Abstract
Volunteers for psychological research can differ in important ways from nonvolunteers and from the general population. The memory abilities of a sample of 80 college student research volunteers were measured using the Wechsler Memory Scale–Revised. Compared to general population norms, the sample scored significantly higher on General Memory and Visual Memory compared to those with more than 12 years of education, the sample scored significantly lower on General Memory, Verbal Memory, and Attention but significantly higher on Visual Memory. Although results may vary at different universities, researchers should be cautious in assuming that the memory abilities of samples of college student volunteers accurately represent the population.
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