1
Peter C. Simoncini
Psychology 2
April 17, 1972
Section 3
EXPERIMENT—WORD ASSOCIATIONS
The attention span of persons is an important question confronting psychologists as well as being an equally important facet of society. The length of time a person can concentrate on something and the retention of it once he has been exposed to it is of particular interest in education (classroom learning) and law (witnesses in court) just to name a few. Thus it is indeed relevant to test a group of people to try to discern the extent of their attention spans. With this idea, the following experiment was carried out.
QUESTION
How do environmental variables affect attention span?
HYPOTHESIS
Given the same test, people in a more routine, calm and less colorful environment will score higher that people who take the test in a more colorful and/or chaotic environment.
PROCEDURE
Twenty persons were administered a word association test (Appendix 1) to try to determine the extent of their attention spans. The test, derived from the psychological workbook Involvement in Psychology Today, was mimeographed with the title “Word Associations” clearly printed at the top.
The subjects were given only half of the paper—that which contained a short story (see Appendix 1). The experimenter kept the other half on which was printed a battery of 15 words directly related to the story. The experimenter was particularly careful not to expose the subjects to his piece of paper.
When the experimenter gave the subjects their stories, he told them to read the story thoroughly and follow the instructions therein. Upon accomplishment of the task of burning the paper, the experimenter gave the subjects the battery of fifteen words with the instructions to answer each with the first word that came into their minds.
It is relevant to note that the experiment was carried out in one of three environments: 1) a colorful business office in the USF Athletic Department, 2) a cozy living room, and 3) a noisy, festive family room during an Easter Sunday celebration.
RESULTS
The results of the responses to the fifteen words depict a definite split. Nine persons achieved a low rating of 0-5 correctly related answers to the story (Appendix 2); five persons fell into the intermediate range of 6-9 correctly related answers although one of these people was but 8 years of age; and seven persons scored in the 10-15 high category.
With respect to ages, two specific categories emerged: 18-25 and 35-70. All but one person fell into those categories.
Eight of those in the 18-25 group were interviewed in the colorful business office. Two of them scored in the high bracket—29 percent of those in the high category—while five scored in the low bracket—55 percent of those scoring between 0 and 5. Many of those who scored low in that environment appeared to be distracted—not by noise or commotion but by the colorful sports collage that covers the walls of that office. Those persons took longer to answer while their heads were, for the most part, in constant motion surveying the walls during the time the experimenter administered the battery of words.
The experimenter interviewed six persons in the setting of a comfortable living room. Of those six, four were from the 18-25 age group while the other two were both over 50 years of age. Four of the six scored in the high bracket (67% of those in that range), one in the medium and one in the low. Although the one low score was from the two persons over 50, his score was counterbalanced by his contemporary who achieved the highest amount of correctly related answers (15/15) in the survey. The majority of the persons in the living room atmosphere answered with moderate speed, but appeared to be making an intense effort to correlate their responses to the story.
The final six subjects were interviewed in a rather chaotic surrounding—an Easter Sunday party. The experimenter ensured, however, that no one respondent was exposed to another’s answers prior to his or her taking the test. Those people, all but one in the over 35 age bracket, answered the quickest of the entire sample. No one achieved a high correlation, three were medium and three were low—two receiving the lowest scores in the sample.
Finally, with regard to gender, seven females as opposed to thirteen males made up the sample. The scoring breakdown by gender was: high—2, medium—2, low—3, average total: 7.5 for females; high—4, medium—3, low—6, average total: 7.3 for males.
DISCUSSION
From this test concerning word associations one can determine that environment, more than age, has a greater influence on a person’s attention span. Persons appear to be more responsive to a given set of questions when the atmosphere surrounding them is quiet, relatively common place and un-chaotic. The results of this experiment tend to show that not only does noise detract from one’s attention span, but an unusual, colorful surrounding does so as well. The results of the survey also display very little difference between the attention spans of males and females.
Thus the main theme one can draw with respect to attention spans from this experiment is that environment, more than any other factor, has the greatest influence on a person’s ability to understand and retain, thereby proving this writer’s hypothesis.
APPENDIX ONE
WORD ASSOCIATIONS
You have just robbed a bank using a toy water pistol as the weapon. The only person in the bank who might have recognized you was your tenth-grade teacher, a gray-haired grandmotherly woman whom you liked very much and who recently moved to a neighboring town. You made a clean getaway in a borrowed 1964 Chevrolet, which you had parked in the alley behind the bank. This was your first heist and you were very nervous, but you are now at home and everything has gone smoothly. The only incriminating evidence you have in your house are the strips of paper binding the money you stole with the name of the bank printed on them. Let this note represent those strips of paper. Go into the next room and burn this paper in an empty metal wastepaper basket, thus removing the last bit of evidence against you.
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CarMother
TenFire
WaterBank
BurnGray
WeaponToy
ColorMoney
WomanCrime
Paper
APPENDIX 2
AGES AND SCORES
AGE 1-17 / AGE 18-25 / AGE 26-70AGE (SCORE) GENDER / AGE (SCORE) GENDER / AGE (SCORE) GENDER
8 (6) F / 20 (12) M / 35 (3) F
20 (4) M / 40 (2) F
18 (10) M / 50 (15) F
20 (4) M / 66 (4) M
19 (4) M / 70 (5) F
20 (8) M / 42 (8) M
20 (5) M / 56 (6) F
18 (8) M
20 (11) M
21 (14) F
21 (14) F
20 (12) M
20 (5) M
Total: 1; Avg.: 6.0 / Total: 12; Avg.: 8.0 / Total: 7; Avg.: 6.1
MALE/FEMALE RELATIONSHIPS
High (15-10) / Medium (9-6) / Low (5-0) / Total / AverageMALE / 4 / 3 / 6 / 13 / 7.3
FEMALE / 2 / 2 / 3 / 7 / 7.5
NUMBER OF CORRECT ANSWERS
HIGHMEDIUMLOW
15—1 9—05—3
14—1 8—34—4
13—0 7—03—1
12—2 6—22—1
11—1 1—0
10—1 0—0
BAR GRAPH
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
Persons1
Scores0-56-910-15Total people surveyed: 20
Average score: 7.3