Project Report
Question
Background Information
Our topic is
“Does age effect memory?” We chose this topic because we felt it was
interesting and we wanted to know the results. The purpose is to determine
which out of the three age groups can achieve the highest average on our
short-term memory tests. We will also be determining which gender achieves
the best average. We believe that out of the three age groups the grades
fives will achieve the best average. We believe this because the grade
nines suffer with more stress, which can affect your memory, while the
grade twos do not have as fully as developed of a brain as the other two
grades. Thus, they will be unable to achieve a higher average. We believe
that females will achieve a better average than the males. We believe this
because it is proven in many studies that females do have a better memory.
Short-term
memory acts as a scratch pad for temporary recall of the information being
processed. For instance, in order to understand this sentence you need to
hold in your mind the beginning of the sentence as you read the rest.
Short-term memory has a limited capacity. Chunking of information can lead
can lead to an increase in the short-term memory capacity. This is why a
phone number, which is in chunks, can be more easily remembered than a
single long number. People use various techniques to improve their
short-term memory. Examples are chunking, acronyms and rehearsal. Memory
is controlled in the portion of the temporal lobe called the hippocampus.
Various things can effect how well our memory performs. Things like
alcohol, smoking, medications and caffeine can have a bad effect on the
hippocampus by altering the state of mind, and having severe aversive
memory effects. Any illness can indirectly affect your memory by
decreasing your ability to pay attention to various things. A lack of
sleep, unhealthy diet, overload of stress and lack of exercise can have
bad effects on how well your memory performs. If preparing for a test, it
would be wise to get a good amount of sleep, eat something healthy before
the test, not stress about the test and to get some exercise before you
write it. Following those steps would lead you to a very good mark. There
are also many other ways to improve your short-term memory. Other than
sleep, healthy eating, controlling stress and exercise there are many
other ways to improve your short-term memory. Be cautious with
supplements, treat depression, repeat vital information in your head
various times, play games like scrabble and chess, keep learning new
things, exercise with numbers and learn to concentrate. By doing these
things you will achieve an optimal high of short-term memory.
When making a
test to quiz short-term memory it is important to see how each grade
learns and their learning techniques. Grade twos learn by simple stories,
seeing pictures of what you are talking about, the use of songs, using
simple ideas to explain various things and they can classify objects by
only one characteristic at a time. Their skills in all domains are
emerging. Ideas are interesting to grade fives. They can describe things
using more than one characteristic at a time and they like working in
groups. They learn by reading or listening to a story and applying
information from that book. Grade nines are starting to look at art and
music more seriously. They are more sophisticated at concentrating and
abstract thinking, and they start making the shift from learning to read
to reading to learn.
Many people
have done studies on whether males or females had a better short-term
memory. After looking over many studies it is believed that females
overall have a better average on short-term memory tests than males. If,
in fact, females do have better short-term memories than males, then there
must be a reason. Perhaps encoding methods are trained differently by
gender from an early age. Perhaps it stems from a differing ability to
focus.
In conclusion, as you can see, all the age groups have a fairly different
method of learning. As the brain matures, so does how we learn. How well
our memory functions depends on the activities we perform throughout the
day. How we decided to live our life will effect how well our memory
performs. If we decide to eat healthy, exercise, and get a good amount of
sleep, our memory will be affected in a positive way. On the other hand,
if we do the opposite of these things and live a stressful life our memory
will be affected in a negative way.
Purpose
To determine which age
group can achieve the highest score on two different short-term memory
tests. Also to determine whether females or males can achieve a better
score overall on short-term memory tests.
Hypothesis
We hypothesize that in the reading and
answering test, grade fives will overall achieve the highest average, and
the grade twos will achieve the lowest average. In the picture test, we
hypothesize that the grade nines will achieve the highest average, and the
grade twos will achieve the lowest score.
Procedure
Materials:
-
grade two class
-
grade five class
-
grade nine class
-
story for read and answer test
-
25 pictures for picture test
-
pens and paper for the students
Variables
Independent- is a variable that you change on purpose to see what results
it has on the experiment. Our independent variable is to select different
grades to get different results.
Dependent- the variable which responds to change. Our dependant variable
is the results of the short-term memory tests.
Constant- variables in an experiment that are kept the same on all trials.
Our constant variables were that we used the same story and pictures with
each grade. We also made sure that each student had a healthy breakfast
and a good night sleep so that test results would not be effected.
Method:
1)
Find three different age groups to do
your experiment with. We chose grade two, five, and nine.
2)
Send home permission forms for each
student in each grade. Include ways they can help us to control variables
and parental permission.
3)
Make two different tests that you can
use for all three grades. We chose a story test and a picture test. In the
story test you read a story to the class and then ask them questions about
the story after to see how well they remembered it. In the picture test
you put 25 simple pictures up on the board for 1˝ minutes. The students
study the pictures closely for those 1˝ minutes. After that time is up,
you take down the pictures and they write down as many as they can
remember.
4)
We started with the grade nines. We
explained what we were doing thoroughly, and then asked them to get out a
pen and paper. Then we repeated step 5.
5)
Repeat step eight with the grade fives
and grade twos.
6)
After you do the test with each grade,
record all of the results. Record an average for each test by males and
females. Then record average overall of males and females separate. Then
record an average for the grade
7)
Record all results and make them into
bar graphs.
Attention to Safety:
Observations and Results
(See
bar graph in PowerPoint)
- Overall the females
scored a better average on the short-term memory tests.
- On the first test, the grade two males and females scored the highest
average. The grade five males scored the lowest out of males, and the
grade nine females scored the lowest out of females. Overall the grade
nines had the lowest average on the first test, and the grade twos had the
highest average.
- On the second test the grade nine females and males scored the highest
average. The grade two males and females had the lowest average.
- Overall the grade twos scored the lowest average and the grade nines
scored the highest average.
- Overall the males scored the lowest average, and the females scored the
highest average.
Analysis
(See
bar graphs in PowerPoint)
Conclusion
In
conclusion, on the story test the grade two’s scored a better average than
the other grades. This is due to a few factors. Some reasons this may have
happened is because they aren’t as stressed and that is a factor in the
capability of memory. They enjoy simple stories at that age, and were
therefore more attentive during the test. They read more short simple
stories than the other grades at that age. On the picture test, the grade
nines scored a better average than the other grades. This is also due to a
few factors. At that age, they are faced with many exams, and often use
the read and repeat strategy. Since this is so common to them, they could
use it for the picture test to remember more pictures. Their brains are
also more developed at that age than the other grades, so they can retain
more information. Overall, females had achieved a better score on all the
tests, in all of the grades. From our research we have established that in
many tests done, females have better recall abilities than males. They
believe this is due a differing ability to focus, and that perhaps
encoding methods are trained differently by gender from an early age.
Bibliography and Acknowledgements |
