Psychology

Section1 - Introduction

This study is based on cue dependent

forgetting, and in particular how cues effects recall. It is said that cues allows us to locate information, which would otherwise be inaccessible. Also retrieval failure leads to forgetting, this can be a form of tip-of-the-tongues-phenomenon, where the answer is in the long-term memory but there is difficulties in retrieving. A cue could be a prompt or hint that can help memory retrieval. These theories are studied by using either: recall tests, where you must retrieve the information learned earlier or recognition tests, where you only need to identify the correct answer, such as multiple choice. A study of cue dependent

forgetting was done by Aggelton and Waskett (1999), where the participants had visited a museum years before. While there they experienced lots of different smells. They had 3 groups and each group filled out a questionnaire about the visit on 2 separate occations, 5 minutes apart. 1st group had the smells, which was present at the museum, then with unrelated smells. The 2nd group had un-relating smells then relating. And the 3rd group had no odours. It showed that with smells that related to the museum the groups did better on the questionnaire. Another study, which investigated these theories, was Godden and Baddeley in 1975; where they had divers learned lists of words either on land or underwater. Then after they were asked to recall the list of words either in the same environment, such as learning on land and recalling on land, or in the opposite environment, learning on land and recalling underwater. The results where that the divers recalled more words when in the same environment, which they revised then in a different environment.

Another investigation was instead of the environment being the cues, categories where used instead, this study was by Tulving and Pearlstone in 1966 on whether 'availability versus accessibility of information in memory for words'. To do this they gave participants a word list to learn with headings and then had both groups recall the words, one group had category names and the other groups' paper where blank. Tulving and Pearlstone found that cues helped recall, the group without cues where later given the cues for recall, which resulted in the group remembering more than before; which proves that the memory of the words was always there but just needed cues to remember.

* Rationale

This investigation is based on a study done by Tulving and Pearlstone. In this study a lab experiment will be used, which is same as the experiment it was based on. Also the method will be very similar as there is 2 groups what will be used, one with and one without cues (categories), both groups will study a word list then have to recall.

The only difference is that in Tulving's and Pearlstone's investigation, after both groups had finished recalling all the words that they could, the 2nd group, which had not been given the cues, was then given then, to recall the words again. Also a different word list and category sheet will be used. A one tailed hypothesis will be put forward to predict which direction the results will go. Also it is expected that based on Tulving and Pearlystone's results more words will be recalled by the group with the category sheet.

* Aim

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of having cues, such as categories, when recalling words, on year 9's in a classroom setting.

* Hypothesis

Students are more likely to recall more words with the presence of cues, such as categorises, than those without cues.

Section 2 - Method

* Design

The method used was a lab experiment as it was in a confined classroom, this method was chosen as the students needed to be spaced out to make sure it was the IV (Cues), which affected the DV (Recall of words) and no other variable; however there are problems with this experiment such as it lacks ecological validity. There were 2 equal groups of 10 students, one group had plain paper and the other group had a sheet of paper with categorises on, for the cues. The study was operationalized by revising words and was measured by testing how many they could recall.

* Variables

IV - Operationalized two groups one with and one without cues (categories)

DV - measured by students recalling all words remembered, with half having plain paper and half having paper with categories.

* Participant

There where 20 participants used in the study; 2 groups of 10, which were chosen by opportunity sampling, as they where available when having psychology. However not everyone had a chance of being chosen this maybe being bias as it was on 1 age group; 13-14's in year 9, and they where the same set ability. Also there where slightly more girls than boys. A much less bias way of doing the study would have been to use quota sampling instead, but it would have taken much longer and the students may have been busy or absent. The students where naпve to the purpose of the study.

* Apparatus or material

For the study the materials used where, 20 copies of the word list, 10 pieces of plain paper, 10 pieces of paper with categories on and a clock to check timing. The words where chosen at random and distinctive words where omitted so they didn't stand out and remembered more easily. Each category had 5 words, there where 30 words altogether because if their was 10 words all the words might be able to be remembered where as by picking 30 it is unlikely that all words will be remembered. See appendix 1 for a copy of the word list and for categories sheet.

* Procedure

A group of 2 was created, which involved 9631 and 9588. The study that was decided to recreate was the 'Categories aid recall' study, as it is easy to replicate because it is quick and simple. To start the study they needed to decide on categories,