Brown-Peterson Task

The Brown-Peterson task is a cognitive psychology experiment that measures an individual’s ability to retain and recall information over a short period of time, specifically working memory. It is named after its creators, psychologists Lloyd R. Peterson and Margaret Jean Peterson.

Methodology

The experiment typically involves presenting participants with a series of trigrams, which are three-letter combinations (e.g., NRA, XKP). The trigrams are presented one at a time, and immediately after each trigram, participants are asked to perform a distracting task for a specified duration, such as counting backward by threes.

Procedure

After the duration of the distracting task, participants are asked to recall and reproduce the trigram previously presented. The intention is to assess how well participants can maintain and retain information in their working memory while being distracted. The task is usually repeated multiple times with varying durations of the distracting task to observe the effects of interference on memory performance.

Findings

The Brown-Peterson task has provided valuable insights into the nature and duration of working memory. It has demonstrated that when participants are distracted immediately after learning new information, their ability to recall and retain that information is significantly reduced. The task also helps to understand the role of interference in forgetting.

Applications

The Brown-Peterson task has been widely used in research on memory, attention, and cognitive processes. It has been employed to explore how factors such as time, distinctiveness of information, and cognitive load affect working memory performance. The findings from this task have implications for understanding memory-related difficulties in various contexts, such as aging, attention disorders, and learning disabilities.