Baddeley 1966b Classic Study

Question 1

What was the aim of Baddeley’s study?

Answer 1

To test the hypothesis that LTM will be affected in the same way as the STM

Question 2

How many experiments did Badddely carry out?

Answer 2

Baddeley carried out a series of 3 experiments to investigate the difference between STM and LTM

Question 3

How did Baddeley attempt to test LTM and STM in experiment 1?

Answer 3

Attempted to test LTM using word lists on a tape recording but Baddeley realised participants were also using their STM which was a confounding variable

Question 4

What did Baddeley introduce in experiment 2?

Answer 4

Introduced an interference task to cancel out the effects of the STM meaning that participants were only using their LTM to perform recall tasks

Question 5

What other change did Baddeley make before carrying out experiment 3?

Answer 5

This change was to present the word lists as a slide show instead of a tape recording to remove any problems with participants who couldn’t hear well

Question 6

What were the aims of Baddeleys experiment 3?

Answer 6

To see if LTM is impaired by semantically similar words (words with similar meaning)

To demonstrate that LTM will not be impaired by acoustically similar words (words which sound the same)

Question 7

What was Condition A list A like in Baddeleys experiments?

Answer 7

10 acoustically similar words e.g. man, cab, can

Question 8

What was Condition B list B like in Baddeleys experiments?

Answer 8

Control list of 10 acoustically dissimilar words e.g. pit, few, cow

These were matched for frequency of occurrence in daily language

Question 9

What was Condition C list C like in Baddeleys experiments?

Answer 9

10 semantically similar adjectives e.g. great, large, big

Question 10

What was Condition D list D like in Baddeleys experiments?

Answer 10

Control list of 10 adjectives with dissimilar meanings e.g. good, huge, hot

Question 11

What type of design was used in Baddeleys experiments?

Answer 11

An independent groups design was used with young men and women from Cambridge University

Question 12

What was the total number of participants in Baddeleys experiment 3?

Answer 12

72 participants

Question 13

In the testing stage of Baddleys experiment 3 how were words presented?

Answer 13

Presented in a set order at the rate of one every 3 seconds by a slide projector

Participants were given 40 seconds to write the words in the correct order

This was repeated 4 times

Question 14

What was the interference task in Baddeleys experiment?

Answer 14

Involved copying digits to ensure that recall was using LTM only

Question 15

What were participants asked to do in the retest stage of Baddeleys experiment 3?

Answer 15

Asked to write down as much of their 10 word list that they could remember in order

Words were displayed on cards in different order during this task

Question 16

What were the results of Baddeleys experiment 3?

Answer 16

No significant differences in recall between conditions A and B

Words on the semantically dissimilar world list (list D) were recalled more accurately than the semantically similar word list (list C)

Question 17

What was the conclusion of Baddeleys experiment 3?

Answer 17

LTM is different to STM and both employ different coding systems

STM uses acoustic coding whilst LTM uses semantic coding

STM is impaired by acoustic similarity whilst LTM is impaired by semantic similarity

Question 18

What are the strengths of Baddeleys study?

Answer 18

High internal validity

Reliable

Objectivity

Question 19

What are the weaknesses of Baddeleys study?

Answer 19

Low ecological validity

Ethnocentric sample

Individual differences

Question 20

Why did Baddeleys study have high internal validity?

Answer 20

He used controls due to the fact a lab experiment was used

Such controls allowed Baddeley to eliminate the possibility of extraneous variables affecting the DV

Question 21

Why did Baddeleys study have low ecological validity?

Answer 21

Such high levels of control may result in artificial test of memory and it may be argued that learning a list of words is not generalisable to real life memory tasks

Question 22

Why is reliability a strength of Baddeleys study?

Answer 22

The use of a standardised procedure to allow replication with numerous participants was advantageous. For example, instructions given to the participants were the same and the word list was presented using the projector at the rate of one word every 3 seconds. Replication of the procedure allowed Baddeley to check the consistency of his results over the three experiments therefore increasing the reliability of his findings.

Question 23

How did Baddeleys study use an ethnocentric sample?

Answer 23

In experiment 3 the participants were from Cambridge University

The data from this sample may not be representative of the memory ability of the wider population because they were all young and from a university meaning they have higher intelligence than average

Question 24

How might Baddeley using an independent group design have led to individual differences?

Answer 24

The attention levels and mood may have influenced the participants recall and consequently affected the DV

Question 25

Why is objectivity a strength of Baddeley’s study?

Answer 25

The collection of quantitative data in the form of individual scores out of ten allowed for statistical tests to be conducted to check for significance in the data between the four conditions. Using such tests to analyse the data required no personal interpretation making the findings more scientific and increasing objectivity.