Classic study - Baddeley (1966b)

Question 1

What was the aim of Baddeley’s classic study?

Answer 1

To investigate the influence of acoustic and semantic similarity on long-term memory for word lists

Question 2

What were the IV and DV of Baddeley’s classic study?

Answer 2

IV: type of word list
Acoustically similar and dissimilar
Semantically similar and dissimilar

DV: % of words recalled in order

Question 3

What was the methodology (design and pps) of Baddeley’s classic study? (2 points)

Answer 3

Design: Independent groups

Participants: 72 male and female psychology uni students

Question 4

What was the procedure of Baddeley’s classic study? (6 steps)

Answer 4

1. 10-word lists presented visually, each word for 3 seconds
2. Write down 8-digit sequences (interference task)
3. 1 minute to recall the word list in the correct order
4. Steps 1-3 repeated 4 times
5. Forgetting Task and Test:
   - 8 digits presented and recalled for 15 minutes
   - 1 minute to recall the 10 words in the correct order

Question 5

What were the results and conclusion of Baddeley’s classic study? (4 points)

Answer 5

All participants were confused initially before catching up with the control group in the semantically dissimilar and acoustically similar and dissimilar lists

However, those in the Semantically Similar condition
performed worse at the start and end

The LTM gets confused retrieving words which are semantically similar

Conclusion: The LTM encodes words semantically

Question 6

Was Baddeley’s classic study generalisable? (3 points)

Answer 6

Low generalisability

Only used 72 psychology university students as participants - low population validity

Psychologist students are likely to be attuned to research methods, may have guessed the aim - demand characteristics elicited

Question 7

Was Baddeley’s classic study reliable? (2 points)

Answer 7

Was a controlled laboratory experiment with a standardised procedure

Could be replicated to test the reliability of findings

Question 8

Is Baddeley’s classic study applicable to real life? (3 points)

Answer 8

The finding of LTM encoding semantically can be usefully applied in education - could improve memorisation for student exams

Students could be advised to think about the meaning of content (semantic processing) rather than just repeating it

They can reorganise info into mind maps and spider diagrams, relating it to other things they know

Question 9

Explain how Baddeley’s classic study has high internal validity. (5 points)

Answer 9

Only the IV was changed - cause and effect established

Operationalised and objectively measured DV (% recalled in correct order) reduces investigator bias

Standardised procedure for all 4 groups - no situational extraneous variables

Time to practice the task was identified as a potential situational extraneous variable and controlled by Baddeley

Independent groups design with different participants in each condition (type of word list) ensured results weren’t confounded by fatigue effects

Question 10

Explain how Baddeley’s study has limited internal validity. (2 points)

Answer 10

Only tested semantic long-term memories being the order of a list - other types of LTMs not considered

Word lists were only provided visually - results may have been different results if presented acoustically

Question 11

Did Baddeley’s study have task validity? (2 points)

Answer 11

Learning lists of themed words in silence has low mundane realism - can’t be applied to real-life tasks

Nothing at stake - no reason to try hard to remember the words

Question 12

How ethical was Baddeley’s classic study? (3 points)

Answer 12

Viewing a list of 10 words and recalling them in order - not a task which caused any issues of protection from harm

Participants were debriefed afterwards too

Lack of informed consent about the four IVs - deception needed to prevent demand characteristics and increase validity so benefits outweighed the cost