Discussion: Experiment #3

The general purpose of the study was to fnd if there would be a

diference in the performance of the participants if their attention was
undivided or divided The hypothesis stated that the participants were
more li!ely to commit errors when simultaneously saying the numbers
and writing the letters "nd based from the results# there was a
discrepancy between the undivided attention and the divided
attention$ having the group whose attention was divided to score lower
than those whose attention was undivided
"n underlying mechanism that could explain the results obtained
from the divided attention group is the %esponse&'election&(ottlenec!
)odel *%'(+# which states that the processing of information is done
one at a time and is similar to the psychological refractory period
concept "lso# processing is se,uential wherein the previous stage has
to be completed before the following stage can begin -n comparison#
the locus&of&slac! logic proposed by 'ternberg has the same basic
notion *.ogan / 0atter# 1223+ -n addition# according to (rewer# (all#
4night# Dewitt# and )arsh *1252+# fulflling activity&based intentions are
interfered when one6s attention was divided 7n the other hand# the
study conducted by .ee and .ee *1252+ revealed that forgetting certain
aspects of each tas! could happen in divided attention 8urthermore#
counting bac!wards had a signifcant efect on performance and may
have facilitated forgetting of some instructions *.ee / .ee# 1252+
"dditionally# another concept that may have occurred is tas! switching
-n the study done by "rrington / 9ates *122:+# the "ttention ;etwor!
Test *";T+ shows that an important factor to consider in tas! switching
is the executive networ!s To illustrate# a high executive score in the
";T would implicate a high correlation to voluntary tas! switching This
simply implies that sub<ects with high executive scores in the ";T can
switch between competing tas!s more e=ciently *"rrington / 9ates#
122:+ )oreover# neuroimaging studies show that areas of the
cingulate cortex are associated with the executive networ! "ccording
to 'trayer et al *1253+# personality and individual preference can play
a role in multi&tas!ing ability >onse,uently# their study proposes that
sub<ects with high levels of impulsivity and sensation see!ing are more
li!ely to engage in multitas!ing behavior
"lthough the experiment is consistent with the past studies# there
are still limitations that are needed to loo! for 8or one# if the
instruction given by the second experimenter was accurate enough to
be understood by the participant such as the manner of how the
number was being stated and how the letters was written "nother was
that if the communication between the second experimenter and the
participant was successful or not 7ther ways of dividing attention may
be used and is highly recommended
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Discussion: Experiment #1
The main focus of the experiment was to determine the efect of
the amount of the sub<ect matter presented on immediate serial recall
The hypothesis being tested in the experiment states that the amount
of material presented afects the recall of the se,uential digits
presented to the participants " noticeable discrepancy may be seen
among the mean values of the three groups @owever# the analysis of
the results shows a contradiction where there is no signifcant
diference in the immediate serial recall of the three groups
There are certain concepts or mechanisms that may have occurred
in some groups during the experiment 8or instance# the use of a
common se,uencing mechanism such as the primacy and recency
efect# though mostly put in a verbal context# could be applied if the
participant had voiced out the digits while reading them wherein recall
would have been improved *Aupta et al# 122B+ -n addition# the
concept of Cchun!ingD may have been a possible factor that had
afected the results of the third group 8urthermore# the research done
by 8eldman / )athy *1251+ reveals that complex and incompressible
se,uences are more di=cult to remember compared to simple and
more compressible se,uences The amount of time may have also
been an important factor "ccordingly# the experiment had used
complex se,uences that may have increased the di=culty in memory
retention and had varying amounts of time diferentiated among the
three groups .astly# maintenance rehearsal or simply rehearsal is a
!ey factor that goes hand in hand with chun!ing as it increases the
length of time the information stays in wor!ing memory *'antroc!#
1251+
7verall the results re<ected the stated hypothesis meaning that the
amount of sub<ect matter presented does not afect immediate serial
recall @owever# the use of more compressible and simple se,uences
may yield signifcant results The samples used in the experiment were
,uite homogenous in terms of age and education 7n the other hand# a
more heterogeneous sample would yield results that could be
generaliEed to a wider population