Grant et al (1998)

OCR

Theories on which the study is based on:

-Context-dependent memory-improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same.
-Johnson et al : if an individual remembers the source of information the likelihood of recall increases. It’s the idea of 'retracing your steps'
-Eich : Environment characteristics are encoded as part of the memory trace can enhance retrieval of other information in the trace

Background to the study/Aim:

Study environments - testing in classrooms where the content was taught and studying with background noise. This study could therefore be useful in seeing if students study habits are harming their test performance.

Research Method

-Lab Experiment& Independent Measures Design

-IVs:

• whether the participant read the two page article under silent or noisy conditions

• whether the participant was tested under matching or mismatching conditions

-Producing four conditions.

-DV:

-the participant’s performance on

• a short-answer recall test

• a multiple-choice recall test

-The recall test was always taken first to ensure that any info being recalled was from the reading of the text and not recalled from the multiple choice test.

Sample

-8 members of a psychology lab class to act as experimenters and each experimenter recruited five acquaintances.

-39 p’pants ranging in ages 17-56. (One was omitted).

• 17 females

• 23 males

Procedure-Part 1

-Each experimenter ran one p’pant for each of the four conditions and an additional p’pant for one of the conditions as assigned by the instructor. Experimenters randomly assigned their p’pants to their five conditions.

Stimuli

-Each experimenter provided a cassette and headphones. 8 cassettes were exact copies of background noise recorded in a cafeteria during lunchtime in a uni. A two-page article on psycho-immunology was selected to be studied. 16 multiple choice and 10 short-answer questions.
-Instructions describing the experiment and stating that participation was voluntary.
-Participants to read the article once and underline as they read if they would like (as if it was class material).

Procedure-Part 2

-P’pants informed that their comprehension would be tested with both short answer and multiple choice.
-All p’pants wore headphones, those in silent condition would not hear anything but wear headphones as a control variable and those in noisy would hear the uni cafeteria.
-Reading times recorded by experimenters.
-Break of approx two minutes between end of study phase and beginning of test phase to minimize recall from short-term memory.
-Short answer test given and then multiple choice.
-P’pants tested in either silent or noisy conditions informed of condition before, all p’pants wore headphones.
-At the end they were debriefed of the purpose of the experiment.
-Entire procedure lasted about 30 minutes.

Key findings (short-answer test)

Recall (short-answer test)	Silent study	Noisy study
Silent test condition	6.7	5.4
Noisy test condition	4.6	6.2

Key findings (multiple choice test)

Recognition (MC test)	Silent study	Noisy study
Silent test condition	14.3	12.7
Noisy test condition	12.7	14.3

Conclusions

-Studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance.
-Students are likely to perform better in exams if they study for them with minimal background noise as although there was no overall effect of noise of performance, the fact that there was evidence for context-dependency suggests that they are better off studying without background noise as it will not be present during actual testing.

Evaluation- Data

-Quantitative data - ensures data is easily summarised and compared between conditions.

-However, we don't have any other information which may be useful at understanding human behaviour.

Evaluation - validity

-Low ecological validity as in a lab
-Low population validity - opportunity sampling meant they are all one type of person. Also all from the same class.

Evaluation - reliability

Highly controlled lab experiment - replicable so it’s reliable.

Debates

-Psychology as a science- controlled lab experiment that fulfills the scientific criteria.
-Usefulness- students and studying for exams - better to study with minimal background noise in order to benefit from context-dependency effects.
-Individual/Situational- performance of students in exams may be affected by situational factors as opposed to individual factors.

Link to area

-Investigating cognitive process of memory, aimed to investigate context-dependent memory.

Link to key theme

-In relation to memory, Grant demonstrates that studying and being tested in matching environments shows improved performance.
-Adds to understanding of how memory works by investigating context-dependency as opposed to reconstructive memory.
-Doesn’t change understanding of social and cultural diversity as they are studying students from a similar background and same culture as Loftus and Palmer.