effort and impact on memory

The aim of this research is to determine what type of effort proves most effective on the learner’s ability to memorize 25 different Chinese characters, based on their appearance and their phoneme. It is assumed that learning Chinese has a high intrinsic cognitive load, and that creating a low extraneous cognitive load via a simple design will promote the types of germane cognitive load that will have a stronger effect on learner ability to memorize the 25 different Chinese characters and their corresponding phonemes.
      
Hypothesis: Learners who put more effort, defined by the amount of time spent looking at each character and saying out loud the sound of the character, into their learning the 25 Chinese characters will have measurably better recall of the characters and their corresponding phonemes versus learners who put in less effort (less time).

Method: An experimental research design will be used, in which the independent variable is the effort condition, and the dependent variable is the rate of recall. Independent variable of “effort” is measured in the amount of time the learner is exposed to both the visual image of the character and the amount of time the learner repeats the sound of the character. Dependent variable “recall” is the number of total characters each person remembers in a post-test given one hour later. The advantage to this method is the ability to test experimentally the role of a specific type of effort on a specific type of recall, eliminating any extraneous variable such as the semantics/meaning of the character or any images or photos related to the meaning of that character.
      
Design: This is an independent measures experimental research design in which participants will be randomly assigned to the “high effort” or to the “low effort” groups. The independent measures group ensures that each participant only receives one type of effort category, ensuring that there is no cumulative memory effect. The experiment will only be conducted the once, which ensures that the participants cannot study or “cheat” in any way. The only potential drawbacks include not being able to control for variables such as the participants’ individual differences in terms of whether they tend to favor visual versus auditory inputs.
      
Sample: The sample will be obtained from a student roster list. Students will be told that they will be participating in a study that measures the impact of effort on recall. At first, participants will be asked to participate if they have no knowledge at all of Chinese. A pre-test will be given to all participants to determine that they have zero familiarity with Chinese characters. Only those who fail the pre-test by not identifying any character they are shown will be selected, and the most common Chinese characters will be shown just to be sure.
      
Materials: A PowerPoint will be used in which the audio files speaking the phonemes will play while the visual of the character is shown on the screen. Besides the introduction/title slide in English, there will be 25 different slides, each with a different Chinese character.
      
Procedure:  The high effort group will sit in one room, and the low effort group will sit in another room, so there is no time lag between the groups and no overlap that could disrupt the accuracy of the results. Each room will have its own proctor assigned to it. Prior to beginning, the proctors will read a statement thanking the participants for their time. The high effort group will be told, “Hello, the total time you will be looking at and listening to each slide will be 30 seconds. During this time, you are please asked to repeat out the sound you are hearing together with the group. Your effort is greatly appreciated.”

The low effort group will be told, “Hello. The total time you will be looking at and listening to each slide will be 10 seconds. You are kindly asked to repeat the sound you are hearing together with the group during that time. Your effort is greatly appreciated.”

After the instructions have been read, the proctor will offer any participant who is uncomfortable with the parameters of the research to voluntarily leave. “You are welcome to leave now if any aspect of this experiment bothers you, but we assure you that your name is not associated with any of our data collection, and your anonymity is strictly assured.”

Finally, the participants will be asked to genuinely “try” to memorize the characters as opposed to being passive during the exercise, and motivated by the simple good feeling that will come from doing well on the post-test. The level of motivation in learning is not something the researchers can necessarily control for. It is assumed, though, that anyone who signs up or volunteers for the study is somewhat motivated to try. 

The slide show will be given to each participant at his or her own computer terminal. The Internet connection in the room will be cut off to make sure that no students can cheat in any way or communicate with the outside world. The students will also be monitored throughout the procedure, to make sure that each participant is speaking the phonemes out loud.

It is expected that the low effort group will obviously finish first because the time they spend “memorizing” the Chinese characters will only be ten seconds per slide. This group will simply be asked to remain in the room until all participants from both groups are finished. Once both groups have completed the exercise, they will be asked to complete the post-test in isolated rooms to avoid distractions. The post-test will also be issued on a PowerPoint. Participants from both groups will see all 25 characters, and the voice recognition software will be used to detect whether the participants correctly said the character name.
      
Ethical Issues: Students will be told that this is a study for determine whether effort, measured by the time spent on an exercise, will improve recall. The participants are asked if they want to leave or not. They will also be ensured that the results of their test will be destroyed and that their names are not associated with their pre-test or post-test.

The dependent variable will be the post-test results. The results of the post-tests will be aggregated for each experimental group. Raw data will be collected and ran through SPSS software and then plotted on appropriate graphs. The mean and other simple descriptive statistics will be used in the summary, but mainly, the goal is to compare the results from the low effort and the high effort groups to see if there is a statistically significant difference with p <.01.

Sources and Word List: Zein (2009) compiled a list of the most common Chinese characters and the first 25 characters from this list will be the word list used in this experiment:

https://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1140246.files/The%20most%20common%20Chinese%20characters%20in%20order%20of%20frequency.pdf

References
      
Chadwick, D., et al (2015). Using cognitive load compliant instructions to support working memory for anxious students. 8th Cognitive Load Theory Conference (p. 32).
Leppink, J., et al (2014). Effects of pairs of problems and examples on task performance and different types of cognitive load. Learning and Instruction 30: 32-42.
Mitchell, D.B. & Hunt, R.R. (1989). How much "effort" should be devoted to memory? Memory and Cognition 17(3): 337-348.
Simon, I., Williams, T., Wolfe, M. & Hessler, J. (2015). I Can’t Remember: The Effects of Machiavellianism, Mental Effort and Lying on Memory. Student Summer Scholars. Paper 137.
http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/sss/137
Tyler, S. W.; Hertel, P. T.; McCallum, M.C. & Ellis, H. C. (1979). Cognitive effort and memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 5(6), Nov 1979, 607-617.
Zein, P.H. (2009). The most common Chinese characters in order of frequency
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