The Effect Of The Decibel Levels Of Audio Tracks On The Percentage Of Words Accurately Recalled During An Auditory Recall Test
School Name
Spring Valley High School
Grade Level
10th Grade
Presentation Topic
Psychology and Sociology
Presentation Type
Non-Mentored
Abstract
Auditory information is a fundamental part of modern human life. Everything from memorizing spoken facts to learning a new language relies on being able to retain the information one hears. Finding ways to more efficiently memorize the information would directly influence how effectively a person can learn the material. An experiment was set up to mimic different volumes encountered in day-to-day life. It was hypothesized that a person would remember the most information when the audio was emitted at a volume of 60dB. 60dB is the average conversational volume for a human being. This experiment consisted of different audio tracks that are all played at varying decibels, 40dB, 50dB, 60dB, 70dB and 80dB. The subjects were then asked to recite what they remember from the audio track after twenty-four hours. There was a significant difference F(4, 145) = 6.0252, p = 0.0002 between the percentages of words accurately recalled for each volume. A Tukey test showed that the words were significantly better memorized when played at 40dB, which was the lowest volume used in experimentation. It was concluded that when the volume is set at 40dB, compared to higher volumes, words were better memorized. This suggests that people can play audio tracks such as language learning programs at lower volumes to memorize the material.
Recommended Citation
Gupta, Abhiraj, "The Effect Of The Decibel Levels Of Audio Tracks On The Percentage Of Words Accurately Recalled During An Auditory Recall Test" (2015). South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 258.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2015/all/258
Start Date
4-11-2015 9:00 AM
End Date
4-11-2015 9:15 AM
The Effect Of The Decibel Levels Of Audio Tracks On The Percentage Of Words Accurately Recalled During An Auditory Recall Test
Auditory information is a fundamental part of modern human life. Everything from memorizing spoken facts to learning a new language relies on being able to retain the information one hears. Finding ways to more efficiently memorize the information would directly influence how effectively a person can learn the material. An experiment was set up to mimic different volumes encountered in day-to-day life. It was hypothesized that a person would remember the most information when the audio was emitted at a volume of 60dB. 60dB is the average conversational volume for a human being. This experiment consisted of different audio tracks that are all played at varying decibels, 40dB, 50dB, 60dB, 70dB and 80dB. The subjects were then asked to recite what they remember from the audio track after twenty-four hours. There was a significant difference F(4, 145) = 6.0252, p = 0.0002 between the percentages of words accurately recalled for each volume. A Tukey test showed that the words were significantly better memorized when played at 40dB, which was the lowest volume used in experimentation. It was concluded that when the volume is set at 40dB, compared to higher volumes, words were better memorized. This suggests that people can play audio tracks such as language learning programs at lower volumes to memorize the material.
