Studies

Question 1

Aim, results and conclusion of Peterson and Peterson’s study (1959)

Answer 1

• aim : to investigate the duration of short term memory
• results : after 3secs 80% were recalled correctly, after 6secs it fell to 50% and after 18secs it was less than 10%
• conclusion : info held in stm is quickly forgotten when rehearsal is disrupted

Question 2

Evaluation of Peterson and Peterson’s study

Answer 2

• G : not generalisable as psychology students have a different understanding of memory
• R : used standardised procedures so can be replicated
• A : applies to multi store model of memory
• V : low ecological validity as it isn’t a natural situation
• E : participants were deceived about the true nature of the study

Question 3

Aim, results, conclusion of baddeleys 1966 B study - experiment 1

Answer 3

• aim : to see if LTM was like STM and if in LTM acoustic similarity of words would lead to more memory impairment than semantic similarity of words
• results : in the retest there was more forgetting in the control list. There was no differences between the semantic similar and control list
• conclusion : that it was the acoustic similarity that led to less recall of the order of words

Question 4

Aim, results, conclusion of baddeleys 1966 B study - experiment 2

Answer 4

• aim : to block the use of STM in the semantically similar and control conditions, so they matched the acoustic similarly condition
• results : condition z had more recall for the acoustically similar words. Conditions x and y had a higher % of words recalled in the correct position for semantically similar words
• conclusion : the way the testing was done in exp.1 affected the learning phase. It could not answer the research question

Question 5

Evaluation of baddeleys experiment

Answer 5

• G :each group only had 15-20 people and he used volunteers = not representative
• R : standardised procedures used so it can be replicated
• A : other cognitive psychologists who have built on his research
• V : low ecological validity as task is artificial. High internal validity due to controls
• E : no significant ethical concerns

Question 6

Aim, results and conclusion of Shmolck’s study

Answer 6

• aim : to investigate the effects of specific brain damage on semantic memory and to test a relationship between semantic test scores and temporal lobe damage
• results : the patients with HF damage did as well as the controls throughout. The 3 MTL+ patients had mild difficulties on most of the tests
• conclusion : there was a relationship between how well a participant did and damage to the lateral temporal cortex

Question 7

Evaluation of shmolk’s study

Answer 7

• G : not generalisable due to small sample and the brain lesions are rare making them unrepresentative
• R : standardised procedures can be replicated, participants are hard to replicate
• A : helps to understand patients and develop skills in order to help their condition
• V : use of controls and matched pairs design increases the validity of the study. High ecological validity
• E : doctor of HM criticised for his reckless approach, communication barriers = not getting informed consent