Classic Study

• Aim

  To find out if the LTM encodes acoustically or semantically
• Participants in this experiment

  72 mixed men and women from APRU subject panel (Cambridge Uni), about 20 per group
• How were ppts grouped?

  In 4 groups based on which list, acoustically similar/dissimilar and semantically similar/dissimilar
• Procedure

  4 trials of same list, presented in slides 1 word every 3 seconds

  Each trial presentation/distraction/test

  Words were presented together on the board, given 40 seconds to write down the 10 words in order after each trial

  Repeat steps above 4 times

  15 minutes of self paced digit copying

  Surprise test, asked to wrote 10 word list in order
• What was the distraction test?

  6 lots of an 8 digit sequence, 1 digit per second with 8 seconds to write down
• Results

  No significant difference in the acoustic lists, semantically dissimilar significantly better recall
• Conclusion

  • findings show that the LTM encodes semantically similar words together - which is why when recalling semantically similar worlds, we become confused
  • Transferral to the LTM involves an intermediate stage where material is in the STM
• Generalisability

  Small sample made up of volunteers, less than 20 in the similar groups, low generalisability
• Reliability

  Controlled lab experiment with maintained standardised procedures so results highly replicable
• Application

  Can be applied to education, finding how LTM encodes helps teachers promote the best ways of learning and memory improvement strategies like mind maps
• Internal validity

  The standardised procedures in a controlled lab experiment means high internal validity as extraneous variables controlled
• Ecological validity

  Artificial environment and task like word lists lack mundane realism so low ecological validity
• Ethics

  Surprise test may question informed consent and potential stress, but it was necessary to increase internal validity
• What is your cog classic study

  Baddeley 1966b