Grant: Memory (Cognitive) Flashcards
When was Grant’s study published?
1998
What theories was Grant’s study based on?
-Context-dependent memory refers to improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same
-The characteristics of the environment are encoded as part of the memory trace and can be used to enhance retrieval
-When contextual information is not particularly salient, context-dependent effects on memory are reduced
-The effects of context change on memory retrieval are much greater in recall tests than in recognition tests, suggesting there are differences in the retrieval processes
What is the background to Grant’s study?
-Interested in determining whether environmental context-dependency effects would be found with the type of material and types of tests typically encountered in school
-Focus on study conditions rather than classroom conditions
-Observations showed that many high school students study material in noisy environments
-Grant aimed to show that environmental context can have a more positive effect on performance in a meaningful memory test in matching conditions
What is recall?
The accessing of memories with very few prompts, such as when you write an essay and you have to remember lots of information with just a short title to help you.
What is recognition?
Where you are required to decide which of two or more items you have seen before, such as when you answer a multiple-choice question by selecting the option that you have previously learned is correct. In recognition there are many more cues to assist with memory, so the task is easier.
What are meaningful items?
Items which are understandable and can be related to such as relating to shopping, school courses, or jobs. This is different to lists of nonsense syllables many experimenters use to overcome the risk that some items might have particular relevance to participants and would be more likely to be remembered. However, this is not representative of real life.
What was the research method and design in Grant’s study?
Lab experiment using an independent measures design
What is cue dependency?
The idea that when a to-be-remembered item is stored, other pieces of information present at the same time are stored with it. These extra pieces of information, from the context of the person’s state, can later act as cues to aid recall.
What was the IV and DV of Grant’s study?
-The IV was whether the participant read the 2 page article under silent or noisy conditions and whether they were tested in matched or mismatched conditions
-The DV was the participant’s performance on a short answer recall test and a multiple choice recall test
What was the sample for Grant’s study?
-8 members of a psychology laboratory class served as experimenters. Each experimenter recruited 5 acquaintances to serve as participants
-Snowball sampling
-There were 39 participants, ranging in age from 17 to 56 years, 17 were female and 23 were male (1 participant’s results were omitted
What was the procedure for Grant’s study?
-Each experimenter provided their own cassette player and headphones
-Instruction, describing the experiment as a class project and stating that participation was voluntary, were read aloud
-Participants were asked to read the same two-page, three-columned article on psychoimmunology and were allowed to highlight and underline
-Informed that their comprehension would be tested with both a short answer and multiple choice test
-All wore headphones. Those in the silent condition wouldn’t hear anything, those in the noisy condition listened to identical cassettes of background noise recorded during lunchtime in a university cafeteria played at a moderately loud level. They were asked to ignore this.
-Reading times were recorded
-There was a break after reading before starting the test to minimise recall from short term memory.
-Short answer test was given, then the multiple choice test
-Participants were then tested in either noisy or silent (matched or mismatched) conditions
-Participants were then debriefed
-The entire procedure lasted about 30 minutes
What were the results of Grant’s study?
-Participants in all groups spent about equal amounts of time studying the material so reading time was used as a co-variable in the analysis of test performance
-For both short answer and multiple choice tests, performance was significantly better in matching conditions than in non-matching ones
-There was no overall effect of noise on performance
What possible conclusions can be made from Grant’s study?
-The are context-dependency effects for newly learned meaningful material, regardless of whether a short-answer test or a multiple-choice test is used to assess learning
-Studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance
-Students are likely to perform better in exams if they study for them with a minimum of background noise because, although there was no overall effect of noise on performance, exams take place in silent conditions
What were the strengths and weaknesses of the research method used in Grant’s study?
-It was possible to eliminate many extraneous variables. Participants had the same silent or noisy conditions (headphones and cassette tape) and were given the same instructions (to ignore the tape). To make sure participants did not use short term memory, there was a 2 minute break. These increase validity and reliability.
-However, some variables could not be standardised, such as reading time
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the type of data collected in Grant’s study?
-Quantitative data
-Easy comparison between conditions
-No analysis of essay-style questions or participants’ views on what it felt like to study in silence
-Students may feel unable to concentrate, or cannot work for as long without some additional source of stimulation and end up learning less. As there is no feedback from students, findings may not be considered complete
