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Grant el al. 1998 Context-dependent memory (Procedure (Each experimenter…
Grant el al. 1998 Context-dependent memory
Background
Research has shown that context-dependence may play an important role in numerous situations such as memory for studied material
Grant et al. aimed to show that students can perform better on a test when the test takes place in the same environment as the material was learned
Research method
Lab experiment
Independent measures
IV's - whether the participants read the article under silent or noisy conditions
whether the participant was tested under matching or mismatching conditions
DV - the participants performance on a short answer recall test and a multiple choice recall test
Sample
8 members of a psychology class served as experimenters and they each recruited 5 acquaintances as participants
There were 39 participants aged 17-56
17 were female and 23 were male
One participant's results were omitted as over 2.5 standard deviation below group average
Procedure
Each experimenter ran one participant for each of the 4 conditions and one extra for one of the conditions assigned by the instructor
Participants were asked to read the given article once knowing they would be tested with short answer and MCQ's after
All participants wore headphones, those in the silent condition heard nothing, those in the noisy condition heard pre-recorded background noise from the cafeteria
Reading times were recorded by the experimenters and a break of 2 minutes between reading and testing was given to ensure it is from their long term memory
Short answer test gievn followed by MCQ as MCQ could affect their recall
participants were tested in silent or noisy conditions and were debriefed concerning the purpose of the experiment after
Key findings
Studying and testing in the same environment produces better results
In the silent study condition when tested in silence scored 6.7 on short answer test, when tested in noise 4.6
Results suggest participants all spent roughly equal amounts of time studying the material so reading time was used as variable in analysis of test performance
Concusions
Studying and testing in the same environment leads to better performance
Students are likely to perform better in exams if they study in silence as although noise has no effect on performance the evidence of context-dependency suggests better studying in silence since exam will be taken in silence