Chapter 3, Problem 25P

Schmidt (1994) conducted a series of experiments examining the effects of humor on memory. In one study, participants were shown a list of sentences, of which half were humorous and half were non- humorous. A humorous example is, “If at first you don't succeed, you are probably not related to the boss." Other participants would see a non-humorous version of this sentence, such as “People who are related to the boss often succeed the very first time.”

Schmidt then measured the number of each type of sentence recalled by each participant. The following scores are similar to the results obtained in the study.

Number of Sentences Recalled
Humorous Sentences	Nonhumorous Sentences
4 5 2 4	5 2 4 2
6 7 6 6	2 3 1 6
2 5 4 3	3 2 3 3
1 3 5 5	4 1 5 3

Calculate the mean number of sentences recalled for each of the two conditions. Do the data suggest that humor helps memory?