A psychologist investigated the effect of environmental noise during retrieval on memory recall. She obtained a volunteer sample of 40 undergraduate history students by sending an email flyer to the university's arts department mailing list.
All participants learned a list of 30 historical facts in a silent room. She then tested them under two conditions:
Condition A: Recalling the facts in the same silent room (silent-match condition).
Condition B: Recalling the facts in a noisy campus canteen (noisy-mismatch condition).
The median number of correctly and incorrectly recalled facts for each condition was calculated. The results are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 The median number of correct and incorrect facts recalled
| Condition A: Silent-match | Condition B: Noisy-mismatch | |
|---|---|---|
| Median number of correct recalls | 21 | 12 |
| Median number of incorrect recalls | 9 | 18 |
Explain one strength and one limitation of using volunteer sampling in this study.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Scientific processes with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 689 questions, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.
