Limericks are five line poems that typically follow a strict AABBA rhyme scheme. This rhyme scheme likely causes an expectation in the reader or listener for the last word to rhyme according to this rhyme scheme. This study’s aim was test if memory was affected when this expectation was betrayed with a subverted rhyme when compared to the expected rhyme. I predicted that subverted rhymes would be remembered easier due to this betrayal of expectation standing out to the listener or reader.
Methodology
There were 15 participants with a median age of 31. However, all but four of the participants were in their mid-twenties, thus the average was fairly skewed by the remaining four being in their fifties. Participants were anyone I knew that was willing to put up with the experiment. Participants were further broken down into two groups which received the opposite versions of the same eight limericks. The first group received a limerick ending in a subverted rhyme first. This followed by a limerick ending in a normal rhyme, and this back and forth pattern continued for eight trails. The second group received this same back and forth pattern, but began with a normal rhyme…show more content… They were told it was a memory test; however they were not told what exactly they were supposed to remember. After two hours, they were presented with the same limericks again in the same order but with the last word missing. If they could completely recall the last word that trail was marked correct, if not the trail was marked incorrect.
Results Contrary to what was expected, results suggested that the last word was easier to recall on the limericks that rhymed compared to the limericks that ended subverted p = 0.0013. What is interesting to note is that while this is true for the overall data, this is not the case for both groups individually.
Overall data – Correct vs. Incorrect Correct Incorrect
