Lab Report 1 - Telephone Numbers- Letters or Number PDF

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Telephone Numbers- Letters or Number
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Running head: Telephone numbers- letters or numbers

Telephone Numbers- Letters or Number Assignment 3- Lab Report Randi Maguire 0331054 PSYC 1105EL 12 Dr. Elizabeth Levin Laurentian University November 23rd, 2017

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PSYCHOLOGY 1105 Experimental Report 1 Telephone Numbers- Letters or Numbers

Purpose Memory is defined as learning over time through encoding, storage, and information retrieval (Myers & Dewall., 2015). According to a research study, a person can recall about seven numbers, or six letters, or five words (Baddeley et al., 1975). But, it was demonstrated that people could actually see and recall all the letters or numbers given, but only for a moment (Sperling., 1960). Although telephones use both numbers and letters on the dialer, we use the telephone numbers and not telephone letters. This experimental study was conducted to see if a group of individuals can recall phone numbers, phone numbers converted to their letters, or a mixture of letters and numbers. It is hypothesized that the telephone sequences composed only of letters should be the easiest to recall and the all numerical list should be the hardest to recall. Method Subjects 10 subjects had volunteered for this study. The participants included 6 males and 4 females, each with ages varying from 20-30. The sample was drawn from a population of individuals who have spent at least 15 years living on the outskirts of Sudbury, Ontario. 5 of the participants have completed a college program in either business, music, or a trade at Cambrian College. 2 of the participants are currently undergoing completing a program at Cambrian

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College, in either nursing or electrical. 1 participant is currently completed a degree in nursing at Laurentian University. The last 2 haven’t attended post-secondary education. Apparatus Three lists of ten sets as follows: List A 526-9276 687-4569 933-2347 435-2688 562-7469 484-6733 297-8486 769-2835 536-3942 864-7537

List B JAM WARM NUR ILOW WEE BUGS HEL BOTT JOB PHOW HUG OPED BYS TITO ROW BUDL JEN DYGA VOG PLES

List C HO4-6733 JO2-7469 VO4-7537 BY7-8486 JA6-9276 NU7-4569 WE3-2847 JE6-3942 RO9-2835 HE5-2688

A pen and a pad of paper with the headings Trail 1, Trial 2, and Trial 3 were given to each participant. Procedure Each subject was tested individually. They were given List A to study for 30 seconds. When the 30 seconds had passed, the list was removed. They were given a pen and a pad of paper and asked to write as many sequences as they could remember. The same method was used for List B and List C. Results Table 1- Results of each trial and the mean scores. Subject 1 2 3 4 5 6

List A 0 1 1 0 1 0

List B 1 3 4 2 4 1

List C 0 1 1 1 1 1

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7 8 9 10 Mean Scores

1 0 0 1 0.5

3 2 0 3 2.3

2 0 1 0 0.8

Number of Correct Reponses

List A 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

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Chart 1- Bar chart showing the amount of correct responses per participant in List A.

Number of Correct Responses

List B 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0

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Chart 2- Bar chart showing the amount of correct responses per participant in List B.

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Number of correct repsonses

List C 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

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Chart 3- Bar chart showing the amount of correct responses per participant in List C. In Trial 1, Chart 1 (number trial) there was an average of 0.5 correct scores. Chart 1 shows the frequency of correct answers, which are shown only as scores of 0 and 1. In Trial 2, Chart 2 (letter trial) there was an average of 2.3 correct scores. Chart 2 shows the frequency of correct answers, varying from 0 to 4. In Trial 3, Chart 3 (numbers and letter trial) there was an average of 0.8 correct scores. Chart 3 shows the frequency of correct answers, which are shown only as scores of 0 and 1.

Discussion According to the hypothesis, the numbers trial should’ve been the most difficult and the letters trial should’ve been the simplest. Trial 1 has the lowest mean, which shows that it was the most difficult for the participants to remember compared to the other two trials. Trial 2 has the highest mean, which shows that it was the easiest for the participants to remember compared to the other two trials. Trial 3’s mean lies in between the other two trials, this means that it was not the most difficult nor the simplest trial. With all that being said, the results are consistent with the hypothesis.

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Most people will remember by associating it with things they already know. This causes a dilemma in the number trial since it is much harder to relate a number sequence to an event in the participants life. The letter sequences were easily related to words that the participants already were familiar with “wee bugs”, “jam warm”, “hel bott”, etc. Researchers have proposed that an individual would only be able to store roughly seven pieces of information in their short-term memory (Miller., 1996). This could be reason as to why many people didn’t score over 6 overall points. Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) had discovered that when a student crams to memorize information, they may also forget it just as quickly. He proposed that in order to remember something fully, it would be best to distribute the material through a much larger time period. Each participant was given only 30 seconds to memorize 10 sequences, they may forget it in about 30 seconds. A common phrase mentioned by almost all the participants was “I memorized so many of these now I can’t remember a single one.”. If a person were to consult a telephone company, they should suggest to change phone numbers to phone words. Let’s consider telephone jingles that the average person may have heard in their lives. One that instantly comes to mind is “877-CASH-NOW”. That jingle may stick in a person’s head for minutes, hours, or days. But a simple phone number presented the same way will take longer to remember. 10-digit calling would make remembering numbers quite a bit more challenging. Although, most phone number are organized by area code. A person will have the same first 3 digits as their neighbour or their friend that lives 20 minutes away. An example of this would be the 705-area code. This code reaches several hours north and several hours south of Sudbury.

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Telephone numbers Once you associate area codes to its specific areas, you are back to having to remember 7 numbers, not 10. There is a source of error in this study. The first one being that the participant may have not been able to focus all their attention onto the task at hand. “Without focused attention, information often fades”. (Myers & Dewall., 2015). A person may have trouble concentrating if there is something pressing occurring in their life, which is difficult to pinpoint as a researcher. Although one person was brought into the testing area at a time, there were still discussions happening among the other participants outside the room, which would certainly be a cause for distraction. Further research can be conducted with a sound-proofed room and proper screening of participants’ stress levels. Another research study that can be conducted could be regarding the 10-digit study. Summary 10 individuals were tested on their abilities to remember numbers, letters, and a mixture

of numbers and letters. The results showed that numbers were the most difficult to remember and letters were the easiest to remember. References Baddeley, A. D., Thomson, N., & Buchanan, M. (1975). Word Length and the Structure of lkjelkwef Short-Term Memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 14(6), 575-589 Ebbinghaus (1885), H. (2013) Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. Annals of lkfnjekf Neurosciences, 20:155–156. 10.5214/ans.0972.7531.200408 Myers, D.G., & Dewall, C.N. (n.d.). Memory. In Psychology (11th ed., pp. 317-351).

Telephone numbers Sperling, G. (1960). The Information Available in Brief Visual Presentations. Psychological kfweflh Monographs: General and Applied, 74(11), 1-29.

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