Monday, 27 November 2017

Grant's context dependent memory study (1998)



Background/context

Memory is a cognitive process and our ability to remember information can be enhanced if we learn and recall the information in the same environment

Cues from the environment during learning = memory cues

Context dependent memory = memories that have been encoded and linked to memory cues, e.g. a clip from a film reminding you of when you last watched that film

Grant aimed to show that environments have a positive effect on memory if context is linked


Aim

To test the effect of noise (context) on studying and retrieval of memory after


Research method

Lab experiment, independent measures, IV= silent or noisy environment, DV= performance on short-recall test and a multiple choice recall test. P's were tested under both matched and mismatched conditions


Procedure

8 students were the experimenters, each of them recruited 5 friends (snowball sampling) to be the participants
39 p's, 17-56 years old

Each experimenter worked with 1 participant for 4 conditions, and with an additional p for another condition. P's were randomly assigned to experimenters

Each experimenter had a cassette player and headphones, the 8 cassettes were all exact copies of some background noise recorded during lunchtime in the cafeteria at a university, and the tape was played loudly in the headphones. 

The study material for the p's was a 2 page article. There was 16 multiple choice questions about the article as well as 10 short answer questions, which were done first.

Instructions were about "class project" (they thought they were taking part in a project) said that participation was voluntary and that they could highlight the article while they read it once.

The p's were informed that they would be tested and 1 condition wore headphones and were told to ignore the voice while the other condition wore no headphones

There was a 2 minute break between the end of the test and the study to make sure the p's were not using their short term memory

They were debriefed at the end of the procedure which in total took 30 minutes.


Results

P's in all groups spent around the same time reading, so it was a co-variable in the test performance

Studying and testing in the same environment produced better results, there was no overall effect of noise on performance though


Conclusions

Context dependency is real, in both short answer tests and multiple choice tests

Students should study in silence, because exams are silent


Evaluation

Research method- lab experiment so high control, and long term memory retrieval was ensured with the 2 minute break

Data type- quant. data so easy comparison of the conditions was possible, no analysis of the short answer questions, which could've been helpful

Ethics- p's were not really deceived and they were debriefed as well as having given consent and given the right to withdraw

validity- it would've been more valid if the students were studying a topic that they are used to, or that they will be taking exams for 

Reliability- the headphones, tapes and procedure was standardised which ensured reliability 

Sample- snowball samples are unrepresentative, as is using just students
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