Cognitive studies Flashcards
What was the aim of Baddeley’s (1966) classic study
To investigate the influence of acoustic and semantic word similarity on learning and recall in the long-term memory
What was the procedure of Baddeley’s (1966) classic study
- Lab experiment- independent groups
- 72 participants- men & women split into 4 conditions
- List A- acoustically similar words, List B- accoustically dissimilar words, List C- Semantically similar, List D- semantically dissimilar
- The list was presented out loud on tape and participants given 40 seconds to recall the 10 words in order
- Then given an interference task then repeated this 3 times
- After the 4th test they were given a 15 min interference task then a suprise recall
What were the results and conclusion of Baddeley’s (1966) classic study
- The recall for acoustically similar and dissimilar words were exactly the same
- Recall for semantically similar words were worse than semantically dissimilar
- Short-term memory encodes accoustically whereas long-term memory encodes semantically
What are the strengths of Baddeley’s (1966) classic study
- Lab experiment- used strong controls, extraneous variables were controlled well
- Cause and effect conclusions can be established
- High reliability
- Application to revision
What were the weaknesses of Baddeley’s (1966) classic study
- Lack of ecological validity- not the sort of things we remember
- Low generalisability- not all types of memory were tested
What were the weaknesses of Baddeley’s (1966) classic study
- Lack of ecological validity- not the sort of things we remember
- Low generalisability- not all types of memory were tested
What was the aim of Sebastian & Hernandez-Gil’s (2012) contemporary study
To invetsigate the development of the phonological loop component of the working memory using digit span as a measure of loop capacity
What was the procedure of Sebastian & Hernandez-Gil’s (2012) contemporary study
- Field setting (conducted in schools)
- IV- age of the children
- DV- mean verbal digit span
- 575 children from pre-school, primary school and secondary school- ages 5-17 split into 5 age groups
- Children were tested individually during break time
- Sequences of random digits that increases by one everytime were read aloud and they had to recall them in the correct order
What are the findings and conclusion of Sebastian & Hernandez-Gil’s (2012) contemporary study
- There is a clear increase in digit span with age
- Compared results with Anglo-saxon study ad found elderly participants had a higher digit span than 5-6 years but no different from 11-17 year olds
- Phonological loop is affected by age, not by dementia
