Grant

What was the aim of Grant’s experiment?

To investigated how context dependent memory affect retrieval of information and encoding of information

What is the background to Grant?

• Godden and Baddeley

• Divers took part in 4 conditions of encoding and retrieval information: Sea/Sea, Land/Land, Sea/Land, Land/Sea

• They found recall improved in matching conditions

What is the method and design for this experiment?

• Lab experiment

• Independent Measures design

What are the independent and dependent variables in this experiment?

• IV- Encoding and retrieval under noisy or silent conditions

• DV- Scores on 10 short answer questions and 16 multiple choice questions

What is the sample for Grant’s experiment?

• 40 participants but one was omitted so 39

• 17 female, 23 male

• 17-56 years old (Mean 23.4 years)

What was the procedure for Grant’s experiment?

• Experimenters randomly assigned p’s to their conditions- S/S, N/N, S/N, N/S

• Participants provided with their own cassette player and headphones

• Instructions read aloud about the article being a class project and voluntary read aloud

• The audio on the cassette tapes was that of a university cafeteria and consisted of occasional distinct phrases and words intermixed with the movement of chairs

• P’s given a two paged, 3 columned psychoimmunology article to read and they did this in either noise or silence and were given no time limit

• They were then given 10 SAQs, then 16 MCQ’s to answer which they also did in noise or silence depending on the condition

• 2 minute break between reading the article and answering the question

• At the end all participants were debriefed

• The entire procedure lasted about 30 minutes

Why was a two minute break given between reading the article and answering questions?

To minimise short term memory recall

Why were the SAQs given before the MCQs?

So that answers from multiple choice questions were not informing answers to the short answer questions

What are the results of this experiment?

Short answer questions:

• Silent/Silent- 6.7

• Noisy/Silent- 5.2

Multiple choice questions:

• Silent/Silent- 14.3

• Noisy/Silent- 12.7

What conclusions can we draw from Grant’s Study?

• Context dependency effect the ability to encode and retrieve newly learned information

• Studying in the same conditions one will be texted improves memory, therefore students should study in silence as they are tested in silence

How does Grant’s study relate to the cognitive area?

• The mind is an information processor with input, processing and output of information

• Grant aimed to investigate how context dependent memory effects the recall of information. Specifically, if studying is mismatching or matching (noisy or silent) condition effect the recall of meaningful material

• Participants in the Silent/Silent condition scored 14.3 on their multiple choice questions, whereas noisy/silent only scored 12.7

• This links to the cognitive area as the same environmental conditions where information is input and processed effects the output (scores on a test). In order to maximise memory, the conditions should be matching

How does Grant relate to the key theme of memory?

• Memory is the ability to retrieve previously stored information

• Grant aimed to investigate how context dependent memory effects the recall of information. Specifically, if studying is mismatching or matching (noisy or silent) condition effect the recall of meaningful material

• Participants in the Silent/Silent condition scored 14.3 on their multiple choice questions, whereas noisy/silent only scored 12.7

• This links to memory as it demonstrates that memory can be negatively affected if information is learnt and recalled in mismatching conditions