Cognitive Classic study

Question 1

What is the cognitive classic study?

Answer 1

Baddley (1966) specifically the third variation

Question 2

What was the aim of this study?

Answer 2

To see if in LTM, would the acoustic similarity of words would lead to more memory impairment than semantic similarity of words.

Question 3

What is the type of research method used in this study?

Answer 3

-Word list (10 words each presented for 3 seconds)
participants completed an interference task involving memory for digits.
-They then had to write it in the correct order presented again in a one minute time limit.
-This happened four times and were given another interference task for 15 minutes before being given a surprise retest.

Question 4

What was the sample in this experiment?

Answer 4

Variation 3:

• 72 males and females
• From ‘Applied Psychology Research Unit’ in Cambridge
• volunteer sample

Question 5

What controls were enforced in this experiment?

Answer 5

-word order rather than remembering the actual word was used as there may be some people which had difficulty remembering the word as it was not very familiar to them: increases validity

Question 6

Were there any ethical controls?

Answer 6

-consent given from the participants

Question 7

Describe the procedure

Answer 7

• Four different experimental groups: acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar, semantically dissimilar
• Word list of 10 words each displayed for 3 seconds
• Interference test which involves hearing 8 numbers and writing them down 3 times.
• The words from the memory task are recalled as the words are scattered on a whiteboard.
• This structure is repeated four times.
• After the fourth time, participants are given 15 minutes break and to perform an unrelated interference task.
• There is a final repeat which was like a surprise task, and participants had to focus on getting the order of the words right.

Question 8

What were the results?

Answer 8

• Acoustically similar words were recalled poorly at first but they showed great improvement as the experiment progressed and overtook the control group.
• semantically similar words seem to be very confusing and they always performed less well compared to the control. Very little forgetting takes place but the scores are much lower then the acoustically similar group.

Question 9

What can be concluded?

Answer 9

-LTM is not confused by acoustic similarities which means it is encoded semantically.

Question 10

IV

Answer 10

• Acoustically similar word group Vs acoustic dissimilar word group
• Semantically similar word group Vs semantically dissimilar word group.

Question 11

DV

Answer 11

Score on a recall test of 10 words. The words must be in the correct position in the list to be counted correct.

Question 12

Give a strength related to the sample

Answer 12

Wasn’t andocentric as men and women were involved.

Question 13

Give a strength related to the data

Answer 13

Objective: number of words recalled in order from participants.

Question 14

Give a weakness related to the sample

Answer 14

volunteer sample: this means the participants were enthusiastic and too eager to give their idea of good results - lacks validity

Question 15

Give a weakness related to validity

Answer 15

Lab experiment- low ecological validity

Question 16

Give a weakness related to generalisability

Answer 16

Low mundane realism: not how memory is used in everyday life which lowers generalisability.