Baddeley, Thomson, Buchanan (1975) - Experiment 1: Word length and the Structure of Short Term memory

Aim

To compare the memory span of subjects for sets of long and short words, of comparable frequency of occurrence in the English language.

Participants

8 undergraduate or postgraduate students from the University of Stirling (Scotland)

Procedure

- 5 list lengths were used → sequences of 4, 5 ,6 ,7 and 8 words

- 8 sequences of each length were made up from a pool of short words

- 8 sequences of each length were made up from a pool of long words

- Sequences were assigned at random

- All subjects were tested on both long and short words

- All received the sequences in ascending order of list length until they failed all 8 sequences

- Half the subjects began with the pool of long words, and half with the short words

- The words were read at a 1.5 sec rate, each list being preceded by the warning "ready"

- They were given 15 sec to recall the words verbally in the order they were presented at

- The subjects were allowed to familiarise themselves with the words beforehand

- The words remained visible to them on prompt cards throughout the experiment

Findings

Short words were remembered much more easily (regardless of the amount of words)

Conclusion

- The sample of short words used, results in better memory span performance than the sample of long words.

- However, you can argue that polysyllabic words have a different effect on the memory span than monosyllabic words.

Evaluation

Strengths:

- The procedure is highly controlled with clear manipulation of the independent and dependent variable.

- The experiment is replicable and therefore more reliable.

Weaknesses:

- The tasks are artificial and unrealistic in daily life, so it lacks mundane realism.

- As it was a lab experiment, it is not generalisable to every setting and therefore lacks ecological validity

- Very small sample