The Effect of Varying Auditory

Stimuli on the Primacy / Recency

Effect and the Differences in Recall
Rates in the Sexes

Alan Cummins Student No: 1165236 Course: PSY283 Lecturer: Dr. Garry Prentice
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Abstract

This report seeks to add weight to work carried out by Murdock (1962), Glanzer and Cunitz

(1966) with regard to the primacy / recency effect and with the additional consideration of the

strength of effect varying musical stimulus on such. Furthermore it is investigated whether the

sex of the participant factors in word recall accuracy. Thirty-two participants are split into

groups and musical stimuli of loud and peaceful music are contrasted with a control group of

no auditory stimulus in relation to the percentage accuracy of word recall. This between

groups experiment gives strength to the primary / recency effect and theory of memory put

forward by Alkinson and Shiffrin (1968) but fails to note any significant association between

auditory stimuli and accurate memory recall. Similarly no significant difference is found

between the sex of participant and accuracy of recall. It does, however warrant further work

to determine if music and specific types can have a significant beneficial or negative effect on

accurate recall of word memory.

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Contents

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 4

Method....................................................................................................................................... 6

Results ....................................................................................................................................... 9

Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 14

References ............................................................................................................................... 16

Appendix A – Sample Recall Sheet ........................................................................................ 17

Appendix B – List of Words for Recall................................................................................... 18

Appendix C – Complete SPSS Analysis Output ..................................................................... 19

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Introduction

Memory can be described as acting as an information processing unit. Alkinson and

Shiffrin, 1968 explained that memory was comprised of a modal multi-store model with

storage linked to sensory, short (STM) and long term memory (LTM). Miller (1956)

suggested that STM has a capacity of approximately seven chunks of memory with a duration

of fifteen to thirty seconds. This working memory can be extended but only through repetition

and rehearsal. Information must be passed on to long-term memory to allow for long term

storage. The STM is mostly acoustic in nature as suggested by Baddeley and Hitch (1974).

There have been many experiments carried out to determine the processes that underlie

attempting to quickly recall from STM and how information is passed onwards to LTM.

Murdock (1962) described an experiment which showed the Primacy / Recency effect where

words at the start of a list are transferred to LTM and therefore retrievable, words at the end

are obtainable from STM but words in the middle of a list become difficult to remember as

they have not made the transition from short to long term memory. Further work on such as

been carried out by Glanzer and Cunitz (1966). Interference in the task of storage and

retrieval of memories has been carried out by Peterson and Peterson (1959). This report

extends the original experiment to consider the interfering effect of differing types of music

on memory retrieval and whether music can be beneficial to accurate retrieval of information.

Observation will also be given to the differences between male and female participants in

successful recall of visual display of simple words. Determining if music has beneficial

effects on recall will allow for further work to be carried out to investigate how study

practices can be enhanced and improved for many different tasks.

The hypothesis under investigation in relation to auditory stimulus and the recall of

words from short-term memory for this experiment is:

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Alternate Hypothesis: There will be a significant difference in the percentage of correctly

recalled words when comparing group recall under the stimuli of loud (LS), control of none

(CS) and peaceful music (PS). Furthermore, there will be a significant positive increase in the

number of correctly recalled words under the stimulus of PS as compared with CS. There will

be a significant negative decrease in the number of correctly recalled words under the

stimulus of LS as compared with CS and PS.

The hypothesis in relation to the sex of the participant and word recall from short-term

memory is:

Alternate Hypothesis: There is a significant difference in percentage correct recall of words

by male and female participants.

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Method

Materials

The Materials used for the experiment were as follows:

• Windows Computer: Used to display each word

• Projector: Used to display the word list to the entire room

• Hi-fi: Placed at centre of room to allow equal strength of audio to all participants

• CD: Comprising the various auditory stimuli of Loud and Peaceful music.

• Recall sheets: One for each participant

• Instructions-set: One for each participant

• Pens: Provided for marking on the Recall sheets

• Chairs: Each participant had a chair made available to them

• Software lab: In which each of the three groups could perform the experiment in

isolation.

• Stop-watch: To time both the period of time words were visible and the recall period

allowed.

Participants

The Total Sample Size was thirty-two Psychology students from Dublin Business School

(n=32). There were three groups corresponding to the auditory stimulus of Loud, Peaceful and

the no music control group, consisting of ten, twelve and ten participants respectively. There

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were a total of seven males and twenty-three females, leaving two participants who chose not

to reveal their sex. The participants for each group were randomly chosen by each drawing

from a bag of chips corresponding to the three stimulus groups.

Design

The design method used for this experiment was a “Between Groups” design. This consisted

of three groups, containing randomly assigned participants, taking part in a recall experiment.

A comparison between these three groups was then carried out to test the hypotheses. The

independent variables for the experiment were the type of music to be played, one of LS, PS

or the control which was that of CS. The dependent variables were the number of words

recalled and the number of words per sex recalled.

Procedure

1. Participants were randomly allocated to the three required groups of CS, LS and PS

stimuli by choosing concealed poker chips from a bag.

2. Each group was told to await their allotted time to carry out the experiment.

3. The control group, CS which had no background music playing went first. The LS

group went second and then finally the PS group.

4. Each participant was instructed to seat themselves and to position themselves so that

they could the projector screen clearly and also able to hear the music to be played

without distraction.

5. Each participant was given a recall sheet and instructed to not write anything on these

sheets or any other paper until instructed to do so.

6. Each participant was provided with a pen as required.

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7. The participants were told to write down their age and gender at the top of the

provided recall sheet before starting the experiment.

8. The instructions were then read aloud for the participants as follows: “There will be

words flashed onto the projector screen. Try to remember as many words as possible.

Please do not write anything during the presentation of these words. When the screen

goes black you can begin writing down words you remember. You have two minutes

to write down the words.”

9. The participants were asked if they understood the instructions.

10. The experiment was run with the hi-fi playing the required music at a sufficient

volume for all participants to hear while the words were flashed up on to the projector

screen.

11. The projector screen went black and the participants were indicated to begin recalling

words.

12. The music continued to play throughout the recall phase of the experiment.

13. After two minutes the participants were told to stop writing.

14. The recall sheets were collected.

15. The participants were then thanked for their cooperation and participation.

16. The participants were then debriefed and told the aims of the experiment and which

part of the experiment they had played a part in. They were instructed to not discuss

the experiment, procedures and instructions with any of the participants of the other

groups who were awaiting their turn.

17. Once all groups had carried out the experiment, all recall sheets were collated and the

correctly recalled word scores counted and input to SPSS.

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Results

The following are the results and analyses of such. The data was collected against thirty-two

total participants with ten, twelve and ten participants in each of CS, LS and PS stimulus

groups respectively. The percentage of participants who correctly recalled each word was

calculated and grouped by sex of participant (Figure 1). The general shape of the graph

(Figure 1) can be seen to follow the primary/ recency effect where words appearing at the

start and the end of a list tend to have a greater percentage correct recall. This can be noted as

indicated ‘Poly Male’ and ‘Poly Female’.

% Recall of Words According to Gender

100
95
87
90
85
80 74
75 71 71
Percentage Recalled Correctly

70 65
65 61
57 57 57 57
60
52
55
48 48
50 44 43 44 44 43 43 43 43 43 Male
45
40 35 35 35 Female
35 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 2930 29 30
26 26 26 26 26 Poly. (Male)
30
22
25 Poly. (Female)
17 17 17
20 14 1413 14 14 14 14
13 13 13 14 14 14
15 9
10
5 0
0

Words (As Presented for Recall in Order Left to Right)

FIGURE 1 PERCENTAGE RECALL OF WORDS ACCORDING TO GENDER

It was noted that the graph indicates that overall the female recall of words was more accurate

than the male percentages. Note, however, that the middle set of words suffered from a lack

of recall more strongly with respect to female participants than for males, as indicated by

‘Poly Female’ having a lower dip in curve in the central set of words. It should be noted that

no male could recall the word ‘PARTY’. Both sexes achieved low percentage recall on the

word ‘KEYS’. There was a large gap in percentage recall between male and female

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participants with regard to the word ‘TRIAL’, with 46% of males recalling the word correctly

compared to 26% of the females. ‘POET’, ‘FRIEND’ and ‘VOICE’ were all recalled in

stronger numbers by females compared to males.

A comparative calculation of the mean percentage scores across the varying stimuli

groups was then carried out.

Control - No Music Mean Correct Word Recall

5
Mean Correctly Recalled Words

5
4
4
3
3
2 Control - No Music
2
1
1 Poly. (Control - No
0 Music)
Recalled Recalled Recalled
Correctly Start Correctly Correctly End of
of List Middle of List List
Word Position in List

FIGURE 2 CONTROL GROUP, NO MUSIC STIMULUS, MEAN CORRECT WORD RECALL

Figure 2 indicates that a primary / recency curve was calculated when the control

group stimulus was CS, indicating that words falling in the centre of the list of total words

were most difficult to recall accurately.

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Heavy Music Mean Correct Word Recall

5
Mean Correctly Recalled Words 5
4
4
3
3
2
2 Heavy Music
1
1 Poly. (Heavy Music)
0
Recalled Recalled Recalled
Correctly Start Correctly Correctly End
of List Middle of List of List
Word Position in List

FIGURE 3 HEAVY MUSIC STIMULUS, MEAN CORRECT WORD RECALL

Figure 3 indicates that there was a decline in the number of words accurately recalled

as the words progressed in order from least to most recently viewed when the group stimulus

was LS but that the decline was relatively stable from the start to the end of the list of words.

Peaceful Music Mean Correct Word Recall

5
Mean Correctly Recalled Words

5
4
4
3
3
2
2 Peaceful Music
1
1 Poly. (Peaceful Music)
0
Recalled Recalled Recalled
Correctly Start Correctly Correctly End
of List Middle of List of List
Word Position in List

FIGURE 4 PEACEFUL MUSIC STIMULUS, MEAN CORRECT WORD RECALL

Figure 4 indicates that a primary / recency curve was calculated when the group

stimulus was PS, indicating that words falling in the centre of the list of total words were

most difficult to recall accurately.

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Total Mean Correct Word Recall

5
Mean Correctly Recalled Words 5
4
4
3
3
2
Total
2
1 Poly. (Total)
1
0
Recalled Correctly Recalled Correctly Recalled Correctly
Start of List Middle of List End of List
Word Position in List

FIGURE 5 ACROSS ALL STIMULI, MEAN CORRECT WORD RECALL

Figure 5 indicates that a primary / recency curve was calculated when looking as a

whole across all groups and stimuli, indicating that words falling in the centre of the list of

total words were most difficult to recall accurately.

Total Number of Words Recalled

Correctly
13 11.7
Mean Correctly Recalled Words

12
11 10 10.34
10 9.4
9
8
7
6
5 Total Number of Words
4
Recalled Correctly
3
2
1
0
Control - Heavy Peaceful Total
No Music Music Music
Stimulus Groups

FIGURE 6 TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS CORRECTLY RECALLED BY STIMULUS GROUP

A One-way ANOVA was conducted to look at differences in the groups and

determine if that difference was a significant one. (Figure 7)

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(F(2,27)=2.285, p>0.05)

This result indicates that there is no significant main effect for group music on the total recall

of words with probability being greater than 0.05.

A primary / recency effect was noted, taking the results as a whole (as indicated in

Figure 5), however the LS group did not give a strong primacy / recency curve as expected.

The average score of correctly recalled words was highest in the LS group (Figure 6).

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Discussion

Taking the results as indicated above we have failed to accept the hypothesis that musical

stimulus of PS would decrease the primacy / recency effect and by association the percentage

accuracy of word recall. It was found that the LS group had greater accuracy in recall and that

the primary / recency effect was reduced under those conditions. However, the overall results

(Figure 5) show that the primacy / recency effect occurs as expected and tallies with the work

carried out by Glanzer and Cunitz (1966).

In relation to the hypothesis that there is a difference between male and female

participants for accuracy of recall, it must be refuted. There are no major differences in recall

rates or in the primacy / recency effect when comparing the sexes (Figure 1) and agrees with

pervious work by Ionescu (2004).

The words chosen were sufficiently random and non-conflicting to be effected by

priming or cross-contamination. Equally it has been found that the complexity of words and

syllables affects the primacy / recency effect of short term recall and as such the words

chosen were sufficiently basic as suggested by Baddeley, Thomson, and Buchanan (1975).

In both cases we have failed to reject our null hypotheses. However the experiment

does indicate that further work and refinement of the experiment could yield some

illuminating results. Consideration should be given to the determination of what constitutes

the two groups LS and PS. Age, gender and familiarization with the audio in use similar to

Stull (2005) could have adversely biased the experiment. What constitutes as distracting

music varies across age-groups and personal dislikes and likes. It should be predetermined by

scientific experiment what constitutes distracting musical stimuli or if the music places a

participant into a certain mood such which could extend work by Ucros (1989). The

experiment has shown a greater recall under LS and the type of auditory stimulus to use so as

to yield the greatest recall accuracy should be investigated. The music played for the LS

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group had consistent beats and rhythms. Does the absence of syncopated beats hinder the

recall or does a strong rhythm increase the power of recall. Some other stimulus groups to

compare could be music with lyrics, without lyrics, varying pitch and tone of stimuli and so

on. Furthermore it should be investigated if practice and repetition of the experiment

increases the power of recall and more specifically the benefits or disadvantages of musical

stimuli as distracters; does familiarization with the musical stimuli in play itself effects the

primacy / recency effect. Much work has been carried out in relation to word and chunk

complexity in relation to word recall such as Lovatt, Avons and Materson (2000) and this is

an area that could be further extended by determining if certain topics can be primed by

differing musical styles and pace of music. Curtis (2007) details work carried out on literacy

and learning in children and the experiment could be extended to incorporate this previous

work and expand out to different modalities and skill-sets for students of all ages.

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References

Atkinson, R.C., and Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). Human memory: A Proposed system and its
control processes. In K.W. Spence and J.T. Spence (Eds.), The Psychology of learning
and motivation, Vol. 2. London: Academic Press.

Curtis, L. J. (2007). The role of music in early literacy learning: a kindergarten case study,
Dissertation, Doctoral of Philosophy, Curriculum and Instructions Programs, Kansas
State University

Baddeley, A. D., and Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In G.H. Bower (Ed.), The
psychology of learning and motivation, Vol 8. London: Academic Press.

Baddeley, A. D., Thomson, N., and Buchanan, M. (1975). Word length and the structure of
short term memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 14, 575-589.

Glanzer, M., and Cunitz, A. R. (1966). Two storage mechanisms in free recall. Journal of
Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5, 351-360.

Ionescu, M. D. (2004). Sex differences in memory estimates for pictures and words with
multiple recall trials. Psychology Report, Apr; 94(2); 467-474.

Lovatt, P., Avons, S. E., and Masterson, J. (2000). The word-length effect and disyllabic
words. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53A, 1-22.

Miller, G.A. (1956) The magic number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity
for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-93.

Murdock, B. B. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning
and Verbal Behavior, 64, 482-488

Peterson, L. R., and Peterson, M. J. (1959). Short-term retention of individual verbal items.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 193-198.

Stull, J. E. (2005). The effect of familiar Music, Unfamiliar Music and No Music on Face-
Name Recall in Aging Adults, Thesis, Florida State University, College of Music.

Ucros, C. G. (1989). Mood state-dependent memory: A meta-analysis. Cognition and

Emotion, 3, 139-167.

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Appendix A – Sample Recall Sheet

Recall Sheet

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Appendix B – List of Words for Recall

The following are the list of words that were flashed up on the projector screen during the

recall experiment. The list is grouped by start, middle and end of list sets of words.

TROUSERS (start)

BRAIN

WIND

PLACE

ANARCHY

ZERO

FLASH

TRIAL

PARTY

HANDLE

SQUARE (middle)

MEDIA

BASIS

FIRST

TOUCH

MILE

FRIEND

VISION

ROOT

KEYS

REPORT (end)

MISTAKE

FOOT

DELAY

CHIP

SITE

OFFICIAL

LIFT

POET

VOICE

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Appendix C – Complete SPSS Analysis Output

One-way ANOVA - Factor: Stimulus - Dependent List: Total Words Recalled Correctly

ANOV A

Total words rec alled correct ly

Sum of
Squares df Mean S quare F Sig.
Between Groups 28.719 2 14.359 1.839 .177
W ithin Groups 226.500 29 7.810
Total 255.219 31

FIGURE 7 ONE-WAY ANOVA STIMULUS VERSUS TOTAL WORDS RECALLED CORRECTLY

Means - Dependent List: Counts - Independent List: Stimulus

Case Processing Summary

Cases
Included Excluded Total
N Percent N Percent N Percent
Total words recalled
32 100.0% 0 .0% 32 100.0%
correctly * s timulus
# of words recalled from
32 100.0% 0 .0% 32 100.0%
start of list * stimulus
# of words recalled from
32 100.0% 0 .0% 32 100.0%
middle of lis t * s timulus
# of words recalled from
32 100.0% 0 .0% 32 100.0%
end of list * stimulus

Report

Total words # of words # of words # of words

recalled recalled from recalled from recalled from
stimulus correctly start of list middle of lis t end of list
heavy audio Mean 11.7000 4.4000 3.8000 3.5000
N 10 10 10 10
control - no audio Mean 10.0000 4.6667 2.1667 3.1667
N 12 12 12 12
relaxing audio Mean 9.4000 4.7000 2.1000 2.6000
N 10 10 10 10
Total Mean 10.3438 4.5938 2.6563 3.0938
N 32 32 32 32

FIGURE 8 MEAN CORRECTLY RECALLED WORDS BY STIMULUS GROUP

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