Grant

• Background: outline what context dependent memory is

  Context dependent memory is the idea that if you learn/encode information in a similar environment with the same contextual information as the environment where you recall it your memory of that information will be improved
• Background: Outline what effects context dependent memory

  However, context dependent memory can be effected by the sort of task being performed e.g. effects of context change on memory retrieval are much worse in recall tests than recognition tests.
• What are recall + recognition tests

  recall = remembering information with no prompts e.g. exam Qs

  recognition = when you are given cues to prompt a response e.g. multiple choice Qs
• Background: Outline the effects of context dependent memory in students

  Many students often study (meaningful) material in a different environment to where they are tested e.g. revising with background noise compared to silence in exam hall. There4 if context dependency occurs with meaningful course material students could be harming their test performance
• Background: how this inspired Grant et al's research

  This inspired Grant et al to show that environmental context can have a more positive effect on performance in a meaningful memory test when the test takes place in the same environment in which the meaningful material was studied than when the test occurs in a different environment
• Aim

  to test for context dependency effects caused by the presence or absence of noise during learning and retrieval of meaningful material

  (noise = contextual information)
• Research method

  lab experiment (+ high control over EVs, -low ecological validity)

  IMD (+no risk of order effects e.g. practice, -risk of indv diffs)
• IV

  IVs =

  1. whether the participant read the 2 page article under: silent conditions or noisy conditions
  2. whether the participant was tested under matching or mismatching conditions to which they first encoded the information

  the experimental method was IM so each participant experienced just one of the four possible combinations: silent-silent, noisy-noisy, silent-noisy or noisy-silent
• DV (quantitative data)

  the participant's performance on (a) short answer recall test out of 10 (producing single word or phrase answers) and (b) a multiple-choice recognition test of 16 questions
• Sample

  39 Ps aged 17-56 years (mean age = 23.4). 17 females + 23 males. were recruited by opportunity sampling as 8 members of a psychology laboratory class served as experimenters and each experimenter recruited 5 acquaintances to serve as Ps. 1 P's results were omitted from the analyses
• Strengths + weaknesses of sample

  +opportunity sampling = cost and time efficient

  -opportunity sampling = sampling bias as only selecting a certain type of person -> people with good memory

  +no gender bias

  +large range of ages

  -ethnocentric (western culture, all experimenters who selected Ps attended Iowa uni)

  -range of ages = older people may have diff memory ability so not representative of students

  NOT EVALUATION OF SAMPLE, BUT EVALUATION OF VALIDITY: accquantiances of psychology class so could lead to DCs = low IV
• Procedure pt1

  don't need to say 1st sentence in brackets

  
• Procedure pt2

  
• Procedure pt3

  
• Results

  *there was an interaction between study and test conditions. for both short answer + multiple choice testsperformence was significantly better in matching conditions than in mismatching ones. this suggests recall is better when studying + testing are performed in similar environments in terms of noisiness of the surrounding *

  • results suggest Ps in all groups sent roughly equal amounts of time studying the material there4 reading time was used as a co-variable in the analysis of test performance
  • there was no sign patterns for the indv variables e.g. whether material was learned or retrieved in each of the environments (silent or noisy) made no difference to the short answers + multiple choice answers there4 noise doesn't affect performance

  
• Conclusions

  
• Link to approach answer

  
• Link to key theme answer

  
• Evaluation table

  
• Example Q: Outline how the sampling method used in Grant's study could show sampling bias (3)

  due to using Ps that are readily available, may have selected only a specific type of person in their sample (sampling bias). for example, when investigating CDM Grant had 8 experimenters who were members of a psychology laboratory class to select 5 acquaintances to serve as Ps. the experimenters may have chosen people who they think have good memory + there4 do better on the recall and recognition text = not representative. findings into CDM can't be generalised to TP of students who have mixed memory abilities
• Identify the 2 tests undertaken by Ps (2)

  2 tests consisted of a short answer recall test out of 10 + a multiple choice recognition test out of 16 about the psycho-immunology article
• Why were Ps given a 2 minute break between studying and testing (2)

  to ensure that the information recalled about psychoimmunology wasn't held in their short term memory + they wouldn't be able to immediately recall it, truly measuring CDM
• Explain why the short answer Qs were given before the multiple choice Qs (2)

  to ensure that Ps were recalling from the article rather than recalling from the multiple choice test to ensure they're truly measuring context dependent memory
• Conclusion question

  
• What debates does Grant link to

  • reductionism = complex behaviour of Ps ability to memorise the psycho-immunology article reduced to single factor of the contextual info (noise), ignoring individual differences etc
  • situational = the situation in which Ps learnt + retrieved in (either matching or mismatching contextual environment) explains performance