Experimental Design

Materials
1 Calculator
1 Questionnaire
1 Packet of Reading Pieces
1 Writing Utensil
1 Middle-Aged (45 to 64) Reader

Procedure
1. The middle-aged reader reads a reading piece and tries to remember as many things mentioned in the reading piece as possible.
2. The reader answers the corresponding questionnaire without looking at the reading piece of reminders.
3. Repeat the steps 1 and 2 for the other reading pieces and finish off the entire questionnaire.
4. Afterwards, the idea memory percentage can be calculated by figuring out the number of questions answered correctly divided by the number of total questions.

Click to open Questionnaire Forms - PDF format - .801 MB. (Right click, "Save Target As..." to download)

Readability of Reading Pieces

The readability is measured using the program in the Microsoft Word word processing program. Passive Sentences measure how many passive verbs are in the reading piece. Passive verbs have words describing time stringed along with it. Flesch Reading Ease measures how easy the reading piece is to read based on the sentence length and number of syllables. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level measure the grade level needed to understand this reading piece.

Experiment #1 – Reading Piece No. 1
Passive Sentences: 33%
Flesch Reading Ease: 37.3
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12

Experiment #1 – Reading Piece No. 2
Passive Sentences: 33%
Flesch Reading Ease: 36.5
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12

Experiment #1 – Reading Piece No. 3
Passive Sentences: 0%
Flesch Reading Ease: 21.4
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12

Experiment #2 – Reading Piece No. 1
Passive Sentences: 0%
F lesch Reading Ease: 40.2
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12

Experiment #2– Reading Piece No. 2
Passive Sentences: 20%
Flesch Reading Ease: 54.3
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 10.8

Experiment #3 – Reading Piece No. 1
Passive Sentences: 0%
Flesch Reading Ease: 40.1
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12

Experiment #3 – Reading Piece No. 2
Passive Sentences: 0%
Flesch Reading Ease: 44.6
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12 

Experiment #3 – Reading Piece No. 3
Passive Sentences: 0%
Flesch Reading Ease: 52.5
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 11.1 

Experiment #4 – Reading Piece No. 1
Passive Sentences: 25%
Flesch Reading Ease: 38.4
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12

Experiment #4 – Reading Piece No. 2
Passive Sentences: 25%
Flesch Reading Ease: 20
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12

Experiment #4 – Reading Piece No. 3
Passive Sentences: 0%
Flesch Reading Ease: 46.7
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12