The effect of long term memory representations and typing ability on the bootstrapping effect

Abstract

This research examines the bootstrapping effect, the binding of visuospatial and verbal information to boost recall. It has been shown in previous research that long term memory representations also contribute to better recall. This research is motivated by two research questions. Firstly, whether a bootstrapping effect will be observed when using letters as stimuli and secondly, whether participants who were more skilled at typing would show a stronger bootstrapping effect due to their stronger long term memory representations of a QWERTY keypad layout than less skilled typists. This research tests 48 participants on recall of letters over three conditions: a single letter display, a typical QWERTY keypad and a random order QWERTY keypad. These tests were followed up with a two minute typing test in order to assess typing ability. The results showed a bootstrapping effect for the typical keypad condition and the random order keypad condition as hypothesised. Interestingly, the results showed typing ability had a positive correlation with the random order keypad and no correlation with the other conditions. This could be due to general intelligence, people with higher levels of general intelligence can recall better conditions they have not seen before, therefore people who had high typing scores may have had higher levels of general intelligence and therefore performed better on the random order keypad condition.