1. The Impact of Distraction on Short-Term Memory
Inga Chivitchian
California State University, Northridge

3. Previous Research:
Recall seven digits either in silence, irrelevant speech, vocal music, or instrumental music.
Participants were able to recall more digits when recalling in silence, than in any other condition
Alley & Greene, 2008

4. Previous Research
University undergraduates studied twenty lists in backgrounds of similar onset words, rhyming words, dissimilar words or in silence
No significant difference between any of the conditions, other than the silence condition, in which students recalled the most amount of words
Baddeley, & Salame, 1982

5. Hypothesis
Distraction decreases short-term memory.

6. Demographics

7. Demographics 20 CSUN students in PSYCH 321- Lab 2 course
(4 Males and 16 Females)

8. Demographics Participants were between the ages of 20 and 26 M= 22.20
SD= 1.795

9. Materials PowerPoint 12 random words
-Computer, Sweater, Building, Protein, Snowflake, Alcohol, Telephone, Change, Sleep, Paper, Arm, Gold.
A sheet of paper for the demographics (age, gender, ethnicity) and the recalled words.

10. Materials
Image by Salvador Dali called “Persistence of Memory”

11. Materials
A song, by a band Hella called “Brown Metal”

12. Procedure Participants randomly assigned to two groups.
Control Group: 12 words presented on PowerPoint in silence.
Experimental Group: 12 words presented with visual distraction (image in the background) and auditory distraction (song playing on speakers).

13. Results Experimental Group (Distractions) -M = 5.50 -SD = 1.43
Control Group (No Distractions)
-M = 3.9
-SD = 1.10

14. Results
t(18) = 2.799, p = .174.
The results failed to support our hypothesis and are not in agreement with previous research.

15. Limitations Order and choice of words Image choice Song choice
The order of groups

16. Future Direction Better choice of words Better destruction methods
More words
Larger N