Cognitive Approach Flashcards
Bartlett (1932)
Investigation of how an individual’s memories were affected by previous knowledge and culture.
20 British participants listened to a North American Indian folk tale and one group was asked to recall it again to another person in 15-30 mins while the other group had to recall repeatedly over a period of days, weeks, months or years.
No significant difference in recall. Memory distortion present. (Levelling) individuals reduced length of story after 6 to 7 recalls considering some info unimportant. (Sharpening) emphasising details not mentioned through general knowledge and fit their logic. (Assimilation) modify story to fit their cultural schemas.
Their British identity played a role in their recall through memory reconstruction by which they incorporated personal cultural schemas to make sense of the story.
Proving schema theory, memory distortion and reconstruction.
Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)
To investigate whether short-term memory and long-term memory are two separate stores in a recall experiment.
240 army-enlisted participants recall as many from list of 15.
Condition 1: recall immediately
Condition 2: count backwards for 30 seconds before recall
Condition 3: count backwards for 10 seconds before recall
Immediate recall conditions displayed primacy and recency effect
Delayed recall condition showed only primacy effect, but not a recency effect.
Researchers concluded that short-term and long-term memory may be in different stores, the absence of a recency effect in the delayed recall condition that information in short-term memory decays rapidly over time and limited storage. more likely to be able to remember words at the beginning of the list regardless of the conditions, suggesting that they had paid attention to the stimulus material. Therefore, this information travelled to the short-term memory store from the sensory store. The participants may have also had the time to rehearse the information, consolidating the memory from the short-term store to the long-term store, overall demonstrating the primacy effect.
Support the MSM model and that there may be separate memory stores
Stroop (1935)
To examine how the incongruence between the colour of the word and the word’s content will impair the ability to name the colour
70 college undergraduates (14 boys, 56 girls) were used as subjects
There were 2 lists of words - printed with Congruent (matching) and Incongruent colours (conflicting). The list had 100 words each.
Half of the subjects read the congruent word list first (eg: The colour matched the word, if the word is green, the colour of the word would also be green), and were told to recite the words as fast as they could. They were timed with a stopwatch and were told that errors had to be corrected. The participants switched word lists and repeated the experiment.
It took an average of 2.3 seconds longer to read words printed in incongruent colours with no significant differences between gender.
Individuals were unconsciously reading the words with system 1 which interfered with system 2 to identify the colours of the text. While congruent group was much quicker, suggesting the use of system 1 which requires less cognitive load and is much more autonomous. May give evidence to the 2 different systems of thinking.
Strack and Mussweiler (1997)
Test the influence of anchoring bias on decision-making
69 German undergrads divided to 2 groups and were asked “Did Gandhi die before or after the age of 9” while the other group were told the age of 140 instead of 9 as the anchors, and then asked to estimate Gandhi’s age of death.
Findings showed that the group in the low anchor gave a lower estimate of the age of death while the high anchor answered with a higher estimate.
Findings showed that the anchor influenced the group’s estimations of the age, supporting the claim of anchoring bias where individuals base decision-making on the first piece of information given to them.
Sharot et al (2007)
Investigate the influence of biological factors on flashbulb memory
24 New Yorkers after the 9/11 attack were recruited t through volunteer sampling. They underwent an fMRI scan while being shown a list of words linked to summer activities or the 9/11 attack.
Researchers observed the brain activity during this process, participants were then told to rate their memories for vividness, detail, confidence in accuracy and arousal, and were told to write a description of their personal memories.
Memories of other personal events during the summer served as a baseline of typical brain activity which can then highlight changes in brain activity for memories of 9/11.
Those closer to the location where 9/11 took place showed higher levels of activation of the amygdala when it came to recalling the attack rather than when they recalled events from previous summers
Different parts of the brain are correlated to the use of long term and flashbulb memories. The closer the participant was to the event of 911, their flashbulb memories were stronger and more detailed.
suggest that strong emotions from close personal experience influence the engagement of neural mechanisms that produce the vivid memories, as a greater proximity to 911 may have triggered a more heightened level of emotional response and increased significance of safety, the more brain activity, thus supporting the theory of flashbulbs memory.
