Grant (classic study)

Question 1

Previous research

Answer 1

Godden and Baddeley

Question 2

What did Godden and Baddely investigate?

Answer 2

Divers were eight taught a list of words underwater or on land
2 groups were further divided to them recall the list of words on water or on land

Question 3

What did Godden and Baddely find?

Answer 3

Divers in matching conditions (learn and recalled in same place) had better results than mismatching conditions

Question 4

What concept does Grant + Godden and Baddely investigate?

Answer 4

Context dependent memory

Question 5

Context dependent memory

Answer 5

When information is better recalled in the same environment/condition it was learnt in (called a matching condition) compared to in a different environment (mismatching condition)

Question 6

What is recall?

Answer 6

The ability to retrieve information that is stored (from memory) without any prompts

Question 7

What is recognition?

Answer 7

The ability to repeat information you’ve seen before when prompted by cues

Question 8

What is the memory process in recall tasks?

Answer 8

When in the same matching conditions to what is learnt, cues in the environment are encoded for to help retrieve information

Question 9

How is context dependent memory affected by recognition tasks?

Answer 9

The cues in the matching environment that allow for retrieving information is outshined by the recognised prompts in the question
So not a result of the context being the same but being prompted

Question 10

Recall tasks

Answer 10

To write an answer to a question based on what information someone can retrieve

Question 11

Recognition tasks

Answer 11

When presented a multiple choice question and participants have to select what they recognise from the information imputted

Question 12

What were the aims of Grants research?

Answer 12

To investigate the effect of context dependent memory and see whether this differs in recall tasks to recognition tasks
To investigate whether students can remember information learnt in the same noise condition it was learnt in better, compared to different noise condition

Question 13

What type of study was this?

Answer 13

A lab experiment which had a manipulated independent variable

Question 14

What was the independent variable?

Answer 14

The condition participants were in to either learn information (noisy or silent)
Or condition they were tested in (noisy or silent)

Question 15

What was the experimental design?

Answer 15

Independent measures because each participant only experienced one condition (of learning information in noisy or silent environment then were tested in either noisy or silent environment)
So results of participant compared to a different participant

Question 16

What is good about using independent measures?

Answer 16

No effect of order effects eg participant performing better due to practise/worse due to boredom as they only experienced the condition once
Reduced demand characteristics, less likely to guess aim only experiencing one condition

Question 17

Sample size

Answer 17

39 participants scores were analysed

Question 18

Sample method

Answer 18

8 psych students recruited 5 participants each = 40 participants
Omission of 1 score =39 participants

Question 19

Was the sample method snowball sample?

Answer 19

No because the researchers recruited participants not the participants

Question 20

Sample demographics

Answer 20

Mix of genders
Fairly large age range

Question 21

4 conditions

Answer 21

Matching conditions:
Noisy study, noisy test
Silent study, silent test
Mismatching conditions:
Silent study, noisy test
Noisy study, silent test

Question 22

How did we manipulate noisy conditions?

Answer 22

Participants wore headphones playing a recording of moderately loud cafeteria noise from a uni cafeteria

Question 23

How did we manipulate the silent conditions?

Answer 23

By wearing noise cancelling headphones that played no background noise

Question 24

Why was cafeteria noise used instead of music?

Answer 24

To control for different music preferences across participants (participant variables) that may have affected their recall ability other than if they were in matching noise conditions to mismatching conditions

Question 25

Why were headphones worn by all participants?

Answer 25

As a control so the procedure is standardised for all participants in case wearing headphones affect someone’s ability to retrieve info other than matching or mismatching conditions

Question 26

Standardised instructions

Answer 26

The first step of the procedure where participants were told the same information detailing the task as part of a class project and that this was voluntary Told participants which had noise to ignore it

Question 27

What article was given to participants?

Answer 27

On psycho immunology

Question 28

What was the learning task given?

Answer 28

Read the article on psychoimmunology Underline and annotate it to remember the information for later Given as much time as possible

Question 29

Why is the ecological validity of the task given high?

Answer 29

They were given an article related to their studying so reflects real life as if they were revising Allowed to annotate and underline to mirror studying irl

Question 30

Why is it good to give participants all the time to read the article?

Answer 30

High construct validity as this allows participants to establish a good understanding of the article so this truly tests their memory of the article So the test is not a measure of how much participants actually read but rather their memory of it

Question 31

What happened between reading the article and being tested?

Answer 31

Given a 2 minute break time to allow for information to be stored/ forgotten so is a measure of their memory rather than repeating what they immediately just read

Question 32

Test phase

Answer 32

10 short recall questions 16 multiple choice recognition task

Question 33

Test phase conditions

Answer 33

Wore headphones that played cafeteria noise or was silent depending on which group they were in

Question 34

Why did participants complete the recall test questions first?

Answer 34

To control for cues in the multiple choice questions that would allow for recognition of the information on the article participants learnt, rather than directly testing their ability to retrieve information on the article So if they did recognition first, these cues would outshine the effect of the condition on their ability to retrieve information and not be an actual measure of memory

Question 35

Debrief

Answer 35

On the true purpose of the study

Question 36

Results for matching conditions on the recognition task

Answer 36

14.3/16 Both noisy study + noisy test and silent study + silent test

Question 37

Score for mismatching conditions for recognition test

Answer 37

12.7/16 For both noisy study + silent test and silent study + noisy test

Question 38

Conclusions

Answer 38

The actual noise seems to have no effect on memory ability (as there was no difference within matching to mismatching conditions which noise level caused better results) but revising in the same condition to the test will yield better performance in memory tasks So best to revise in silent conditions if the exam is in silent conditions

Question 39

How does this link to the theme of memory?

Answer 39

Studies how memory is impacted by the context: that information is better retrieved in the same context it is learnt in compared to a different context

Question 40

How does this link to the cognitive areas?

Answer 40

Studies the internal mental process controlled by the mind: memory, and how it affects our behaviour Specifically how memory is affected by context which in turn effects performance in exams and when we can recall info under what environment