Classic Study Flashcards
What is the classic study in cognitive psychology
Baddeley (1966b)
What was the aim of Baddeley
To investigate the influence of acoustic and semantic word similarity on learning and recall in STM and LTM
Why was this aim useful to consider
Could help with those suffering memory difficulties, as if can show how stores affected by the disease best store information, making it easier for them to store information
Where did Baddeley get his pp from?
Applied Psychology Research Unit
Where people volunteer to take part in psychological studies
Who were his pp
Male and female volunteers from the APRU
What experimental design did Baddeley use?
Independent groups - so each pp only took part in one condition
How did he allocate them to the separate conditions
Randomly
What were the four conditions
Word lists of 10 words
A - acoustically similar
B - acoustically dissimilar
C - semantically similar
D - semantically dissimilar
List B and D acted as controls for A and C
What was Baddeleys procedure
Each list was projected via a projector at a rate of one word every three seconds
They then did six tasks involving memory (distractor tasks)
Pp were then given the word list in a jumbled order (as the test was to recall them in the correct order) and given 1 minute to recall the words
The pp then had to copy 8 digit sequences, they were then given a surprise retest
What were baddeleys findings
List A was recalled worst in the first stage
List C was recalled worst in the second stage
What do Baddeleys findings suggest
STM is largely acoustic
LTM is largely semantic
Generalisability of Baddeley
Low,
All volunteers
High,
Male and female pp
Reliability of Baddeley
Used a standardised procedure
Easily repeatable
Highly reliable
Applicability of Baddeley
Helps those suffering with Alzheimer’s
As if we know they have difficulty with LTM, this info can be used to develop strategies to help those with these difficulties
And similarly with STM
Validity of Baddeley
However task is artificial and not representative of everyday memory, lowers validity
Also done in a lab, pp knew they were in a study, may have resulted in demand characteristics, especially as they were volunteers and so are probably interested in psychological studies
