Baddeley 1966b Classic Study Flashcards
What was the aim of Baddeley’s study?
To test the hypothesis that LTM will be affected in the same way as the STM
How many experiments did Badddely carry out?
Baddeley carried out a series of 3 experiments to investigate the difference between STM and LTM
How did Baddeley attempt to test LTM and STM in experiment 1?
Attempted to test LTM using word lists on a tape recording but Baddeley realised participants were also using their STM which was a confounding variable
What did Baddeley introduce in experiment 2?
Introduced an interference task to cancel out the effects of the STM meaning that participants were only using their LTM to perform recall tasks
What other change did Baddeley make before carrying out experiment 3?
This change was to present the word lists as a slide show instead of a tape recording to remove any problems with participants who couldn’t hear well
What were the aims of Baddeleys experiment 3?
To see if LTM is impaired by semantically similar words (words with similar meaning)
To demonstrate that LTM will not be impaired by acoustically similar words (words which sound the same)
What was Condition A list A like in Baddeleys experiments?
10 acoustically similar words e.g. man, cab, can
What was Condition B list B like in Baddeleys experiments?
Control list of 10 acoustically dissimilar words e.g. pit, few, cow
These were matched for frequency of occurrence in daily language
What was Condition C list C like in Baddeleys experiments?
10 semantically similar adjectives e.g. great, large, big
What was Condition D list D like in Baddeleys experiments?
Control list of 10 adjectives with dissimilar meanings e.g. good, huge, hot
What type of design was used in Baddeleys experiments?
An independent groups design was used with young men and women from Cambridge University
What was the total number of participants in Baddeleys experiment 3?
72 participants
In the testing stage of Baddleys experiment 3 how were words presented?
Presented in a set order at the rate of one every 3 seconds by a slide projector
Participants were given 40 seconds to write the words in the correct order
This was repeated 4 times
What was the interference task in Baddeleys experiment?
Involved copying digits to ensure that recall was using LTM only
What were participants asked to do in the retest stage of Baddeleys experiment 3?
Asked to write down as much of their 10 word list that they could remember in order
Words were displayed on cards in different order during this task
What were the results of Baddeleys experiment 3?
No significant differences in recall between conditions A and B
Words on the semantically dissimilar world list (list D) were recalled more accurately than the semantically similar word list (list C)
What was the conclusion of Baddeleys experiment 3?
LTM is different to STM and both employ different coding systems
STM uses acoustic coding whilst LTM uses semantic coding
STM is impaired by acoustic similarity whilst LTM is impaired by semantic similarity
What are the strengths of Baddeleys study?
High internal validity
Reliable
Objectivity
What are the weaknesses of Baddeleys study?
Low ecological validity
Ethnocentric sample
Individual differences
Why did Baddeleys study have high internal validity?
He used controls due to the fact a lab experiment was used
Such controls allowed Baddeley to eliminate the possibility of extraneous variables affecting the DV
Why did Baddeleys study have low ecological validity?
Such high levels of control may result in artificial test of memory and it may be argued that learning a list of words is not generalisable to real life memory tasks
Why is reliability a strength of Baddeleys study?
The use of a standardised procedure to allow replication with numerous participants was advantageous. For example, instructions given to the participants were the same and the word list was presented using the projector at the rate of one word every 3 seconds. Replication of the procedure allowed Baddeley to check the consistency of his results over the three experiments therefore increasing the reliability of his findings.
How did Baddeleys study use an ethnocentric sample?
In experiment 3 the participants were from Cambridge University
The data from this sample may not be representative of the memory ability of the wider population because they were all young and from a university meaning they have higher intelligence than average
How might Baddeley using an independent group design have led to individual differences?
The attention levels and mood may have influenced the participants recall and consequently affected the DV
Why is objectivity a strength of Baddeley’s study?
The collection of quantitative data in the form of individual scores out of ten allowed for statistical tests to be conducted to check for significance in the data between the four conditions. Using such tests to analyse the data required no personal interpretation making the findings more scientific and increasing objectivity.
