Cognitive Perspective

Question 1

Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts Aim

Answer 1

To see if recall from memory is reconstructive.

Question 2

Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts Procedure

Answer 2

Bartlett showed 20 British participants an Inuit folk tale (war of ghosts). Each person read the story twice, and 15-minutes later told it from memory to someone who had not read it. This person told it to someone else and so on (like Chinese whispers). Serial reproduction.

Question 3

Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts Findings

Answer 3

The story was transformed in several ways:

· Shortening – It was shortened significantly because details were left out.

· Rationalisation – The supernatural element (at the heart of the story) vanished altogether.

· Confabulation – Phrases were changes to language and concepts from the participants’ own culture (boat instead of canoe)

Question 4

Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts Conclusion

Answer 4

The transformations occurred because participants’ schemas influenced what they could remember about the story. The material became more meaningful and easier to understand and remember.

Question 5

Harris, Bargh, and Brownell (2009) Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behaviour aim

Answer 5

To see if watching food adverts on TV would cause adults and children to automatically eat available snacks.

Question 6

Harris, Bargh, and Brownell (2009) Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behaviour procedure

Answer 6

Schoolchildren watched a cartoon – some with ads for food, others with non-food adverts. All were given snacks while watching and the amount eaten was measured.

Adult students watched a TV programme – some with food ads promoting snacks as fun, some with food ads promoting health and some saw no food ads. Afterwards the students rated five snacks ranging from healthy to unhealthy and measured the number of snacks eaten.

Question 7

Harris, Bargh, and Brownell (2009) Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behaviour findings

Answer 7

Children who saw the food ads ate 45% more snacks than the other children. The difference was not related to any other factor.

Adult students who saw the fun snack ads ate more (of all foods) than the other students. Hunger before eating was unrelated to amount eaten in the fun snack group.

Question 8

Harris, Bargh, and Brownell (2009) Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behaviour conclusion

Answer 8

Evidence of automatic, direct, causal link between food advertising and greater snack consumption. Advertising is powerful because it has multiple priming effects, including short-term (enjoyment) and long-term (healthy eating).

Question 9

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Reconstruction of automobile destruction aim

Answer 9

To see how changing one word in a question would affect (bias) people’s estimate of the speed of a car in an accident.

Question 10

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Reconstruction of automobile destruction procedure

Answer 10

University students watched film clips of car accidents and then answered written questions. How fast were the cars going when they ________ into each other? They were split into five groups with each given a different verb to fill in the space in that question. The words were, contacted, bumped, hit, collided, smashed.

Question 11

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Reconstruction of automobile destruction findings

Answer 11

The students’ speed estimates were influenced by the verb in the critical questions. The average estimated speed was highest for smashed and lowest for contacted.

Question 12

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Reconstruction of automobile destruction conclusion

Answer 12

Changing just one word in a question can bias responses (because participants’ responses matched the strength of the verb). It can also change the participants memories of the accidents.