Studied by 4 people
What was the aim of the study?
look at environmental context-dependency effect with the type of material and type of test typically encountered in school
What is an environmental context-dependency effect?
if the environment acts as a cue to recall information
What type of experiment was it?
exact details weren't published but is said some were tested in dorms so could be a field experiment could also be a laboratory experiment as conditions were controlled and ppt knew they were being studied
What were the 4 conditions?
silent, silent silent, noise noise, silent noise, noise
What was the IV?
matching or mismatching conditions
What was the DV?
number of items correctly recalled on a short answer or multiple answer test
What was the experimental design?
Independent measures design each ppt tested in one condition
What was the sample?
8 experimenters recruited 5 ppts - 39 in total 17 females 22 males
What type of sample was it?
Opportunity sample selected ppts who were most easily available at the time
How old were the sample?
17 to 56 years old
What did each experimenter read?
standardised instructions
What materials/apparatus was used?
two page article noisy tape headphones recall test multiple question test
What else was recorded by experimenters during the experiment?
Time taken to read the article
What happened in phase 1?
ppts read article could highlight and underline words
What two things were the same for every participant?
Wearing headphones The article read
What happened after they read the article?
Given a 2 minute break This would minimise using short term memory in the tests
What happened after the 2 minute break?
Did short answer test then the multiple choice test
What happened at the end of the experiment?
ppts were debriefed
What test did ppts perform better on?
multiple choice test (recognition)
Why was the sample 39 not 40?
One persons scores were considerably different that the other
Why was the short answer test given before the multiple choice test?
ensure recall of info from the article was being tested not recall of info from the multiple choice test
What did the results of the time taken to read the articles show?
No significant differences between the conditions
What condition scored the highest results?
two matching conditions silent, silent noisy, noisy
What do the results show?
There are environmental context-dependency effects for meaningful info
What was a strength of the experiment?
Mundane realism students normally read and recall for test can be generalised to everyday life of students
What was a weakness of the experiment?
As students could be tested in their dorms, there could have been extraneous variables that could have distracted them this could have affected their final test score
What was a strength of the sample?
using students for this experiment could replicate their own studies
What are weaknesses of the sample?
Students are found to be demotivated so might not try as hard They would be more prepared for simple cognitive tasks
What data was collected?
quantitative data
Was the sample ethnocentric?
yes - American students Studying in different cultures may be different
What was the validity like?
high internal validity (face + concurrent) low external validity (ecological)
Note 
Flashcard (35)