Cognitive Area

Question 1

What is the conclusion of Grant?

Answer 1

Studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance.

Question 2

What is the sample of Moray?

Answer 2

Participants were undergraduates and research workers of both sexes. Amount of participants was not given for Experiment 1 but 12 participants took part in the experimental conditions in Experiment 2 and two
groups of 14 participants were used in Experiment 3.

Question 3

What is the sample of Grant?

Answer 3

8 psychology students acted as experimenters. Each experimenter recruited five acquaintances to serve as participants. There were 39 participants, ranging in age from 17 to 56 years (mean age: 23.4), 17f, 23m. (1 participant’s results were omitted from the analyses as they scored a significantly lower score than anyone else.)

Question 4

How does memory link to individual diversity?

Answer 4

Furthers our understanding of individual diversity as it shows that each individual’s memory is affected by different factors such as post-event information and context.

Question 5

What is the background of Simons & Chabris?

Answer 5

In order for us to detect change, attention is required. Change blindness is where individuals do not detect large changes. Inattentional blindness occurs when attention is diverted to another object or task and observers often fail to perceive an unexpected object.

Question 6

How are Loftus & Palmer and Grant similar in their Practical Applications?

Answer 6

Both have practical applications, as both give insight into factors affecting memory, so can be applied to real life situations. Loftus and Palmer’s findings can be applied to the legal system, as the results show how leading questions can distort eyewitness testimony. The findings could used to make sure that non-leading questions are used to gather accurate accounts from witnesses. Grant’s findings can be applied to educational settings. The study shows the importance of context-dependent memory, suggesting that students may benefit from studying in environments similar to those in which they will take exams.

Question 7

What is the background of Grant?

Answer 7

Previous research such as Goddern & Baddley’s study into deepsea divers suggested that memory is context dependent, meaning that individuals will recall more information if the environment they learn and study the content is the same as where they retrieve it

Question 8

What is the aim of Simons & Chabris?

Answer 8

To investigate inattentional blindness in a complex scene, seeing if people will notice unexpected events if they are told to direct their attention to other aspects of the scene.

Question 9

What is the background of Moray?

Answer 9

Previous research by Cherry (1953) investigated the “cocktail party phenomenon”. Cherry found that those who shadowed a message in one ear, were unaware of the content of the message in the other ear.

Question 10

How are Loftus & Palmer and Grant different in their Sample?

Answer 10

In Loftus and Palmer’s study, the samples were gained via opportunity sampling. The sample consisted of Elizabeth Loftus’ undergraduate Psychology students from the University of Washington, (Experiment 1 - 45, Experiment 2 - 150). Whereas in Grant’s study, snowball sampling was used as each of the 8 researchers recruited 5 acquaintances (17f, 23m age 17-56). Both samples are likely to be ethnocentric as they both will consist of people all from the same country and similar cultures.

Question 11

What is the method of Simons & Chabris?

Answer 11

Laboratory experiment that used an independent measures design. The IVs were whether the participant took part in:
* The Transparent/Umbrella Woman condition
* The Transparent/Gorilla condition
* The Opaque/Umbrella Woman condition
* The Opaque Gorilla condition
For each of the four displays there were four task conditions:
* White/Easy
* White/Hard
* Black/Easy
* Black/Hard.
The DV was the number of participants in each of the 16 conditions who noticed the unexpected event (Umbrella
Woman or Gorilla).

Question 12

How are Loftus & Palmer and Grant similar in their Data Collected?

Answer 12

Both studies collected quantitative data. In Loftus and Palmer’s study, data was gathered in the form of numerical speed estimates given by the participants and the frequency of participants reporting whether they saw broken glass. In Grant’s study, data was collected through participants’ scores on a recall test (number of correct answers out of 10) and a recognition test (number of correct answers out of 16). Collecting quantitative data would allow researchers to analyse results easily and make valid conclusions about memory

Question 13

What is the method of Moray?

Answer 13

All tasks were laboratory experiments. Experiment 1 used a repeated measures design, and the
IVs were:
* the dichotic listening test
* the recognition test
The DV was the number of words recognised correctly in the rejected message. Experiment 2 used a repeated measures design, and the IV was whether or not instructions were prefixed by the participant’s name. The DV was the number of instructions that were followed. Experiment 3 used an independent measures design. The IVs were:
* whether numbers were inserted into both messages or only one
* whether participants had to answer questions about the shadowed message at the end of each passage or whether participants only had to remember the numbers. The DV was the amount of numbers remembered.

Question 14

What is the findings of Moray?

Answer 14

Experiment 1 - The mean number of words recognised (out of 7):
* Shadowed message- 4.9
* Rejected message- 1.9
* Similar words from either - 2.6

Experiment 2 -
* When instructions were preceded by name, 20/39 messages were heard
* When instructions were not preceded by name, 4/36 messages were heard. (3 results were rejected as participants started paying attention to the rejected messages).

Experiment 3 - There was no significant difference between the two groups.

Question 15

What is the conclusion of Loftus & Palmer?

Answer 15

Post event information and leading questions can distort memories and may lead to false memories.

Question 16

What is the aim of Moray?

Answer 16

.The first experiment in this study aimed to test Cherry’s findings about dichotic listening, while experiments 2 and 3 aimed to investigate other factors that can affect attention in dichotic listening

Question 17

What is the conclusion of Moray?

Answer 17

When we pay attention to a message from one ear and reject a message from the other ear, almost none of the content of the rejected message is able to get through this block.

Question 18

How does memory link to cultural diversity?

Answer 18

Doesn’t really change our understanding of cultural diversity because both studies had ethnocentric samples and therefore the results can’t be generalised cross-culturally. However, as memory is a cognition, we could argue that it will be largely the same across different cultures.

Question 19

How does Simons & Chabris’ study link to it’s key theme?

Answer 19

Links to attention as it investigated inattentional blindness and whether unexpected events would be detected by an observer if they are told to pay attention to something else in the scene. They found that many people (46%) will fail to notice these unexpected events.

Question 20

How does memory link to social diversity?

Answer 20

Neither of the studies further our understanding of social diversity as both pieces of research use university students
from America and therefore results can’t be generalised to other social groups.

Question 21

What is the background of Loftus & Palmer?

Answer 21

The study is based on Barlett’s schema theory, which suggests that memories can be influenced by the previous knowledge of a person. Therefore, Loftus and Palmer wanted to investigate whether our previous knowledge influences our memory, as well as the effects of leading questions on memory.

Question 22

What is the method of Grant?

Answer 22

This was a laboratory experiment using an independent measures design. The independent variables were:
* whether the participant read the two page article under silent or noisy conditions
* whether the participant was tested under matching or mismatching conditions.
The dependent variable was the participant’s performance on a multiple choice and short-answer recall test

Question 23

How are Moray and Simons & Chabris similar in their practical applications?

Answer 23

Both studies have practical applications as they give insight into attention. Moray found that during dichotic listening, a message in the ear that is not being paid attention to is mostly not processed. This can be used in real life, for example, in noisy environments, we can make sure that safety messages such as a fire alarm is loud enough that it will be paid attention to and therefore acted on. Simons and Chabris found that unexpected events may be missed if the observer is paying attention to something else during a visual scenario. This can be used in real life as we can make sure that security monitoring staff are not distracted so that they don’t miss unexpected events.

Question 24

What is the aim of Loftus & Palmer?

Answer 24

To investigate the ways in which memory can be influenced by post-event information.

Question 25

How does attention link to individual diversity?

Answer 25

Both studies allow
us to see how individuals process
stimulus in their environment
differently and this results in
individual differences in the ability
to pay attention to background
stimuli, and there is therefore individual difference in how much information is processed.

Question 26

To what extent does the contemporary study change our understanding of the key theme of memory?

Answer 26

Grant’s study adds to our understanding as it investigates context dependent memory and gives a way of increasing memory, whereas Loftus and Palmer only shows ways that memory can be negatively impacted, in this case by post event information and leading questions.

Question 27

What is the procedure of Moray?

Answer 27

In Experiment 1, a short list of simple words was repeatedly presented to one of the participant’s ears whilst they shadowed a prose message presented to the other ear. The word list was repeated 35 times. The participant was then asked to report all they could of the content of the rejected message.

In Experiment 2, participants shadowed ten short passages. Rejected messages were played in the other ear which were not attended to, Moray wanted to find out of these messages would be heard if it included their name.

In experiment 3, participants were required to shadow one of two simultaneous dichotic messages. Some of the messages contained numbers either in both messages, or in one. One group was told they’d be asked questions about the content of the shadowed message at the end. The other group had to remember as many numbers as they could.

Question 28

What is the conclusion of Simons & Chabris?

Answer 28

Events are much less likely to be seen if they are not paid attention to, showing individuals do have inattentional blindness.

Question 29

How are Loftus & Palmer and Grant similar in their Ethics?

Answer 29

Both studies are ethical as they gained informed consent, however both studies didn’t tell the participants of the exact aim of the study, but this was necessary in order to reduce demand characteristics. Loftus and Palmer’s study may have caused psychological harm as the videos of car accidents may have upset some participants, however participants of both studies were fully debriefed

Question 30

What is the procedure of Simons & Chabris?

Answer 30

Before viewing the video tape, participants were told they would be watching two teams of three players passing basketballs and that they should pay attention to either the team in white or the team in black. They were told to keep either a silent mental count of the total number of passes made by the team (Easy condition) or separate silent mental counts of the number of bounce passes and aerial passes made by the team (Hard condition). After viewing the video tape and performing the monitoring task, participants were immediately asked to write down their count(s) on paper. They were then asked if they noticed anything strange in the video. After questioning, participants were asked if they had previously participated in a similar experiment, heard of such an experiment or heard of
the general phenomenon. If they said “yes” their data were discarded.

Question 31

How does Grant’s study link to it’s key theme?

Answer 31

Links to memory as it investigates context-dependent memory. Found that memory is effected by context as people with matching silent-silent conditions received an average score of 6.7 out of 10 on the short answer recall questions, whereas people with mismatching silent-noisy conditions scored 4.6.

Question 32

What is the procedure of Grant?

Answer 32

Each experimenter ran one participant for each of the four conditions and an additional participant for one of the conditions as assigned by the instructor. The participants were then instructed to read an article about psychoimmunology as if they were reading for a class project. They were also informed that their comprehension would be tested with both a short-answer test and a multiple-choice test. The participants were allowed to highlight and underline the article as they read. All the participants wore headphones while they read. Those in the silent condition were told they would not hear anything over the headphones whilst those in the noisy condition were told they would hear moderately loud background noise taht they were told to ignore. (The cassettes for the noisy condition were exact copies made from a master tape
of background noise recorded during lunchtime in a university cafeteria). There was a break for approximately 2 minutes before the participants were given the short-answer test, followed by the multiple-choice test in either the silent or noisy condition

Question 33

What is the sample of Simons & Chabris?

Answer 33

228 undergraduate students who volunteered.

Question 34

What is the findings of Loftus & Palmer?

Answer 34

Mean speed estimates for each of the five different verbs in Experiment 1:
* Smashed: 40.5 mph
* Collided: 39.3 mph
* Bumped: 38.1 mph
* Hit: 34.0 mph
* Contacted: 31.8 mph

Participants who saw broken glass in Experiment 2:
* Smashed: 16
* Hit: 7
* Control: 6
Participants who did not see broken glass:
* Smashed: 34
* Hit: 43
* Control: 44

Question 35

How does Simons & Chabris’ study link to the Cognitive Area?

Answer 35

Cognitive because it focuses on cognitions, in this case, attention. It shows that visual information may be missed if it is not being paid attention to.

Question 36

How does Moray’s study link to the Cognitive Area?

Answer 36

Cognitive because it focuses on cognitions, in this case, attention. It shows how attention affects how much information is processed during dichotic listening.

Question 37

What is the procedure of Loftus & Palmer?

Answer 37

In Experiment 1, all 45 participants were shown the same seven film clips of different traffic accidents which were originally made as part of a driver safety film. After each clip, participants were given a questionnaire which asked them a series of questions about the accident. There was one critical question in the questionnaire: “About how fast were the cars going when they “blank” each other?” The blank was either hit, smashed, collided, bumped or contacted.

In Experiment 2, all 150 participants were shown a one-minute video. During the video there was a 4-second multiple car crash. They were then given a questionnaire which asked them to answer a set of questions about the incident. There was a critical question about speed: One group of 50 participants were asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” – Another group of 50 was asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” – The third group of 50 did not have a question about the speed of the cars. One week later, all participants, without seeing the film again, completed another questionnaire about the accident which contained the further critical question, “Did you see any broken glass – Yes/No?” There had been no broken glass in the original film.

Question 38

What is the findings of Simons & Chabris?

Answer 38

• Out of all 192 participants across all conditions, 54% noticed the unexpected event and 46% failed to notice the unexpected event
• More participants noticed the unexpected event in the Opaque condition (67%) than the Transparent condition (42%).
• More participants noticed the unexpected event in the Easy (64%) than the Hard (45%) condition
• The Umbrella Woman was noticed more often than the Gorilla overall (65% vs 44%)

Question 39

How does attention link to social diversity?

Answer 39

Both pieces of research utilise
students for their sample and
therefore may not explain groups
in society who do not share
characteristics that are similar to
these.

Question 40

How are Loftus & Palmer and Grant similar in their Research Methods?

Answer 40

They both used laboratory studies to investigate memory, allowing them to establish causality by manipulating IVs and measuring their effects on the DV. Loftus and Palmer manipulated the verbs used in the questions to measure its effect on participants’ speed estimates and memory for broken glass, while Grant et al. manipulated the conditions that participants studied the content and where they were tested on it (matching or mismatching environments) to measure their impact on participants’ recall and recognition scores.

Question 41

How are Moray and Simons & Chabris similar in their data collected?

Answer 41

Both studies collected quantitative data. In Moray’s study, data was gathered in the form of the number of words recognized and recalled from the message that was not paid attention to. In Simons & Chabris’ study, data was collected through whether the participants noticed the unexpected event. Collecting quantitative data would allow researchers to analyse results easily and compare across conditions.

Question 42

How does Loftus & Palmer’s study link to the Cognitive Area?

Answer 42

Cognitive because it focuses on cognitions, in this case, memory. It shows the impact that post-event information can have on memory, distorting memories and sometimes producing false memories.

Question 43

What are the key themes within the Cognitive Area and name the 2 studies within each theme.

Answer 43

• Memory
• Loftus and Palmer
• Grant
• Attention
• Moray
• Simons and Chabris

Question 44

How does attention link to cultural diversity?

Answer 44

The contemporary study studied
participants from Harvard university
which allowed research to be applied
to American culture as well as English
culture that was previously studied by
Moray. However both are ethnocentric as they focus on Western cultures.

Question 45

How are Moray and Simons & Chabris similar in their ethics?

Answer 45

Both studies can be viewed as unethical as they both involved deception. In Moray’s study, participants were unaware of the true aim, to investigate selective attention. Similarly, in Simons & Chabris’ study, participants were unaware of the purpose of the experiment, to investigate visual attention and inattentional blindness. However in both studies, we could argue that deception was necessary to reduce the chance of demand characteristics. Both studies fully debriefed participants.

Question 46

To what extent does the contemporary study change our understanding of the key theme of attention?

Answer 46

Simons and Chabris’ study furthers our understanding of attention as they investigated visual attention. As Moray only studied auditory attention, the contemporary study helps us to understand that things not paid attention to aren’t processed with both auditory and visual information.

Question 47

How does Loftus & Palmer’s study link to it’s key theme?

Answer 47

Links to memory as it investigated the effects of post event information and leading questions on memory. Shows that memory is distorted by post-event information and leading questions as people who were asked a critical question with the verb “smashed” gave mean speed estimate of 40.5, whilst the ones with the verb “contacted” gave a mean speed estimate of 31.8

Question 48

What is the method of Loftus & Palmer?

Answer 48

Two laboratory experiments. Both experiments used an independent measures design.

Question 49

What is the aim of Grant?

Answer 49

Grant aimed to show that performance in a memory test
would increase when the test takes place in the same environment in which the material was originally studied (the matching condition)
than when the test occurs in a different environment (mismatching condition).

Question 50

What is the sample of Loftus & Palmer?

Answer 50

The sample in experiment 1 consisted of 45 undergraduate psychology students from the University of Washington.

The sample in experiment 2 consisted of 150 undergraduate psychology students from the University of Washington.

Both samples in the study used opportunity sampling. The participants were Elizabeth Loftus’ students from the University of Washington.

Question 51

How does Grant’s study link to the Cognitive Area?

Answer 51

Cognitive because it focuses on cognitions, in this case, memory. It shows how memory can be affected – by whether information is recalled in a similar context to that in which it was first studied.

Question 52

How are Moray and Simons & Chabris similar in their research methods?

Answer 52

They both used highly standardised laboratory experiments to investigate attention. Moray studied auditory attention using a dichotic listening task. He controlled extraneous variables such as the volume of the tape. Similarly, Simons and Chabris controlled factors such as the video duration and the timing of the unexpected event in order to investigate visual attention. Therefore, both were able to establish cause and effect and able to draw valid conclusions about attention.

Question 53

How does Moray’s study link to it’s key theme?

Answer 53

Links to attention as it investigated dichotic listening and the amount of information processed in a message, depending on whether it was paid attention to or not. They found that more information was processed in the shadowed message than the rejected message, as the mean number of words remembered out of 7 for the shadowed message was 4.9, and 1.9 for the rejected message.

Question 54

What is the findings of Grant?

Answer 54

Short Answer/Recall Questions mean score out of 10:
* S-S : 6.7
* S-N : 4.6
* N-S : 5.4
* N-N : 6.2
Multiple Choice/Recognition Questions mean score out of 16:
* S-S : 14.3
* S-N : 12.7
* N-S : 12.7
* N-N : 14.3

Question 55

What are the assumptions of the Cognitive Area?

Answer 55

Behaviour is influenced by internal mental process such as perception, attention and memory. The mind works in a way similar to a computer, involving input, processing and output.

Question 56

How are Moray and Simons & Chabris different in their sample?

Answer 56

Moray had a small sample, amount of participants was not given for Experiment 1 but 12 participants took part in the experimental conditions in Experiment 2 and two
groups of 14 participants were used in Experiment 3. Simons and Chabris had a much larger sample of 228 undergraduate students. Simons and Chabris may be able to draw more valid conclusions as they have a more representative sample and therefore higher population validity.