Baddeley’s study of encoding

• What was the main aim of Baddeley's 1966 study on encoding?

  To see how information is coded in STM and LTM
• What types of word lists did Baddeley use in his study?

  • Group 1: Acoustically similar (cat, cab, con)
  • Group 2: Acoustically dissimilar (pit, few, cow)
  • Group 3: Semantically similar (great, large, big)
  • Group 4: Semantically dissimilar (good, huge, hot)
• How were participants asked to recall the words in Baddeley's study?

  They were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order
• What was the performance of participants in STM recall with acoustically similar words?

  They tended to perform worse with acoustically similar words
• What was the performance of participants in LTM recall with semantically similar words?

  They tended to perform worse with semantically similar words
• What does Baddeley's study suggest about how information is coded in STM and LTM?

  Information is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM
• What is a limitation regarding the generalizability of Baddeley's study findings?

  Baddeley used students, so findings may not apply to the general population
• Why is it considered a disadvantage that participants only took part in one condition of the experiment?

  It prevents boredom or fatigue that could lead to inaccurate results
• What are demand characteristics in the context of Baddeley's study?

  Participants might guess the study's aim and act to please the researcher
• What is a limitation of the lab setting in which Baddeley's experiment took place?

  It may have made participants feel nervous or under pressure
• What does a lack of ecological validity mean in the context of Baddeley's study?


  It means the results might not be applicable to real-life situations
• Why might validity be an issue in a study that investigates encoding?

  Because the results may not accurately reflect real-world memory processes
• What is a possible hypothesis for a study investigating encoding?

  Participants will recall semantically similar words better in LTM than acoustically similar words in STM
• What are two evaluation points regarding Baddeley's study on encoding?

  1. Limited generalizability due to the use of students
  2. Lack of ecological validity due to the lab setting
• What is the significance of the findings from Baddeley's study on encoding?

  They provide insight into how different types of information are processed in memory