Baddeley's Studies Flashcards
What was the aim of experiment 1 (Baddeley)?
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.
Describe the sample of experiment 1 (Baddeley)
young servicemen
originally 78 ppts but after a hearing test only 75 remained
Describe the lists of words used in experiment 1 (Baddeley)
4 lists (A, B, C, D)
List A - acoustically similar
List B - acoustically dissimilar (control)
List C - semantically similar
List D - semantically dissimilar (control)
What group design was used in Baddeley’s studies?
independent groups
Describe the procedure of experiment 1 (Baddeley)
- 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
Describe the retest section used in all 3 experiments (Baddeley)
- 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
What were the results of experiment 1 (Baddeley)?
- 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
What was the conclusion of experiment 1 (Baddeley)?
Acoustic similarity led to less recall but not semantic similarity
Acoustic similarity showed almost no forgetting, but the 3 other lists did
What was the aim of experiment 2 (Baddeley)?
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.
Describe the sample of experiment 2 (Baddeley)
Housewives from Applied Psychology Research Unit subject pannel in Cambridge
Originally 116 ppts but after hearing test only 110 remained
Describe the lists of words used in experiment 2 (Baddeley)
2 lists (A, C)
List A - acoustically similar
List C - semantically similar
What were the 3 conditions used in experiment 2 (Baddeley)?
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
What were the results of experiment 2 (Baddeley)?
-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
What was the conclusion of experiment 2 (Baddeley)?
Showed that the way of testing in experiment 1 did affect the learning phase because the STM was not blocked equally across all conditions.
What was the aim of experiment 3 (Baddeley)?
To test the original question about the role of acoustic and semantic factors in LTM, this time with the STM properly controlled for.
Describe the sample of experiment 3 (Baddeley)
A mixed group of females and males from the Applied Psychology Research Unit subject panel
72 ppts
Describe the lists of words used in experiment 3 (Baddeley)
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)
What was the condition used in experiment 3 (Baddeley)?
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
Describe the procedure of experiment 3 (Baddeley)?
- 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
What were the results of experiment 3 (Baddeley)?
-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
What was the conclusion of experiment 3 (Baddeley)?
LTM uses mainly semantic encoding
STM uses mainly acoustic encoding
The use of STM is important to learn semantically similar words
What was the overall conclusion of Baddeley’s studies?
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
Evaluate the generalisability of Baddeley’s studies
Strengths:
Large sample size - exp 1, 2 and 3
Not androcentric - exp 3
Weaknesses:
ethnocentric - exp 2
androcentric - exp 1 and 2
Evaluate the reliability of Baddeley’s studies
Strengths:
Standardised procedure - exp 1, 2 and 3
Controls - exp 1 and 2
Evaluate the application of Baddeley’s studies
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.
Evaluate the validity of Baddeley’s studies
Weaknesses:
ecological validity - exp 1, 2 and 3
task validity - exp 1, 2 and 3
Evaluate the ethics of Baddeley’s studies
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.
