A-level psychology: Grant

cognitive psychology- context dependant memory

what is context dependant memory?

recall that is improved when the context is the same

what is the aim of Grant's study?

to demonstrate the positive effects of context upon memory

what does cognitive mean?

testing thought process

what method was used in the study?

controlled observation, lab experiment

what year did the study take place?

1998

what sample was used in the experiment?

39 participants- 17 female and 23 male age ranged between 17-56 years old

what was the original sample and why did it get changed?

it was originally 40 participants but 1 person did terrible, which caused man anomaly so they were removed

how many experimenters were there and how many acquaintances were in the study?

8 experimenters with 5 chosen acquaintances

what type of measure design was used?

independent measures design

what were the two IVs in the study?

whether the participant read 2 pages of the article under silent or noisy conditions

whether the participant was tested under mismatching or matching conditions

what were the DVs in the study?

the participants performance on the short test (memory)

their performance on the multiple choice

what did each experimenter do before the experiment?

each experimenter provided his or her own cassette player and headphones, the cassettes were exact copies and the background noise was recorded during lunchtime in a university cafeteria

how many cassette players and headphones were provided?

8

what was the procedure for the experiment?

the participants were given a two page psychoimmunology article to read with music or without and were to underline and highlight information if desired. they were given a 2 minute break before completing the tests

how many test questions did the participants have to complete?

10 short answer questions and 16 multiple choice

which test did the participants have to complete first and why?

they had to do the short answer questions first so that the multiple choice questions were not going to help them recall

how long did the procedure last?

30 mins

what was done at the end of the study?

all the participants were debriefed about the purpose of the experiment

what were the four conditions?

matching- reading with noise and memory test with noise

mismatching- reading with noise and memory test in silence

matching- reading in silence and memory test in silence

mismatching- reading in silence and memory test with noise

what were the results on the tests for the matching- noisy read and noisy test?

short answer score- 6.2/10

multiple choice score- 14.3/16

what were the results for the tests for the mismatching- noisy read and silent test?

short answer score- 4.6/10

multiple choice- 12.7/16

what were the results for the tests for the matching- silent read and silent test?

short answer score- 6.7/10

multiple choice score- 14.3/16

what were the results for the mismatching- silent read and noisy test?

short answer score- 5.4/10

multiple choice score- 12.7/16

what were the conclusions for the study?

the participants who were in matching conditions had a higher score

context does have an impact on memory

if you were in the same environment when you were tested, you are more likely to recall more