Godden and Baddeley

Godden and Baddeley

1. NAMRC

   • Aim - To investigate the effects of context cues on recall and see whether words learned in the same environment they are recalled in are recalled better than in a different environment to learning.
   • Method - 18 participants took part in a repeated measures design consisting of 4 conditions – learning words on land and recalling on land, learning words on land, recalling under water; learning under water recalling under water, learning under water, recall on land.
   • Results - Around 50% better recall when learning and recall are the same, 40% more words were forgotten when the condition changed. Recall for learning on land and recall on land was 13.5 compared to 8.6 when they learned the words on land and had to recall under water.
   • Conclusion - Recalling in the same place you encoded the information gives better retrieval

2. The divers were professional, and knew the underwater environment well, meaning that distractions were ruled out

3. The study can be replicated and is therefore reliable

4. There are doubts about the results of the study, as the divers were sometimes accused of cheating on the remembering

5. Remembering a list of words in two very different natural environments lacks ecological validity as diving AND remembering words are not an everyday task