Cognitive LOA

Question 1

Bartlett (1932)

Aim

Answer 1

To investigate the effect of repeated reproduction of an unfamiliar folk tale on participants recall

Question 2

Bartlett (1932)

Procedure

Answer 2

A laboratory experiment using the ‘repeated reproduction’ technique (IV: time inverts of recall, DV: detail of reproduced stories) with 20 English Male participants

1. Participants were not told the aims of the study and were asked to read the native American folk tale ‘The War of the Ghosts” twice
2. After 15 minutes, PPs were asked to reproduced story out loud from memory
3. PPs then left Bartlett’s laboratory and returned 20 hours later to reproduce the story again and many more times after that

Question 3

Bartlett (1932)

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 3

Each participant’s recall of the story changed with each reproduction, story was difficult for people from Western cultures to reproduce because of its unfamiliar style and content, story became shorter i.e. the story reduced from 329 to 180 words after 6 reproductions, story remained coherent no matter how distorted it was from the original, story became more congenital to fit into the cultural background of the PPs (it started to resemble an English story e.g. ‘canoe’ was changed to ‘boat’)

Conclusion: people reconstruct the past by trying to fit into existing schemas – the more complicated the story means the more likely elements will be forgotten or distorted, schemas have a major influence in the way we encode story and retrieve memories, memory is reconstructive in nature and schemas influence our recall, study explains that people reconstruct the story to make more sense in terms of their knowledge and the culture in which they were brought up in

Connection: this study shows how the schema theory is useful to understand how people categorize information, interpret stories, and make inferences (it also contributes to the understanding of cognitive distortions in memory)

Question 4

Bartlett (1932)

Evaluation

Answer 4

Strengths:
In spite of these methodological limitations, the study is one of the most important in the study of memory.

Limitations:
The results of the study confirm schema theory (and reconstructive memory), but it was performed in a laboratory and can be criticized for lack of ecological validity.

Participants did not receive standardized instructions and some of the memory distortions may be due to participants’ guessing (demand characteristics).

Question 5

Bransford & Johnston (1973)

Aim

Answer 5

To examine the influence of context on the recall and comprehension of a reading passage

Question 6

Bransford & Johnston (1973)

Procedure

Answer 6

They constructed some reading passages that would be difficult to understand in the absence of context. They then compared recall performance between a group of participants who had been supplied with contextual information (such as pictures) and a group who had not received this additional information

Question 7

Bransford & Johnston (1973)

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 7

Bransford and Johnson found that recall is significantly better for the group that is given contextual information than for the group that had simply read the passage, showing that without the appropriate schema, accurate recall is more difficult

Question 8

Bransford & Johnston (1973)

Evaluation

Answer 8

Limitations:
Cultural differences – would the same results be found in different cultures? Low ecological validity. However, the study does offer support for Bartlett’s (1932) study.

Question 9

Brewer and Treyens (1981)

Aim

Answer 9

To investigate the effects of schemas on visual memory

Question 10

Brewer and Treyens (1981)

Procedure

Answer 10

1. 30 participants, one at a time were asked to wait in a room for 35 seconds
2. The room was designed to look like an office and had 61 objects. Some objects were compatible with an ‘office’ schema, such as a desk, calendar, and typewriter, but others were not - such as a skull, a brick, and a pair of pliers
3. After having been in the room, participants were given an unexpected call test

Question 11

Brewer and Treyens (1981)

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 11

· Participants were more likely to recall typical office items
· They were also successful at recalling incompatible items such as the brick, but eight participants recalled the really bizarre item – the skull
· Most errors in recall were substitutions - PPs falsely recall the presence of items such as books, pens, and a telephone, which have a high schema expectancy but were not present in the room
· Other errors involved the wrong placement of items e.g. the note pad was ‘remembered’ as being on the desk, rather than on the chair
· Findings suggest the PPs use schemas to ensure rapid encoding of visual information available to them their 35 seconds in the room, and at the retrieval stage, recall was influenced by schema so that typical items were recalled, even though they were not actual present.

Connection: study provides evidence to support how schemas can affect our cognition, in particular memory; our schemas influence what we recall in our memory

Question 12

Brewer and Treyens (1981)

Evaluation

Answer 12

Strengths:
Strict control over variables –> to determine cause & effect relationship

Limitation:
Lacks ecological validity
Laboratory setting artificial environment
Task does not reflect daily activity

Question 13

Loftus and Palmer (1974) A

Aim

Answer 13

To investigate the role of leading questions in recall

Question 14

Loftus and Palmer (1974) A

Procedure

Answer 14

An independent measures design was used
· 45 students shown video clips of car accidents
· they were asked “how fast were the cars going when they HIT each other?”
· ‘HIT’ was replaced with smashed, collided, bumped, or contacted

Question 15

Loftus and Palmer (1974) A

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 15

the stronger the word (e.g. smashed, collided) meant a higher mean estimate for the speed compared to words such as hit/contacted
· ‘Smashed’ had the highest mean estimate with 40.8 mph
· speed estimates were influenced by the wording (verb) used

Conclusion:
· the use of different verbs activates different schemas in memory, so that the PP hearing the word ‘smashed,’ imagines the accident more severe than PP hearing the word contacted
· verbs used in various conditions activated slightly different schemas which influenced the speed estimation
· since the accident was reconstructed in the PPs mind, the schema that was influenced by the leading question relating to the different verbs associated with speech explains how reconstructive memory works
· when people witness complex events, they report inaccurate, numeric details
· this shows that memory is unreliable as when people witness complex events, they report inaccurate and numeric details

Question 16

Loftus and Palmer (1974) A

Evaluation

Answer 16

Strengths:
The experiment was rigorously controlled so it was possible to establish a cause-effect relationship between the independent variable (the critical words) and the dependent variable (estimation of speed).

Limitations:
The experiment was conducted in a laboratory. There may be a problem of ecological validity.

Maybe laboratory experiments on memory are too artificial.

The fact that the experiment used students as participants has also been criticized because students are not representative of a general population.

The films shown in the experiment were made for teaching purposes and therefore the participants’ experience was not the same as if it had been a real accident.

Question 17

Loftus & Palmer (1974) B

Aim

Answer 17

To see whether misleading post event information can lead to the creation of false
memories

Question 18

Loftus & Palmer (1974) B

Procedure

Answer 18

● An independent measures design was used
● 150 students all shown a video clip of car accident
● Split into groups of 50
● 1st group asked “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
● 2nd group asked “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”
● 3rd group was the control group – they were not asked to estimate the speed of the accident

Question 19

Loftus & Palmer (1974) B

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 19

● One week later they were asked a critical question, “Did you see any broken glass?” (there was no broken glass in the video clip)
● The 2nd group who were initially asked “How fast were the cars going when they
● smashed into each other?”. On average gave higher speed estimates and that they recalls seeing broken glass

Overall Findings & Conclusions:
● Different words had an effect on the estimation of speed as well as the perception of the consequences of the accident.
● Loftus and Palmer (1974) explained that ‘smashed’ provides participants with verbal information that activates schemas for a severe accident.
● The higher rates of participants seeing broken glass is connected to this, the
● participant is more likely to think that there was broken glass involved when they were asked the leading question containing the word ‘smashed’
● This is also known as confabulation –confusion of true memories with false memories.

Question 20

Loftus & Palmer (1974) B

Evaluation

Answer 20

N/A
Refer to study A
http://www.simplypsychology.org/loftus-palmer.html

Question 21

Phelps (2004)

Aim

Answer 21

To investigate flash bulb memories

Question 22

Phelps (2004)

Procedure

Answer 22

A study of New Yorkers who witnessed the horrors of 9/11
· Conducted 3 years after 9/11
· 24 participants who were in NYC that day
· PP brain activity was observed using fMRI
· After brain scanning, PPs were asked to rate their memories for vividness, detail, and confidence in accuracy, arousal, and valence (how emotional).

Question 23

Phelps (2004)

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 23

Half of the participants reported greater vividness, confidence, and detail
· Those close to the destruction of the world trade center have more vivid memories of the attacks than do those who were in other parts of NYC
· Personal involvement may be important in engaging the amygdala when recalling 9/11 events
· Downtown participants also reported seeing, hearing, and selling
· The recollections of those were in lower Manhattan (closer to the world trade center), were described as more vivid, detailed, and confident than those who were further away.

Conclusions:
· The proximity to the World Trade center changed the nature of the experience of these events, such as the PPs who were downtown on 9/11 having greater personal involvement
· Amygdala plays a role in enhancing the feeling of remembering for emotional material, and is more engaged when events are experienced first hand

Connection:
· Identifies a brain circuitry related to BM
· Supports the FBM theory as memories produced by PPs closer to the world trade center had more characteristic qualities of FBM
· Memories have special qualities for a much broader range of individuals
· PPs closer to world trade center included more specific details in their written memories

Question 24

Phelps (2004)

Evaluation

Answer 24

N/A

Question 25

Kearins (1981)

Aim

Answer 25

To see the difference between the two groups on memory using visual spacial memory in the Aboriginal children and comparing them to Western children

Question 26

Kearins (1981)

Procedure

Answer 26

● Kearins presented a memory puzzle (visual spacial) to Aborigines.
● In this test 44 participants (6-16 years of age: 27 boys, 17 girls) were shown a collection of 12 rocks, placed in specific orders.
● Memory array
● The rocks were then removed. After a few moments, participants were asked to reposition the rocks back to its original order.
● She was very careful and sensitive of the local culture and ensured that the PPs were comfortable to take part
● So they would not be intimidated by the experimental setting

Question 27

Kearins (1981)

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 27

● Aboriginal children seemed to rely on their visual memories - do it slowly without having to say the words out loud and they did not get frustrated. They were 3 years ahead of white Australian children
● Concluded that in that environment they need to have a good sense of direction to survive
● Part of their upbringing and a product of some innate or genetic predisposition to have an effective visual memory
● White children used rehearsal strategies
● Found it difficult to put the rocks back and differentiate
● They struggled with the task

Question 28

Kearins (1981)

Evaluation

Answer 28

Strengths:
● Added variety within her memory test. this shows that even if items are not localized and categorized in their brains, (culturally common) participants were still able to recall most positions. This shows us that these aboriginals have superior visual recall than that of Australian children.

● Great care was taken in order to make the test comfortable for the children. These kids had informed consent, as well as the act of volunteering.

Limitations:
● It is also not ecologically valid, because a memory experiment like this is not realistic in real-life situations.

Question 29

Brown & Kulik (1977)

Aim

Answer 29

To investigate FBM and how it works (to support their theory)

Question 30

Brown & Kulik (1977)

Procedure

Answer 30

80 American participants (40 white and 40 black)
● · they had to answer questions about 10 events, nine about assassinations of well-known American personalities (e.g. J.F. Kennedy), whereas the 10th was a self-selected event of personal relevance and involving unexpected shock
● · they were asked to recall the circumstances they found themselves in when they first heard the news about the 10 events
● · they were also asked to indicate how often they had rehearsed (overtly or covertly) information about each events

Question 31

Brown & Kulik (1977)

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 31

● · the assassination of J.F. Kennedy in 1963 (over a decade before the study) led to the highest numbers of FBMs with 90% of PPs recalling its reception context in vivid detail
● African Americans reported more FBMs for leaders of civil rights movements (e.g. assassination of Martin Luther King) than Caucasian Americans
● Most PPs recalled a personal FBM which tended to be related to learning about the death of a parent

Conclusion:
This study supports the FBM theory whereby they were-
● Forms in situations where we encounter surprising and highly emotional information
● Are maintained by means of overt rehearsal (discussion with others) and covert rehearsal (private)
● Differ from other memories in that they are more vivid, last longer and are more consistent and accurate
● Requires the involvement of a specialized neural mechanism which stores information permanently in a unique memory system

Question 32

Brown & Kulik (1977)

Evaluation

Answer 32

Strengths:
Many participants thus high ecological validity to American people
Naturalistic: the reactions and memories of events were from real life events
Interviews are not like questionnaires where questions are specific thus there is more flexibility in the results

Limitations:
Data is collected through a questionnaire, so accuracy is doubted.
Cannot be generalized to other population other than Americans
Very retrospective: hard to test memories and how vivid and accurate they are in comparison to when they were gained
Lacks reliability and hard to replicate
PPs might have been distressed thus no protection
There may be researcher bias being in an interview from (qualitative data), no quantitative data was collected.

Question 33

Craik & Lockhart (1972)

Aim

Answer 33

N/A
LOP was proposed by Craik & Lockhart (1972), which predicts that how deeply people process information determines how well it is stored in memory

Question 34

Craik & Lockhart (1972)

Procedure

Answer 34

N/A

Question 35

Craik & Lockhart (1972)

Findings/Conclusions

Answer 35

● Deeper, meaningful processing creates longer-lasting memory traces
● Shallow processing leads to weaker memory traces
This model emphasizes memory process rather than the structure like the MSM model:
● This was proposed as an alternative to the MSM, as they rejected the idea of separate memory structures put forward by Atkinson & Shiffrin

Question 36

Craik & Lockhart (1972)

Evaluation

Answer 36

Strengths:
Craik & Lockhart’s model has a number of strengths. It was the first theory to show that memory is actually improved when it undergoes deeper processing. This in turn explained why certain things are better remembered than others. It also proved that encoding is not a simple process.

Finally, brain imaging studies showed that higher levels of processing lead to greater activity levels in different parts of the brain which gives the theory some credence.

Limitations:
In terms of weaknesses, the theory is better described than explained. It seems to be a rather simple explanation for such a complex subject with the terms ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’ hardly an all-encompassing look into the theory of memory. The part of the theory which suggests that shallow processing equals a memory being quickly lost is not 100% accurate in all cases. Those with illnesses that affect memory cannot be included in the levels of processing theory.

Finally, this theory was espoused in 1972 but since then, various neuropsychological studies have suggested that there are specific systems of storage and structures contained in our memory.