Premium
THE RELATIVE DIFFICULTY POSITION FUNCTION
Author(s) -
AGRUSO VICTOR M.,
RECKASE MARK D.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1976.tb01548.x
Subject(s) - serial position effect , psychology , recall , serial learning , statistics , task (project management) , discriminant function analysis , free recall , cognitive psychology , audiology , developmental psychology , mathematics , medicine , management , economics
A study was conducted to determine if the serial position curve remains invariant across developmental levels under different rote verbal learning tasks when the curves are expressed as Indices of Relative Difficulty. Eighty students, ages 5–11, from the University of Missouri‐Columbia Laboratory School served as subjects for this study. Each subject participated in two experimental tasks, multitrial free recall and serial recall, counterbalanced in presentation. Seven words for each of the two experimental tasks and for each of the two practice tasks constituted the list length. On each task, every subject received a different random order of the list. The data consisted of an error score, cumulated over five trials, at each of seven serial positions for each subject in two tasks. The data were transformed into the Index of Relative Difficulty, which was the method used in representing the serial position effect. The statistical analyses were a multiple discriminant analysis on the four age groups for each of the two tasks and a Hotelling T 2 analysis on the serial versus free recall mean vectors. All analyses were performed on the Index of Relative Difficulty. The analyses indicated that age or grade level in and of itself is not a significant factor in changing the bowed skewed curve found in rote verbal learning tasks. The effect of serial position on the shape of the serial position curve has been shown to be consistent with the findings of other investigators.