5 Brown Peterson - Lab Report Example

Lab Report 5 ‘Brown Peterson’ Introduction Basing on the Brown – Peterson experiment, the loss of memory was considered to result from the interference of the previously learned information by the new information. In this, considering the decay theory of immediate memory trace, most people are likely to forget the previous memory when impacted by the current one. In this study, a total of twenty five participants were presented with a trigram of consonants in which they were expected to view for about 20 seconds.

In the conducted lab experiment, the study was restricted by quantitative descriptions and the data found in the trigram showed that the recall was less likely given that the participants worked for longer periods on the arithmetic computations that were given (Brown, 1959). The result of this can be attributed to the stimuli that likely interfered with the memory of the trigram.Methods The participants for this study were 25 in number and each with different ages. The ages were a measure of the short term memory system of each of them.

The choice of contributors considered the cognitive abilities of the individuals based on their ages. The experiment was conducted through the use of a consonant trigram used for recalling words to be used in the computation of the algebraic problems. However, the ability to recall was based on the active effort of the participants to remember consonants before the short term memory fades away (Brown, 1959).Procedure and design The design was experimental and the 25 participants were each taken through a process similar to the Brown-Peterson experiment.

This involved a screen through which the trigram of letters appeared for two seconds. Each participant was required to classify the items as either a word (by pressing the j key) or a non-word (by pressing the f key) from the letter strings sequences that they were given (Brown, 1959). The classification duration that was given to each participant ranged from one to twenty one seconds; hence, a participant needed to respond quickly to the series so as to maintain the pace. Thereafter, the participants were asked to recall the consonant trigram by typing in the correct order of the letters.

ResultsThe data collected for this experiment was run through SPSS software to generate the mean and standard deviation values for the recall intervals as shown in the table below.Table 1: Recall intervals effectIntervalMeanStandard deviation1S83.999623.8044811S79.998417.3459621S56.664826.35342This shows that the recall at fewer intervals scored a higher mean of 83.9996 compared to recall after 21 seconds. However, medium intervals taken recalling word items yielded lower standard deviations than a quick or slow recall interval.

Subsequently, the percentage results are as shown in a graphical image below.Additionally, when T-test was performed, the following results were obtained.The paired sample statistics was used to compare the mean scores for the 25 participants on the different intervals. Considering the paired samples test table, the recorded probability values indicate 0.457 for pair 1 and 0.003 for pair 2. With these results, there is shown a significant difference between the 1 second interval and the 11 seconds interval data.

Therefore, there is a significant different in recall at intervals of 1 second and 11 seconds. The t-value was 0.756 with 24 degrees of freedom.ReferenceBrown, J. (1959). Some tests of the decay theory of immediate memory. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology,10,12-21