Baddeley

Baddeley

1. Aim

   • To find the effect on LTM of acoustically similar words

2. Procedure

   • Ps were given one of 4 lists
     • Independent measures
     • Acoustically similar, semantically similar, & 2 dissimilar
   • Tested in order - 1 word every 3 seconds
   • Had to participate in 6 number recall tests
   • Then complete the word list in order in 1 minute
   • After a 15 minute interference task they had another surprise recall test
     • 15 minute task: copying 8-digit numbers at their own pace

3. Controls

   • Participants were not warned about the recall test
     • Deception
   • A hearing test was done
   • The words were jumbled so their positions could not be remembered

4. Results

   • Acoustically similar words were worse in the first recall
     • STM
   • Dissimilar words did not change throughout the trials
     • Control
   • Acoustic coding was initially difficult but did not affect long term recall
   • Semantically similar words were harder than dissimilar ones to recall
   • Significantly fewer semantically similar words were recalled at the retest

5. Conclusions

   • The struggles in the first trial suggest that STM is acoustically coded
   • Semantic lists were harder to recall in the retest
     • This suggests LTM is semantically encoded