3. Baddeley's 1966 study - classic

full grave table on one note. + paper essay plan

What were the aims of Baddeley’s study?

• To investigate the influence of acoustic and semantic word similarity on learning and recall in STM and LTM.

• To investigate encoding methods in STM and LTM

Who were the sample?

• 72 men and women

• from Cambridge university - all a part of the applied psychology department.

• split into 4 conditions plus a control group for comparison

• volunteer sample

What were the 4 conditions?

• semantically similar, dissimilar

• acoustically similar, dissimilar

• all one syllable words to limit extraneous variables.

What was the IV in this study?

• (1) Acoustically similar word list or acoustically dissimilar.

• (2) semantically similar word list or semantically dissimilar.

• (3) performance before 15 minutes “forgetting” delay and performance after

• IVs (1) and (2) are tested using independent groups design but IV (3) is tested through repeated measures

• The words people saw as he manipulated the type of words people saw

What was the DV?

• score on a recall test of 10 words, words must be recalled in the correct order.

• (really a test of remembering the word order, not the words themselves.)

What research design was used, and how was it used?

• independent measures design was used, Pp only took part in one condition of the study.

• Pp only to be exposed to one word list.

• However all Pp did the interference task of copying sequences of digits

• And the retest - recall of the word list in the correct order. 15 mins break which tested LTM.

What were the Pp asked to do?

• Pp split into 4 groups

• Each group views a slideshow of a set of 10 words, each word appears for 3 seconds.

• Pp’s in all 4 conditions had to do an interference task which involves hearing then writing down 8 numbers 3 times. They then recall the words from the slideshow in order (tests STM)

• After the 4th trial, Pp get a 15 mins break and perform a unrelated interference task - they are then asked to recall the list again.

• the 5th and final trial is unexpected. The words themselves are still on display, it is the order of the words the Pp have to recall (this is to test LTM)

What happened in the acoustically similar condition?

• Pp’s get a list of words that share a similar sound.

• But the control group get words that are all simple one syllable words but do not sound the same.

What happened in the semantically similar condition?

• Pp got words that share a similar meaning.

• but the control group got words that were unconnected

What results did Baddeley find for STM?

• When STM was tested, Pp made more mistakes with recalling acoustically similar words.

• They got them in the wrong order.

What results did Baddeley find for LTM?

• When LTM was tested, Pp made more mistakes recalling semantically similar words.

• they got them in the wrong order.

What did he conclude about encoding in LTM?

• LTM encodes semantically.

• This is why LTM gets confused when it has to retrieve the order of words which are semantically similar, it gets distracted by the semantic similarities and muddles them up.

• It has no problem retrieving acoustically similar words because LTM pays no attention to how the words sound

What did he conclude about encoding in STM

• His earlier experiments suggests STM encode acoustically.

• Acoustically similar condition - STM gets confused by similar sounds.

What are the key points for generalisability/SAMPLE?

Weakness

A01

• 72 men and women - British

• applied psychology unit, Cambridge university

• volunteer sample

A03

• increased risk of demand characteristics as all applied psych students.

• decreases internal validity

• results cannot be generalised to the wider population effectively.

• Cambridge university in the UK, all British, ethnocentric, culture bias.

• But, LTM works the same for people from all countries, speaking all languages, so this sample is probably representative.

• However, there were so many conditions in this study that each group only had 15-20 people in it. That’s not a lot. Only 15 people did the Acoustically Similar condition. An anomaly could make a difference to scores with numbers that small.

• However, a volunteer sample might have more people with particularly good memories who enjoy doing memory tests - not representative of people in general.

• And people in university must participate in other studies to be able to conduct their own study meaning it is possible they do not actually want to participate and won't be trying as hard which lowers internal validity.

What are they key points for validity/application/METHOD?

Weakness

A01

• Lab experiment - controlled setting, limits extraneous variables

• Psychology research lab in Cambridge university

• recalling words in their correct order - 10 words, 4 conditions

A03

• Due to the artificial nature of he setting there is poor mundane realism/external validity.

• tasks Pp completed not an everyday task that people would engage in.

• Therefore, cannot explain how memory works in the real world.

• The fact that Baddeley used a lab experiment meant that he had control over many extraneous variables that could have affected the results of his study

• e.g. where Pp sat, the speed at which words were shown etc.

• Therefore, his study has high internal validity.

What are the key points for reliability/PROCEDURE?

Strength

A01:

• standardised procedures

• everyone saw the same amount of words for the same amount of time - slideshow of 10 words for 3 seconds.

• + all completed interference tasks and 15 min break

A03:

• good external reliability due to standardised procedures

• can be replicated - same procedure can be followed.

• Don’t need special equipment, can use the same words Baddeley used.

• improves the scientific status of the study due to replicability.

• Baddeley improved the internal reliability of his own study by getting rid of the read-aloud word lists (some participants had hearing difficulties) and replacing them with slides.

• All Pp went through the experiment in the same way.

• Allowing consistency in his own results due to his methodology.

What are the key points for application/RESULTS?

Strength

A01

• When STM was tested Pp made more mistakes with recalling acoustically similar words

• With LTM, Pp made more mistakes recalling semantically similar words.

• Concludes, STM encodes acoustically, LTM semantically.

A03

• Results can build psychological knowledge in society.

• If we make info semantic e.g. mind maps - info is more likely to be stored in LTM as it encodes semantically.

• Can help students better prepare for exams - achieve better results

• Results can be applied to real world scenarios.

• Baddeley’s research added to the existing body of research on how memory works and so was very valuable.

• This research led to the development of the working memory model which served to improve on the understanding of STM as depicted in the MSM.

• However, due to the artificial nature of the setting, ecological validity is low and means that results can't be generalised to explain memory in the real world.

• Also the tasks Pp completed (recalling words in their correct order) is not an everyday task that people would engage in so the mundane realism here is poor.

• We cannot explain how memory works in the real world.