How much does feeling nervous affect your ability to remember? You show twenty boys and twenty girls a set of twenty-five objects for two minutes. In the calm round, they write down every object they recall. In the anxious round, each person is told just before reciting that they are being graded and watched by an assessor.
Under calm conditions, both boys and girls remember about seventeen to eighteen objects on average. Under anxiety, that number drops to fewer than seven for both groups.
This project measures how a sudden stressful situation can cut short-term memory by more than half.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that students will be anxious about being on stage, which will affect their memory adversely.
Feeling nervous can do more damage to memory than most people expect. You show twenty boys and twenty girls a set of twenty-five objects for two minutes. In the calm round, they write down every object they can recall. In the anxious round, each person is told just before reciting that they are being graded and watched by an assessor. Under calm conditions, both groups remember about seventeen to eighteen objects on average. Under that sudden stressful situation, the number drops to fewer than seven — a cut of more than half.
Feeling nervous or pressured can sharply reduce how well your brain remembers. Under calm conditions, twenty boys and twenty girls each recall about seventeen to eighteen objects on average after viewing a set of twenty-five items for two minutes. When each person is told just before reciting that they are being graded and watched by an assessor, that number drops to fewer than seven. A sudden stressful situation can cut short-term memory by more than half.
Method & Materials
You will select 20 male and 20 female participants, arrange objects in a classroom, cover them with a blanket, and ask the participants to remember the objects.
You will need 20 male and 20 female participants, 50 random objects, a stopwatch, 40 sheets of paper and pencils, a classroom, 2 curtains, bedsheets or blankets, and an adult assistant.
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The results showed that anxiety caused both boys and girls to forget most of the objects that they had seen. Most of the children became nervous once they were told that they were being formally assessed.
Why do this project?
This science project is interesting because it shows how stress and anxiety can affect our ability to remember things.
Also Consider
Variations of this project could include comparing the effects of anxiety on the short-term memories of participants from different age groups, or asking the participants to memorize a speech and speak on stage.
Full project details
Additional information and source material for this project are available below.
