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 5 males 17 females Assigned to be tested in the same or different context based upon lab assignment 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 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 * (p<.05)

Recall Group Statistics GroupNMeanStd. Deviation RecallSame Different Independent Samples Test tdfSig. (2-tailed) Recall

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

Frequency Data of Stories

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

Confabulation * (p<.05)

Confabulation Group Statistics GroupNMeanStd. Deviation ConfabSame Different Independent Samples Test tdfSig. (2-tailed) Confab

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: 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

Ordering of Stories

Group Statistics GroupNMeanStd. Deviation OrderSame Different Independent Samples Test tdfSig. (2-tailed) Order

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: 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 if you need help ask