forgetting: research

Question 1

mcgeoch and mcdonald

Answer 1

procedure: Ps had to learn list of words until they were remembered 100% accurately then were divided into 6 groups, 5 had to learn new list and 1 were controls e.g., list of synonyms, antonyms, unrelated words or numbers.
findings: Number of words recalled depended on how similar the list was to the original list with the lowest recall when given synonyms and the highest when given numbers followed by the control group.

Question 2

baddelley and hitch

Answer 2

procedure: Rugby players asked to recall names of teams they played against. Some players missed games meaning the number of teams they played differed
findings: Accuracy of recall didn’t depend on how long ago they played the teams but the number of teams they played. Those who played more games were less likely to recall earlier games

Question 3

keppel and underwood

Answer 3

procedure: Ps shown three letter trigrams at different intervals and had to count backwards in threes before recalling preventing rehearsal.
findings: Ps typically remembered trigrams presented first irrespective of interval length

Question 4

tulving and pearl stone

Answer 4

procedure: Ps asked to learn lists of words in different categories then were asked to recall the words.
findings: The categories provided context and those given category names recalled more words than those who weren’t

Question 5

baddeley (retrieval failure)

Answer 5

procedure: Asked deep sea divers to memorise list of words one group learnt them on beach and one under water ½ of the beach group had to recall under water and half of the underwater group had to recall them on the beach.
findings: Those who recalled in the same environment they learned in recalled 40% more words than those who recalled in different environment

Question 6

godwin

Answer 6

procedure: Ps performed 4 memory tasks either drunk or sober. 24 hours later they were tested in the same or different condition.
findings: People tended to perform better when sober at recall and learning or when drunk at both recall and learning

Question 7

aggleton and waskett

Answer 7

procedure: Recruited p’s who had visited yorvik centre in York 6-7 years earlier. The museum had a recreation of a Viking town with accurate smells. They were tested on their memory of the museum either accompanied by the same smells or not
findings: Those not accompanied by the same smells had worse recall