Effect of Modality on Short Term Memory

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Effect of Modality on Short Term Memory

• Shannon Hooven
• Sarah Kamplain
• Abby Ramser

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INTRO

• Memory the way in which information is
  represented and stored cognitively.
• Peterson and Peterson found that there is a
  distinction between various types of memory.
• If information is not rehearsed, it will not be
  remembered or capable of being retrieved for
  later recall.
• Hamilton argued that the capacity of short-term
  memory was seven units.
• Baddeley argued that the span of memory is
  determined by the speed at which information is
  rehearsed.
• Proposed that for verbal material, people had an
  articulatory loop in which they can maintain as
  much information as they are able to rehearse in
  a fixed period of time.

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INTRO cont.

• Webster (1980) hypothesized that the organization
  of memories in short term memory is enhanced by
  the characteristics assigned to them as a result
  of the modality in which they were presented and
  the required response type.
• Thompson and Clayton (1974) found that when
  information was presented in an auditory
  modality, recall drastically declined as the
  delay increased.

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HYPOTHESES

• Current research proposes the way in which
  stimuli are presented to participants will affect
  the way in which they recall the information.
• If stimuli are presented in a visual modality,
  recall will be better if they are required to
  write down the words (i.e. visual visual).
• If stimuli are presented orally, they will be
  better recalled if participants are required to
  speak them back to the researcher (i.e. auditory
  auditory).

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METHOD

• Participants
• 18 participants ranging in age from 18-22
• 6 Males
• 12 Females
• Equipment
• Gateway computer with an Intel Pentium 4
  processor and a EV700 monitor 
• Microsoft Power Point  

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METHOD cont.

• Stimuli
• One-syllable words ranging from three to five
  letters each 
• 66 size Times New Roman black font on a white
  background in the center of the screen
•   Experimenters read the list
• Each of the lists was comprised of seven words
• The words were presented three seconds apart. 

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METHOD cont.

• Procedure
• Informed Consent
• First task visual-visual
• Second task visual-auditory
• Third task auditory-visual
• Fourth task auditory-auditory
• Conditions were counter-balanced
• Debriefing

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VISUAL STIMULI

• List 1
• Fish
• Eye
• Shoe
• Bone
• Leaf
• Dog
• Nose

• List 2
• Belt
• Cat
• Ice
• Rug
• Tree
• Lamp
• Sock

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AUDITORY STIMULI

• List 1
• Hair
• Bird
• Fire
• Cake
• Ear
• Boat
• Cloud

• List 2
• Chair
• Hat
• Bed
• Dog
• Wall
• Cup
• Ring

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RESULTS

• Means

visual - visual visual - auditory auditory - visual auditory - auditory
6.336806 4.881944 5.736111 5.520833
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RESULTS cont.
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RESULTS cont.

• Significant main effect found for responses in
  written form (F(18) 13.35, p lt 0).
• Significant interaction found between the visual
  presentation of stimuli and the written response
  (F (18) 3.13, p lt .03).
• Trend toward the oral response being significant
  for the condition in which stimuli were presented
  orally.

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DISCUSSION

• Results indicated that information was better
  remembered when presented visually.
• This could be because of the overwhelming and
  constant exposure to written text in a variety of
  settings (i.e. school, media, etc.)
• Responses in the auditory modality could have
  been inhibited as a result of the way in which
  the words were read.
• Timing in between words and pronunciation