Baddeley 1966b classic study Flashcards
what is memory ?
our ability to retain and memorize information
it has a capacity which is the limit to how much information we can retain
what is short term memory ?
- info retained for up to 30 secs
- has limited capacity to 5-9 chunks
give an example of short term memory
trying to remember a series of words/numbers and trying to write them down
what is long term memory ?
where the duration is potentially unlimited
the capacity is potentially unlimited
give an example of long term memory
remembering the names of people you’ve met
what was the aim of Baddeleys experiment ?
to investigate whether long term memory would work better with semantically similar words over acoustically similar words
what are semantically similar words ?
words either the same meaning
what are acoustically similar words ?
words which sounds similar to
how did Baddeley conduct his first experiment ?
participants were asked to remember lists of words - some acoustically similar, some semantically similar
what were the results of Baddeleys first experiment ?
participants recalled words which were acoustically similar well
Baddeley thought that his results of experiment 1 were incorrect, why ?
he thought the short term memory was influencing results
what did Baddeley use in experiment 2 to block short term memory ?
interference
what were the results for experiment 2 ?
different to experiment 1
who were the participants for experiment 3 ?
-72 applied psychology research unit panel from cambridge
- split into 4 groups
what were the 4 groups for experiment 3 ?
group 1 (15 ppl) shown a list of acoustically similar words
group 2 (20 ppl) shown a list of acoustically dissimilar words
grouo 3 (16 ppl) shown a list of semantically similar words
group 4 (21 ppl) shown a list of semantically dissimilar words
what was the procedure of experiment 3 ?
1- words presented (participants shown their word list 1 word at a time for 3 seconds
2- interference task (participants heard 8 numbers and had to write them down to block their STM)
3- recall task (participants were shown words from the word list and had to arrange them into the right order)
steps 1-3 repeated 3 more times
4 - 15 minute task (participants given unrelated task)
5- retest (participants recall word list 1 more time)
what were the results of the acoustically similar word test ?
- participants remembered acoustically similar words better in the retest
what were the results of the semantically similar test ?
participants struggled to recall semantically similar words in the retest
what is the conclusion from the experiment ?
- semantically similar words had difficulty remembering as the LTM memory was confused by similar word meanings
- LTM prefers to encode word with meaning
- LTM doesn’t pay attention to how words sound, just the meaning
- If something is challenging for the STM to encode it doesn’t mean it will hinder the LTM ( participants struggled to recall acoustically similar words in the first few trials (STM hindered) but in the retest, recall was higher )
evaluate the generalizability of the experiment
+ gender diversity
+ memory is universal - mind works the same = species specific
- all psychology staff/students at cambridge university (super smart people)
- all from UK = ethnocentric
evaluate the ethics of the experiment
+ informed consent was given
+ protection from harm
+ right to withdraw
+ confidentiality
+ debrief given
- deception (participants not told they would be retested after 15 minute break)
evaluate the reliability of the experiment
+ experiment 2 showed similar results
+ each participant did 4 trials of steps 1-3
+ standardized test = easy to repeat
- small number of participants = hard to see consistent trend in data
evaluate the validity of the experiment
+ lab experiment = well controlled
+ everyone in the same group got the same word lists/time/got 15 minute break
+ no order effects as participants only did 1 word list
- low ecological validity
- participant variables = participants have different memories
evaluate how easily applicable the experiment is to real life ?
+ useful for students when revising as they can attach meaning to words they want to remember so it will stay in their LTM
- cannot be applied to everything, e.g times tables
