Cognitive (CONTEMPORARY) - memory - GRANT

Question 1

Context dependent memory

Answer 1

Recall of information is enhanced if we are recalling the information in a similar context to how we learn it

Question 2

Recall

Answer 2

Retrieving information with very few prompts

Question 3

Recognition

Answer 3

Comes with prompts

Question 4

Background

Answer 4

Grant was interested in applying the theory of context dependent memory to students

Question 5

Aim

Answer 5

Test for context dependency effects caused by the presence or absence of noise during learning and retrieval of meaningful material

Question 6

Research method

Answer 6

Lab experiment

Question 7

Experimental design

Answer 7

Independent measures

Question 8

IVs

Answer 8

• condition of reading the article (noise/silent condition)
• testing condition (matching or mismatching to reading condition

Question 9

4 conditions

Answer 9

1. Learn with noise present and recall with noise present
2. Learn in silence and recall in silence
3. Learn with noise present and recall in silence
4. Learn in silence and recall with noise present

Question 10

Dv

Answer 10

Performance on a short answer recall test and a multiple choice test

Question 11

Sample

Answer 11

Conducted by 8 psychology students who served as experimenters
Each experimenter recruited 5 acquaintances who served as the participants. 39 participants. 17 females and 23 males aged between 17-56 with mean age 23.4

Question 12

how participants were assigned to conditions

Answer 12

each experimenter responsible for 5 participants, one participant per condition and then the 5th was randomly assigned to any 1 of the 4 conditions

Question 13

standardized instructions

Answer 13

during verbal standardized instructions it was outlined to the participants that this research was part of a class project and that their participation was voluntary. They were informed that short answer and MCQ would follow the reading of the article

Question 14

procedure

Answer 14

participants were asked to read an article once as if reading for a class assignment being allowed to highlight and underline
all experimenters had there own casette players and headphones and made participants wear headphones while they read the article
reading time was recorded by the experimenter and there was a 2 minute break between finishing the reading and being tested
in the test all participants were tested with the short answer questions first to ensure that it was recall of the article not prompted by the options in the MCQ
participants again all wore the headphones for the testing phase but again half were hearing nothing while the other half had the cafeteria noise
some were in matching conditions (learn and recall in the same environment and some were were in mismatching conditions (learning and recalling in different environments
at the end of the testing participants were debriefed about the true nature of the study and the entire procedure lasted 30 minutes

Question 15

describe the article

Answer 15

2 pages with 3 columns of text to a page on psychoimmunology

Question 16

describe the two conditions

Answer 16

In the silent condition nothing was played through the headphones an were told they would not hear anything but still had to wear them
In the noise condition noise was played at moderately loud level and participants were told to ignore the noise

Question 17

explain why there was a 2minute gap in between reading the article and answering the questions

Answer 17

to prevent short term memory effects

Question 18

describe the short answer questions

Answer 18

10 questions tested in order as the information appeared in the article

Question 19

describe the MCQs

Answer 19

16 questions each with aa correct option and 4 alternatives

Question 20

findings - reading speed

Answer 20

no significant difference in reading speed between the silent group and the noisy group

Question 21

findings - performance

Answer 21

performance was better when the participants were in matching conditions

Question 22

findings - matching conditions

Answer 22

there was no difference between the two matching conditions

Question 23

conclusions

Answer 23

1. memory in context dependent, memories are formed with traces of the environment which can then improve recall of said memory for example on the short answer questions out of 10 on the matched condition the mean was 6.7 compared to 4.6 on the mismatched environment
2. studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance thus students are likely to perform better in exams if they study for them with a minimum background noise as there are no overall effects of noise on performance

Question 24

strength of research method

Answer 24

lots of controls to remove extraneous variables For example the standardized verbal instructions and same cafeteria sound in the headphones means we can determine a cause and effect that any difference in test performance was down to the match/mismatch of the learning and recall conditions

Question 25

high ecological validity

Answer 25

the study had the student participants read a text not to dissimalar to other style they would read for their courses so it is a more realistic of memory than unelated word tests so raising the ecological validity. Able to generalise and apply the results to real life behaviour such as learning for an exam which makes the results for useful

Question 26

low ecological validity

Answer 26

the textbeing read was not meaningful to the participants as it was not relavant to their own courses, had the participants been recalling information that already existed in their existing framework of knowledge the results may have been different

Question 27

high internal reliability

Answer 27

materials used, headphones and texts and standardized instructions. Procedure of the study should have been easy to replicate to test for consistency in how context plays a role in our ability’s to recall previously learned information (testing for external reliability)

Question 28

not standardized in the procedure

Answer 28

time to read article

Question 29

strength of data collected

Answer 29

quantitiative data allows for comparisons to be made between conditions. In this case we can objectively see that participants performed better on both tests when they learned and recalled in the matching condition compared to the mismatching condition. This means we can form valid conclusions about the effect of the different learning environment contexts

Question 30

weakness of data collected

Answer 30

we lack insight into how students might usually prefer to work or why they feel having background noise helps them when studying for real exams it ay be that when studying for longer periods the background music served to stimulate concentration

Question 31

population validity

Answer 31

participants made up of people who were acquaintances of the experimenters therefore they would be from similar social groups and likely to be unrepresentative. It also is possible that given their ties to the researchers and being aware that the researchers were psychology students that the participants would be more prone to demand characteristics

Question 32

ethnocentrism

Answer 32

study doesn’t suggest that one particular culture that has a way of learning or recalling information is better than others or that we process information differently. The tools used to measure learning could be used in a variety of different cultures where their context will be different but applicable to their own

Question 33

ethics

Answer 33

the study is ethical - the participants were not deceived, they were given enough information within the instructions to give informed consent (in the way they knew exactly what they were going to be experiencing in terms of reading task, headphones and recall tests) They were given the right to withdraw and were debriefed immediately after testing

Question 34

practical applications

Answer 34

the study highlights the importance in context when understanding memory and considering what factors can reduce a person’s ability to recall information
Police could take witnesses back to the scene of the crime in the context and environment they saw the incident