Experiment In Short-term Memory Recall

This paper describes the methods used, including visual data, of an experiment in short-term memory recall. The paper includes the completed research study, charts and graphs.

The short-term memory experiment to be described in this paper is an attempt to verify the Bieder-Szafran experiment, which is a variation of the Buschke experiment of 1962. Previous to the time of Buschke’s experiment, short-term memory studies had been conducted according to the classical method of simply presenting a given amount of information to a subject, who was then asked to recall or recognize, either in oral or written manner, as much of the material presented as he could. G. A. Miller used this approach in the study in which he determined the memory span for humans to be seven, plus or minus two. Miller also stated that the accuracy and amount of recall depended not on the information content of the material, but instead on the number of items presented. This was in 1956.