Grant

Question 1

What area is Grant’s study in?

Answer 1

Cognitive area

Question 2

Is Grant’s study a classic or contemporary study?

Answer 2

Contemporary

Question 3

Which study is paired with Grant’s study?

Answer 3

Loftus and Palmer - classic

Question 4

What is context dependent memory?

Answer 4

Context dependent memory is when memory is improved when the context at encoding and retrieval is the same. (basic memory is encoding - storage - retrieval)

Question 5

What is the aim of Grant’s study?

Answer 5

To investigate if performance on a memory test is improved by having the same context (environment) at encoding and at retrieval.

Question 6

What is Grant’s sample?

Answer 6

Originally 40 but one removed.
Aged between 17 - 56.
17 females, 23 males.

Question 7

Explain the procedure of Grant’s study

Answer 7

1. Ptps gave consent and standardised instructions were read aloud, ptps were told their participation was voluntary.
2. Ptps individually studied a 2-page article on ‘Psycho-immunology’ which was judges to be ‘interesting and understandable’ by ythe experimenters. Ptps had no time limit to study this and were allowed to highlight and underline the 2-page text as if they would when studying in real life.
3. Ptps would study this text in either noisy or silent conditions but would wear headphones regardless of the condition. The noisy condition would have the sound of a university cafeteria at lunchtime. Included general ‘conversational hum’ with the occasional movement of chairs and dishes.
4. Ptps then completed a 10 short answer questions on the article (the recall test) and 16 multiple choice questions about the article (the recognition test). The SAQs were always given first so the ptps were remembering from the article and not from the MCQs.
5. Ptps completed the above 2 tests in either noisy or silent conditions.

Question 8

What was the article from which the ptps were tested on about in Grant’s study?

How long did the ptps have to study the article?

Answer 8

A 2-page article on ‘psycho immunology’ which was judged to be ‘interesting and understandable’ by the experimenters.

There was no time limit and they were allowed to highlight and underline the text.

Question 9

What is the research method in Grant’s study?

Answer 9

Lab

Question 10

What is the research design of Grant’s study?

Answer 10

Independent measures design

Question 11

What is the IV of Grant’s study?

Answer 11

The IV is the study and test conditions being matched or mismatched.

There were 4 conditions: silent/silent, noisy/noisy, silent/noisy and noisy/silent.

Question 12

What are the findings of Grant’s study?

Answer 12

Those in the matching condition (silent study -silent testing and noisy-study - noisy testing) performed better on both the SAQs and the MCQs compared to the mismatching conditions (noisy study - silent testing and silent study - noisy testing)

On average, ptps scored 14.3/16 on the MCQS in the matching conditions but 12.7/16 in the mismatching conditions.

Question 13

What are the conclusions of Grant’s study?

Answer 13

Context dependent effects do occur. Matching conditions should do better than mis-matching conditions when tested using the MCQs and SAQs.

Suggested noise whilst studying doesnt necessarily affect performance when being tested but the same noise is needed when being tested (therefore in exams the noise level is quite therefore students should study (encode) in quiet conditions too)

Context dependent effects occur regardless of whether SAQs or MCQs are used.

Question 14

List 3 controls in Grant’s study

Answer 14

All ptps wore headphones regardless of which condition they were in, all ptps read the same 2-page article on psycho immunology and all ptps answered the same SAQs and MCQs.