cognitive : grant

aim

to show that performance in a memory test is improved when the test takes place in the same environment in which the context was learnt

method and design

• lab experiment

• independent measures

sample

• 39 ppts (male and female)

• aged 17-56

• snowball sample

• 8 psych students recruited 8 ppts each (with 1 ppts results discarded)

variables

• IV : noisy or silent conditions, matching or mismatching

• DV : 10 short answer questions and 16 multiple choice questions

• controls : all wore headphones and same test

procedure

• ppts read the article once

• all wore headphones

• silent : told they wouldn’t hear anything

• noisy : told they’d hear loud background noise, should ignore it

• reading times recorded

• 2 minute break

• short answer test given, followed by multiple choice

• ppts were debriefed

results

• ppts in all groups spent roughly equal amounts of time reading

• no sig difference in recall scores whether material was learnt in noisy or silent condition

• sig difference between matching or mismatching conditions studying and testing in same conditions gave better results

• no effect of noise on performance

conclusions

• are context dependency effects for newly learned meaningful material - studying and testing in same environment leads to enhanced performance

• students are likely to perform better in exams when learning in quiet environment as the exam will be sat in a quiet environment

sampling bias

• snowball sample

• small sample

• all ‘same type of person’

• but good age range and both genders used

validity

• high internal as did test what it set out to test (high level of control)

• good external validity as not an artificial task for students

ethics

• no ethical issues

• were informed, debriefed, gave informed consent etc

type of data

• quantitative data

• number of correct answers

• easy to analyse and compare

reliability

• high reliability as same results would be found if retested

• standardised procedures used and controls

practical applications

• should help us to revise better as if we revise in the same environment as we sit the exam we will most likely do better

ethnocentrism

• is ethnocentric

• only one area

• but cognitive ability doesn’t vary much across cultures