Research into Coding

• Baddeley investigated coding of words.

  -he gave 4 different groups of ppts 4 different groups of words

  -ppts had to recall the words immediately afterward (STM) and then again after 20 mins (LTM)
• Group 1

  -acoustically similar words
• Group 2

  -acoustically dissimilar words
• Group 3

  -semantically similar words
• Group 4

  -semantically dissimilar words
• What were the findings

  -STM recall task, ppts performed worse on acoustically similar words.

  -STM is therefore coded acoustically

  -LTM recall task, ppts performed worse on semantically similar words

  -LTM therefore coded semantically
• A weakness of Baddeley's study was that the stimuli are artificial

  -the task does not reflect real life situations so cannot be generalised

  -lacks mundane realism and ecological validity
• A negative criticism is that Brandimote et al (1992) found that

  -ppts encode visually if given a visual task and verbal rehearsal prevented therefore

  -Badds research is too simplistic and does not take into account other types of coding
• Another weakness is that people may encode semantically

  -if the stimuli has meaning to them (Wickens et all 1976)

  -therefore the study has limited application
• Another weakness is that LTM is not always semantic

  -Frost (1972) showed that LT recall related to visual as well as semantic

  -Nelson and Rothbart (1972) found evidence of acoustic coding in LTM

  -therefore coding can vary according to circumstance