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Abstract
In a between design study of 15 participants (5 males, 10 females), long-term memory of symbols were measured under different time-limited conditions to discover the effects of time limitation. All participants were college students and currently enrolled in Psychology class. They were randomly assigned into three groups and were offered the same materials of symbolic information to memorize under different time condition (1 minute, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes). A filler test was added into this study to verify that long-term memory of materials was formed. As a result, the findings suggest the hypothesis that the more time limitation was given, the less accuracy of long-term memory of materiel they would have: The first group scored significantly lower than the second and the third group on the recall test, F(2, 42) = 6.60, p < .05. However, the second and the third group were not significantly different, F (2, 42) = 6.60, p > .05.
Effects of Time Pressure on Long-Term Memory
The effects of time on memory are well examined and documented. In particular, the time-limited pressure has been found to be experienced by many different people. Anxiety caused by time pressure may be seen as a higher-level complex of emotional distress (coupled with lack of confidence), and the intrusive, self-referent thoughts that defined the worry state (Gerald, Sian E., 2010).
According to Anthony (1995), female students have a debilitating effect on statistic performance for high –anxious when they are doing the time-limited examinations, but not for low- anxious students. What his purpose of the investigation was to determine whether the different performance of female students on time-limited condition and time-unlimited condition would be associated with test anxiety. The participants were given STARS and the BIF to complete two weeks before taking the SAE and assigned into two different time conditions while taking the SAE. What he found out in combination with previous studies in this area suggest that high-anxious females students are at a considerable disadvantage position during time-limited examinations relative to low-anxious female students.
Roee, Yelena and Peter J. (2009) did a study about the time administration, letter fluency test and age. The researchers want to find out whether extending the administration time of letter fluency increased from 1 to 2 minutes could increase the sensitivity of cognitive status in aging. And the results turned out to be yes. Participants were given both DRS and letter fluency test. After analyzing data, they found that 2 minutes, which means a low-time pressure, improved the sensitivity with only a minimal cost to specificity
What’s the relationship between stress states and working memory? The researchers of this study aimed at finding out the inter-relationships between working memory and stress states which are caused by time pressure. What they did was using a repeated-measures design. First of all, participants were asked to do a EPQR before coming to the first test session. Then they started doing the DSSQ and WM task as follow. In Wm task part, time pressure, which was a further repeated-measures factor while analyzing the performance of task, was increased for each set as previously described. They found out that distress was the most robust predictor of WM in lower task engagement and also associated with performance. And time-pressured working memory task indeed produced a large increase in distress.
Our study is focusing on long-term memory and trying to use nonrelated stuffs as materials. Thus, the aim of our study is using symbols and numbers to examine how different levels of time pressures affect long-term memory. In our study, we use time pressure as independent variable which has three levels: 1 minute, 2 minutes and 3 minutes. Participants were randomly assigned in three groups and given different time to memorize the material. The dependent variable is the score of the test which shows the accuracy of long-term memory. We have 2 hypotheses in this study: 1) Different levels of time pressure can affect the accuracy of long-term memory. 2) Accuracy of long-term memory decreases when more time pressure is given.
Method
Participants
15 University of Minnesota, Morris students (5 males, 10 females) from the class of Research Methods in Psychology participated in this study. They were randomly assigned into three groups, and each group is under one condition. All of the participants completed the consent form. Students were compensated with lab participant’s credits for them and allowed to quit if they wanted.
Materials
Memorizing material and recalling test. In this experiment, we present symbols as memorization material, like 1+2=. 8 items, made by ourselves, were shown to the participants. While doing the recalling test of this study, we gave participants all of the items again without the symbols in random order.
Filler test. We used some characters written in different languages. The participants were supposed to see the characters written in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, and needed to write them down. By focusing on writing something in three different languages, participants’ mind would be occupied without repeating materials all the time.
Self-Report Questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to assess how much the stress they felt when they were memorizing the material and finishing the recalling tests. Two questions were appeared on the questionnaire in 7-scales.
Procedure
We wondered if different time limitation would cause different levels of stress which would affect people’s memory and how much they would remember. So we randomly assigned the participants into three groups. And a between-group design was used, such that each group was in one condition. Each test session was separated. Five participants were tested in one group together. They were asked to memorize the material (i.e., symbols and numbers) in different amount of time. The time is the independent variables which have three conditions, 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. Filler tests were given to occupy their thoughts without repeating the symbols in their minds over and over again. After that we gave them the recalling tests and questionnaires about evaluating stress. All of the participants completed the tasks. Debriefing was given to the participants after all the tests have done.
Result
A One-Way Analysis of Variable (One-Way ANOVA) was performed to determine the effects of different time limitation on long-term memory of symbols. Because of the lack of statistical power, we triple the current data.
Table1. Description of scores under 3 different limited-time conditions
Two significant differences were obtained between the first group and the other two groups. According to the result, the score of first group which was under 1 minute condition (M = 3.20, SD = 1.52) was significant lower than the score of second group (M = 5.20, SD = 1.01) which was under 2 minute condition, F(2, 42) = 6.60, p < .05, and the score of third group which was under 3 minutes condition (M = 5.20, SD =2.40), F (2, 42) = 6.60, p < .05, on the recall test. However, the scores of second and the third group were not significantly different, F (2, 42) = 6.60, p > .05.
Figure1. The mean scores of 3 groups in different limited-time conditions
Figure 1 illustrates these effects graphically. The first group scored lower than the other two groups while the second and third group had the same mean scores. The least time participants had to memorize, the lowest scores they got. The results didn’t support our assumption that the second group was significant different from the third group, but there were still differences between the min scores and max scores which we would discuss later.
Figure 2. Self-report stress level while memorizing materials
The self-report 7 scales stress level questionnaire was used in this study. As it was showed in Figure 2, all the people who are under different conditions had low stress (under 4). And the stress level of 2 minutes group wasn’t significant higher than the other two groups, F (2, 42) = 2.73, p > .05.
Discussion
The hypothesis that increasing time limitation decreases the accuracy of long-term memory of symbols was supported by the results. The score of the first group which had the strongest time limitation (i.e., 1 minute) was significantly lower than the other two groups which were under 2 minutes and 3 minutes time-limited conditions on the recall test. This finding is consistent with the results found by Holtzer et al. (2009) that increasing the administration time would lead to the better accuracy of memory and the sensitivity of cognitive information. Even though the second group and the third group had the same mean scores, there were still differences between the scores. One of the participants in the third group just made 1 correct answer which was even lower than the min score in the first group (i.e., 2). After we triple the scores, it affected a lot in the analysis of data. If the data had no problem, we may have a different result.
According to the research made by Matthews & Campbell (2010) and Onwuegbuzie (1995), we assumed that different time limitation would lead to different time pressure, so we added the 7-scales self-report questionnaire of stress level into this study. However, the results didn’t support our assumption that the stronger the time-limited was, the stronger the stress participants would have. Participants all had low stress memorizing the materials of equations and numbers and the second group had the highest stress in this study. There are three reasons might led to the results. First of all, the questionnaire was made by ourselves and didn’t receive any test showing that this questionnaire had high validity and reliability. Secondly, it was a self-report questionnaire that people might make wrong judgment and report due to non-comparison and indifference of this research. The last reason was that participants might have no sense about how long the time was because we didn’t show them the time account. To improve our study, we may consider using past-research questionnaire and show participants the time account in the further study which may work better.
The present findings, in combination with some other studies in this area, suggest that time-limited decrease the performance of long-term memory of symbols. However, it should be noted that the material we used was not the common stuff that people always contact in daily life as some other studies. It is because that common stuff would add another variable into our study, but we can try other materials in the further study just choosing cautiously. We wonder if using common stuff would make a difference. Besides, age, gender, and education levels may also be able to affect the results, as well as memory strategy.
The findings suggest that extending the time of memorization can increase the accuracy of long-term memory. These results should be replicated in daily life while memorizing, especially in study to increase the performance of tests.
References
Gerald Matthews, Sian E. Campbell. Dynamic relationships between stress states and working memory. Cognition and Emotion. 2010, 24(2), 357-373.
Anthony John Onwuegbuzie. Statistics test anxiety and female students. Psychology of Women Quarterty. 19 (1995), 413-418
Roee Holtzer, Yelena Goldin, Peter J. Donovick. Extending the administration time of the letter fluency test increases sensitivity to cognitive status in aging. Taylor & Francis Group. 35: 317-326, 2009
作者简介：黄钰，女，本科，首都师范大学教育学院心理系。
In a between design study of 15 participants (5 males, 10 females), long-term memory of symbols were measured under different time-limited conditions to discover the effects of time limitation. All participants were college students and currently enrolled in Psychology class. They were randomly assigned into three groups and were offered the same materials of symbolic information to memorize under different time condition (1 minute, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes). A filler test was added into this study to verify that long-term memory of materials was formed. As a result, the findings suggest the hypothesis that the more time limitation was given, the less accuracy of long-term memory of materiel they would have: The first group scored significantly lower than the second and the third group on the recall test, F(2, 42) = 6.60, p < .05. However, the second and the third group were not significantly different, F (2, 42) = 6.60, p > .05.
Effects of Time Pressure on Long-Term Memory
The effects of time on memory are well examined and documented. In particular, the time-limited pressure has been found to be experienced by many different people. Anxiety caused by time pressure may be seen as a higher-level complex of emotional distress (coupled with lack of confidence), and the intrusive, self-referent thoughts that defined the worry state (Gerald, Sian E., 2010).
According to Anthony (1995), female students have a debilitating effect on statistic performance for high –anxious when they are doing the time-limited examinations, but not for low- anxious students. What his purpose of the investigation was to determine whether the different performance of female students on time-limited condition and time-unlimited condition would be associated with test anxiety. The participants were given STARS and the BIF to complete two weeks before taking the SAE and assigned into two different time conditions while taking the SAE. What he found out in combination with previous studies in this area suggest that high-anxious females students are at a considerable disadvantage position during time-limited examinations relative to low-anxious female students.
Roee, Yelena and Peter J. (2009) did a study about the time administration, letter fluency test and age. The researchers want to find out whether extending the administration time of letter fluency increased from 1 to 2 minutes could increase the sensitivity of cognitive status in aging. And the results turned out to be yes. Participants were given both DRS and letter fluency test. After analyzing data, they found that 2 minutes, which means a low-time pressure, improved the sensitivity with only a minimal cost to specificity
What’s the relationship between stress states and working memory? The researchers of this study aimed at finding out the inter-relationships between working memory and stress states which are caused by time pressure. What they did was using a repeated-measures design. First of all, participants were asked to do a EPQR before coming to the first test session. Then they started doing the DSSQ and WM task as follow. In Wm task part, time pressure, which was a further repeated-measures factor while analyzing the performance of task, was increased for each set as previously described. They found out that distress was the most robust predictor of WM in lower task engagement and also associated with performance. And time-pressured working memory task indeed produced a large increase in distress.
Our study is focusing on long-term memory and trying to use nonrelated stuffs as materials. Thus, the aim of our study is using symbols and numbers to examine how different levels of time pressures affect long-term memory. In our study, we use time pressure as independent variable which has three levels: 1 minute, 2 minutes and 3 minutes. Participants were randomly assigned in three groups and given different time to memorize the material. The dependent variable is the score of the test which shows the accuracy of long-term memory. We have 2 hypotheses in this study: 1) Different levels of time pressure can affect the accuracy of long-term memory. 2) Accuracy of long-term memory decreases when more time pressure is given.
Method
Participants
15 University of Minnesota, Morris students (5 males, 10 females) from the class of Research Methods in Psychology participated in this study. They were randomly assigned into three groups, and each group is under one condition. All of the participants completed the consent form. Students were compensated with lab participant’s credits for them and allowed to quit if they wanted.
Materials
Memorizing material and recalling test. In this experiment, we present symbols as memorization material, like 1+2=. 8 items, made by ourselves, were shown to the participants. While doing the recalling test of this study, we gave participants all of the items again without the symbols in random order.
Filler test. We used some characters written in different languages. The participants were supposed to see the characters written in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, and needed to write them down. By focusing on writing something in three different languages, participants’ mind would be occupied without repeating materials all the time.
Self-Report Questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to assess how much the stress they felt when they were memorizing the material and finishing the recalling tests. Two questions were appeared on the questionnaire in 7-scales.
Procedure
We wondered if different time limitation would cause different levels of stress which would affect people’s memory and how much they would remember. So we randomly assigned the participants into three groups. And a between-group design was used, such that each group was in one condition. Each test session was separated. Five participants were tested in one group together. They were asked to memorize the material (i.e., symbols and numbers) in different amount of time. The time is the independent variables which have three conditions, 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes. Filler tests were given to occupy their thoughts without repeating the symbols in their minds over and over again. After that we gave them the recalling tests and questionnaires about evaluating stress. All of the participants completed the tasks. Debriefing was given to the participants after all the tests have done.
Result
A One-Way Analysis of Variable (One-Way ANOVA) was performed to determine the effects of different time limitation on long-term memory of symbols. Because of the lack of statistical power, we triple the current data.
Table1. Description of scores under 3 different limited-time conditions
Two significant differences were obtained between the first group and the other two groups. According to the result, the score of first group which was under 1 minute condition (M = 3.20, SD = 1.52) was significant lower than the score of second group (M = 5.20, SD = 1.01) which was under 2 minute condition, F(2, 42) = 6.60, p < .05, and the score of third group which was under 3 minutes condition (M = 5.20, SD =2.40), F (2, 42) = 6.60, p < .05, on the recall test. However, the scores of second and the third group were not significantly different, F (2, 42) = 6.60, p > .05.
Figure1. The mean scores of 3 groups in different limited-time conditions
Figure 1 illustrates these effects graphically. The first group scored lower than the other two groups while the second and third group had the same mean scores. The least time participants had to memorize, the lowest scores they got. The results didn’t support our assumption that the second group was significant different from the third group, but there were still differences between the min scores and max scores which we would discuss later.
Figure 2. Self-report stress level while memorizing materials
The self-report 7 scales stress level questionnaire was used in this study. As it was showed in Figure 2, all the people who are under different conditions had low stress (under 4). And the stress level of 2 minutes group wasn’t significant higher than the other two groups, F (2, 42) = 2.73, p > .05.
Discussion
The hypothesis that increasing time limitation decreases the accuracy of long-term memory of symbols was supported by the results. The score of the first group which had the strongest time limitation (i.e., 1 minute) was significantly lower than the other two groups which were under 2 minutes and 3 minutes time-limited conditions on the recall test. This finding is consistent with the results found by Holtzer et al. (2009) that increasing the administration time would lead to the better accuracy of memory and the sensitivity of cognitive information. Even though the second group and the third group had the same mean scores, there were still differences between the scores. One of the participants in the third group just made 1 correct answer which was even lower than the min score in the first group (i.e., 2). After we triple the scores, it affected a lot in the analysis of data. If the data had no problem, we may have a different result.
According to the research made by Matthews & Campbell (2010) and Onwuegbuzie (1995), we assumed that different time limitation would lead to different time pressure, so we added the 7-scales self-report questionnaire of stress level into this study. However, the results didn’t support our assumption that the stronger the time-limited was, the stronger the stress participants would have. Participants all had low stress memorizing the materials of equations and numbers and the second group had the highest stress in this study. There are three reasons might led to the results. First of all, the questionnaire was made by ourselves and didn’t receive any test showing that this questionnaire had high validity and reliability. Secondly, it was a self-report questionnaire that people might make wrong judgment and report due to non-comparison and indifference of this research. The last reason was that participants might have no sense about how long the time was because we didn’t show them the time account. To improve our study, we may consider using past-research questionnaire and show participants the time account in the further study which may work better.
The present findings, in combination with some other studies in this area, suggest that time-limited decrease the performance of long-term memory of symbols. However, it should be noted that the material we used was not the common stuff that people always contact in daily life as some other studies. It is because that common stuff would add another variable into our study, but we can try other materials in the further study just choosing cautiously. We wonder if using common stuff would make a difference. Besides, age, gender, and education levels may also be able to affect the results, as well as memory strategy.
The findings suggest that extending the time of memorization can increase the accuracy of long-term memory. These results should be replicated in daily life while memorizing, especially in study to increase the performance of tests.
References
Gerald Matthews, Sian E. Campbell. Dynamic relationships between stress states and working memory. Cognition and Emotion. 2010, 24(2), 357-373.
Anthony John Onwuegbuzie. Statistics test anxiety and female students. Psychology of Women Quarterty. 19 (1995), 413-418
Roee Holtzer, Yelena Goldin, Peter J. Donovick. Extending the administration time of the letter fluency test increases sensitivity to cognitive status in aging. Taylor & Francis Group. 35: 317-326, 2009
作者简介：黄钰，女，本科，首都师范大学教育学院心理系。