Grant et al. (1998) : Context Dependent Memory

Grant et al. (1998) : Context Dependent Memory

1. Aim

   • to look at environmental context effects with the type of material and type of tests that are typically encountered at a school
     • In particularly the effects of noise

2. Sample

   • Snowball sampling/opportunity sample
     • -8 experimenters who were all part of a psych lab class. -each experimenter recruited 5 acquaintances to act as participants -Total of 39 participants
       • Ages ranged from 17-56 (mean=23.4) (SD=5.9)
         • 17 females, 22 males

3. Method

   • Laboratory experiment
     • Independent measures design

4. Procedure

   • Each experimenter had standardised instructions to read aloud
   • whole procedure lasted about 30 mins
   • Phase 2
     • PHASE 2: participants were tested on their recall. they were again wearing headphones and were told before whether it would be silent or noisy.
       • Short answer test was given first, followed by the multiple choice test
         • At the end of testing, participants were debriefed concerning the purposes of the experiment.
   • Phase 1
     • PHASE 1: participants were asked to read the article once through. they were allowed to highlight and underline key points. They were warned that their comprehension of the article would be tested afterwards with both a short answer and a multiple choice tests.
       • All participants wore headphones while they read. they were told that they would either hear moderately loud background noise or silence, depending on which condition they were in but to ignore the noise
         • Time taken for participants to read the article was recorded by the experimenters. once the participant had finished reading they were given break of about 2 minutes
           • the break was given to minimise the being able to recall information from the short term memory.

5. Variables

   • Independent Variables
     • Whether the reading condition and the test condition were matching or mismatching
       • Conditions: silent,silent / noisy,noisy / noisy,silent / silent,noisy
   • Dependent Variable
     • Number of questions answered correctly on short answer and multiple choice test

6. Results

   • Silent - silent
     • 81% recall
   • Noisy - noisy
     • 79% recall
   • Silent - noisy
     • 67% recall
   • Noisy - silent
     • 70% recall
   • ps had roughly equal time reading
     • ps performed better on multiple choice than in short answer
       • did better on a test of recognition rather than recall
       • higher scores on the matching conditions
         • significant EC effect for both both kinds of test as shown by tests of significance

7. Materials

   • Reading material
     • 2 page article on psychoimmunology
   • Test questions
     • 10 short answer question
       • 16 multiple choice questions
   • Tape
     • Noisy tape- recording of school cafeteria at lunch time