Time-of-Day and Day-of-Week Effects on Mnemonic Performance

Abstract

The present study attempts to determine whether diurnal variations in memory performance like the ones observed by Folkard et al. (1977) are independent of the testing day (Monday or Thursday) and the type of material (story or word list). In the experiment, 103 pupils aged 10 and 11 had to listen to a story and learn a list of 14 nouns at 09:00 or 15:00 on Monday or Thursday. Immediately after presentation of the information and then again 1 week later the pupils had to answer questions about the story and recall the list of nouns. The results showed that the type of task had no effect on memory performance, but immediate and delayed recall scores were dependent on both the time and the day the information was presented. Moreover, memory performance was also affected by the time at which the delayed recall test took place. On Monday and especially on Thursday, better performance was obtained at 09:00. This data only partially confirms the findings of Folkard et al.