psychology -grant et al

PSYCHOLOGY - grant et al 

AIM OF THE STUDY 

To investigate whether manipulating study contexts produced postive context - dependency effects on memory in standered academic tests.

SAMPLING METHOD

Snowball - 8 psychology students recruited 5 acquaintances each as participants 

SAMPLING CHARACTERISTICS

• Acquaintances of 8 psychology class students at Iowa state university state university 
• age range 17 - 56

METHOD

• 23 male and 17 females

Laboratory experiment and independant measures design 

PROCEDURE

· Researcher tests each participant individually.

· Given the article to read once, with a highlighter, in silent or noisy conditions, wearing headphones provided by the experimenter.

· 2min break

· Given short-answer test, then multiple-choice test, so suggested answers in MCQs did not improve recall on SAQs. Tests sat in silent or noisy conditions, wearing headphones.

MATERIALS / EQUIPMENT 

· The audio context in the noisy condition was exact copies, on cassette, of background noise from the uni cafeteria where complete sentences could not be made out.

· A 3-coulmn, double-sided A4 article on psycho-immunology, judged to be interesting and understandable by the experimenter was the study material.

· 16 multiple choice questions (1 correct stem taken verbatim or paraphrased from the article, and 4 alternatives), were designed to test recognition and not comprehension.

· 10 short answer questions, with unambiguous answers, on the same topics as the multiple choice questions,…