Case studies

Question 1

Genie Wiley case study

Answer 1

-investigated the effect of abuse/neglect on development
-she was severely neglected and abused by her parents
-used to determine if ‘critical periods’ of development existed
-was concluded that she wouldn’t be able to speak properly

Question 2

David Reimer case study

Answer 2

-investigated whether gender is biologically or socially determined
-his penis was removed when he was a child and he was raised as a girl, then transitioned to a man when he was in his 20s

Question 3

Peterson & Peterson procedure

Answer 3

-aim was to investigate the duration of STM
-used 24 uni students who took part in 8 trials
-ppts were given a consonant trigram and a three-digit no. (e.g. TRX 512)
-to prevent rehearsal, ppts asked to count backwards in threes

Question 4

Peterson & Peterson findings

Answer 4

-3 secs -> 80% successful recall
-9 secs -> 20%
-18 secs -> less than 10%
-conclusion: the duration of STM is <18 secs
-but, prevention used displaces the data so it takes focus away from data being encoded.

Question 5

Bahrick et al procedure

Answer 5

-aim: investigate the duration of LTM
-392 ppts from US, ages 17-74
-tested photo recognition (recall names of 50 students in their yearbook) and free name recall (asked to list the names they remembered from graduation) from ppts high school yearbooks

Question 6

Bahrick et al findings

Answer 6

-photo recognition: ppts tested within 15 yrs were 90% accurate, after 48 years, recall declined to 70%
-free recall: after 15 yrs= 60% accurate, after 48 yrs= 30%
-conclusion: the duration of LTM can last a long time

Question 7

Baddeley (1966) procedure

Answer 7

-ppts shown a list of words and asked to recall them in the correct order
-ppts recalled the words immediately after hearing them, but 20 mins for LTM recall

Question 8

Baddeley (1966) findings

Answer 8

-ppts couldn’t remember acoustically similar words immediately, but could after 20 mins
-ppts couldn’t remember semantically similar words
after 20 mins, but could immediately
-conclusion: suggests info is coded acoustically in STM and semantically in LTM

Question 9

Jacob’s research

Answer 9

-researcher capacity
-found average span for numbers was 9.3 items
-found average span for letters was 7.3 items

Question 10

Miller’s research

Answer 10

-found STM has a limited capacity: 7 +/- 2
-argued capacity can be increased if we chunk items together (find links between things)

Question 11

Beardsley’s (1997) research

Answer 11

-found prefrontal cortex is active during STM (making a decision)
-not during LTM tasks

Question 12

Squire’s (1992) research

Answer 12

-found hippocampus is active when LTM is engaged

Question 13

Craik and Lockheart’s (1972) research

Answer 13

-gave ppts a list of words and asked a question which involved shallow/deep processing
-shallow: if word was printed in capitals
-deep: if word fitted with sentence

Question 14

Godden & Baddeley

Answer 14

-studied deep-sea divers working underwater
-divers learned a list of words on land/underwater, then had to recall on land/underwater
-where environmental contexts of learning + recall didn’t match, accurate recall was 40% lower

Question 15

Carter & Cassaday (1998)

Answer 15

-gave antihistamine drugs to ppts, which had a mild sedative effect (ppts were drowsy) + created a diff. internal physiological state than ‘normal’
-ppts had to learn lists of words/passages to recall info
-when there was a mismatch w/ internal state at learning + recall, performance was worse
-absent cues= more forgetting