Component 2: Grant et al (Cognitive)

Question 1

What is context dependant memory?

Answer 1

This is the idea that when a to-be-remembered item is stored, other pieces of information present at the same time as encoding are stored with it.

Question 2

What was the theory of Grant et al’s study into context dependant memory?

Answer 2

When the context present at encoding and retrieval are matching, recall of specific information is improved.

Question 3

What was the aim of Grant et al’s study?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What was the research method and sampling method in Grant et al’s study?

Answer 4

Lab experiment with matching or mismatching conditions and each of the 8 experimenters recruited 5 participants.

Question 5

Describe the sample in Grant et al.s study?

Answer 5

There were originally 40 participants but one participants results were omitted due to being an anomaly.

Question 6

Describe the procedure in Grant et al.s study into context dependant memory?

Answer 6

1. Each experimenter supplied their own cassette player and headphones and the cassettes were exact copies of background noise recorded during lunchtime in a university cafeteria. The background noise had occasional distinct words/phrases with movement of chairs. The tape was played moderately loud.
2. A two page, three columned article on psycho immunology was the study material.
3. 16 multiple choice questions, each consisting of a stem and 4 alternatives were generated for recognition. 10-short answer questions were derived from those multiple choice stems that could be answered by a single word. This tested recall. The order of questions followed the text.
4. Participants were asked to read the given article were allowed to underline/highlight and their reading time was recorded.
5. They had a two minute break before answering the questions.
6. Then they were debriefed - the entire procedure took about 30 minutes.

Question 7

What were the results of Grant et al.s study?

Answer 7

1. There was no overall effect of noise on performance but there was an interaction between study and test conditions.
2. For both types of questions, performance was was better in matching conditions rather than mismatching. This suggests memory recall is better when studying and testing is performed in similar environments in terms of noisiness of the surroundings.

Question 8

What were the conclusions of Grant et al.s study?

Answer 8

1. Studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance.
2. Evidence for context dependency suggests students are better off studying without background noise as it is not present in exam conditions (prac apps)

Question 9

How does Grant et al.s study relate to the key theme memory?

Answer 9

A study which shows another way in which memory can be affected - in this case, by whether information is recalled in a similar context to that in which it was first encountered. In contrast to Loftus and Palmer’s study, this research explains how memory can be enhanced, rather than distorted.

Question 10

How can Grant et al.s study relate to the real world?

Answer 10

This study’s results can be used to improve the effectiveness of studying techniques for students. Studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance. Students are more likely to perform better in exams if they study for them with minimum amounts of background noise because, although there was no overall effect of noise on performance, the fact that there was evidence for context-dependency suggest they are better off studying without noise as it will not be present during actual testing.