Grant et al

Grant et al

1. Method

   • Laboratory Experiment
   • Independent measures
   • Independent Variable
     • Background noise as people music preferences vary

2. Aim

   • To investigate context dependent memory effects on both recall and recognition

3. Participants

   • Data from 39 participants
     • One Participant's results were removed due to low score
   • Age 17-56
   • All students
   • Acquaintances

4. Procedure

   • Read a two page article three column article
     • Allowed to highlight
     • Told they would be tested
   • 4 conditions
     • 'Silent study-Silent test'
     • 'Silent study-Noisy test'
     • 'Noisy study-Silent test'
     • 'Noisy study-Noisy test'
   • 2 minute break before test
   • Headphones
     • Worn by eveyone
     • Background noise from a cafeteria
   • 2 tests
     • Recognition test
       • 2nd test
       • 16 multiple choice questions
     • Recall test
       • 1st test
       • 10 short answer questions

5. Results

   • There are context dependency effects for newly learned meaningful material
     • Best performance being in matched conditions
     • Shown in both tests
   • Noise has no overall effect on performace
   • Students should study in quite conditions as that is how they are tested

6. Disscussion

   • Results due to the task being meaningful
   • More important for new material
   • Study in silence

7. Evaluation

   • Validity
     • High design validity
       • Highly standardised
       • Tested Individually
     • Ecological Validity
       • Valid task
       • Not in a lesson setting
       • Not usually tested on things learnt a few minutes ago
       • Had to wear headphones
   • Reliability
     • Could be easily replicated
   • Ethics
     • Informed consent
     • Briefed/ Debriefed
     • Right to withdraw
   • Data
     • Quantitative
       • Easily summarised
       • Easy to compare
   • Sample
     • Opportunity Sample
       • Time and cost effective
       • May be bias
         • Cannot generalise
   • Ethnocentrism
     • Investigating a species specific behaviour
     • Only in America
       • May differ for people with western education
   • Research Method
     • Fulfills scientific criteria
     • Independent Measures
       • Individual differences between groups

8. Usefulness

   • Suggests performance in exams is affected by situational factors
     • Not just natural ability
   • Help students to perform better in exams

9. Links to area/perspective

   • Cognitive area
   • Context dependency

10. Links to key theme

    • There is a context dependency effect on newly learned material
      • Both in recognition and recall
    • Investigates a new kind of memory
      • Context dependent memory
    • Only students like Loftus and Palmer
      • Adds no understanding of social or cultural diversity