C2: Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
Loftus and Palmer experiment 1: aim
To investigate how information supplied after an event influences a witness’s memory of that event
Loftus and Palmer experiment 1: hypothesis
Participants who are asked the smashed question will give higher speed estimates in MPH than participants who are asked the hit, bumped, contacted or collided question
Loftus and Palmer experiment 1: research method
lab experiment
Loftus and Palmer experiment 1: experimental design
independent measures
Loftus and Palmer experiment 1: participants
45 students from an American University, split into groups of 9
Loftus and Palmer experiment 1: procedure
- Participants asked to watch 7 video clips of car accidents sourced from Seattle Police Department which lasted between 5-30 seconds
- After each video clip participants were given a questionnaire to complete which focussed on the clip, then answered questions about the event itself
- Questionnaires invoked the critical question
Loftus and Palmer experiment 1: quantitative results
Smashed: 40.5 Collided: 39.3 Bumped: 38.1 Hit: 34.0 Contacted: 31.8
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: aim
Provide additional insight into the speed estimate differences found in the first study, whether the results were due to response bias or had memory been altered
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: hypothesis
Participants that are asked the smashed question will say yes more often to seeing broken glass than those that are asked the hit question
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: research method
lab experiment
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: experimental design
independent measures
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: participants
150 students from American University divided up into 3 groups
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: procedure
- Participants allocated 3 conditions which were smashed, hit or control
- Shown a one minute video clip with a 4 second crash
- Given a questionnaire to complete
- A week later, participants returned and we asked to fill in another questionnaire but not shown the clip again
- Critical closed question = did you see any broken glass?
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: speed estimate in the smashed and hit position results
Smashed = 10.46 mph Hit = 8mph
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: how many people said yes to glass in each condition
Smashed = 16 Hit = 7 Control = 6
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: how many people said no to glass in each condition
Smashed = 34 Hit = 43 Control = 44
Loftus and Palmer experiment 2: conclusions
The way a question is asked will enormously influence the answer that is given. Information obtained during the event and information obtained after the event will integrate with each other to form ‘one memory’
Grant: aim
To test the effect of noise as a source of context on the studying and retrieval of meaningful material in an academic context. A focus on changing the learning context was important as students can choose where to study but not where they are tested
Grant: participants
8 members of a psychology lab class served as experimenters, each experimented recruited 5 acquaintances to serve as participants, 39 participants ranging in age from 17-56
Grant: how did they recruit participants
Snowball sampling
Grant: research method
Lab experiment
Grant: experimental design
Independent measures
Grant: independent variables
1) Whether the participant read a two page article under silent or noisy conditions (study context)
2) Whether the participant was tested under matching or mismatching conditions (test context)
Grant: dependant variable
Participants performance on a short answer recall test and a multiple choice test
Grant: materials
- Cassette taps player and headphones with exact copies made from a master tape of background noise recorded during lunchtime in a university cafeteria
- Two page article on psycho immunology
- 16 multiple choice questions, 10 short answer questions
Grant: procedure
- Instructions read aloud, described as a voluntary class project
- Participants asked to read article through once, allowing highlighting and underlining
- Informed comprehension would be tested with both a short answer test and a multiple choice test
- All participants wore headphones
- Reading time was recorded, a break of approximately 2 mins between the end of the study phase and beginning of the test was incorporated to minimise short term memory
- Short answer test given first and was followed by the multiple choice test
- All participants debriefed concerning the experiment
- Whole procedure lasted 30 minutes
Grant: mean reading time in minutes for each condition
SS= 15.0 SN= 13.8 NS= 11.8 NN= 14.0
Grant: mean short answer test scores in all 4 conditions
SS= 6.7 SN= 5.4 NS= 4.6 NN= 6.2
Grant: mean multiple choice test scores for all 4 conditions
SS= 14.3 SN= 12.7 NS= 12.7 NN= 14.3