Reconstructing the Remote Television Memory Test: Measuring Individual Differences in Long-Term Memory

Abstract

Memory plays a role in many communications theories; however, few studies consider individual differences in memory. The results are reported here for two original studies designed to reconstruct a previously validated measure for television memory constructed to assess how people forget information over time. The remote television memory test assesses recognition memory for the titles of broadcast television programs canceled after a single season. Results from two studies show that the measure is reliable across repeated administrations among independent samples, exhibits a forgetting curve over time, is uncorrelated with total television viewing, appears to be approximately normally distributed, and predicts social reality estimates typical of the cultivation effect independently from total viewing. More work is needed to further assess the construct validity of the measure. Practical implications of administration also are discussed.

Notes

¹The authors thank an anonymous review for seeking clarity here. It is possible that another measure with equal time precision could fill in for the remote television memory test. However, this measure is especially helpful because the initial titles are fixed in time and should quickly fade from public consciousness.

²The social reality estimates were kindly provided by L. J. Shrum (personal communication, October 15, 2002) as a faxed copy of 40 items originally sent to Shrum from M. A. Shapiro and originally employed in Shapiro (1991). The items are available upon request from the first author.