PROPOSAL DRAFT_DE ASIS, DIMAYACYAC, FRANCISCO & LIMPIN.doc

7/27/2019 PROPOSAL DRAFT_DE ASIS, DIMAYACYAC, FRANCISCO & LIMPIN.doc

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Presentation and Serial Positioning 1

Running Head: PRESENTATION AND SERIAL POSITIONING

Effect of Presentation Form and Serial Positioning on Short-Term

Memory Recall

Justin Daniel De Asis

Jermaine Rae Dimayacyac

Marie Regine Vivienne Francisco

Abigail Praise Limpin

Ateneo de Manila University


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Effect of Presentation Form and Serial Positioning on Short-Term

Memory Recall

Information is presented to us everywhere. While driving

ones car or simply walking down the street, information comes

to us in many forms. However, not every single detail of

information stays in our memories. In fact, most of them just

seem to pass us by and appear to us from time to time. The way

in which information is presented can influence the way one

takes in and retain information. For example, the more a person

passes by a route to school, the more the person becomes

familiar with the directions. Besides familiarity, when and how

information is presented also affects ones intake of

information. Todays media and technology have proven how

difficult it is to avoid information especially when it appears

almost literally everywhere and continuously. Many forms of

information come to us through audio, visual, and audio-visual

forms such as road billboards, television commercial,

promotional text messages, public announcements, posters, and

radio advertisements. Most of these are not retained in ones

memory for a long time. In fact, when the information does not

stay long, one forgets. Because of this, we usually take in bits

of information for a brief period of time. The information given

out from this brief period of time is a term called short-term

memory recall.


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It was mentioned earlier that the form of presentation has

an effect on how one takes in, stores, and recalls information.

This is because each person varies in the way they accept

information. Some people retain information when they are

presented in audio form, some visual, and some on an interaction

of both. Familiarity was also an extra factor. Yet, it does not

end there. In some instances, the probability of recall of a

given word can lie in its serial position or order of

presentation (Sternberg, 2006). Take in the memorization of a

song as an example. Generally, people always remember the first

few words because it is the phrase that is repeated the most

when one rehearses. This term is called the recency effect. Some

people, on the other hand, remember the last few phrases most

probably because the words linger in ones memory. This term is

called the primacy effect.

Whether or not the form of presentation or serial

positioning has an effect on short-term memory recall, it is

human nature that people tend to forget. This is why people find

means in which information can be retained easier and longer.

Therefore, this study aims to answer these questions: Does form

of presentation affect short-term memory call? Does serial

position affect short-term memory call? And do form of

presentation and serial position affect short-term memory call?


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Majority of the studies supported the assumption that on

the serial positioning of words, most of them are best recalled

if they are positioned at and near the beginning or the end, and

poorly recalled if positioned in the middle (Sternberg, 2006)

This phenomenon was exemplified on the study done by Johnston

and Calhoun (1969), where they tested how serial position

affects lecture materials. Two hundred sixty-nine tenth grade

students participated in this study, presented with a lecture

describing methods and purposes of science prepared in two

versions: Order 1, with the central paragraphs divided and

placed at the beginning and end of the lecture and Order 2 as a

rearranged form of the first. These two forms of the lecture

were tape recorded, and presented to the groups, lasting for 7

minutes, 43 seconds each. They were then tasked to answer an 18-

item, four choice multiple-choice test. Their results showed

that the serial position effect does occur in a brief lecture

regardless of sex, ability level, or arrangement of the material.

As introduced, commercials are also used to disseminate

information. They demonstrate how serial positioning of

information can affect recall, and therefore, this factor was

attributed to numerous studies done on marketing strategies. In

a study done by Terry (2005), college students viewed lists of

15 commercials in a laboratory simulation and recalled the

product brand names. The first commercials in a list were well


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recalled, as were the last items, in comparison with the recall

of middle items. This phenomenon was also shown in the study on

commercials done by Pieters and Bijmolt (1997, as cited by

Terry, 2005) where the viewers' free recall of the product names

revealed a primacy effect, and some suggestion of recency, in

that the final item alone was better recalled than the

immediately preceding items.

When it comes to variation of recall type, Hasher (1973)

reported that the subjects didn't rely on position cues to

organize their retrieval patterns. In his study, three

successive lists were learned under one basic method of

practice: random order of presentation on the study trials, with

free recall on the test trials. There were two types of

instructions to the subject about order of recall. Under one

condition, subjects were simply told to recall, in any order,

the words they had seen. His findings showed that subjects given

subjective-organization instructions recalled more information,

but he also suggested that if recency came to be a systematic

strategy for subjects asked to recall freely, their recall

performance would be greater than that of subjects given

subjective-organization instructions.

As for mode of presentation of information,Goolkasian,Foos, and Eaton (2009)studied the modality effects in sentencerecall where students were tasked to recall sentences among


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twenty sentences presented visually and acoustically. They found

out that auditory sentences were recalled better and were less

susceptible to intrusions in comparison with visual sentences.

The theory that acoustically presented materials are recalled

better than visually presented material over short retention

intervals in almost any type of task (Murdock & Walker, 1969, as

cited by Madigan, 1971) therefore is true. However, Linder,

Blosser, and Cunigan (2009) proved that visual learning leads to

greater recall on memory performance tests than auditory

learning, where they investigated the influence of visual versus

auditory learning on recall of a memory test among students.

Madigan (1971) also suggested that visual inputs could reside

for a short period in memory, in a form that allows a marked

recency effect, for as long as they are recalled immediately.

Goolkasian, et al (2009) also came up with a conclusion

added that when auditory sentences were presented with a visual

word probe sentence recall was accurate. Similarly, Moreno and

Mayer (2002) investigated whether and under what conditions the

addition of on-screen text would facilitate the learning of a

narrated scientific multimedia explanation among students.

Students were presented with an explanation about the process of

lightning formation in the auditory alone or auditory and visual

conditions and learning was measured by a retention test, a

matching type test and a transfer test. Their findings showed


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that students better comprehended the explanation when the words

were presented acoustically and visually rather than

acoustically only.

Dwyer and De Melo (1984) came up with the same conclusion

in their study where they investigated the effect of mode of

instruction, testing, order of testing and cued recall on

student achievement. The findings of this study showed that the

instruction given with visual presentation significantly

improved student's information acquisition. The use of visuals

to complement verbal instructions became an effective

instructional strategy for facilitating student information

acquisition, facilitating the recall and reproduction of the

visuals presented. It is also stated that although information

acquisition may be facilitated by means of visualization, it is

converted from the visual to the verbal for storage and

retrieval purposes. It also showed that the interaction between

mode of instruction and order of testing influenced the

students' performance not only by how information is presented

and evaluated, but also by the order in which cognitive levels

are evaluated.

Bosshardt (1975) also studied the interaction between the

form of presentation and serial positioning where his findings

showed that the recency effect was greater with auditory than

with visual presentation of items, whereas the primacy effect


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did not differ in the two presentation modes. The encoding of

images of different sensory modality is determined not alone by

the meaning of the words to be retained but also by their

presentation mode. He expounded his findings by referring to

another study, performed by Murdock (1966, 1967a, 1968, 1969;

Murdock & Walker, 1969 as cited by Bosshardt, 1975) stating that

the last four items presented acoustically have a higher recall

probability than the visual items of the same serial position

and that the performance for the first items presented first is

usually not different in the two presentation modes. As studied

by Crowder and Morton (1969, as cited by Bosshardt) in

acoustical presentation, recall of the last few items is

superior to the visual presentation because the traces in the

auditory register have a longer persistence. It was further

explained that with acoustical presentation, the items presented

last can be retrieved from both the auditory registers and the

short-term memory whereas the recall of items presented visually

is accomplished by the short-term memory alone.

With this, the experimenters predicted that the form of

presentation and serial positioning affects short-term memory

recall. This study also aims to showcase the relevance of

Cognitive Psychology, hoping to develop better study habits for

students, teaching strategies for teachers and for advertising

and marketing purposes.


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Method

Design

In this experiment, the design to be used by the

experimenters will be a 3 x 3 (Form of Presentation: Audio,

Visual, Audio-Visual x Positioning of Words: Primary, Middle,

Recent) between-subjects factorial design.

For this experiment, there are two independent variables

and one dependent variable. The first independent variable is

the form of presentation. It refers to the way the narrative is

presented. There are three levels: the visual, audio, and audio-

visual. In the visual condition, the presentation of narrative

is in the form of slideshow presentation of the text. In the

audio condition, the presentation of narrative is in the form of

recorded narration. And, in audio-visual condition, the

presentation of narrative is in both slideshow presentation and

recorded narration. Another independent variable is the

positioning of information. This variable refers to the position

of information in the narrative. There are also three levels:

the primary, middle, and recent. For the primary positioning of

information, the position of information is placed on the first

part of the narrative. As for the middle, the position of

information is placed on the middle part of the narrative. And,


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for the recent, the position of information is placed on the

latter part of the narrative.

For the dependent variable of this experiment, there is the

short-term memory recall, which refers to the retrieval of words

from the short-term memory. To measure the dependent variable,

the experimenters refer to short-term memory recall as the

number of correct responses from the test questionnaire.

To avoid extraneous variables such as subject arrangement,

demand characteristics, and environmental conditions, the

experimenters came up with the following strategies. For subject

arrangement, the experimenters will be doing a pilot study to

determine if there is a need for better equipment such as

Overhead/LCD Projector, speakers, CD players and so on. Also

this pre-test would help the experimenters eliminate any

inefficiency in protocol such as seating arrangements and

distance from the medium of presentation. For the demand

characteristics, a double-blind experiment will be implemented.

Balancing the environmental circumstances calls for a constancy

of conditions wherein all the experiments fall under one

specific time slot.


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Participants

The participants, who have voluntarily signed up for the

experiment, would be 135 General Psychology students, 17-20

years of age. Each would be randomly assigned to one of nine

conditions by means of their chosen seating arrangement.

Apparatus

The experiment will consist mainly of the narrative and

test questionnaire (See Appendix D) given by the experimenters.

For the visual condition, the experiment will make use of

laptop, Overhead/LCD projector and white screen, experimental

instruction (See Appendices E, F, & G), and slideshow

presentation of the text - primary set for the visual primary

condition, middle set for the visual middle condition, and

recent set for the visual recent condition (See Appendices A, B,

& C).

For the audio condition, the experiment will make use of

laptop, speakers, recorded narration of text - primary set for

the audio primary condition, middle set for the audio middle

condition, and recent set for the audio recent condition.

And, for the audio-visual condition, the experiment will

make use of the materials needed in both audio and visual

condition. Lastly, the experimenters will be using a stopwatch


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to monitor the time of reading the narrative and answering the

questionnaire.

Procedures

The participants (135 for the actual) will be divided into

three groups, and will be assigned to three classrooms, a, b and

c. Each room presents three different forms of presentation of a

narrative one room for audio, one room for visual, and one

room for audio-visual.

In the audio presentation group, the participants will be

randomly assigned into three groups. Each group will receive one

of the three sets of the narrative: Primary Set, Middle Set and

Recent Set. Each set will be limited to 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

The first group will receive the Primary Set narrative (See

Appendix A). They will be given the experimental instructions

(See Appendix E). Then, the recorded narration of the narrative

will be played in which the to-be-learned paragraph will be

narrated in the first part of the narrative, which is right

after the 2-sentence introductory paragraph. Afterwards, the

participants will be given a 10-item questionnaire to be

answered for 2 minutes.

The second group will receive the Middle Set narrative (See

Appendix B). They will be given the experimental instructions.


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Then, the recorded narration of the narrative in this set will

be played in which the to-be-learned paragraph will be narrated

in the middle part of the narrative. Afterwards, the

participants will be given a 10-item questionnaire to be

answered for 2 minutes.

The third group will receive the Recent Set narrative (See

Appendix C). They will be given the experimental instructions.

Then, the recorded narration of the narrative in this set will

be played in which the to-be-learned paragraph will be narrated

in the last part of the narrative. Afterwards, the participants

will be given a 10-item questionnaire to be answered for 2

minutes.

As for the visual presentation, the participants will be

randomly assigned into three groups. Each group will receive one

of the three sets of the narrative: Primary Set, Middle Set and

Recent Set.



(See Appendix F). Then, the slideshow presentation of the text

will be played in which the to-be-learned paragraph will be

placed in the first part of the text, which is right after the

2-sentence introductory paragraph. Afterwards, the participants


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minutes.



Then, the slideshow presentation of the text will be played in

which the to-be-learned paragraph will be placed in the middle

part of the text. Afterwards, the participants will be given a

10-item questionnaire to be answered for 2 minutes.



Then, the slideshow presentation of the text will be played in

which the to-be-learned paragraph will be placed in the last



And, in the audio-visual presentation, the participants

will be randomly assigned into three groups. Each group will

receive one of the three sets of the narrative: Primary Set,

Middle Set and Recent Set.



(See Appendix G). Then, both the recorded narration of the

narrative and a slideshow presentation of the text will be


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simultaneously presented in which the to-be-learned paragraph

will be played on the first part of the narrative and will be

placed in the first part of the text, which is right after the

2-sentence introductory paragraph. Afterwards, the participants


minutes.



Then, both the recorded narration of the narrative and a

slideshow presentation of the text will be simultaneously

presented in which the to-be-learned paragraph will be played on

the middle part of the narrative and will be placed in the

middle part of the text. Afterwards, the participants will be

given a 10-item questionnaire to be answered for 2 minutes.



Then, both the recorded narration of the narrative and a

slideshow presentation of the text will be simultaneously

presented in which the to-be-learned paragraph will be played on

the last part of the narrative and will be placed in the last




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The 10-item questionnaires will be collected after each

condition. The results in the 10-item questionnaires will be

used for the analysis of data that will be further explained in

the Results and Discussion.

Data Analysis

The experiment will make use of two-way between-subjects

analysis of variance. Since the experiment has two levels in

each independent variable, the experimenters will be using Tukey

Post Hoc Test. Also, the experimenters will be using a .05

probability level since past studies have used this in their

experiment.


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References

Bosshardt, H.G. (1975). The influence of visual and auditory

images on the recall of items of visual and auditory

presentation mode. Psychological Research, 37, 211-227.

Dwyer, F.M. & De Melo, H. (1984). Effect of mode of instruction,

testing, order of testing and cued recall on student

achievement. The Journal of Experimental Education, 52 (2),

86-94.

Goolkasian, P., Foos, P. W., and Eaton, M (2009) Modality

effects in sentence recall. The Journal of General

Psychology, 136(2), 205-223.

Hasher, L. (1973). Effects in free recall. The American Journal

of Psychology, 86 (2), 389-397.

Johnston, J.O. & Calhoun, J.A. (1969). The serial position

effect in lecture material. The Journal of Educational

Research, 62 (6), 255-258.

Linder, K.M., Blosser, G., & Cunigan, K. (2009) Visual versus

auditory learning and memory recall performance on short-

term versus long term tests. National Undergraduate

Research Clearinghouse, 12.


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Madigan, S.A. (1971) Modality and recall order interactions in

short term memory for serial order. Journal of Experimental

Psychology, 87 (2), 294-296.

Moreno, R. & Mayer, R.E. (2002) Verbal redundancy in multimedia

learning: When reading helps listening. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 94 (1), 156-163.

Sternberg, R.J. (2006). Cognitive Psychology. New York:

Wadsworth.

Terry, W.S. (2005). Serial positioning effects in recall of

television commercials. The Journal of General Psychology,

132 (2), 151-163.


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Appendices

Appendix A

The Narrative (Primary Set)

Coach Thorntons rose bushes were wrecked by one of three

football players he benched because of cutting classes. After

questioning the coach, Max and Nina decided to look for the

three football players and subject them to questioning.

Max and Nina decided to go to Sam Cartland's house. "What

do you two want," growled Sam when he came to the door. "Can we

talk with you?" asked Nina. "Sure, come on in." said Sam. As

they entered the house Sam turned off his VCR and explained thathe has been watching football tapes to improve on his game. "We

wondered what you were doing between nine and ten this morning."

asked Nina. "I was right here watching that program on UFO's."

replied Sam. There was a particular TV program aired that

morning. The program featured UFO landings, sightings, and other

trivial matters regarding them. "Remember when that guy from

Roswell, New Mexico insisted he had been abducted?" exclaimed

Max, being a UFO fanatic himself. Sensing that they won't get

anything out of Sam, aside from the UFO program, the two decided

to leave.

Max and Nina saw Alex Avery at the Dairy Bar. "We missed

seeing you in the football game." said Max. "Where have you been

all morning?" asked Nina. "I've been right here." explained

Alex. That morning, Alex had been in the Dairy Bar helping Amy,

the barmaid, carry some heavy boxes and crates. "So you weren't

anywhere near Coach Thornton's house?" asked Max. "No. I didn't

intend to visit him." Alex replied. With no further questions,

Max and Nina left him.

They both agreed that the best place to look for Mike

Brooks would be the Gym downtown. True enough, Mike was seen on

a treadmill at the said Gym. "Hey, you two want to join down


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here? It's a great place to work out." exclaimed Mike. "Not

right now." Max declined. "We were wondering if you had been

here all morning?" asked Nina. "Uh-huh." Mike answered. Mike

went to the Gym that day to workout a sweat and to release all

of his frustrations in life. He felt that it was his lack of

dedication that made coach Thornton put him on the bench during

the last game. "Check the logbook if you want." Mike suggested.

Nina went to the front desk and checked the logbook. It came as

to no surprise that Mike had indeed been there since eight

o'clock that morning.

Appendix B

The Narrative (Middle Set)



questioning the coach, Max and Nina decided to look for the

three football players and subject them to questioning.





the barmaid, carry some heavy boxes and crates. "So you weren'tanywhere near Coach Thornton's house?" asked Max. "No. I didn't






they entered the house Sam turned off his VCR and explained that

he has been watching football tapes to improve on his game. "We








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to leave.










the last game. "Check the logbook if you want." Mike suggested.Nina went to the front desk and checked the logbook. It came as



Appendix C

The Narrative (Recent Set)



questioning the coach, Max and Nina decided to look for thethree football players and subject them to questioning.





the barmaid, carry some heavy boxes and crates. "So you weren't

anywhere near Coach Thornton's house?" asked Max. "No. I didn't






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the last game. "Check the logbook if you want." Mike suggested.

Nina went to the front desk and checked the logbook. It came as






they entered the house Sam turned off his VCR and explained thathe has been watching football tapes to improve on his game. "We









to leave.

Appendix D

Narrative Questionnaire

Instructions: The following questionnaire contains inquiries

about the narrative. This is to measure how well you have

understood the story. Please be SPECIFIC in answering the

questions; refrain from using vague answers.

1. What is Sams last name? (Cartland)

2. What was the particular TV program aired that day? (Program

on UFO/ UFO)

3. What kind of tape was playing in the VCR? (Football Tapes)

4. In which place was a guy abducted? (Roswell/new Mexico)


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5. What particular time did the crime happen (9/10/between 9

and 10)

6. What did Sam want to improve on? (game/skills)

7. Which of the two investigators was a UFO fanatic? (Max)

8. Who are the two main characters? (Max and Nina)

9. Where is the Gym is located? (Downtown)

10. Who owns the rose bushes? (Coach Thornton)

Appendix E

Experimental Instruction for Audio Presentation

Good day! Please pay attention as the recorded narration of the

narrative of the text is played. Your task is to read carefully

and understand the narrative. Afterwards, wait for further

instructions.

Appendix F

Experimental Instruction for Visual Presentation

Good day! Please pay attention as the slideshow presentation of

the text is presented. Your task is to read carefully and

understand the text. Afterwards, wait for further instructions.

Appendix G

Experimental Instruction for Audio-Visual Presentation

Good day! Please pay attention as the slideshow presentation of

the text is presented simultaneously with the recorded narration

of the narrative. Your task is to understand the narrative.

Afterwards, wait for further instructions.


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Pilot Test Results

Method

Participants

The participants were 18 students 17-20 years of age

selected using convenience sampling, each, randomly assigned to

one of nine conditions.

Apparatus

The experimenters employed three laptops, 15.6 LCD wide

screen display, built speakers and Microsoft PowerPoint

compatible; One laptop for each condition of presentation. The

narration material used for the experiment was an already

existing text that was edited by the experimenters to satisfy

the serial positioning conditions; Three sets of the narration

were made, one for primary effect, one for middle effect and one

for recent effect. To measure the dependent variable, the

experimenters constructed a 10-item questionnaire.

Procedures

The experimenters made use of two rooms, one used as

awaiting room and the other used as the testing room. Due to

unavailability of LCD or Overhead projectors and speakers in

both sites, the experimenters made use of laptops, instead, for

all conditions. The 18 participants were randomly divided, by

means of counting-off, to nine pairs to satisfy a two-per-

condition set up for the primary, middle and recent. The first


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six participants were brought to the testing room for the audio

condition. The second batch was brought to the testing room for

the visual condition. The third batch, however, stayed in the

waiting room for the audio-visual condition due to lack of time.

The experimenters decided not to bring the last batch of

participants testing room on the grounds that it will take more

time.

Result

A two-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted

to explore the effect of presentation form and serial

positioning on short-term memory recall, as measured by the 10-

item questionnaire. The interaction effect [F(4, 9) = 4.60,

p=.03)] and the main effect for presentation form [F(2, 9) =

4.36,p=.047)] was statistically significant. Post hoc

comparisons using Tukey HSD Test indicated that the mean score

for the audio condition (M=1.67, SD=1.03) was significantly

different from the visual condition (M=3.67, SD=1.51). The

audiovisual condition (M=2.83, SD=2.32) did not differ

significantly from either of the other groups. The main effect

for serial positioning [F(2, 9) = 1.96,p=.20)] did not reach

statistical significance.

Discussion

The results of the pilot testing supported the hypothesis

form of presentation affects short-term memory recall and that


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there is an interaction effect between form of presentation and

serial position. However, the results did not affirm that the

serial position affects short-term memory recall. Though main

effect in form of presentation and interaction effect was

statistically significant in this experiment, the data could not

yet be generalized to the entire population since convenience

sampling of participants are used, and there are only eighteen

participants, two participants representing each condition.

Proper execution of the actual procedures did not take place and

extraneous variables are present, such as noise. The

experimenters therefore concluded that proper preparations

should be made on the venue, the apparatus and the recruitment

of participants.

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