Memory and elections: what is your candidate number?

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the influence of political campaign, type of cue and type of number on intralist cued recall and recognition for candidate numbers from the 2006 Brazil election. Undergraduate students were tested both on a survey and memory tests before and after the political campaign. The test materials used (photographs, candidates’ names and numbers) were selected from a regional electoral court. Results showed that cued recall of numbers for both presidency of the republic and federal senate were higher after the campaign. Higher levels of recognition were produced by more semantic numbers. The results were discussed according to repetition effects and chunking on memory. Keywords: Memory; political campaign; recall; recognition.