Coding - Baddeley (1966) Flashcards
1
Q
Aim
A
To investigate how information is coded in STM and LTM.
2
Q
Procedure
A
- Different lists of words were given to 4 groups of participants:
- Acoustically similar (e.g., cat, cab)
- Acoustically dissimilar (e.g., pit, cow)
- Semantically similar (e.g., large, big)
- Semantically dissimilar (e.g., good, hot)
- For STM - Participants were asked to recall their list immediately.
- For LTM - Participants were asked to recall their list after a 20 minute period.
3
Q
Findings
A
- For STM - Participants did worse with acoustically similar words, suggesting that STM codes information acoustically.
- For LTM - Participants did worse with semantically similar words, suggesting that LTM codes information semantically.
4
Q
Conclusion
A
- STM is encoded acoustically.
- LTM is encoded semantically.
5
Q
Strength
A
- Sample of 72 participants.
- Anomalies can be averaged out in a sample of this size.
- Large sample means findings are more representative and can be generalised to a wider population.
6
Q
Strength
A
- Reliable study because it has a standardised procedure.
- Therefore, study can be replicated.
- No need for special equipment and you can use the same words that Baddeley used.
- Reliability was further improved by the elimination of read-aloud word lists as some participants had hearing difficulties and replaced them with slides.
- Participants also saw the same word for the same amount of time (3 seconds).
7
Q
Weakness
A
- 4 groups of 15-20 participants per group.
- An anomaly could impact scores.
- Volunteer sample so people who volunteered may enjoy doing memory tests or are good at them. Therefore, the findings are not representative of the general population.
8
Q
Weakness
A
- Artificial stimuli involved.
- People do tend to memorise words from a list but the order is not really a factor, like it is in Baddeley’s study.
- Doesn’t resemble real-life activities.
