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The Effect of Organization Essay In future studies it may be more beneficial to try to carry out the investigation in laboratory conditions rather than in participants own homes to limit distraction and ensure that all participants carried out the test at the same time of day.  Other factors that may have affected the participants are demand characteristics. Knowing that they are taking part in a psychology experiment may have meant that the participants behaved differently when in a normal situation e.g. the situation may have spurred on some participants, whereas others may have felt nervous which could have hindered their performance. Allocating participants into groups should have been carried out in the same manner by each of the experimenters, and in future experiments perhaps the use of Random Number Tables would be more appropriate.  Upon conducting the study it was also discovered that although the words had been shuffled on a computer to compile the random list, the computer had placed them in alphabetical order which imposed some form of organisation onto the list which was pointed out by some of the participants. The randomisation of the words would have to be improved if further studies were undertaken. It had been decided for the purposes of this study that gender was not important. However, further studies could investigate whether there is a difference in memory recall between genders. The same study could be repeated but in this instance four Conditions would need to be satisfied: Condition 1 female participants to study a prepared organised list of words; Condition 2 female participants to study a prepared random list of words; Condition 3 male participants to study a prepared random list of words; Condition 4 male participants to study a prepared random list of words.  This study also did not take into account any possible cultural variations. Investigations into memory are important in finding ways to help people learn, particularly in an educational or work environment. Teachers should use structures within their lessons and encourage students to attach meaning to what they are learning, so that later retrieval of the information will be easier. In addition, children and students should be encouraged to attach some of their own organisation when studying new subjects. REFERENCES Bousfield (1953), The Effect of Organization on Memory, Beginning Psychology, p75  Bower (1969), The Effect of Organization on Memory, Beginning Psychology, p75  Mandler (1967), Category Clustering, Simply Psychology (Michael Eysenk), p16