serial position curve study (Murdock)

Question 1

who was the researcher for the serial position curve study?

Answer 1

Bennet B Murdock

Question 1

what was the aim for the serial position curve study?

Answer 1

to investigate if memory of words was affected by the number of words a person had to remember

Question 2

what was the IV in the serial position curve study?

Answer 2

the length of the word lists from 10 words to 40 words

Question 3

what was the DV in the serial position curve study?

Answer 3

the amount of words recalled by the pp’s

Question 4

what was the research method in the serial position curve study?

Answer 4

lab experiment

Question 5

what was the experimental design in the serial position curve study?

Answer 5

repeated measures

Question 6

what was the sample in the serial position curve study?

Answer 6

103 Psychology students

Question 7

what was controlled in the serial position curve study?

Answer 7

words were all common English words, controlled the speed the words were read at

Question 8

what were the results/findings of the serial position curve study?

Answer 8

the primacy effect: words at the beginning are recalled more than at the middle
the recency effect: words at the end are recalled more than at the middle

Question 9

what was the conclusion of the serial position curve study?

Answer 9

‘serial position effect’: the position of a word determines the chance of recall

Question 10

what was the supporting evidence ‘Point’ of the the serial position curve study?

Answer 10

Murdock’s study was well controlled

Question 11

what was the supporting evidence ‘Evidence’ of the the serial position curve study?

Answer 11

it was well controlled, as Murdock chose familiar English words, he also controlled how quickly the words were read

Question 12

what was the supporting evidence ‘Explanation’ of the the serial position curve study?

Answer 12

‘this is a strength because potential extraneous variables (e.g lack of familiarity of speed) were controlled, so we are more confident that the the IV alone was affecting the DV’

Question 13

what was the supporting evidence ‘Link’ of the the serial position curve study?

Answer 13

this increases internal validity of the study and increases our confidence that the results show that position of words in a list does affect recall

Question 14

what was the opposing evidence ‘Point’ of the the serial position curve study?

Answer 14

Murdock’s study involved using an artificial task to test memory

Question 15

what was the opposing evidence ‘Evidence’ of the the serial position curve study?

Answer 15

Murdock used word lists to test recall

Question 16

what was the opposing evidence ‘Explanation’ of the the serial position curve study?

Answer 16

using word lists to test memory only tells us about how we memorise words, however, in real life we remember more than just words, such as meaning, context, clues and people

Question 17

what was the opposing evidence ‘Link’ of the the serial position curve study?

Answer 17

as a result, Murdock’s study only tells us about one specific type of memory (memorising words), meaning we cannot generalise the findings to all types of memory- this study lacks mundane realism