Short-Term Memory for Numbers

Abstract

Each of 52 (25 female and 27 male) high school students reproduced from memory 1000 eight-digit numbers after viewing each number for 5 s. Subjects were given unlimited time to reproduce the numbers and were allowed to change their reproductions. The range of errors was very large: from 71 to 2231 out of 8000 digits reproduced by each subject. Every subject showed a serial position effect and almost the same effect—about 70% of subjects made the greatest number of errors at the seventh digit. Female subjects made significantly more errors than did the males. Every subject improved his or her score by making changes. Data are given on the relative difficulty of recalling each of the 10 digits, the 100 doublets (pairs of digits), and the 1000 triplets (sets of three digits).