An easy to understand summary of all of the psychological studies included within year one of Edexcel psychology, including all studies taken from cognitive, learning theories, social and biological. This document is split into the four different topics studied within year one psychology with each...
Psychological studies
Year 12
Cognitive
Learning
Biological
Social
,Cognitive
Classic study
Baddley (1966)
Aim;
To test the effect of semantic and acoustic similarity on the learning and recalling of word
sequences in long term memory, using a control to prevent rehearsal between presentation and
testing to minimise short term memory effects.
Sample;
● 72 ppts
● Students from cambridge university
● Volunteer sampling used
● Mixture of both men and women
● 15 ppts learned the acoustically similar list
● 20 ppts learned the acoustically dissimilar list (control)
● 16 ppts learned the semantically similar list
● 21 ppts learned the semantically dissimilar list (control)
Procedure;
Dv = score on recall test of 10 words; words must be recalled in the correct order
The ppts in all 4 conditions carried out an inference test which involved hearing and then
writing down 8 numbers, 3 times. This was a distractor task used to prevent rehearsal. Then they
recalled the words from the slideshow in order. There were four trials and as expected the ppts got
better each time as the same words in the same order were used. The words themselves were
displayed on signs around the room so the ppts only had to concentrate on getting the word
order correct which is what Baddeley aimed to test. After the 4th trial the ppts got a 15 minute
break and performed an unrelated interference task before they were asked to recall the list
again. The fifth trial was not expected by the ppts.
,Results;
Acoustic similarity
● In trial 1 and 2 it's harder to learn the list of acoustically similar words as the STM is
trying to hold the information. By trial 3 and 4 the words are being transferred into the
ltm which is not affected by acoustic similarity so the % recalled becomes similar to that
of the control group.
● By trial 4 about 75% of words were recalled correctly in comparison TO 70% IN THE
CONTROL GROUP.
Semantically similarity
● Inm trial 1 and 2 there is no significant difference in the % of words recalled for the
similar and control group as the STM is working which is not affected by semantic
similarity.
● By trial 3 and 4 the words are being transferred into the LTM which is affected by semantic
similarity asd the brain cannot put them in the correct order as it cannot distinguish
between the meanings of each word. Therefore the % recalled is lower for the
semantically similar list.
● About 55% of words were correctly recalled in the semantically similar list in
comparison to about 85% in the control group.
Conclusion;
Baddley concludes that the LTM encodes semantically, at least primarily. This is why the LTM gets
confused when it has to retrieve the order words which are semantically similar; it gets
distracted by the semantic similarities and muddles them up. It has no problem retrieving
acoustically similar words because LTM pays no attention to how the words sound, only their
meanings.
An application of this experiment is that it helped Baddeley create his working memory model.
His finding that we encode semantically in our LTM has enabled teachers to promote the best
learning strategies to improve memory. For example, semantically learning content by
creating meaningful links between concepts is the best revision technique.
, Evaluation;
Link in with the sample paragraph- generalisability- ppts were students selected from the applied
psychology research unit, cambridge. This means that they would have been more comfortable
than the average person when completing memory based tasks and all ppts would have higher IOs
on average meaning that the sample could be unrepresentative. Therefore the data may not be
suitable to generalise to the wider population and any applications gained from this may not be
useful for everyone in society. Additionally, because they were all psychology students they could
have been more likely to show demand characteristics and guess the aim of the study and try to
adhere to this aim as they would have all been familiar with similar studies and there may have
been a motivATED SAMPLE.
Link in with the procedure paragraph-reliability- baddeley conducted the study in a highly
controlled laboratory environment in which he used standardised procedure for example, all
ppts were given 10 words to remember in order, each of which were shown for 3 seconds.
Therefore, the experiment has high test retest reliability.
Link in with results paragraph- validity- Baddeley ensured that his experiment tested the correct
aim of word order and not just being able to remember the words. The words were presented on
screens around the room so that ppts didn't have to necessarily remember the words, but just
focus on word order. This eliminated certain extraneous variables therefore ensuring that the
correct aims and dependent variables were tested and measured improving the validity of the
experiment.
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