Grant (Cognitive) Flashcards
What are the three stages of memory and what do they mean ?
Encoding - changing what we experience into something that makes sense to us
Storage - keeping the information for later use
Retrieval - retrieving the information from the storage
What might influence retrieval ?
Characteristics of the environment act as cues to enhance retrieval
Referred to as context dependent memory effect
What did godden and baddeley study ?
They studied the effects of context on memory using deep sea divers
What did was godden and baddeleys procedure?
Divers had to learn a list of words either underwater or on land and then had to recall either in the same or different environment
What did Godden and baddeley find ?
Divers recalled more words when the condition they learnt in matched the condition they had to recall in
What was the aim of grants study ?
Grant aimed to investigate context dependent memory effects on both recall and recognition
Is performance on a memory test improved when the environment in which we encode and recall are the same
What were the 2 IV’s ?
IV 1- the environment the P’s read the article in (silent or noisy)
IV 2- the environment the participants were tested in (matching or mismatching)
What were the 2 DV’s ?
DV 1- 10 short answer questions (recall)
DV 2 - 16 multiple choice questions (recognition)
What was grants sample ?
39 p’s, 17 female, 22 male
Age range 17-56, mean age 23.4
8 researchers in the study recruited 5 participants each
P’s only took part in one condition (independent measures)
Each experiment allocated one of their p’s to a condition then the lead experimenter allocated the remaining one so each condition was even
What were the conditions ?
Noisy study - noisy test = 10 p’s
Noisy study - silent test = 10 p’s
Silent study - noisy test = 10 p’s
Silent study - silent test = 9 p’s + 1
The plus one was because a P’s results were omitted as they were an outlier
What was the article they gave people to read about ?
Psychoimmunology
How was the noisy condition made ?
They played a recording of a uni cafeteria through earphones at a moderate level
All participants wore earphones
What was grants Procedure ?
P’s to read article once highlighting then given a 2 min break, then earphones on
P’s then completed the SAQs first so the options of the MCQs would not affect memory
MCQ then completed
Participants were then debriefed
Mean number of correct answers out of 10 on recall (SAQ) task for each condition
Noisy study - noisy test = 6.2
Noisy study - silent test = 5.4
Silent study - noisy test = 4.6
Silent study - silent test = 6.7
Mean number of correct answers out of 16 on the recognition (MCQ) task for each condition
Noisy study - noisy test = 14.3
Noisy study - silent test = 12.7
Silent study - noisy test = 12.7
Silent study - silent test = 14.3
What were the findings ?
The difference in time spent on the article was not significant so the researchers said this did not influence their results
Context dependent memory applies for newly learned material in recall and recognition
Learning and remembering in the same environment leads to enhanced performance on memory tasks
What was the ecological validity like for this test ?
This has a high ecological validity as ut is a task often seen in classrooms
P’s were tested a few mins after learning the material where as most assessments occur a significant time after learning the new information
What are the ethics like in this test ?
P’s had given consent to take part
There was an element of deception as they were not told the focus was on context dependent memory but this was necessary
P’s were debriefed after the study
What was the quantitative data ?
MCQs and SAQs both collected quantitative data
This allowed for a quick and easy comparison between conditions and both experiments
It also means the data is objective and not influenced by researcher opinion
What are some of the criticisms of the sample ?
All p’s were known to the researchers and lived in the same area of America
There may be biases in the sample due to opportunity sampling
The limitations of the sample may make it hard to generalise the results
What were the demand characteristics in this test ?
P’s were aware the study was about memory and may have changed their behaviour because of this
This would reduce validity
