psychology

WORKING MEMORY 1

Abstract

Introduction

Effects Of Mindfulness On Working Memory

Method

Participants

21 participants who were students of a College were split into two groups using a random name generator. It consisted of three men, 18 women, ranging from the ages of 18-30. The first group (control group) consisted of 11 participants one man, 10 women the second group (Music Meditation group) consisted of 10 participants’ eight women and two men. They were not paid to participate in the experiment it was an in class assignment.

Apparatus (Materials/Stimuli)

The experiment consisted of solid plastic tablet arm desks, a pencil and a sheet of paper split into 4 squares.

Procedure

On September 25, 2017 at two different times first group at 1:50pm to 2:05pm and the second group at 2:08pm to 2:20pm in a College classroom in the A building room A337. The room the experiment took place in was quiet, the temperature was about 65 degrees, and it had florescent lighting. The first group was 11 participants and the second group was 10 participants. Both experiments began with the instructor providing the participants with a clean sheet of paper. Participants were given clear instructions to slip the sheet into 4 squares, notify her when done and do not write on paper until instructed to do so. The instructor then calls out 12 words which were names of gems, places, animals when done the students were instructed to write down the ones they recalled for the first three times. The instructor then called out the names the fourth and last time. After the third name calling the instructor instructed the students to put their pencils down do not write. For five minutes the instructor played music. Not specifying whether or not you can be on your phone, laptop, talk to the person sitting next to you or take a nap. For the control group music with no words was played, for the music meditation group music with words was played. When done the students were instructed to write down the words they recalled. When both experiments were done all the participants came together in the classroom. The last part of the experiment both groups of participants were instructed to turn over their fourth sheet of paper to write down yes or no, for the names they recall being part of the words that was called out four times. These words were in the same category of the initial words called out, however, some words were put in there to play a mind trick on the participants to see if they would recall the words. After all the participants came together in one room they were instructed to count their semantic errors, semantic errors and the words they got correct on the lists. An independent t-test was ran in order to see if the mind meditation group would recall more words than the control group. We were testing whether the type of music would help recall more words.

Results

There was no significant difference between the control (M=11.27, SD=1.01) and MM group (M=11.90, SD=0.32) in words recall at delay. t(12.12) =-1.96, p= .07.Leveine’s Test is significant so we do not assume equal variances. Participants recalled more words in recall 3 (M=11.38, SE=1.02) than both recall 1 (M=10.62, SE=1.20) and recall 2 (M=8.95, SE=1.39). Participants recalled more words in recall 2 than in recall 1.

Discussion

References

Table 1

Summary of recalled words

Descriptive Statistics
	N	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
Recall 1	21	7	12	8.95	1.359
Recall 2	21	8	12	10.62	1.203
Recall 3	21	9	12	11.38	1.024
Recall Total (1-3)	21	24	35	30.95	2.655
Delayed Recall	21	9	12	11.57	.811
Correct List Recall	21	11	12	11.90	.301
Semantic Errors	21	0	1	.14	.359
Non-semantic Errors	21	0	0	.00	.000
Average Recall (1-3)	21	8	12	10.32	.885

Note. The descriptive statistics table shows the minimum and maximum amount of words recalled in each trail (one-three) and it also gives an average of all the trials. It shows the amount of correct list recall, semantic errors and non-semantic errors when the participants were asked to check off their lists.

Figure 1. Mean for difference in time delay for control and MM. this table shows the amount of words the mind meditation and control group recalled. This table gives a clear visual of how the control group has the least amount of words oppose to the mind meditation group.