memory studies and dates Flashcards
Outline Jacobs’ (1887) research on capacity.
Jacobs (1887) measured digit span. Participants were given a sequence of digits and then asked to recall them out loud in the correct order.
The sequence was increased by one each time until the participant could no longer recall the sequence. The mean span was 9.3 for numbers and 7.3 for letters.
Evaluate Jacobs’ (1887) research on capacity.
One strength of Jacobs’ study is that it has been replicated. An old study is very old and is likely to have been poorly controlled.
Participants may have been distracted and performed worse. This may reduce the validity of the research due to poorly controlled confounding variables, e.g. the longer the digit sequence the more time there is to get distracted. The results of this study have been supported by further research supporting its validity.
What year was millers study
1956
Outline the key features of the working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch 1674).
It is an explanation of how STM is organised and how it functions. It is concerned with the part of the mind that is active when you are thinking.
Central executive, episodic buffer, visuospatial sketch pad, phonological loop (articulacy control system and phonological store).
What year was MCgeoch and Mcdonald
1931
McGeoch and McDonald (1931).
Participants learned a list of words to 100% accuracy. They were then given a new list to learn. The new lists varied in how similar they were to the original.
Group 1: synonyms
Group 2: antonyms
Group 3: totally unrelated words
Group 4: nonsense syllables
Group 5: three-digit numbers
Group 6: no new list -
participants just rested Participants were then asked to recall the original list. Recall performance varied depending on which group they were in. The most similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall. This suggests interference is strongest when memories are similar. In group 1 it is likely that the words with the same meanings as the original list blocked access or that the new material became confused with the old.
Baddeley and Hitch
1977
What was badly hitch
asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played so far in that season, week by week. Accurate recall was not related to how long ago the match was More important was the number of games played before recall. This suggests more games caused interference with the memories. This study suggests that interference could apply to some everyday situations.
Describe the Johnson and Scott (1976) study on anxiety.
The study suggests anxiety has a negative effect on recall. Participants heard an argument in next room. Low anxiety condition: Man walks through with pen and grease on hand. High anxiety condition: Breaking glass sound, and man walks through with paper knife covered in blood. Participants were asked to pick out the man from 50 photographs. Correct was 49% low anxiety and 33% high anxiety. Tunnel theory/weapon focus effect - attention drawn to weapon.
Pickel
(1998)
Pickel (1998)
cissors, handgun, wallet and raw chicken held in a hairdressing salon. EWT higher for unusualness (chicken or handgun). Suggests weapon focus is due to unusualness instead of anxiety.
Baddeley (1997) argues that context effects are actually not strong, especially in real life. Explain this, and what it means for the theory.
Studies use contexts that are very different. In real life contexts are never going to be that different (change of rooms maybe). Studies don’t tell us about how memory works in the real world.
Baddeley (1980)
repeated the underwater study. Used a recognition test instead of a recall test - ppts had to say if they recognised a word read to them from the list. There was no context-dependent effect. Cues only affect memory when it is tested in a certain way.
