APictureisWorth15Words

Astatisticalexperimentfocusedondeterminingwhetheror
nottheuseofvisualaidssignificantlyhelpsstudentsatthe
LiberalArtsandScienceAcademyrememberaseriesof
words.Theresultingpvalueof.00181indicatesthatthere
isevidencethatvisualaidsallowpeopletoremember
morewords.

AbigailBoswell
D/CStatistics
3rdPeriod
5/23/2016
20152016

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TableofContents
AnalyticalReport...............................................................................................Page2
WorkCited........................................................................................................Page7
AppendixADataCollection................................................................................Page8
AppendixBDatacollectionResources...............................................................Page12
AppendixCRCodeandOutput.........................................................................Page13
AppendixDFiguresGeneratedDuringAnalysis...................................................Page14
AppendixEPortfoliowebsitelink.......................................................................Page15

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AnalyticalReport
Itsthenightbeforethebigfinal,haventbegunstudyingyet,timetocram.
Textbookpagesgoflying,thecoffeeisbrewingwhileworduponwordgetreadinan
attempttomaketheinformationstickforever,oratleastuntilafterthetest.Itishowever
discussedinanarticlepublishedbyShawnKangfromtheUniversityofCalifornia,San
Diego,thatcrammingisanineffectivestudystrategy.InanexperimentdonebyRoger
ShepardofHarvardUniversity,itwasfoundthatthehypothesisofuniversallyperfect
retentioncansafelyberegardedaslittlemorethananinterestingconjecture,meaning
thereisnoonemethodthatisbetterforrememberingsomething.Becauseofallofthe
controversyaroundthisissue,astatisticalexperimentwasperformedinordertotestthe
memoryofLASAstudentsbothwithandwithoutvisualaids.Theoutcomeofthis
experimentcanbenefittheaveragepersonthroughouttheirlifeiftheyknowthemost
effectivewaytorememberthings.Justabouteverybodyattendsschool.Almost
everyoneatleastgoestoelementaryschool,juniorhigh,andafewyearsofhigh
school.Duringthistimeeveryonewillhavetomemorizesomethingatsomepoint.Itis
beneficialforthemiftheyknowthemosteffectivewaytomemorizethematerialsthey
areaskedandalsofortheteachers.Ifteachersgavevocabularylistsoutandeachword
wasaccompaniedbyapicture,perhapsthatteachersscoreswouldbehigher.I
hypothesizethatthosewhoreceivedvisualaidswillremembersignificantlymorewords
thanthosewithout.
Thepopulationbothsamplesweretakenfromwasgradesninethroughtwelveat
theLiberalArtsandScienceAcademy.Therewere1011studentswhoattendedthe

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schooland48ofthemwererandomlyselectedtoparticipateinthisexperiment.Inorder
toobtainasimplerandomsample,allstudentnameswerecompiledintoanexcel
spreadsheetwheretheywerethenrunthroughacodethatrandomlygeneratedwhich
nameswerechosenforanalysis.Thiswasdoneforthefirstsamplegroupof24and
thenagainforthesecondgroup.Itwasdecidedthatthefirstsamplegroupgenerated
wouldgetnovisualaidwhilethesecondgroupgeneratedwould.
Whilecollectingdata,thereweretwosetsofnotecards.Onesetcontaineda
seriesof15wordsonly,whiletheotherhad15wordsaswellasapictureofwhatthe
wordwas.Eachsetofnotecardshadtheexactsamewordsandwereshownto
samplesintheexactsameorder.Onesetwasshownto24peoplerangingfromninthto
twelfthgradeandtheothertoadifferentsetof24students.Eachstudentwasshownall
15wordsbacktoback,witheachwordshownforapproximatelyfourseconds.Afterall
15wordshadbeenshown,a30secondwaitingperiodwasgiveninordertoallowfor
thewordstobestoredintomemory.Afterthe30secondswerecomplete,eachstudent
wasgiventwominutestorecallandwritedownasmanywordsastheycouldona
designatedpaper.Thisprocesswasrepeatedforall48subjectsandtookplaceovera
totaloffourdays.
Inanalyzingthedata,anindependenttwosampleTtestwithadirectionaltail
wasperformed.Thistestwasusedbecausetheobjectivewastofindoutwhetherthe
averagenumberofwordsrememberedbypeoplewithoutvisualaidwassignificantly
lowerfromthosewithvisualaid.Thetestwasindependentbecauseadatapointinone
samplewasnotdirectlylinkedorrelatedtooneintheother.Aonetailedtestwas

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requiredbecausetherewasdirectionalityinthealternativehypotheses.Inorderto
proceedwithsaidtest,certainassumptionswereverified.Thedatawasobtained
randomly.Thedatawasindependentseeingasonepersoncouldnothavebeeninboth
groups.Lastly,thedatawasnormallydistributedforthosewhodidnotreceivevisual
aid,butwasslightlyskewedleftforthosewithvisualaid.Asaresult,thenormality
assumptionwasnotsatisfiedandtheresultsofthisexperimentaresubjecttoquestion.

Thetestyieldedatstatisticof3.312,whichwaswelloverthetcriticalvalueof
1.679(47degreesoffreedom).Thetestalsoresultedinapvalueof.00181meaning
thatthereisonlya.18percentchanceofgettingthiststatistic,ormoreextreme,ifthere
isactuallynodifferenceinthenumberofwordsremembered.Thealphavalueof.05
waschosenbecausethatvalueinsures95percentconfidence,whichisthestandard
percentusedinstatisticalhypothesistests.Becausethepvaluewaslessthanthe
significancelevelof.05,thenullhypothesisthatthereisnodifferencebetweenthe
numberofwordsrememberedwithorwithoutvisualaidisrejected.Thus,thereis

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significantevidencethatthesamplegroupwithvisualaidsrememberedmorewords
thanthosewhodidnthavevisualaid.
Inconclusion,theexperimentfoundthattheuseofvisualaidswhileattemptingto
memorizeaseriesofwordswassignificantlyhigherthannotusingthem.Thesample
groupthatreceivedthevisualaidhadameanof10.69wordsrememberedanda
standarddeviationof2.09words.Ontheotherhand,thesamplegroupthatdidnot
receiveavisualaidhadameanof9wordsrememberedandastandarddeviationof2
words.Thisshowsthatpeoplewhohadthevisualaidsrememberedsignificantlymore
wordsonaverage.Thisislikelybecausewiththeuseofpictures,peoplehave
somethingtoconnectthewordtoallowingfortheretrievalofinformationtobequicker.
Itallowsforbetterstorageofthethoughtorideabecausethereisalsoaimage
connectedtoit.
Peopleoftenfindthemselvesrememberingpeopleorplacesbyadistinct
feature.Thisisthesamewhenhavinganimagetoassociatewithaword.Theycan
rememberthecolorofsomethingandthenfromthatconnectittothewordoreven
betterrememberthestrangeshapesomethingwasandthenrecallwhatthatshape
representedandthenhavetheword.Thiscouldbethereasonthatthosewithpictures
ofthewordswereabletoremembermorethanthosewithout.Theyhadtheadvantage
ofbeingabletoassociatethewordswithgivenimagesandcolorsallowingforbetter
storageofinformation.
Therearemanythingstobetakenawayfromthisproject.Thisexperiment
yieldedthatpictureshelpedstudentsrememberwordsbetterthanwhentherewereno

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picturesavailable.Ifthisexperimentweretobedoneoveragainhowever,anincrease
insamplesizesto30wouldbedonetoinsurethatthenormalityassumptionwouldbe
met.Theadditionofanothergroupandorvariablewouldalsobeincorporatedaswell.
Thisway,thebeststrategytomemorizecouldbeidentifiedandusedinclassroomand
officesandhomesallovertheworld
.

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WorkCited

Lickerman,Alex."EightWaystoRememberAnything."
PsychologyToday
.N.p.,n.d.
Web.22May2016.

Oates,JoyceM.,andLynneM.Reder.
MemoryforPictures:SometimesaPictureIsNot
worthaSingleWord
.Rep.N.p.:CarnegieMellonU,n.d.Print.

Shepard,RogerN.
RecognitionMemoryforWords,Sentences,andPictures
.Rep.N.p.:
HarvardU,1967.Print.

Wesson,Kenneth."LEARNING&MEMORY:HowDoWeRememberandWhyDoWe

OftenForget?"
BrainWorld
.N.p.,1Mar.2012.Web.12May2016.

Wyman,Pat."HowToRememberEverythingYouReadUsingMentalPictures."

HowToLearn
.N.p.,11July2011.Web.12May2016.

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AppendixA
DataCollection

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AppendixB
DataCollectionResources

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AppendixC
RCodeandOutput
#BoxplotsforThosewithandthosewithoutthevisualaid
>boxplot(data$Remembered~data$Pic,main='RememberedVs.Pictureorno
Picture',ylab='#Remembered',xlab='YesorNo',col=c('#0571b0','#ca0020'))
>
>#MeanandStandardDeviationforbothsamplesasawhole
>mean(data$Remembered)
[1]9.979167
>sd(data$Remembered)
[1]2.25492
>
>#Subsetingthedataintothosewithandthosewithoutvisualaid
>yes<data[data$Pic=="Yes",]
>no<data[data$Pic=="No",]
>
>#MeanandStandardDeviationforthosewiththevisualaid
>mean(yes$Remembered)
[1]10.95833
>sd(yes$Remembered)
[1]2.095112
>
>#MeanandStandardDeviationforthosewithoutthevisualaid
>mean(no$Remembered)
[1]9
>sd(no$Remembered)
[1]2
>
>#HistogramsofWordsrememberedforbothsamplegroups
>hist(yes$Remembered,main='WordsRememberedWithVisualAid',xlab='Number
Remembered',col='#BF3EFF')
>hist(no$Remembered,main='WordsRememberedWithoutVisualAid',xlab='Number
Remembered',col='#EE6A50')
>
>#TwosampleIndependedtttest
>t.test(yes$Remembered,no$Remembered)

WelchTwoSamplettest

data:yes$Rememberedandno$Remembered
t=3.3123,df=45.901,pvalue=0.00181
alternativehypothesis:truedifferenceinmeansisnotequalto0
95percentconfidenceinterval:
0.7681643.148503
sampleestimates:
meanofxmeanofy
10.958339.00000

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AppendixD
FiguresGeneratedduringAnalysis

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AppendixE
PortfolioWebsiteLink

https://abigailboswellstatistics.weebly.com