Peer Review

How Good Is Your Memory? Take The Short-Term Memory Test

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Feb 10, 2022 by Psychology

Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

The learning object is a brief short-term memory test that can be used in introductory psychology courses to introduce students to important concepts such as primacy, recency, and "Miller's Magic Number" (short-term memory storage). The test is hosted by Psychologist World, a website that publishes articles and guides to support site visitors in "improv[ing] your understanding of the human mind and discover[ing] the drives influencing people's behavior."

Type of Material:

Assessment Tool

Recommended Uses:

The short-term memory test can be used as an in-class demonstration that leads into a lecture or discussion of short-term memory. It also can be linked to online learned modules where students can access the test and complete it independently.

Technical Requirements:

The short-term memory test is completed directly on the web. Visitors will need an updated browser.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Learners will understand short-term memory storage as well as key concepts such as primacy and recency.

Target Student Population:

College General Ed, College Lower Division

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

A basic understanding of the concepts of short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory would be helpful in using this site.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

A quick overview before the quiz introduces users to the concept of short-term memory.
Several links offer additional information. “How could participants improve their scores?” on the Memory Tests Results page offers additional, useful information.

Concerns:

There are many links after one takes the quiz; however, it is not easy to go to those links and then return to the site, meaning users may miss valuable information.
Additional material on different types of memory is needed for comparison.
Additional explanation is needed on short-term memory as the general public often does not define this as psychologists do. For example, without rehearsal short-term memory lasts less than 30 seconds.
By entering your age group, gender, and country, one likely assumes they will be able to see comparison data when clicking on “Find out what other people scored by age and gender here.” Instead they are taken to a page that offers charts “from a sample of recent tests since collation began” without information regarding how many participants are included or whether this is meaningful information.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The test is embedded in an article that provides clear instructions as well as a brief a report-out and explanation of one's results. Psychology faculty could use the presented demonstration without modification--i.e., the exercise is complete.

Concerns:

The article in which the test is embedded links out to additional resources which would allow students to learn more about short-term memory storage and the foundational research in this area. However, the articles are only available to those who complete a paid registration for the site. This is not a serious concern for classroom use as explanatory information will be available in the course text and materials; however, this is a limitation.
Given there are no time limitations, if users do not follow the directions, they will find the results less meaningful.
Challenges of moving around the site suggest that users will not follow through with the relevant explanations.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The site allows use of any browser.
The quiz is short and simple and while it asks for age group, gender, and country, they do not collect any identifying information.
Visitors/students can easily click through the pages of the test in order to participate in the short-term memory demonstration. Psychology instructors would only need to provide the web link.

Concerns:

Ideally, clicking on a link allows you to return to the prior page. The current set-up takes you to a page to “confirm form resubmission” and you have to start over at the test – fortunately, it retains your answers.
After the memory test, users enter their age group, gender, and country prior to seeing their score. If you click the link on the next page to “Find out what other people scored by age and gender” you cannot return to the prior page, but can get back to the “take the quiz” page. The same occurs with any of the other links providing additional information.

Other Issues and Comments:: The online short-term memory test is a useful demonstration of important concepts in human memory.
Creative Commons: