Badeley Flashcards
What was the aim of Baddeley et al.’s study?
Investigate if LTM is like STM; if in LTM acoustic similarity of words would lead to more memory impairment than semantic similarity
What was the sample size and composition in the study?
72 males and females from the applied psychology research unit in Cambridge
How was the sample divided in the study?
Split into 4 conditions: acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, semantically dissimilar
What is a weakness of the study’s sample?
Lacks generalisability; ethnocentric and only applies to British people from a specific area
What type of experiment was conducted in this study?
Lab experiment using an independent measures design
Describe the procedure of the experiment.
Participants saw a list of 10 one-syllable words every 3 seconds, followed by a digit interference task, then recalled the words after 1 minute
What were participants required to do immediately after word presentation?
Complete an interference task of digit sequences for 8 seconds
What is one strength of the study’s procedure?
Standardised procedures allow for replication and checking for consistency
What is a weakness regarding task validity in the study?
Memorising word lists is an artificial task not reflective of everyday memory use
What were the results regarding acoustic similarity in trials 1 and 2?
It was harder to learn the list of acoustically similar words
What was observed in trials 3 and 4 regarding semantic similarity?
Semantic similarity affected recall, resulting in lower percentage recall for semantically similar words
What did the results suggest about memory retention between trial 4 and the surprise retest?
No further forgetting, suggesting that the words were now in LTM
What quantitative data was generated in the study?
In the second trial, 40% of participants recalled acoustically similar words correctly compared to 60% in the dissimilar condition
What is one application of the study’s findings?
Helps students with efficient revision techniques, suggesting that semantic encoding is more effective
Fill in the blank: The study suggests that LTM is encoded _______.
semantically
