Across repeated digit tests pupils improved with practice, with large uniform increases attributed to unconscious memory of the previous day's digits, and no fatigue effect on recall was found¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1909 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across four tests in three grammar schools, pupils improved with each test, and large uniform increases in the Woodland Street School were read as unconscious memory of the previous day's digits. → Patterson 1909 q2 i? Correct-judgment totals for morning versus afternoon tests showed no variation attributable to fatigue, and the authors concluded pupils suffered no discoverable fatigue from school work. → Patterson 1909 (2)

Evidence¶

Patterson 1909¶

Patterson, T. L. (1909). Pedagogical Suggestions from Memory Tests. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://books.google.com

q2 · i? · causal · r1

In the Oxford, Freeland and Woodland Street Schools, four digit tests were given with the same digits reordered or repeated across tests. The article reports improvement with each test and attributes the Woodland Street pattern to unconscious memory of the previous day's digits. Descriptive only.

"The results from all the schools point to the conclusion that the pupils improve with practice. The great uniformity and large increases with each test in the Woodland Street School seem to show that the pupils unconsciously remember the digits that have been dictated one day previous."

Patterson 1909 (2)¶

Patterson, T. L. (1909). Pedagogical Suggestions from Memory Tests. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://books.google.com

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Morning-versus-afternoon correct-judgment totals in the Freeland and Woodland Street Schools. The pattern matched test order rather than time of day, and the article concluded "the pupils suffered no fatigue from their school work" as discoverable by such tests. Descriptive totals only.

"The total number of correct judgments for the morning tests in the Freeland Street School was 2,690 and for the afternoon tests 2,640; for the morning tests in the Woodland Street School 6,609, and for the afternoon tests, 7,179."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Inversion of digit order is the most frequent recall error, at 53 per cent of errors, followed by substitution at 31 per cent and over- or under-estimation of digit number at 15 per cent — related
• In one class of 13-year-old boys, memory scores were kept to a steady rank order by repeated practice (successive tests correlating +.87 to +.90) before fatigue testing began — related
• Test-retest correlations of memory span are low, questioning the validity of a single memory span test — related
• The digit memory-span increases with age rather than with grade-promotion measures of intelligence, reaching a limit of six digits for most grammar and high school pupils — related
• Psychological methods of fatigue measurement afford useful average values and reliable information about the course and effect of fatigue (Offner) — related
• Fifteen days of one-hour daily practice produced fairly steady four-place by four-place mental multiplication — related