Grant - Cognitive Area

Question 1

backround

Answer 1

• took place in Iowa university in america
• aim: to test for context dependency effects caused by the presence or absense of noise during learning and retrieval of meaningful material

Question 2

method

Answer 2

• independent measures
• oppotunity sample was used to find the 29 participants ages (17-56 males and females)
• the independent varible was the matching or mismatching of the study and test conditions
• the study/test conditions parsi were (silent/silent, silent/noisy, noisy/silent, noisy/noisy)
• participants always studied and retrived while wearing headphones
• in the noisy condition the recorded sound of a ceffeeria was played - participants read a short piece

Question 3

sample/ participants

Answer 3

independent measures
- positives: only done once so less chance of demand characterostics and fatigue
- 39 participants
- oppotunity sample
- male and female ages 17-56

Question 4

materials / apparatus

Answer 4

• headphones for every participant
• backround cafe music
• 2 pages of information to read as well as multiple choice questions and short answer questions

Question 5

procedure

Answer 5

• participants were given 2 page essay to read
• read through the essay and whilst reading the times how long it took them to read it
• have a 2 min break before answering the following questions
• answer small recall questions in the test condition of your first word (either noisy or silent)
• then answer the recognition questions (multiple choice)
• debreif the participants

Question 6

results

Answer 6

• memory and recall were better when the context / enviroment was the same then when it was different - matched pairs (noisy-noisy)(silent-silent)

Question 7

conclusions

Answer 7

• noise may not distract study, but as preformance is worse when mistached conditions, and exams are held in silence, students would benefit from studying in quiet surroundings

Question 8

the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods and techniques

Answer 8

• independents measures
• positive of independent measures only done once so there is less chance of demand characteristics and fatigue

lab experiment
- positives: can control enviroment (iows univeristy
- negatives: no ecological validity and demand charactertictics

Question 9

the strengths and weaknesses of different types of data

Answer 9

quantatative data
- positives: can compares the reuslts
- negative: cant get peoples opinions and how they react to the situation

Question 10

ethical considerations

Answer 10

• they got debreifed
• no physical, psychological or mental harm
• there was confidentiality
• were able to withdraw (might not of known)

Question 11

validity

Answer 11

• no extraneous varibles becuase it was a lab experiment so it was controlled
• less valid may feel pressured to read quickly, means that they dont remember as much therefore does not know that they ave to ask questions
• was internally valid
• there was demand characteritcis because they knew that they were experiment and were being observed

Question 12

reliability

Answer 12

• experiment was only completed once so not very reliable, dont know if it is replicable
• standardised procedure: reliable all used headphones and same enviroment, all uni studrnts (all used to doing tests)

Question 13

sampling bias

Answer 13

• all uni students
• all iowa university so not diverse
• people were in the enviroment by oppotunities
• ages from 17-50
• all psychology students so they are used to taking tests and experiements like this which could aucse the results to be bias

Question 14

ethnocentric

Answer 14

• was ethnocentric all from same culture (not diverse - bad)
• all universty students so more diverse
• species mental behaviour