the impact of distraction on short-term memory inga chivitchian california state university,...
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THE IMPACT OF DISTRACTION ON SHORT-TERM MEMORY
Inga ChivitchianCalifornia State University, Northridge
PREVIOUS RESEARCH:
Recall seven digits either in silence, irrelevant speech, vocal music, or instrumental music.
Participants were able to recall more digits when recalling in silence, than in any other condition
Alley & Greene, 2008
PREVIOUS RESEARCH
University undergraduates studied twenty lists in backgrounds of similar onset words, rhyming words, dissimilar words or in silence
No significant difference between any of the conditions, other than the silence condition, in which students recalled the most amount of words
Baddeley, & Salame, 1982
HYPOTHESIS
Distraction decreases short-term memory.
DEMOGRAPHICS
40%
10%10%
40%
Ethnicity
Hispanic WhiteAsian-American Other
DEMOGRAPHICS
Male Female0
5
10
15
20
20 CSUN students in PSYCH 321- Lab 2 course(4 Males and 16 Females)
DEMOGRAPHICS
Participants were between the ages of 20 and 26
M= 22.20
SD= 1.795
MATERIALS
PowerPoint
12 random words •-Computer, Sweater, Building, Protein, Snowflake, Alcohol, Telephone, Change, Sleep, Paper, Arm, Gold.
A sheet of paper for the demographics
(age, gender, ethnicity) and the
recalled words.
MATERIALS
Image by Salvador Dali called “Persistence of Memory”
MATERIALS
A song, by a band Hella called “Brown Metal”
http://youtu.be/ujofwGp2B9E
PROCEDURE
Participants randomly assigned to two groups.
• Control Group: 12 words presented on PowerPoint in silence.
• Experimental Group: 12 words presented with visual distraction (image in the background) and auditory distraction (song playing on speakers).
RESULTS
Experimental Group (Distractions) -M = 5.50 -SD = 1.43 Control Group (No Distractions) -M = 3.9 -SD = 1.10
RESULTS
t(18) = 2.799, p = .174.
The results failed to support our hypothesis and are not in agreement with previous research.
LIMITATIONS
Order and choice of words
Image choice
Song choice
The order of groups
FUTURE DIRECTION
Better choice of words
Better destruction methods
More words
Larger N
