'To what extent' Qs Flashcards
Structure
Always:
1. What did we know before the study
2. What do we know after the study
3. To what extent has this changed (fully/partly/not at all)
To what extent does Loftus and Palmer’s study change our understanding of behavior?
Before the study:
- Memory was seen to be a video-camera which record everything that happens
Findings of the study / What do we know afterwards:
- Memory is reconstructive. Memories consists of information from original event with information received post-event.
- This is known as P’s presented with the verb ‘smashed’ produced higher mean speed estimates than P’s presented with the verb ‘contacted’
How has our understanding changed:
- Memory is then known to be much less reliable
- Our understanding of eyewitness testimony has changed
1 To what extent does Grant et al’s study change our understanding of behaviour
Before the study:
- Godden and Baddeley had already found that divers recalled more words when tested in the same environment that they studied them
- Memory is context dependent
Findings of the study/ what do we know after the study:
- Similarly, Grant found P’s showed better recall and recognition memory for information from an article when they encoded and retrieve in the same noise level
How has our understanding changed:
- The study does not change our understanding of behavior
2 To what extent does Grant’s study change our understanding of behavior?
Before the study:
- Parents thought their children were ruining their exam chances by revising with the TV on
- Thought that noise makes memorization of studies worse
Findings/ What we know after the study:
- P’s showed better recall and recognition memory for information from an article when they encoded and retrieved information in the same noise level. There was no independent effect of noise.
How has our understanding changed:
- Did not changed our understanding in that students who revise in noise are harming their chances of recalling information in a silent exam.
- Changed by showing that it is not the noises which is the problem, but the mismatch between conditions.
STRUCTURE of:
To what extent has Grant’s study changed our understanding of memory? Refer to both Grant’s study and Loftus and Palmers’ study in your answer
- Start with older study (with finding)
- Compare and contrast (with finding)
= 3/5 marks - Second line of argument. Start with older study
- Compare and contrast
= 6/8 marks
*Tip: Finish 1st line of argument first
MODEL ANSWER:
To what extent has Grant’s study changed our understanding of memory? Refer to both Grant’s study and Loftus and Palmers’ study in your answer
Before Grant, Loftus and Palmer had already shown us that situational factors have had effect on memory. We know this because the study found that P’s who saw the strongest verb ‘‘Smashed’ gave higher speed estimates than P’s who saw the weaker verb ‘Contacted’, showing the situational factor of the intensity of the verb on the Questionnaire had an effect on memory.
Similarly, Grant found P’s in matched encoding and retrieval conditions produced higher scores on the memory tests than P’s in mismatched conditions, showing the situational factor of context matching had an effect on memory. Therefore, as both studies show the effect of external factors on memory, our understanding has not changed.
Furthermore, before Grant, Loftus and Palmer had already shown that students’ memory can be manipulated. 195 university students took part in the experiments which showed that strength of the verb in the critical question would be used to manipulate memory for the speed of cars and presence of broken glass.
Conversely, Grant showed that the memory of adults of wider ages can be manipulated. 39 adults aged 17-56 years old showed context dependence in memory showing that performance on memory tests can be manipulated by matching or mismatching study and retrieval contexts. Therefore, Grant’s study has changed our understanding by showing that adults’ memory is just as malleable as students’ memory.
