Methods
Participants
Individuals who participated in this study were all undergraduate students from various
colleges. Students were specifically selected from psychology courses and were required to
participate for class credit. The participant data was stratified into men and women and from
there, a total of 40 participants was selected. Equal group sizes were formed with one group
consisting of 20 men and another group consisting of 20 women. All participants ranged from 18
to 64 years of age with the average participant being 31.5 years old. Participants in the group of
women ranged between age 18 and 64 with the average participant being 36.8 years old, whereas
participants in the group of men ranged between 18 and 49 with the average participant being
26.2 years old.
Materials
This study was conducted via an online lab in which participants needed access to a
computer. In addition, participants needed computer speakers or headphones prior to beginning
the experiment. The online lab provided an unlimited sequence of numbers with the length of
sequences consecutively increased by one digit after each sequence length was presented twice.
Spreadsheet software was also implemented to download and sort the data that had been
collected by the online lab.
Procedure
Individuals who volunteered for this study were directed to an online lab in which they
could participate in the experiment. Participants needed to make sure they had either computer
speakers or headphones before beginning the experiment. Additionally, participants were
instructed to ensure the volume on their computer was turned up to an appropriate level. They
were given a unique user identification number so their results could be identified. Participants
then signed a consent form informing them of their experiment and detailing the task they were
to complete. Following this, participants were asked to provide their age and gender before
proceeding to the experiment. Participants were given a practice trial in which they heard a
sequence of numbers and were then asked to enter those numbers in the same order back into the
browser by using their mouse to click on the numbers they had heard. After the practice,
participants could click to begin the experiment whenever they made any necessary adjustments
to volume or monitor brightness. The first sequence presented contained one digit and was
presented twice. Each following sequence had one digit added to the length and was also
presented twice. If participants correctly remembered digits in only one of the two sequences per
sequence length, the next sequence length was presented to them. The online lab continued
adding one digit to sequence length until the participant incorrectly entered both sequences for a
particular sequence length. Once this occurred, the experiment was concluded and participants
were given their score. The highest number of digits remembered by participants was recorded as
their score. Once data was collected from various psychology course students, the data was
stratified into men and women categories. From each category, 20 participant data were selected
and analyzed.
Results
It was found that the average number of digits remembered by women and men were
very similar with the women at ( M =7.05, SD=2.31 ) and the men at ( M =7.15, SD=3.13 ) .
Overall, men and women appeared to have similar digit recall when presented with auditory
sequences of numbers as each group had roughly the same number of participants per digit
length remembered. These comparisons are presented in Figure 1 “Clustered Column Chart
Shows the Frequency of Digits Remembered by Men and Women Following an Auditory
Presentation of Number Sequences”.
Furthermore, it has been found that 75% of the values fall within one standard deviation of the
mean, 95% of values fall within two standard deviations of the mean, and 100% of values fall
within three standard deviations of the mean for the sample group of women. This data set is
representative of a normal distribution. Similarly, it was found that 80% of the values fall within
one standard deviation of the mean, 95% of values fall within two standard deviations of the
mean, and 100% of values fall within three standard deviations of the mean for men – also
representing a normal distribution.
