Effects of Different Mediums on Short Term Memory Rachel Barclay Aberdeen Central High School Purpose Hypothesis Methods Data Analysis 1)Explain to the participant what they will be doing for the experiment 2)Using a set of letters obtained from a random letter generator, write/type on the medium being tested. 3)If testing the cell phone, let the participant use their own phone, as it will be more familiar to them. 4)Give the participant seven seconds to view the set of letters on the medium being tested. Make sure there is nothing to distract him or her. 5)After the seven seconds of viewing are complete, remove the medium from their view, and have the individual remain silent for ten seconds. 6)When the ten seconds of silence have passed, have the participant recall the letters they remember seeing; they do not have to be in order. Record what letters they are able to recall. 7)Determine the percentage of letters they had successfully memorized. 8)Test each medium (cell phone, notebook paper, computer, and whiteboard) three times, using a different set of letters each time. 9)When finished testing, calculate the participant’s average for each medium. When information is viewed on different mediums, the percent of information memorized will be different depending on the medium. I predict that notebook paper will be the best medium to memorize on. The purpose of this experiment was to find out how different mediums affect memory. Whether something is viewed on a phone, notebook paper, a computer, or a whiteboard would affect how well young adults can memorize. One-way ANOVA: Phone, Paper, Computer, Whiteboard Source DF SS MS F P Factor Error Total S = R-Sq = 11.13% R-Sq(adj) = 7.62% Individual 95% CIs For Mean Based on Pooled StDev Level N Mean StDev Phone ( * ) Paper ( * ) Comp ( * ) Board ( * ) Pooled StDev = Materials Raw Data The Data shown is each participant’s average score on the three trials of each medium they completed. Conclusion My hypothesis was that when information is viewed on different mediums, the percent of information memorized will be different depending on the medium. This experiment supports my hypothesis because there was a significant difference in the memorization on the different mediums. Because of this, I have to reject my NULL hypothesis because the results that were computed by an ANOVA one-way (unstacked) test do not support it. I got a P value of 0.029, which supports my hypothesis because I needed a P-value that was less than The results did show that memorization on computers was significantly better than on the other mediums, based on the mean value. This does not support my hypothesis that notebook paper would be the best medium to memorize on. This experiment leads me to believe that computers are the best medium to memorize information on, and there is a difference in memorization depending on the medium being looked at. examples of the set of letters on each of the mediums tested (Cell phone, notebook paper, computer, whiteboard) Photos taken by Rachel Barclay All tables, Charts, graphs, and images were created by Rachel Barclay PHOTOS ParticipantPhonePaperComputerWhiteboard Cell PhoneNotebook PaperComputer Random Letter Generator WhiteboardPencil Dry Erase MarkerStopwatch Whiteboard