Memory for Distinctive and Common Features of Coins

Abstract

50 Japanese women, all college students, were asked to draw two kinds of Japanese coins. Recall of both common and distinctive features of coins was examined. Analysis showed that memory for the coins was poor over-all and that more distinctive than common features were recalled. These findings suggested that a coin's schema consists of more distinctive features than common features. The results also showed that subjects with larger memory spans tended to recall more distinctive and common features than subjects with smaller spans, but the difference was not significant. This finding suggested that people with large memory spans do not necessarily have more elaborative schema for common coins than those with small spans.