Carly Freeman

Date
Memory
Lesson 05
How Much do Students Remember?
Participants
● Participant #1: Roommate, 19, female, McDonalds worker
● Participant #2: Friend, 21, male, mechanical engineering major
● Participant #3: Roommate, 17, female, biology major
● Participant #4: In my ward, 18, male, business management major

Numbers: 8 4 3 6 9 4 7 2 6 1 5 9

Procedures

To start the study I gathered all 4 of my participants into my living room and gave them each
a piece of paper and a pencil. I had the participant write down their age, gender, and major or
career on the top of the page. I told them I would be preforming a memory test. I explained to
them that I would be reciting 12 single digit numbers and that when I was finished I would ask them
to write down the 12 numbers that I had just said in the correct order. The number sequence I used
was 8 4 3 6 9 4 7 2 6 1 5 9 I told them the 12 numbers pacing about 1 number a second. Afterwards
I reminded them to write down all the numbers they remembered and to make sure they wrote
down 12 numbers even if they couldn’t remember all of them. Then, I collected all of my papers
and thanked the participants for their time.

Results
Each of my participants could not remember over half of the original 12 numbers. Participant one
was the only person to get to the 5-9 range. If you look at table 1 below you can see that my first
participant had the best memory with 5 numbers correct. She is female and 19 years old.
Participants two, three and four tied with only 2 numbers in the sequence correct. Participants two

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and four were both male while participant 3 was female. Each of the participants had a different
major/job as well.
Table 1
Participants Number Sequences
Participants Age Gender Major / Job Number Sequence Numbers In the 5-9
Correct range?
One 19 Female McDonalds 843691426942 5 yes

Two 21 Male Mechanical 841265924316 2 no

Engineering
Three 17 Female Biology 846934268159 2 no

Four 18 Male Business 846153276159 2 no

Management

Discussion

Participant one had the best results and was the only person to score within the 5-9 range, I

believe this could have been because she is known to be a good listener and she may have been

paying closer attention while I was stating the instructions and giving the numbers. Participants

two, three, and four are known to get distracted easily and it may have affected their memory. I

do not think that their gender had much effect on the results considering that two male

participants and one female participant had the same number of digits correct. Each of the

participants were working on homework when I asked them to participate in my study, because

they were focused on their assignments it could have affected each of their overall scores.

Implications

According to research short-term memory only lasts around 15 to 30 seconds unless something is

done specifically to keep the memory fresh. In the study it took around 20-30 seconds for me to

recite all the of the numbers. 3 of my four participants only got 2 digits correct in the number

sequence meaning that their short-term memory did not work to their advantage. It would make

sense that the participants forgot many of the numbers especially in the beginning because short
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term memory can be just that, short. Chunking is a strategy to help with the limits of short term

memory by taking individual pieces of information and putting them together into units so the

brain has less to remember. If the participants had used this technique during the study I believe

that they would have performed better and all of them would have ended up with better scores.