Read to Remember or Listen to Learn?

Overview

Objectives/Goals To find out whether people remember writing better if they read the text, listen to the text, or listen and read the text at the same time. Methods/Materials Methods I tested 30 people on passages they read, listened to, and read and listened to at the same time. My test takers were given a passage in written form. They read the passage. Then I had them listen to a similar passage I had on a compact disc. Then, I gave them a passage to read and listen to at the same time. After these 3 passages, I gave them a three section test about one of the three passages. I repeated this process three times, changing the order each time.They each heard, read, or heard and read 9 passages all together. Materials 9 Passages from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling: 3 passages in written form, 3 passages in Compact Disc form, 3 passages in written and Compact Disc form, 1 CD player, 1 pencil or, pen for each person, 3 tests per person, 1 answer sheet, 30 people to take the tests. Results Average # of answers correct for reading: 10.2 out of 15 Average # of answers correct for listening: 8.8 out of 15 Average # of answers correct for reading and listening at the same time: 10.1 out of 14 Average # of answers correct total: 29.1 out of 45 Average Percent of answers correct total: 64.7% out of 100 Conclusions/Discussion I found out that the people I tested, remembered best when they read the text, remembered second best when they listened and read the text at the same time, and remembered the worst when they just listened to the text. I think there may be many possible reasons why this might have happened. I think that reading might have come in first instead of reading and listening because the sound might have distracted the visual and kinesthetic learners. This may have occurred because they weren't reading at the pace they usually read. Hearing the words may have been too slow or too fast for their pace of reading. Or, maybe most of the people in my sample were visual learners, rather than auditory or visual and auditory learners.

Competition history

• CSEF 2007 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0632

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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