Coding - Baddeley (1966)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To investigate how information is coded in STM and LTM.

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

• Sample of 72 participants.
• Different lists of words were given to 4 groups of participants:

1. Acoustically similar (e.g., cat, cab)
2. Acoustically dissimilar (e.g., pit, cow)
3. Semantically similar (e.g., large, big)
4. 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.

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

• 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.

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

• STM is encoded acoustically.
• LTM is encoded semantically.

Question 5

Strength

Answer 5

• 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.
• Increases population validity.

Question 6

Strength

Answer 6

• Standardised procedure by:

1. Giving all participants the same word lists according to their respective group, e.g. acoustically similar.
2. Participants saw the same word for the same amount of time (3 seconds).
3. Using the same recall tests after a fixed delay.

• No need for special equipment and you can use the same words that Baddeley used.
• Furthermore read-aloud word lists were eliminated as some participants had hearing difficulties and replaced them with slides.
• These factors enhance the reliability of the study, therefore increasing its replicability.

Question 7

Weakness

Answer 7

• 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.
• Decreases the population validity.

Question 8

Weakness

Answer 8

• Lacks mundane realism
• 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 genuine and authentic daily activities, therefore cannot be applied to real-life.