Boys vs. Girls

Question Do males or females have better memory?

Purpose The purpose of this project to see if boys or girls have better memory. This is important because if you lose your car keys you would know who to ask.

Hypothesis Our hypothesis is boys will have better memory because boys like to work hard.

Procedure

Materials 5 Word lists with 15 words Stop watch Elmo. 110 pieces of paper 21 pencils

Variables Manipulated/Independent: Male Female Responding/Dependent: Number of words correctly recalled Constant: number of words on the list, time given to memorize, time given to recall

Directions Make five word lists with 15 words on each list. Write on blank paper. Let boy or girl write their gender on blank paper . Place one word list on the Elmo. Let class look at list for 1 minute. Remove list. 4. Set timer for three minutes. Have class individually recall as many words as they can in the three minutes by writing on blank paper.

Directions Continued Collect and count the number correct words on each paper. Calculate the average number correct for boys and girls. Record on data chart. Repeat steps 2 -5 for more trials.

Conclusion Our hypothesis was incorrect. Females have better memory than males. The average word recall for males was 9.27. The female average word recall was 9.61. We learned that females have better memory than males in recalling words, but what if they had to memorize math facts? We will have to wait to conduct this investigation with this new variable.