Study descriptions for critical analysis

Practice identifying and writing about limitations

The task

For each study below, read the study description carefully:

1. Think: What would you have written about limitations at A-level?
2. Focus on: What aspect of the method might limit which conclusion? Why does it matter?
3. Now write 2-3 sentences identifying specific limitations

Remember: Avoid generic critiques like “small sample” or “lacks ecological validity.” Be specific about what matters and why.

Examples

Peterson and Peterson (1959) - Short Term Memory

Peterson and Peterson (1959) investigated the duration of short-term memory. Participants were shown consonant trigrams (e.g., XQF) and asked to recall them after delays of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18 seconds. During the delay, participants counted backwards in threes from a given number (e.g., 397, 394, 391…) to prevent rehearsal. Recall dropped from about 80% at 3 seconds to less than 10% at 18 seconds.

Godden and Baddeley (1975) - Context Dependent Memory

Godden and Baddeley (1975) tested context-dependent memory with deep-sea divers. Participants learned word lists either on land or underwater (10 feet deep), and were later tested in either the same or different environment. This created four conditions: learn-land/test-land, learn-land/test-water, learn-water/test-land, learn-water/test-water. Recall was approximately 40% better when learning and testing contexts matched.

Baddeley (1966) - Acoustic and Semantic Similarity

Baddeley (1966) examined the effects of acoustic and semantic similarity on recall. Participants heard either acoustically similar words (man, cat, can, cap, mad) or acoustically dissimilar words (pit, few, cow, pen, sup), or semantically similar words (huge, big, great, large, wide) or semantically dissimilar words (good, huge, hot, safe, thin). They recalled them immediately or after a 20-minute delay. Acoustically similar words were harder to recall immediately; semantically similar words were harder to recall after delay.

Ainsworth et al. (1970s) - Strange Situation

Ainsworth and colleagues (1970s) developed the ‘Strange Situation’ to assess infant attachment. They recruited families from the local area near Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In the laboratory, infants (aged 12-18 months) were observed in an unfamiliar room during a series of brief episodes: the mother left the child with a stranger, returned, left again leaving the infant completely alone, then the stranger returned, and finally the mother returned. Researchers coded the infant’s behaviour during separations and reunions. Based on their responses - particularly how quickly infants were comforted when the mother returned - Ainsworth classified attachment styles as secure (about 65%), avoidant (about 20%), or anxious-resistant (about 15%). She concluded these patterns reflected the quality of care infants had received at home.

Harlow (1958) - Contact Comfort

Harlow (1958) investigated whether infant attachment is based on feeding or comfort. He separated infant rhesus monkeys from their biological mothers at birth and raised them in isolation with two artificial ‘mother’ surrogates. One surrogate was made of bare wire mesh with a bottle attached providing milk. The other was covered in soft terry cloth but provided no food. The researchers measured how much time infants spent with each surrogate and how they behaved when frightened (a mechanical toy was placed in the cage). Infant monkeys spent 15-18 hours per day clinging to the cloth mother and only 1 hour with the wire mother (just to feed). When frightened, they ran to the cloth mother for comfort. Harlow concluded that ‘contact comfort’ is more important than feeding for attachment bonds.

Educational Media and Infant Development

Researchers in the early 2000s investigated whether educational media could enhance infant cognitive development. Parents of infants aged 12-18 months were surveyed about their child’s media use and completed vocabulary checklists (reporting how many words their infant could say or understand). The study found that infants whose parents reported more time watching educational DVDs (products marketed as ‘Baby Einstein’, ‘Brainy Baby’, etc.) had larger vocabularies than infants who watched less. The researchers concluded that educational media could support early language development, and these findings were widely publicised. The Baby Einstein company grew rapidly, marketing products as educational tools.