Short-Term Memory of Different Personality Types

Abstract

Personality theorists have identified several central traits that define a person’s overall worldview and typical style of reacting to the environment (Liang & Chaoyun, 2014). One of these traits is introversion-extroversion. Individuals will fall on this continuum based on how internally-focused or externally-focused they tend to be. As this is a central trait, the level of introversion/extroversion includes multiple, less central personality traits and cognitive abilities that impact most aspects of the individual’s life. In the current study, we seek to discover differences in short term memory between extroverts and introverts. As extroverts tend to be more outward-focused, it is expected that extroverts will have significantly better short-term memory than introverts. Furthermore, we are seeking to determine whether or not gender influences these findings. Approximately 60 randomly selected male and female undergraduate participants will complete both a memory test and a personality inventory. Data will be analyzed via Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results will increase the knowledge base about the interaction between personality types and the ability to utilize short-term memory recall.

Keywords: Short-term memory, personality, introversion, extroversion, ANOVA, cognitive, psychology, research, focus, gender, differences