The Effects of Recitation on the Retention of Two Personality Types

• Published in: American educational research journal 1972-07, Vol.9 (3), p.421-430
• Main Authors: Schultz, Charles B., Dangel, Timothy R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Analysis of variance; Anxiety; Educational research; Group facilitation; Memory; Recitations; Rehearsal; Response rates; Social psychology
• ISSN: 0002-8312; 1935-1011
• DOI: 10.3102/00028312009003421

The effect of stress on the retention of facilitators and debilitators (N = 72) in a recitation setting was studied. Groups of six Ss viewed slides which contained brief paragraphs describing an experiment on attitude change and then referred to printed versions of the slides to answer recitation questions. Stress was manipulated by varying the rate of verbal response (0%, 15%, and 35% response rate) and by informing (determined schedule) or not informing (undetermined schedule) Ss of the questions they would be required to answer during an experimental "lesson." Half of the Ss were facilitators and half were debilitators according to the Achievement Anxiety Test. The main effects of response rate, response schedule, and personality on retention were all found to be significant. The 15% and 0% rate conditions tended to produce more retention than the 35% response rate condition. Facilitators retained more information than debilitators. The retention scores of debilitators tended to decrease as response rate increased. However, a significant interaction between personality and response rate was not obtained. The results were discussed in terms of the intrusions of irrelevant thoughts into short-term storage by debilitators.