Gran et al's study of context-dependence memory
- Created by: Jazz23
- Created on: 18-11-15 14:19
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- Grant et a's study of context-dependent memory
- Results
- The prescence of noise or silence during study or test conditions in itself had no effect. However, in both types of test performance was better in matching conditions than non-matching ones
- Context
- Many studies have shown that recall is better when the participant is in the same environment during recallas they were when learning occured
- Method
- The research method was an experiment, using an independent measures design.
- Opportunity sampling was used to find 39 participants.
- The independent variable was the matching or mismatching of study and test conditions.
- The study condition pairs were matching and mismatching. Participants always studied and retrieved while wearing headphones.
- In the noisy condition the recorded sound of a cafeteria was played. Participants read a short piece of meaningful material and wee tested first on their recall using a short-answer test and then on their recognition using a multiple-choice test
- Aim
- To test for context-dependency effects caused by the prescence or abscence of noise during learning and retrieval of meaningful material
- Conclusion
- Noise may not distract study, but as performance is worse when in mismatched conditions, and exams are held in silence, students would benefit from studying in quiet surroundings
- Evaluation
- Ethical considerations: The participants were aware the were participating and were not decieved and were debriefed after testing, so raises few ethical issues
- Validity: The controls and the use of realistic materials contribute towards making the findings of the study valid
- Qualititative and qantitiative data: The data gathered in this experiment was quantitative. The statistics alow easy comparison of the conditions, clearly showing that although study and learining conditions indendently do not affect retrieval, thier match or mismatch does
- Sampling bias: As all the paticipants were chosen from the aquaintances of the experimenters means that their knowledge of their friends being psychology students may have affected their approach to the study by introducing demand characteristics
- Research method: In experiments it is possible to control extraneous variables. In his case, the participants had the same silent or noisy conditions and were given the same instructions.
- Practical applications: The study is useful in its direct applicability to students' study habits.
- Reliability: Severa aspects of the procedure were standardised, such as the materials and procedure, which ensured reliability of the procedure between participants and between conditions
- Results
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