Transcript 2-tailed - Northern Illinois University

Experiment 1: Memory in
Different Contexts
Hypothesis

It was hypothesized that when participants were asked to
recall stories in the same context they learned them, they
would remember more of the stories than participants that
were asked to recall the stories in a completely different
context
 It was also hypothesized that both groups would
demonstrate primacy and recency effects, although the
group that recalled the stories in the same context would
recall more
 It was further hypothesized that participants exposed to the
different context would confabulate more of their stories
 * An additional hypothesis was that participants allowed to
recall the stories in the same condition they learned them
would recall the stories in the correct order *
Participants

22 undergraduate psychology majors enrolled
in upper level psychology course
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5 males
17 females
Assigned to be tested in the same or different
context based upon lab assignment

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Same context group : 1 male 11 females
Different context group: 4 males 6 females
Apparatus & Materials

Two rooms located in the psychology building
at Northern Illinois University

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Room one: standard classroom where psychology
laboratory classes held, tables and chairs, small
blackboard & projector screen
Room two: laboratory classroom design for animal
testing, standard bench seating, talk radio was
being played, neuroanatomy posters on walls,
various behavioral testing equipment located in
room (e.g. Morris water maze for another class)
Apparatus & Materials
The American Life: 20 Acts in 60 minutes
 Played on an iPod over two speakers

Table 1
List of Stories From This American Life: 20 Acts in 60 Minutes
Act One: Don't I Know You?
Act Two: No, Of Course I Know You
Act Three: It’s Commerce That Brings Us Together
Act Four: The Sound Of One Hand Waving
Act Five: The Sound Of No Hands Clapping
Act Six: Reaching Out With Radio
Act Seven: Up Where The Air Is Clear
Act Eight: The Greatest Dog Name In The World
Act Nine: Of Dogs And Men
Act Ten: To Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind
Act Eleven: Etiquette Lesson
Act Twelve: To Tell The Truth
Act Thirteen: More Lies
Act Fourteen: Call In Colonel Musturd For Questioning
Act Fifteen: Mister Prediction
Act Sixteen: That One Guy At The Office
Act Seventeen: You Can't Choose Your Gift
Act Eighteen: Party Talk
Act Nineteen: A Hard Life At The Top
Act Twenty: The Greatest Moment I Ever Saw On A Stage
Procedure

Participants were first told to listen to the
stories and asked to pay attention as they
would be important later
 Participants were asked to sit and listen for 60
minutes to the The American Life: 20 Acts in
60 minutes


Told to be quiet while listening to not disturb others
All groups of participants listen to the stories in
room one
Procedure





After a one week delay participants were either
brought back to room one (same context group) or
they were brought the novel room two (different
context group)
They were then asked to perform a free recall of the
stories previously listened to in the prior week
They were given 30 minutes to recall
Those in the different context group were given
several distractions in order to influence their ability to
correctly recall
Once all participants were done, they were then
informed about the nature of the experiment
Recall
Mean Number of Stories Recalled
20
* (p<.05)
*
15
10
5
0
Same
Different
Recall
Group Statistics
Recall
Group
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Same
12
9
2.17
Different
10
4.8
1.75
Independent Samples Test
Recall
t
df
4.92
20
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.000000
Recall


Participants in that were tested in the same context as
they heard the stories recalled a significantly higher
number of stories (Mean=9) when compare to those
tested in a different context (Mean=4.8) t(20)= 4. 92,
p<.05
Anecdotally the amount of detail in the stories recalled
was greater with those tested in the same context


i.e. more sentences, more description about characters or
events in stories
Suggests that context possibly influences the amount
of recalled stories
Number of Participants
Frequency Data of Stories
9
8
7
6
5
Same
4
3
2
1
0
Different
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Act
Primacy & Recency Effects


Serial position effect
The graph represents the total number of
individual stories recalled by each group
 Both groups demonstrated primacy & recency
effects
 However, subjects tested in the same context
recalled a greater number of stories both early
and later on
 Further, subjects tested in the same context
also recalled more stories that were presented
the middle of the experiment
Mean Number of Confabulated Stories
Confabulation
*
5
* (p<.05)
4
3
2
1
0
Same
Different
Confabulation
Group Statistics
Confab
Group
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Same
12
1
1.21
Different
10
3.22
1.20
Independent Samples Test
Confab
t
df
-4.53
20
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.000203
Confabulation


Participants tested in the different context
confabulated significantly more of their stories
(Mean=3.22) upon recall compared to participants
tested in the same context (Mean=1) t(20)= -4.53,
p<.05
For example:
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In one story the word pasta was replaced by noodle
One participant recalled a story about a plane, another about
taxies
Another thought there was a story about long lost lovers
getting back together
Suggests that context may influence the amount of
confabulation upon recall
Mean Number of Stories in Correct
Position
Ordering of Stories
5
4
3
2
1
0
Same
Different
Ordering of Stories
Group Statistics
Order
Group
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Same
12
1.92
1.17
Different
10
1.67
1.23
Independent Samples Test
Order
t
df
0.03
20
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.98
Ordering of Stories

There were no significant differences between
the two groups t(20)= 0.03, p=.98
 Although both groups recalled stories that
occurred early on, neither group recalled the
stories in the correct order
 Suggests that context possibly doesn’t correct
order of recall better even though subjects
tested in the same context recalled more
Some extra information

There are numerous books and articles about this topic
 Forgetting
 Recall cues
 Contextual learning
 Confabulation
 Serial position effect (primacy & recency effects)
 Remember to discuss this in an overall context, don’t just
simply regurgitate try to integrate
 The challenge in this is to try to relate this to other aspects
of the literature (maybe Alzheimer’s disease, amnesia???)
or even find conflicting studies

In other words why are our findings important, what can
people take from this study
Some extra information

An important paper
Smith, S.M. (1979). Remembering in and
out of context. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Learning and Memory,
5:460-471.
 Can use this it is in the library, but it can’t
count towards the two paper min.
requirement (but it is very useful)

Some extra information
Remember
help ask
if you need