cognitive Flashcards
bransford and johnson
(1972)
washing machine: aim
- investigate how schemas help us to store new information in our memory
bransford and johnson
(1972)
washing machine: procedure
- participants randomly divided into 3 groups
- group 1 told the story is about laundry before they are read the story
- group 2 is told the story after
- group 3 is not told
- then all participants are tested on how well they can recall the paragraph
bransford and johnson
(1972)
washing machine: findings
- group 1 that were told the topic before they heard the paragraph had a much better memory than the other groups
bransford and johnson
(1972)
washing machine: conclusion
- schemas help participants encode new information by helping them interpret what is happening
- memory isn’t just copying what you hear but interpreting it based on past experiences
bransford and johnson
(1972)
washing machine: evaluation
- easy to replicate, high reliability
- experimental design, casual relationship
- wouldn’t happen in real life low ecological validity
bartlett
(1932)
cultural schemas: aim
- investigate how cultural schemas can influence memory
bartlett
(1932)
cultural schemas: procedure
- british participants asked to read native american folk story “war of ghosts” twice
- asked to use serial reproduction soon after being read it
- then that person had to write it down
bartlett
(1932)
cultural schemas: findings
- the length of the story became shorter
- story became more conventional canoe, boat: eel, hunting: fishing
- no matter how different the story remained whole
bartlett
(1932)
cultural schemas: conclusion
- participants found it hard to remember because it didn’t fit their own cultural schemas
- couldn’t relate to prior experiences
- cultural schemas can lead to memory distortions
bartlett
(1932)
cultural schemas: evaluation
- supports the idea that schemas can lead to false memories
- took place a long time ago, modern psychological research was not developed
- procedure was not carefully controlled
- not ecologically valid but some argue it is because we remember information our friends and family tell us
murdoch
(1962)
remember list: aim
- investigate how the position of words in a list affects memory
murdoch
(1962)
remember list: procedure
- shown a list of words 1 at a time for 1-2 seconds
- as soon as all the words were shown participants had to recall as many words as they could
murdoch
(1962)
remember list: results
- remembered more words at the beginning of the list (primacy effect) and the end (recency effect)
- worst recall for the middle of the list
cognitive
murdoch
(1962)
remember list: conclusion
- words at the beginning put into long term memory
- words at the end put into short term memory
murdoch
(1962)
remember list: evaluation
- supports the multi store model of memory
- debatable if the beginning of the list is really in long term memory
- low ecological validity
loftus and palmer (1974) aim
question words
- investigate how leading questions can influence eyewitness memory
loftus and palmer (1974) procedure
question words
- study conducted on american students
- shown a video on a car crash
loftus and palmer (1974) findings
question words
- participants estimated the car was going much faster when they question said smashed vs contacted
- more participants said there was broken glass when the question was smashed even when there was none
loftus and palmer (1974) conclusion
question words
- leading questions can change the memory of an event
- “smashed” is associated with more severe accidents which suggests higher speeds and broken glass
loftus and palmer (1974) evaluation
question words
- well controlled lab experiment
- findings may not apply to other age groups or cultures
- speed estimates have low ecological validity, may not have been motivated to be accurate
brown and kulik (1977) aim
emotional vivid
- investigate whether people have unusually vivid memories of highly emotional events
brown and kulik (1977) procedure
emotional vivid
- 80 americans, half white half african american
- participants asked to recall assassinations of famous people like JFK
- also asked to remember an emotionally intense personally event, death of a family member etc
brown and kulik (1977) results
emotional vivid
- nearly all participants had vivid memories of where they were and what they were doing when they heard JFK was assassinated
- african americans had vivid memories of martin luther king assassination
- 73/80 had vivid memories of an emotionally intense personal event
brown and kulik (1977) conclusion
emotional vivid
- emotionally intense events are remembered in great detail
brown and kulik (1977) evaluation
emotional vivid
- study supports the idea of flashbulb memory showing the connection between emotion and memory
- study could not verify if their memories were accurate
- details of their memories could have changed over time
neissar and harsch (1992) aim
flashbulb correct
- access the accuracy of flashbulb memories
neissar and harsch (1992) procedure
flashbulb correct
- challenger space ship broke killing all members on board
- within 24 hours of the event american psychology students filled in a survey with 7 questions asking what they were doing and where they were when it happened
- 2.5 years later participants filled in the questionnaire again
- researchers compared both versions to see if the participants memories would be accurate 2.5 years later
- participants were also asked how confident they were on a scale of 1 -5 on their memory of the event
neissar and harsch (1992) results
flashbulb correct
- most participants there were significant changes between the 2 questionnaires
- out of the 7 questions, only 2.95 were answered identically to the original survey
neissar and harsch (1992) conclusion
flashbulb correct
- flashbulb memories may be detailed and vivid but not accurate
neissar and harsch (1992) evaluation
flashbulb correct
- all american university students so not generalizable
- contained a real life event so ecological validity is high
- although the event was shocking, didn’t contain personal relevance for the students
- death of a parent in their own lives maybe would have been remembered better
phelps (2004) aim
brain flashbulb
- investigate which brain regions play a role in flashbulb memory
phelps (2004) procedure
brain flashbulb
- 24 participants who were in new york when 9/11 happened recalled their memories of that event while having their brain scanned by an fMRI machine
- participants were also asked to rate how detailed and vivid their memories were of the 9/11 attacks
phelps (2004) results
brain flashbulb
- only participants who were very close to the attacks had very vivid and detailed memories of 9/11
- the further away from the attacks the less detailed the memories were
- participants who were closed showed increased activity in the amygdala
- amygdala regards emotions
phelps (2004) conclusion
brain flashbulb
- flashbulb memories are likely to occur when witnessing a shocking event firsthand not just seeing it on the news
- the amygdala is involved in flashbulb memories
- strong emotions = vivid detailed memories
phelps (2004) evaluation
brain flashbulb
- study supports the theory of flashbulb memory and supports brown and kulik’s hypothesis
- suggests flashbulb memories are only created when the event is personally relevant
- small scale study only involving 24 participants
- did not verify the accuracy of the participants memories of 9/11
atler and oppenheimer (2007) aim
font think
- investigate how font impacts thinking
atler and oppenheimer (2007) procedure
font think
- 40 princeton students completed a cognitive test
- test contained 3 questions and measures whether people use system 1 (fast thinking) and get it wrong or system 2 (slow thinking) and get it right
atler and oppenheimer (2007) findings
font think
- with students using the easy font only 10% answered all three questions correctly
- hard font 65% of participants answered all three correctly
atler and oppenheimer (2007) conclusion
font think
- difficult to read font = slowing down using system 2 thinking and vice versa
atler and oppenheimer (2007) evaluation
font think
- strong evidence for dual processing theory, supports Kahneman’s model of fast system 1 and slow system
- study only involved princeton undergrad students, not representative or generalizable
- ecological validity is low
khaneman and tversky (1974) aim
anchors
- investigate how anchors influence thinking and decision making
khaneman and tversky (1974) procedure
anchors
- participants spun a wheel with numbers ranging from 1 to 100
- the wheel was rigged so it would only land on either 10 or 60
- afterwards participants were asked to estimate what percentage of U.N. member countries were african countries
khaneman and tversky (1974) findings
anchors
- participants who spun the number 10 gave a significantly lower estimate for african U.N. membership than those who spun the 60
- mean estimate for the low spinning group was 25% compared to 45% for the other group
khaneman and tversky (1974) conclusion
anchors
- the random number had an anchoring impact on the participants estimates even though it had no relation to the topic
khaneman and tversky (1974) evaluation
anchors
- well controlled experiment
- low ecological validity
khaneman and tversky (1973) aim
availability judgement
- investigate how the availability heuristic impacts judgement
khaneman and tversky (1973) procedure
availability judgement
- participants were asked if a random word is taken from the english language, is it more likely that the word starts with the letter k or that is the third letter?
khaneman and tversky (1973) results
availability judgement
- over 2/3rds of participants thought it was more likely words would begin with the letter k
- in reality twice as many words that have k as the third letter
khaneman and tversky (1973) conclusion
availability judgement
- results of this study are likely to due the availability heuristic
- they found it easier to find words that have k as the first letter and then assume there are more
khaneman and tversky (1973) evaluation
availability judgement
- easy to replicate, reliable
- low ecological validity
- participants were all american college students, not generalizable
bechara et al (2000) aim
brain damage
- investigate the effects of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPRC) damage on decision making
bechara et al (2000) procedure
brain damage
- 2 groups of participants, 5 with vmPRC damage and 13 healthy controls
- participants played an online gambling game, after clicking a card they were told if they either won or lost money
- decks A and B would give higher and higher losses as the game continued
- testing skin conductive response to measure the participants emotional reaction
bechara et al (2000) findings
brain damage
- normal controls (no brain damage) quickly learned to avoid decks A and B and exhibited a stress response
- participants with brain damage continued to choose the bad edecks and showed no stress reaction
bechara et al (2000) conclusion
brain damage
- study suggests that participants with vmPRC damage do not experience somatic markers
bechara et al (2000) evaluation
brain damage
- study supports the somatic marker hypothesis
- small study so should be replicated with a larger sample
- correlational results no manipulation of variables
sparrow et al (2011) aim
technology offloading
- investigate how technology can lead to cognitive offloading of factual information
sparrow et al (2011) procedure
technology offloading
- participants were asked to type 40 trivia facts into a computer
- randomly assigned 2 groups
- group 1 told the computer would store everything and the other group 2 were told everything would be erased
- within the 2 groups they were divided again, half were told to remember the facts and the other half were not asked
sparrow et al (2011) findings
technology offloading
- participants that were told the computer would erase the information remembered 30% more facts
- told the computer would store remembered 20%
- telling the participants to remember had no impact on memory
sparrow et al (2011) conclusion
technology offloading
- when people think information will be stored electronically, they make less effort to remember
- even when told to remember they won’t bother because they can just look it up later
sparrow et al (2011) evaluation
technology offloading
- supports the theory of cognitive offloading
- well controlled lab experiment showing a causal relationship
- potential demand characteristics
hoffman et al aim
computer hire
- compare the hiring decisions of human managers with computer algorithms
hoffman et al procedure
computer hire
- 15 businesses who employ low skilled service workers
- computer algorithm to predict the job performance of 300,00 job applicants based on questions about skill and personality
- algorithm sorted them into high, medium and low potential
- hiring managers could still overrule the algorithm
hoffman et al results
computer hire
- algorithm was correct, employees rated green stayed 12 days longer than yellow employees who stayed 17 days longer than red employees
- hiring manager overruled , wrong
hoffman et al conclusion
computer hire
- computer algorithms can make accurate predictions
- human intuition is often wrong
hoffman et al evaluation
computer hire
- high ecological validity
- not generalizable to other types of jobs
- nothing about job performance
