BADDELEY'S ENCODING STUDY

AIM:

To investigate whether STM and LTM are encoded differently

METHOD:

Participants heard 12 lists of 5 words each. There were 4 conditions:

  1. words all sounded similar

  2. words sounded different

Participants in these conditions had to recall the words immediately after each list had been presented

  1. words had similar meanings

  2. words had different meanings

Participants in these conditions had to wait 20 minutes before recalling the words

RESULTS:

Participants in group 1 did worse than group 2 and participants in group 3 did worse than group 4

CONCLUSION:
STM is encoded acoustically. The words in the first list had different meanings but sounded similar. The similarity in sound led to difficulties recalling accurately

LTM is encoded semantically. The words in the first list had different meanings but similar meanings. The similarity in meaning led to difficulties recalling accurately after some time had passed

EVALUATION:

STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

good control suggests good internal validity (confidence that the DV is causally related to the IV)

low ecological validity (lab rather than everyday setting) and low mundane realism (list learning isn’t part of most people’s daily life

other research points to STM also being encoded visually