Your Name Alfonso Perez

Date 13/10/2022
Memory
Week 05

The memorization of numbers

Participants

Participant #01, a friend, 37, taxi driver, male

Participant #02, a neighbor,45, construction worker, male
Participant #03, a friend, 30, salesperson, male
Participant #04, a neighbor, 55, retired, male

Procedures

I decided to have people with different occupations and ages for this study. I asked two friends who are close to
my uncle and two neighbors. I explained to them what we were going to do for the study. The participants
started writing down the numbers I was saying to list them.

Non-sequential and single digit numbers were given to the participants. In the debriefing a short explanation

was given in which participants were told about the nature of the activity.

Results

After having finished saying each number from the list, I collected the information to make notes about the
findings. The only participant able to recall the numbers was number 4. Participant 1 inverted two digits, also
participant 2, but participant 4 changed one of the digits.

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Table 1

Digits recalled
Participant (P) Digit stream used Digits prior to 1st error Miller’s 5-9 range?

1-6-8-7-5 1-6-7-8-5

P1 1-6-8-7-5 1-5-7-8-5 yes

P2 3-8-9-6-4 3-8-6-9-4 yes

P3 8-4-6-7-9 8-4-6-7-9 yes

P4 4-8-7-6-3 4-8-5-7-3 yes

Discussion

P3 was the only one to write the numbers correctly. Maybe because he is salesperson his daily basis job makes

him recall prices and items in a list. Also he is a good listener and makes sure that he is receiving the right

information before he processes it. Participants 1 and 2 were opposite to p3 in the subject of paying attention to

the inverted two numbers. Probably external factors could have influenced such as the door banging or someone

who was yelling by the time I was reading the numbers. Participant 4 changed one of the numbers probably the

age factor could have altered his perception. I think that p4’s age affected his accuracy. Hearing can be affected

when being 50s.

Probably phonetics or acoustics influenced the process, also the attention participants pay while the numbers

were said. One of the participants’ cellphones was ringing, my neighbor was knocking at the door by the time

the numbers were being said.

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 Implications

One of the most relevant aspects was the inversion in the order at the end of the number sequence

for it is noticeable the all the participants made the same order mistake.

Memory is the collection of information and experiences we can store in our brains for finding back

that information for future consultation. Retrieval is the process of recalling that date. The brain

has the capacity of storing and retrieving data. There are three phases which are encoding, storing,

and retrieving. The participants encode, store and retrieve the data in a matter of seconds. There

are factors that can obscure or contaminate our retrieving process such as the environment or alter

states of our perception when encoding the data.

Peer Feedback

I added a tittle, corrected some grammar mistakes and misspelt words, also made some changes of

editing nature. As well, I made some modifications in the report such changing some information,

participants’ occupations that was not accurate in the first draft.

Alfonso starting from your title nothing is there at the top center section of the original field report is still

highlighted with yellow, there are some grammatical error seen. Please kindly go through your field report

and redo it well. Thank you.