classic study: Baddeley LTM

Question 1

What was the aim of Baddeley’s study

Answer 1

• to investigate whether LTM encodes acoustically or semantically.

Question 2

who were used in sample

Answer 2

• 72 males and females
• from ‘applied psychology research unit’ in cambridge

Question 3

what type of method used?

Answer 3

lab

Question 4

what did ‘condition A’ entail

Answer 4

pp’s learned a list of acoustically similar words

Question 5

what did ‘condition B’ entail

Answer 5

pp’s learnt a list of acoustically dissimilar words

Question 6

what did ‘condition C’ entail

Answer 6

pp’s learnt a list of 10 semantically similar words

Question 7

what did ‘condition D’ entail

Answer 7

pp’s learned a list of 10 semantically dissimilar words

Question 8

describe procedure of the classic study

Answer 8

-each list of 10 words were presented on a projector in a set order, one word every 3 seconds.
- after the 72 pp’s from ‘applied psychology research unit’ asked to complete 6 tasks involving memory digits to prevent rehearsal
- given 1 min to recall words in order
- this was repeated over 4 trials
- groups then given 20 min interference task involving copying 8 digit sequences
- pp’s then given a surprise test on word sequence of their condition

Question 9

what was the IV

Answer 9

acoustically/semantically similar/dissimilar

Question 10

what is the DV

Answer 10

number of words recalled in correct order

Question 11

why did they repeat over 4 trials

Answer 11

to make sure the words learned were in the pp’s LTM by trials 3 and 4

Question 12

what were results of Baddeley’s study

Answer 12

• around 40% of people recalled acoustically similar words correctly in 2 trials compared to 60% for acoustically dissimilar words.
• around 50% of semantically similar words were recalled in trial 4 compared to 85% of semantically dissimilar which was a significant difference
• none of the conditions showed any significance further forgetting between trial 4 and the retest

Question 13

conclusion of experiment

Answer 13

• pp’s found it harder to recall acoustically similar words
  -shows STM is largely acoustic as similar words were harder to encode into the LTM
• pp’s found it harder to recall semantically similar words
• this shows that encoding in LTM is largely semantic
• therefore study demonstrates how STM and LTM are affected differently by different types of encoding

Question 14

how could the study have high generalisability

Answer 14

memory is universal therefore results and conclusions should be true for all individuals

Question 15

how could the study have low generalisability

Answer 15

study used a sample of 72 student volunteers from britain. Therefore ethnocentric are not representative of difference in word structure in other countries + not representative to people with brain damage which may have an effect on memory

Question 16

reliability of study

Answer 16

follows standardised procedures (e.g. one word every 3 seconds) therefore it is easy to replicate and test for consistency

it uses quantitative data of how many words are remembered in the different word lists of acoustic and semantic. Therefore, the data is easier to compare, and is objective + scientific.

Question 17

application of the study

Answer 17

can be used to inform students on revision techniques as the study suggests the LTM encodes semantically. Therefore, the advice to students is to use methods such as mind maps and revision cards that create semantic links instead of re-reading notes as the info will more likely encode in the LTM if semantic.

Question 18

evaluate the validity of the study (one for and one against)

Answer 18

high internal validity - controlled order of words on the list and how long they appeared for with the same word lists for each person in that condition. Therefore, cause and effect can be established between word list similarity being the only factor responsible for memory impairment.

low internal task validity - used a list of 10 words for each condition that they had to recall a total of 5 times. Therefore, this doesn’t reflect memory in real life as we don’t often recite word lists