classic: baddley Flashcards
background
he wanted to test whether STM and LTM were different. at the time psychologists believed that they existed on a continuum rather than being two separate stores.
aims
investigate the influence of semantic and acoustic word similarity on learning and recall in STM, LTM.
procedure
.lab experiment designed to test the sequential recall of acoustically and semantically similar word lists. this is exp 3
.participants were a mixture of men and women from applied psychology unit. approx 20 per group
4 lists of 10 words used
A= acoustically similar
B= acoustically dissimilar
C= semantically similar
D= semantically dissimilar
procedure continued
1) each list presented via projector at the rate of one word every 3 seconds in correct order.
2) pcps required to complete 6 tasks involving memory for digits
3) asked to recall the list in 1 min
this was repeated over 4 learning trials.
4) words were visible in room
5) after 4 leaning trials, the groups were given 15 min interference task copying 8 digit sequences.
6) after interference task they were given a surprise retest on word list sequence.
findings
1) recall of acoustically similar sounding words was worse than dissimilar sounds.
2) recall of semantically similar and dissimilar was not statistically significant
shows us STM encodes acoustically
conclusion
the fact that participants found it more difficult to recall list 1 in the first phase of learning suggests STM encodes acoustically.
generalisability
Baddeley has a large sample of 72. Any anomalies (people will unusually good or bad memories) will be “averaged out” in a sample this size. This suggests you can generalise from this sample.
However, there were so many conditions in this study that each group only had 15-20 people in it. That’s not a lot. Only 15 people did the Acoustically Similar condition. An anomaly could make a difference to scores with numbers that small.
The sample was made up of British volunteers. It might be that there is something unusual about the memories of British or the memorable qualities of British words. However this is unlikely. LTM works the same for people from all countries, speaking all languages, so this sample is probably representative.
However, a volunteer sample might have more people with parrticularly good memories who enjoy doing memory tests - not representative of people in general
reliability
badly conducted a lab experiment which had strict controls and a standardised procedure.
badly gave the same list of words to each person in each of the 4 conditions. and always presented the same.
therefore we know everyone is equal and consistent
findings have been replicated showing good reliability.
application
The main application of this study has been for other Cognitive Psychologists, who have built on Baddeley’s research and investigated LTM in greater depth. Baddeley’s use of interference tasks to control STM has been particularly influential. Baddeley & Hitch built on this research and developed a brand new memory model – Working Memory.
Another application is for your own revision. If LTM encodes semantically, it makes sense to revise using mind maps that use semantic links. However, reading passages out loud over and over (rote learning) is acoustic coding, but LTM doesn’t seem to work this way, so it won’t be as effective.
validity
used an independent measures design which means participants only experienced one design. they could not guess the aim, thus lack of demand characteristics increases the internal validity.
CA
However, the ecological validity of this study is not good. Recalling lists of words is quite artificial but you sometimes have to do it (a shopping list, for example). Recalling the order of words is completely artificial and doesn’t resemble anything you would use memory to do in the real world.
Baddeley did improve this. For example, he made the 5th “forgetting” trial a surprise that the participants weren’t expecting. This is similar to real life, where you are not usually expecting it when you are asked to recall important information.
ethics
no deception
important to maintain confidentiality
ethically justified.
