PSY305: According to Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) Modal Model of Memory, Short-Term Memory (STM): Social Psychology Report, NUS, Singapore

TMA02: Memory Span

According to Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) modal model of memory, short-term memory (STM) has limited capacity where it can only store a limited amount of information for a limited period of time. Memory span refers to the number of items (numbers, letters, or words) an individual can remember. How does age affect memory span? Does memory span increase with age or does is a decline with age? Let us find out more about our memory span!

Part A: CogLab Data Collection

There will be two different age groups in our experimental study:

• Younger age group: 21 to 41 years
• Older age group: 42 to 62 years

Part B: Literature Review: Group work on Discussion Board (DB)

DB group: You will have formed your DB group during Seminar 1. If you were not able to attend the first seminar session, your instructor will assign you to a DB group. Look for your DB group in Canvas T-group under Discussions when it becomes available.

Research question: Does age detrimentally affect memory span?

Some questions to consider in your literature review:
− What are the main findings of memory span experiments?
− What effect does age have on memory span?

• Take note of the research question and conduct the literature review as a group.
• Remember that you are looking for research studies that will form the bases of your experimental hypotheses (i.e., the predicted outcome of the experiment).
• There are 3 experimental hypotheses to consider:
  H1 (main effect of IV1): Item Type (Letters and Words)
  H2 (main effect of IV2): Age Group (Younger and Older)
  H3 (interaction between IV1 and IV2)
• Any of the journal articles shared in your DB group can be used in writing up the Introduction section of your experimental report.
• You must write the Introduction section up individually and independently.

Part C: Experimental Report write-up– Prepare an experimental report based on the CogLab “Memory Span” experiment and discuss the experimental results which answer the following research question: Does age detrimentally affect memory span?

• Select any of the above journal articles to write up the Introduction section of the experimental report. You may use additional journal articles.
• Write up the Methods section.
• (Appendix) using the statistical analysis, write up the Results and Discussion sections.
• Attach the Appendix (ANOVA results/SPSS output).
• Provide a title for your report (Note: Do not start with “An Experimental Report on….”).
• Write up the Abstract (this appears at the top of the report).Note: The research hypotheses stated in the Introduction section should be logically formulated based on the literature review conducted and should have nothing to do with the actual statistical results (or the graphs from the SPSS output). It really does not matter how our results turn out. The statistical results of our data may or may not support the experimental hypotheses
  and that is perfectly fine. There is absolutely no need to be concerned about the actual statistical results when formulating the experimental hypotheses, bearing in mind that if you were to conduct an experimental study, you would always formulate your hypotheses BEFORE collecting and analysing the data.