Cole

Aim:

Investigate how culture and schooling influence memory strategies in children from different backgrounds

Procedure:

Compared Liberian children (both schooled and unschooled) to US children

Ppts shown 20 culturally relevant objects one at a time and asked to recall them in any order

Researchers observed cognitive activities beforehand and collaborated with local university-educated experiments to ensure cultural relevance

In a later trial the objects were presented in the context of a story

Findings:

School Liberian children and US children quickly learned the word list and used categorical clustering to aid memory

Non-school Liberian children showed no significant improvement in recall

Conclusion:

Memory strategies are influenced by cultural and educational experiences

Ability to remember is universal

Specific strategies for memory are shaped by one's environment and education

Evaluation:

(+) High ecological validity - uses culturally adapted materials and collaboration with local experimenters

(+) High generalisability - sample had ppts from two different cultural backgrounds allowing for some cross-cultural comparision

(-) low internal validity - quasi experiment means that a cause and effect relationship can't be established