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Irrelevant Speech Effect Essay

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Abstract Eight students participated in a study of the Irrelevant Speech Effect. Irrelevant speech disrupts immediate serial recall. In this study we test the disruptive effects of irrelevant speech on serial recall. In this experiment participants saw a list of randomly ordered digits 1-9. During the some trials they heard irrelevant speech in the background, while other trials were quiet. This irrelevant speech was a passage from Franz Kafka in German (Francis, Neath, & VanHorn, 2008). We found a main effect of Trial Type, which were the quiet and irrelevant speech background conditions. This is evidence that the irrelevant speech effect did take place. Irrelevant Speech Effect The irrelevant speech effect is the …show more content…

Participants could not correct mistakes in button presses. The experiment included two types of trials: some trials had an irrelevant speech background (a passage from Franz Kafka in German) and some had a quiet background. The order of background conditions Participants completed two blocks. Each block contained 30 trials. Design The present study follows a 2 X 9 X 2 within-subjects design. The independent variables were Block (with 2 levels), Serial Position (with 9 levels: digits 1-9), and Trial Type (with 2 levels: quiet, or irrelevant speech). The dependent variable was Probability of Correct Serial Recall. Results Table 1 shows the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for Block, Serial Position, and Trial Type. We found a main effect of Serial Position (F(8,184) = 49.44, p < .05). We also found a main effect of Trial Type (F(1.23) = 24.44, p < .05). We found an interaction of Block X Serial Position (F(8,184) = 2.70, p < .05). No interaction was found for Block X Serial Position X Trial Type (F(8,184) = .82, NS). Table 2 presents the means and standard errors for Block 1, Serial Position, and Trial Type. Table 3 presents the means and standard errors for Block 2, Serial Position, and Trial Type. Figure 1 presents the means and standard errors of Serial Position and Trial Type for Block 1. Figure 2 presents the means and standard errors of

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