as this eliminates the chance that some participants had a better work environment than others.
The data collected in the pilot study matches the results found in the experiment. From the pilot study the participant scored eleven out of twenty for both words and pictures, reflecting the null hypothesis.