Results
The results of the experiment were that performance remained consistently good in all subjects until they reached the 8-digit sequence. All four of the subjects successfully remembered the 4-digit, 5-digit, 6-digit, and 7-digit sequences accurately. Three of four subjects remembered the 8-digit sequence and none of the subjects was able to remember the 9-digit or 10-digit numerical sequence.
57214
359721
9254638
28371569
732496851
6547893217
David
X
X
X
Arlene
X
X
X
Karen
X
X
X
Steve
X
X
Discussion
The results seemed to confirm the experimental hypotheses. Moreover each of the subjects indicated separately that he or she...
More specifically, each subject responded that he or she had used the familiar form of 7-digit telephone numbers to assist in memorizing all of the sequences.
Even in the case of sequences shorter than 7-digits, the subjects all indicated that they "heard" the sequences as the first numbers of a telephone number; they also indicated that they consciously attempted to memorize the 7-digit sequence as a telephone number. As hypothesized, performance dropped dramatically after the 7-digit sequence. The one subject who managed to remember the 8-digit sequence said that he still heard the "rhythm" of a telephone number in connection with the 8-digit sequence. Further research should investigate the differences in memorization using test elements that cannot be as easily adapted into pneumonic techniques to determine the respective roles of the complexity and form of information.
