Memory - Context Flashcards
What’s context?
The situation in which something happens
Can act as a cue to recall info
What’s the aim of Godden & Baddeley’s study?
To see if they could demonstrate that recall for things learnt underwater is more accurate if recall is also underwater
What’s the method of Godden & Baddeley’s study?
- 18 members of a diving club had to listen to 36 unrelated words either on the beach or underwater
- they were tested after 4 mins to see how many words they could recall
- there were 4 groups (ww, dd, wd & dw)
What’s the results of Godden & Baddeley’s study?
Wet/wet & dry/dry had better recall
Overall, recall for the same context conditions was approximately 40% higher than it was for differing contexts
What’s the conclusions of Godden & Baddeley’s study?
Suggests the context of learning acts as a trigger or cue when trying to remember info
Context enhances the accuracy of memory
A weakness of context as a theory (artificial)
- Words lists were used to test it, artificial
- field so environment is natural but task isn’t
- the word task is simple & other research found tasks with complex materials don’t show strong context effects
- results can’t be applied to all situations
A weakness of context as a theory ( specific effect)
- participants had to recall words almost immediately
- a short time gap is unrealistic
- we’d need to know if context affects longer gaps
- only tells us about a v specific site of circumstances
