Cognitive Approach Flashcards
Shallice and Warrington (1969)
Sample: KF had motorcycle accident causing left parieto-occipital fracture, damaging left parietal lobe
Procedure: Case study. Asked to repeat strings containing 1-4 unrepeated numbers, letters, and 4-5 letter words.
Findings: KF recalled strings more accurately when visually presented than aurally presented.
Conclusions: Separate memory stores for visual and aural presentation.
Link: Difference between presentation methods suggest left parietal lobe is more important to AP Loop than VS Sketchpad.
+ Data triangulation in case study
+ Longitudinal study
- Limited generalisability
- Confounding variable: damage to other parts of brain
Tversky and Kahneman (1974)
Aim: anchoring and student estimates of math problem
Sample: High school students
Procedure: Ask students to estimate 8 factorial in 5 seconds in ascending or descending condition
Findings: 512 vs 2250 (vs 40320)
Conclusions: Anchoring skews numerical estimates
Link: Lower anchor caused more insufficient adjustment
+ Internal Validity
+ 5 seconds ensured System 1
- Mundane Realism
- Individual differences in math ability
Englich and Mussweiler (2001)
Aim: Anchoring by prosecutor and decision of judge
Sample: 19 trial judges, 9.34 m experience
Procedure: Prosecutor recommended 2 or 34 month sentence for hypothetical rape case (24 law students recommended 17.21). Judges gave decision and rated confidence.
Findings: 18.78 vs 28.7 m, confidence 4.53, realism 7.17/9
Conclusions: Anchoring skews real-life courtroom decisions
Link: Prosecutor’s recommendation anchored judge’s decisions
+ Mundane realism
+ Internal Validity
- Low confidence ratings
- Independent samples
Reconstructive Memory
Theory
1. Cognitive misery
2. Cognitive frameworks minimise effort
3. Active recall using external cues and schema
4. Piaget, 1952
5. Derived from personal experiences and beliefs
6. Successful application to eyewitness testimony
Holistic Evaluation
+ Explains memory distortion
- Construct validity
- Research is limited by ethics
- Hard to verfiy effect of schemas
+ Successful application to eyewitness testimony
MSM (6+2/3)
Theory
1. There are 2 distinct memory stores
2. Sensory register processes information
3. STM rehearses information
4. LTM permanently encodes information
5. Information must be rehearsed or it is displaced
6. Model allows study of specific aspects of memory
Holistic Evaluation
+ Memory strategies in education
- Oversimplification
- Construct Validity
- Does not explain memory distortion
+ Support from biological theories and refined by WMM
Landry and Bartling (2011)
Aim: Articulatory suppression and serial recall
Sample: 34 psychology undergraduates
Procedure: 5 seconds to read 7 letters (F,K,L,M,Q,R,X), recall after 5 second-wait. Repeat 10 times, either repeating numbers 1 and 2 while reading list or silent.
Findings: 45% vs 76% accuracy
Conclusions: Articulatory suppression limits accuracy of recall
Link: Repeating numbers overloaded limited capacity of AP Loop.
+ Internal Validity
- Mundane Realism
Schema Theory (5+2/3)
Theory
1. Cognitive misery
2. Piaget (1952)
3. Cognitive frameworks minimise effort
4. Schemas help reconstruct memory
5. Assimilation, Accomodation, Internalisation
Holistic Evaluation
+ Explains memory distortion
- Schemas change
- Schemas are culturally specific
- Construct validity (Cohen, 1993)
+ Central to theory of reconstructive memory
Brown and Kulik (1977)
Aim: Surprise and FBM formation
Sample: 40 black, 40 white American males
Procedure: Memory questionnaires about murder of MLK Jr, JFK, and of loved one (when, where, how, personal/emotional significance)
Findings: Most had strong FBM about death of loved one, but 75% black and 33% white did about murder of MLK Jr.
Conclusions: Surprise strengthens FBM.
Link: Surprise triggers special biological mechanism, and MLK’s death is more surprising to black than white due to personal relevance
+ Acknowledges cultural differences
- Retrospective self-reporting (assumes vividness = accuracy)
Ethics: Confidentiality
RM: Questionnaire
Milner (1966)
Background: HM had lobotomy to reduce epileptic seizures. Anterograde amnesia occurred after hippocampal removal.
Procedure: Case study. Cognitive tests, psychometric tests, interviews, observations.
Findings: Retained STM and implicit “procedural” memory, but not explicit declarative “semantic” and “episodic” memory.
Conclusions: Separate short and long term memory stores.
Link: Discrepancy in ability suggest there are separate short and long term memory stores.
+ Method triangulation in case study
+ Longitudinal study
- Limited generalisability
- MSM does not explain subtypes of LTM
Ethics: Confidentiality
RM: Case study
WMM (6+2/3)
Theory
1. Expands on STM in the MSM
2. Central Executive cooordinates stores
3. AP Loop
4. VS Sketchpad
5. Episodic Buffer
6. More complex and dynamic approach
Holistic Evaluation
+ Explains effects of multitasking
- Oversimplification
- Construct Validity
- Does not explain memory distortion
+ Support from biological approach
Murdock (1962)
Aim: Length of word list and serial position curve
Sample: 103 psychology students
Procedure: Researchers read out 1 of 6 lists of monosyllabic words (lists varying in length), and gave 90 seconds to recall all words. 4 repeats, at least 2 days apart.
Findings: Primacy and recency observed in all lists, but intersected more in short lists.
Conclusions: Limited capacity of short-term memory
Link: Primacy - STM has limited capacity; Recency - STM needs rehearsal
+ Internal Validity
- Mundane Realism
RM: True Experiment
Tversky and Kahneman (1986)
Aim: Presentation of information and decision making
Sample: 307 US undergraduates
Procedure: Hypothetical scenario to save 600 from disease. 200 guaranteed saved vs 200 gamble saved; 400 guaranteed dead vs 400 gamble dead.
Findings: 72% A, 22% C.
Conclusions: Presentation of informationa and decision making.
Link: Framing influenced extent of loss aversion, participants aimed to save guaranteed lives and avoid guaranteed deaths.
+ Internal Validity
- Mundane realism
Biases in Thinking and Decision Making (6+2/3)
Theory
1. Dual processing Model
2. System 1 is quick, easy, intuitive
3. Cognitive misers
4. Heuristics from personal experience
5. Anchoring bias
6. Framing effect
Holistic Evaluation
+ Support from biological evidence
- Construct validity
- Difficult to verify effect of cognitive biases
- Internal vs External validity in research
+ Applications in education and marketing
Thinking and Decision Making (8+2/3)
Theory
1. Dual processing Model
2. System 1 is quick, easy, intuitive
3. Cognitive misers
4. Heuristics from personal experience
5. Systematic errors
6. System 2 is slow, deliberate, rational
7. Information is transported depending on whether speed or accuracy is important
8. Automaticity
Holistic Evaluation
+ Support from biological evidence
- Oversimplification
- Neglects emotion
- Construct validity
+ Applications in education and marketing
Loftus and Pickrell (1995)
Aim: Implanting false biographical memories
Sample: 24 participants
Procedure: Questionnaire about 3 biographical events sourced from relative and “getting lost in the mall”. 4 interviews in next 2 weeks, and rate confidence in each event.
Findings: Successful implantation in 25% of participants, but memory confidence was lowest in false memory for all.
Conclusions: False memories can be implanated, and memory is impacted by external cues.
Link: External cues suggest the truth of false memories.
+ Ecological validity
+ Standardised questionaire limits external cues
- Unexplained individual differences
- Contamination
Ethics: Deception
RM: Interviews
Brewers and Treyens (1981)
Aim: Schema and memory recall
Sample: 86 psychology students
Procedure: Sit in office-like room for 35 seconds, and asked to recall objects by writing, drawing, or recognition.
Findings: More schema-congruent items are recalled
Conclusions: Schema skews memory recall
Link: Reconstruction using schema led to distortion
+ Deception to avoid demand characteristics (93% success rate)
- Individual differences in schema of offices
Ethics: Deception
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
Aim: Schema processing and reconstruction of traffic accident
Sample: 150 students
Procedure: Students watched video of traffic accident and questionnaired one week later. “About how fast were the cars going when they bumped/smashed into each other?”, “Did you see any broken glass?”
Findings: 10.46 vs 8 mph; 32% vs 14% broken glass
Conclusions: Schema skew memory reconstruction
Link: Leading question acted as external cue, activating schema of severe traffic accidents
+ Internal Validity
+ Data triangulation (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted)
- Mundane realism
- Questionnaire response bias
Ethics: Protection from Stress
RM: Experiment
Emotion and Cognition
Theory
1. Emotion is subjective, physiological and biological
2. Emotion is adaptive
3. Emotion enhances memory by FBM
4. Surprise triggers special mechanism
5. Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908)
6. Neisser and Harsch (1992)
7. Successful application to eyewitness testimony
Holistic Evaluation
+ Explains memory distortion
- Construct validity
- Ecological validity of research
- Correlational nature of research
+ Successful application to eyewitness testimony
Neisser and Harsch (1992)
Aim: FBM distortion
Sample: 106/44 Emory unviersity psychology students
Procedure: Questionnaire (9 questions) about how they learned of Challenger disaster in 1986. Repeated questionnaire in 1988, rating confidence in own memory.
Findings: 2.95/7 similarity score between questionnaires, 4.17/5 average confidence rating.
Semi-structured interviews show that students completely forgot 1986 response.
Conclusions: FBM can be distorted.
Link: FBM increased confidence, but emotion may distort memory.
+/- Ecological Validity
- Participant Attrition
Bartlett (1932)
Aim: Verify reconstructive nature of memory
Sample: Brits
Procedure: Participants told native American The War of the Ghosts and asked to recall by serial recall/ repeated reproduction
Findings: Assimilation, Levelling, Sharpening
Conclusions: Memory is reconstructive, influenced by cultural schemas
Link: Reconstruction of details using own cultural schema caused distortion
+ Mundane Realism
- Lack of native American control group
RM and Ethics for CA
- Cognitive Processes RM: Murdock 1962 (True Experiment), Milner 1966 (Case Study)
- Cognitive Processes Ethics: Brewers and Treyens 1981 (Deception), Milner 1966 (Confidentiality)
- Reliability of Cognitive Processes RM: Loftus and Palmer 1974 (True Experiment), Loftus and Pickrell 1995 (Interviews)
- Reliability of Cognitive Processes Ethics: Loftus and Palmer 1974 (Protection from Stress), Loftus and Pickrell 1995 (Deception)
- Emotion and Memory RM: Brown and Kulik 1977 (Semi-structured interviews), Neisser and Harsch 1992 (Questionnaries)
- Emotion and Memory Ethics: Brown and Kulik 1977 (Confidentiality), McGaugh and Cahill 1995 (Protection from harm)
