An experimenter presents a small amount of information to a participant and then immediately distracts her from rehearsal by asking her to count backwards from 100 by 3s. This task would be MOST useful in studying _____.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The distractor task of counting backwards from 100 by 3s is commonly used in cognitive psychology research to prevent rehearsal and thus study the duration of information in short-term memory. By distracting the participant, the experimenter can prevent the maintenance of information in working memory and assess the length of time that information remains in short-term memory.

An Experimenter Presents a Small Amount of Information to a Participant