Classic Study (Baddeley 1966b) Flashcards
What was the aim of Baddeley (1966b)?
To find out if LTM encodes acoustically (based on sound) or semantically (based on meaning).
What was the procedure of Baddeley (1966b)? (research design, participants, the 4 groups, how the words appeared + recall)
- Lab experiment with independent groups design
- The 75 participants are split into four groups
- List A : acoustically similar (man, can, mad map, etc)
- List B : acoustically dissimilar (pit, few, cow, pen, etc)
- List C : semantically similar (great, large, big, huge, etc)
- List C : semantically dissimilar (good, safe, thin, deep, etc)
- Each group views a slideshow of a set of 10 words. Each word appears for 3 seconds.
- Had 40s to recall (write down) as many words as they remembered.
- THIS WAS DONE 4 TIMES.
- Then unexpectedly asked to recall again after 20 mins.
What were the results of Baddeley (1966b)?
- Learning trials (STM) Recall of acoustically similar list was lower than the acoustically dissimilar list.
Recall after 20m :
- Acoustic : no significant forgetting in the similar list, but there was in the dissimilar.
- Semantic : no significant difference in recall in learning trials, but significant LTM forgetting of both similar and dissimilar.
What were the conculsions of Baddeley (1966b)?
Baddeley concludes that LTM encodes semantically
What is a strength of Baddeley (1966b)? (hint - procedure with the word lists)
His experiments had well constructed procedures.
For example, lists A/B and C/D were matched in terms of how frequently they were used in the English language.
This means the results cannot be explained by knowing words better than others (avoids confounding variables).
What is a weakness of Baddeley (1966b)? (hint - unrealistic because its artificial)
Baddeley’s experiment is unrealistic (unlike real life).
The procedure was so tightly controlled that it was completely artificial. The STM and LTM do not normally interact in the way they did.
This means that it may not resemble encoding in real life. Suggesting that the study may exaggerate the roll of semantic encoding in LTM.
What is an application of Baddeley (1966b)? (hint - studying!)
Baddeley’s research can be used to improve long-term recall.
Students revising for exams should use strategies that allow them to process the meaning (matches the LTM encoding).
This means that they should try and relate the information to things they already know and reorganise the info into different ways (like flashcards).
