Cognitive classic study - Baddeley (1966b) Flashcards
What was the aim of Baddeley’s classic study?
To investigate the influence of acoustic and semantic similarity on long-term memory for word lists
What were the IV and DV of Baddeley’s classic study?
IV: type of word list
Acoustically similar and dissimilar
Semantically similar and dissimilar
DV: % of words recalled in order
What was the methodology (design and pps) of Baddeley’s classic study? (2 points)
Design: Independent groups
Participants: 72 male and female psychology uni students
What was the procedure of Baddeley’s classic study? (6 steps)
- 10-word lists presented visually, each word for 3 seconds
- Write down 8-digit sequences (interference task)
- 1 minute to recall the word list in the correct order
- Steps 1-3 repeated 4 times
- Forgetting Task and Test:
- 8 digits presented and recalled for 15 minutes
- 1 minute to recall the 10 words in the correct order
What were the results and conclusion of Baddeley’s classic study? (4 points)
All participants were confused initially before catching up with the control group in the semantically dissimilar and acoustically similar and dissimilar lists
However, those in the Semantically Similar condition
performed worse at the start and end
The LTM gets confused retrieving words which are semantically similar
Conclusion: The LTM encodes words semantically
Was Baddeley’s classic study generalisable? (3 points)
Low generalisability
Only used 72 psychology university students as participants - low population validity
Psychologist students are likely to be attuned to research methods, may have guessed the aim - demand characteristics elicited
Baddeley - Gender & culture issues (2 points)
Sample was made up of British volunteers
LTM works the same for people from all countries - this sample is probably representative
Baddeley - Reductionism
Doesn’t take emotional significance of material to individuals into account (Craik and Lockhart’s levels of processing theory)
How ethical was Baddeley’s classic study? (3 points)
Viewing a list of 10 words and recalling them in order - not a task which caused any issues of protection from harm
Participants were debriefed afterwards too
Lack of informed consent about the four IVs - deception needed to prevent demand characteristics and increase validity so benefits outweighed the cost
Baddeley - Nature-nurture
???
Is Baddeley’s classic study applicable to real life? (3 points)
The finding of LTM encoding semantically can be usefully applied in education - could improve memorisation for student exams
Students could be advised to think about the meaning of content (semantic processing) rather than just repeating it
They can reorganise info into mind maps and spider diagrams, relating it to other things they know
Baddeley - Decades (Time)
Additions to the WMM have helped move research forward over time
Was Baddeley’s classic study reliable? (2 points)
Was a controlled laboratory experiment with a standardised procedure
Could be replicated to test the reliability of findings
Explain how Baddeley’s classic study has high internal validity. (5 points)
Only the IV was changed - cause and effect established
Operationalised and objectively measured DV (% recalled in correct order) reduces investigator bias
Standardised procedure for all 4 groups - no situational extraneous variables
Time to practice the task was identified as a potential situational extraneous variable and controlled by Baddeley
Independent groups design with different participants in each condition (type of word list) ensured results weren’t confounded by fatigue effects
Explain how Baddeley’s study has limited internal validity. (2 points)
Only tested semantic long-term memories being the order of a list - other types of LTMs not considered
Word lists were only provided visually - results may have been different results if presented acoustically
