Could Believing in Yourself and Listening to Music Improve Memory in College Students and Older Adults?
Presentation Type
Event
Full Name of Faculty Mentor
Terry Pettijohn
Major
Psychology
Presentation Abstract
Psychologists have been looking for ways to improve memory for countless years. The goal of this research is to add evidence to what can improve memory in college students and older adults. The hypothesis is that having higher confidence in your own memory abilities (self-efficacy) and listening to upbeat, classical music will improve memory recall in college student and older adults. In this study, 24 college students and 32 older adults were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental groups. The study is a 2x2x2 between-subjects design with three independent variables and three dependent variables. It was found that there was a significant main effect for sound and a significant interaction effect of self-efficacy x age group on the number of words remembered from the memory test. There was also a significant main effect for age group on the number of words the participants believed they could remember. It can be interpreted from these results that listening to classical music, as well as believing in your own memory abilities, can improve memory. In further research, experiments should focus on using several types of music and silence as a control group. Research could also focus on having a control group with no self-efficacy manipulation.
Course
PSYC 497
Location
Lib Jackson Student Union, Atrium
Start Date
16-4-2019 12:30 PM
End Date
16-4-2019 2:30 PM
Disciplines
Psychology
Recommended Citation
Gemmell, Sydney, "Could Believing in Yourself and Listening to Music Improve Memory in College Students and Older Adults?" (2019). Undergraduate Research Competition. 19.
https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/ugrc/2019/poster/19
Could Believing in Yourself and Listening to Music Improve Memory in College Students and Older Adults?
Lib Jackson Student Union, Atrium
Psychologists have been looking for ways to improve memory for countless years. The goal of this research is to add evidence to what can improve memory in college students and older adults. The hypothesis is that having higher confidence in your own memory abilities (self-efficacy) and listening to upbeat, classical music will improve memory recall in college student and older adults. In this study, 24 college students and 32 older adults were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental groups. The study is a 2x2x2 between-subjects design with three independent variables and three dependent variables. It was found that there was a significant main effect for sound and a significant interaction effect of self-efficacy x age group on the number of words remembered from the memory test. There was also a significant main effect for age group on the number of words the participants believed they could remember. It can be interpreted from these results that listening to classical music, as well as believing in your own memory abilities, can improve memory. In further research, experiments should focus on using several types of music and silence as a control group. Research could also focus on having a control group with no self-efficacy manipulation.