The effects on free recall of gender, type of transformation, and type of stimulus.

Abstract

This study explored the effects on free recall of gender, the type of stimulus presented (pictures, their simple word labels, or complex word groups completely describing the pictures), and the tyoe of transformation performed on the stimuli (describing stimuli in words or imagining stimuli as pictures). Two hundred eighty-eight undergraduate student volunteers (102 males, 186 females) were visually presented the stimuli, and were instructed to either describe the items in words or imagine them as pictures. Following an interim activity, subjects were allowed five minutes to write as many items as they could recall. A 3 X 2 X 2 between-subjects analysis of variance showed that significantly more picture, as opposed to word, stimuli were recal1ede Female subjects recalled more stimuli than male subjects, and more items were recalled by subjects instructed to imagine stimuli as pictures, rather than words. There was a significant Stimulus X Transformation interaction indicating that stimuli presented in picture form, or transformed into pictures were more easily remembered than stimulus items represented only by words. A strength of association measure (w2 ) showed that type of stimulus and type of transformation accounted for 11% and 14% of the variance respectively. Gender accounted for only 1% of the variance.