Psychophysiology: Group Project

Presentation brought to you by:Amanda, Tracy, Jon, Erin

Abstract

Introduced concept of priming.

“In a typical priming study, people tend to respond faster or more accurately to stimuli they have seen before” (Bernstein and Nash 139).

Hypothesis

Exercising memory by playing a memory game prior to taking a memory test will lead to a higher score on that test.

Operational Definitions

Independent Variable:

The playing of Simon prior to taking the memory test.

Dependent Variable:

Score on the memory test.

Guidelines For Collecting Data

6 Participants split into 2 groups. Primed Not Primed

Participants cannot be involved in a math course.

Memory game (Simon) played for 3 minutes.

Participants allowed to view memory test for 30 seconds.

Data (number of pictures remembered)

Interesting Facts

Most Remembered Computer- 6 Guitar- 5 Butterfly, House, Lock- 5 each

• primacy effect

Least Remembered Telephone- 0 Plane- 1 Kite- 1

Conclusions

Primed group remembered more pictures than the non-primed group.

The difference was significant. Average number of primed: 12.6 Average number of non- primed: 9.3

Future Experiments

Allow participants to view pictures for longer amount of time.

Increase playing time of memory game.

By changing the experiment, the number remembered by each group may change.

Bibliography

Schrobsdorff, H., M. Ihrke, B. Kabisch, J. Behrendt, M. Hasselhorn, and J. Herrmann. "A Computational Approach to Negative Priming." Connection Science 19 (2007): 203-221. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. 30 Nov. 2007.

Bernstein, Douglas A., and Peggy W. Nash. Essentials of Psychology. 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.