17th Annual Student Research Conference
Social Science
Word Choice and Interference Effects on Word Completion Tasks of Implicit Memory
Jessica R. Talbert* and Danny Motta
Dr. Robert Tigner, Faculty Mentor
This study investigated the effects of word type (Common, Uncommon, and Nonsense words) and interference (Verbal and Mathematical) on stem-completion tests for implicit memory. It was done at a midwestern liberal arts university with 89 undergraduate participants. Implicit memory was measured by participants receiving a list of study words followed by a second word list or mathematical task, and then given a stem-completion task. The results indicated that Common words were recalled more frequently than Uncommon words, and Uncommon words were recalled more frequently than Nonsense words. The results also showed interference was greater with Verbal rather than Mathematical tasks. The findings contradict previous research that uncommon words were recalled more but are congruent with research showing an interference effect for implicit memory.
Keywords: Word Type, Common, Uncommon, Nonsense, Interference, Implicit Memory, Word-Stem Completion, Verbal task
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 12-3
Location: OP 2111
Time: 9:00