Baddeley's Studies

Question 1

What was the aim of experiment 1 (Baddeley)?

Answer 1

To investigate whether long term memory was like short term memory.

To investigate whether acoustically similar words in LTM would lead to more memory impairment than semantically similar words in LTM.

Question 2

Describe the sample of experiment 1 (Baddeley)

Answer 2

young servicemen

originally 78 ppts but after a hearing test only 75 remained

Question 3

Describe the lists of words used in experiment 1 (Baddeley)

Answer 3

4 lists (A, B, C, D)

List A - acoustically similar
List B - acoustically dissimilar (control)

List C - semantically similar
List D - semantically dissimilar (control)

Question 4

What group design was used in Baddeley’s studies?

Answer 4

independent groups

Question 5

Describe the procedure of experiment 1 (Baddeley)

Answer 5

• Words were presented on a tape recorder at 3 sec intervals
• ppts had 40 secs to write down as many words in the correct order
• The words were in front of them but in the wrong order
• This was repeated 4 times

Question 6

Describe the retest section used in all 3 experiments (Baddeley)

Answer 6

• Ppts spent 20mins (15 mins for experiment 3) doing an intervening task to prevent the use of STM (8 numbers presented at 1sec intervals, 8secs to write in correct order)
• After 20 mins, ppts had to write as many words as they could remember in the correct order (words still in front of them)
• Unaware that they would have this retest

Question 7

What were the results of experiment 1 (Baddeley)?

Answer 7

• Acoustically dissimilar words were better recalled than acoustically similar words
• Baddeley reported that the difference in forgetting between acoustically similar and dissimilar words as significant

-No significant difference in recall between semantically similar words and semantically dissimilar words

Question 8

What was the conclusion of experiment 1 (Baddeley)?

Answer 8

Acoustic similarity led to less recall but not semantic similarity
Acoustic similarity showed almost no forgetting, but the 3 other lists did

Question 9

What was the aim of experiment 2 (Baddeley)?

Answer 9

To block out the use of STM in semantically similar conditions (C) so that it matched acoustically similar conditions (A) where ppts had difficulties with STM.

Question 10

Describe the sample of experiment 2 (Baddeley)

Answer 10

Housewives from Applied Psychology Research Unit subject pannel in Cambridge

Originally 116 ppts but after hearing test only 110 remained

Question 11

Describe the lists of words used in experiment 2 (Baddeley)

Answer 11

2 lists (A, C)

List A - acoustically similar
List C - semantically similar

Question 12

What were the 3 conditions used in experiment 2 (Baddeley)?

Answer 12

Condition X: Same as experiment 1 but with only list A and C

Condition Y: An interference task between the presentation of the words and the recall (x4) followed by the same 20 min intervening take and retest

Condition Z: An interference task after each recall (x4) followed by the same 20 min intervening task and retest

Question 13

What were the results of experiment 2 (Baddeley)?

Answer 13

-Acoustically similar words in conditions X and Y had no forgetting.

• Semantically similar words had the worst recall in condition Y.
• In semantically similar words, X did significantly better than Y

Question 14

What was the conclusion of experiment 2 (Baddeley)?

Answer 14

Showed that the way of testing in experiment 1 did affect the learning phase because the STM was not blocked equally across all conditions.

Question 15

What was the aim of experiment 3 (Baddeley)?

Answer 15

To test the original question about the role of acoustic and semantic factors in LTM, this time with the STM properly controlled for.

Question 16

Describe the sample of experiment 3 (Baddeley)

Answer 16

A mixed group of females and males from the Applied Psychology Research Unit subject panel

72 ppts

Question 17

Describe the lists of words used in experiment 3 (Baddeley)

Answer 17

4 lists (A, B, C, D) - Condition Y was used in all groups

List A - acoustically similar
List B - acoustically dissimilar (control)

List C - semantically similar
List D - semantically dissimilar (control)

Question 18

What was the condition used in experiment 3 (Baddeley)?

Answer 18

Condition Y: An interference task between the presentation of the words and the recall (x4) followed by a 15 min intervening task and then the retest

Question 19

Describe the procedure of experiment 3 (Baddeley)?

Answer 19

• Words were presented by a slide projector and were visible for 3 secs each
• Ppts were allowed 1 min to write down the 10 words in the correct order (had them in front of them still)
• Ther was a 15 min intervening task of self paced digit copying followed by the retest

Question 20

What were the results of experiment 3 (Baddeley)?

Answer 20

-No significant difference between recall or retest of List A and List B (Acoustic)

• Semantically similar condition (C) had worse recall than semantically dissimilar words (D)
• Overall recall was poorer for semantically similar words compared to semantically dissimilar words during learning and retest

Question 21

What was the conclusion of experiment 3 (Baddeley)?

Answer 21

LTM uses mainly semantic encoding
STM uses mainly acoustic encoding

The use of STM is important to learn semantically similar words

Question 22

What was the overall conclusion of Baddeley’s studies?

Answer 22

Both acoustically similar and semantically similar lists showed successful recall in LTM, showing the LTM is not the same as STM in regard to acoustically similar words leading to more memory impairment.

LTM uses mainly semantic encoding
STM uses mainly acoustic encoding

LTM and STM do work together and not seperately

Question 23

Evaluate the generalisability of Baddeley’s studies

Answer 23

Strengths:
Large sample size - exp 1, 2 and 3
Not androcentric - exp 3

Weaknesses:
ethnocentric - exp 2
androcentric - exp 1 and 2

Question 24

Evaluate the reliability of Baddeley’s studies

Answer 24

Strengths:
Standardised procedure - exp 1, 2 and 3
Controls - exp 1 and 2

Question 25

Evaluate the application of Baddeley’s studies

Answer 25

Exp 3 - Can be applied to revision as results show LTM was not good with semantically similar information and so when revising you should revise different subjects instead of continuously revising similar subjects.

Question 26

Evaluate the validity of Baddeley’s studies

Answer 26

Weaknesses:
ecological validity - exp 1, 2 and 3
task validity - exp 1, 2 and 3

Question 27

Evaluate the ethics of Baddeley’s studies

Answer 27

Weaknesses:
No informed consent as ppts did not know about the retest. - exp 1, 2 and 3

But can be justified as it may have affected their results making it less valid.