Classic study: Baddeley (1996b) Flashcards
Aim
To explore effects of acoustic and semantic coding in STM and LTM to see if they are separate stores
The type of experiment
lab
what were the 3 IV’s
- Acoustically similar and dissimilar word list
- Semantically similar and dissimilar word list
- Performance before and after 15 minute delay
DV
Total words recalled in the right order
sample size
72 university students
Example of acoustically similar and dissimilar words
Similar - mad, map, man
dissmilar - pit, few, cow
Example of semantically similar and dissimilar words
Similar - great, large, big
Dissimilar - Good, huge, safe
Procedure
Participants split into 4 groups, each group views a slideshow of 10 words that appear for 3 seconds.
After they carry out an interference task before recalling the words on the slide show.
This happens 4 different times
After the 4 times theres a 15 minute break and a 5th round happens that’s unexpected to the participants
Procedure: What 4 groups are the participants split to?
- Acoustically similar group
- Acoustically dissimilar group (control group)
- Semantically similar group
- Semantically dissimilar group (control group)
Procedure: what was the interference task participants had to do before recalling the slideshow words
Hearing and writting down in order 8 numbers that come up 3 times
Results for acoustic words
Acoustically similar words seem to be confusing at first, but participants soon “catch up” with the Control group and even overtake them
- LTM is not confused by acoustic similarities
Results for semantic words
Semantically similar words do seem to be confusing and the experimental group lags behind the Control group.
- Control group performs better than experimental group
Conclusion
Performance on acoustically similar group was the only group that showed no forgetting, suggesting LTM is encoded acoustically.
What is a strength of the Validity of the experiment
it has high internal validity due to the well controlled procedures.
Strength of the Validity: Evidence of the well controlled procedures
Groups A, B, C, and D were matched in terms of how frequently the words appeared.
strength of the Validity: What did the controlled procedures mean for the results
Means results could not be explained by the participants being able to remember the frequency of the words
strength of the Validity: why is this a strength of the study
It avoids comfounding variables and creates a cause-and-affect relationship between the IV and DV.
What is a weakness of the external validity
The experiment was so tightly controlled that it was nothing like real life
Weakness of the external validity: example of the tight controlles
The STM and LTM do not interact the same in real life as they did in experiment 1. BAddeley saw this confounding variable and changed the controls of the procedure
weakness of the external validity: What do these results suggest
Encoding in the study doesn’t represent encding of semantic memory in real life. Study may exaggerate the role of semantic encoding in LTM
Weakness of the generalisability
The study consisted of 72 participants that devided into 4 groups. (about 15 people per group)
- Also it was a volunteer sample
Weakness of generalisability: Why is the small group size and the fact it’s a volunteer sample a weakness.
Group size: as the groups were small, the results from eahc group can’t be generalised into the wider population.
Volunteer sample: As the participants volunteered, they might enjoy memory tests and perform better on them than an avarage person.
Weakness of generalisability: What does this mean for the results
reduces generalisability of the results due to these variables
Strength of the application:
Understanding the way LTM works can help improve lont-term recall of imformation
Strength of the application: How can this information be applicable
Helpful for students revising for exams. Rather than repeating information they can think about the information and reorganise it and try to relate to things.
Strength of the application: why is this a strength
shows the results from the study has good applicability to real life scenarios
