Grant Et Al Flashcards
Background of grant, et al’s (1998) study on context, dependent memory
Research into environmental content
The environmental content dependency affect refers to queues that matrix you to remember something e.g. if you revisit a place you have been before you may suddenly recall events that happened when you were last there the place(environment) act as a cue to recall
Aim of grant, et al’s (1998) study on context, dependent memory
To look at environmental context effects with different types of material, specifically the effect of noise
Design method of grant, et al’s (1998) study on context, dependent memory
Laboratory experiment, independent measures design with four conditions
Condition 1=read and take the test in silence
Condition 2=reading silence and take the test with background noise
Condition 3= read with background noise and take a test in silence
Condition 4= read with background noise and take the test with background noise
IV 1 -weather, reading and test were matching or not (condition 1 and 4)
IV 2 -effects of studying in noisy versus silent conditions(conditions, one and two verses, three and four)
DV-number of items correctly recorded on a short answer and multiple-choice test.
Sample of grant, et al’s (1998) study on context, dependent memory. 
Opportunity sample of, 39 American participants, 17 women and 22 men age 17 to 56 years old
Materials/apparatus
A passage on psychoimmunology and noisy tape created by recording students in a cafeteria, head, test of recall with short answer questions and 16 multiple-choice questions.
Procedure
Each experimenter had standardised instructions to read out loud
Participants read the article once (they could highlight important parts of the text) and were told they would be given short answer and multiple-choice tests on their comprehension.
All participants were headphones while they read and had moderately loud noise or silence, but were told to ignore the noise
The time taken to read, the passage was recorded by the experimenters
About two minutes followed participants reading to minimise, simple recall of information from short term memory
Participants were tested on their recall wearing headphones, and were told beforehand that the background would be noisy or silent
Short answer test was given and then multiple-choice test
Participants were debriefed at the end . Altogether the entire procedure lasted about 30 minutes.
Results on grant et als (1998) study on context dependent memory
Participants in all experimental conditions spent roughly an equal amount of time reading the article
Participants performed better on multiple-choice tests than short answer tests, i.e. better on the test of recognition than the test of recall
The lowest score on the multiple-choice test was 79%, whereas the highest score in the short answer recall test was 67%
Participants got higher test scores on the two matching conditions i.e. the noisy study noisy test and silent study, silent test conditions .
There was a significant EC effect for both kinds of test as shown by inferential statistics .
Time to read, the article was not significantly different between the noisy and silent reading conditions
No, did not have a negative effect on studying. Overall, the students who studied in the noisy conditions did slightly better on the final tests than those studying and silent conditions.
Conclusion on grant et als (1998) study on context dependent memory
Background noise does not appear to have a detrimental effect on studying
Both recognition and recall are affected by environmental context effects.
Research method and techniques
+ the task had mundane realism reading an article and trying to recall information similar to what students typically do, so the results of the study can be generalised to the everyday life of students.
-participants were tested and somewhat varying conditions so extremely variables e.g. other distractions in the room where they studied or were tested may have affected final test score.
Validity
-Smith, 1982, suggested that the environmental context, dependency affects do not affect exam learning most students studying more than one environment and so multiple learning environments. Make information context independent reducing the validity of these results.
-this study lacks ecological validity as environmental context. Dependency effects are largely eliminated when meaningful associations are created between the pieces of information learner
Sampling bias
+ participants were students and friends of the experiment. This is an appropriate sample to use when studying environmental context, dependency effects on recall of meaningful material
-Students are not always motivated in research, so some of them may not have tried very hard on the test they were given
Type of data
Quantitative data only the final comparison evolved using Tesco’s. This makes it easy to analyse the data.
Ethical considerations
+Informed consent gained as participants knew the experiment was a class project, and it was voluntary
+participants debriefed afterwards, and data kept confidential.
-Protection from home had to be considered as participants may feel they did not do very well in their test, and this could cause a loss of confidence in their academic abilities.
Ethnocentrism
- The participants were American, and thus exposed to a culture that tends to focus on learning in a classroom
Other cultures may spend more time learning a natural context where EC affects may be different
