Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
Loftus & palmer ✔, Grant ✔, Moray, Simons & Chabris
What is the definition of the Cognitive Area in Psychology?
The cognitive area assumes that internal mental processes determine our behaviour. Cognitive psychologists view the mind as working like a computer with inputs (information revealed through the senses) and the output is the behavioural response.
What is an eyewitness testimony?
When a witness to a crime is asked to recall details of the crime to police and later in court.
What is a leading question?
Certain questions or statements that are phrased in a way that leads a person to give a particular answer.
What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Aim of the first experiment was to investigate the accuracy of memory and leading questions on what people remember.
Aim of experiment to was to see if the leading questions changed a person’s subsequent memory of the event they witnessed.
What research design did Loftus and Palmer use?
Laboratory experiment using independent measures design.
The first experiment was a snapshot study, the second experiment was a longitudinal study.
How many participants took part in experiment one?
Loftus and Palmer
45 American students divided into five groups.
How many participants took part in experiment two?
Loftus and Palmer
150 American students divided into three groups.
What sampling method did Loftus and Palmer use?
Opportunity sampling.
What materials were used in Loftus and Palmer’s study?
Experiment one: seven brief film clips of car accidents and a questionnaire.
Experiment two: One-minute film which contained a four-second multiple car accidents.
What is a positive of Loftus and Palmer’s sample?
Opportunity sample means participants were easy to obtain.
What is a negative of Loftus and Palmer’s sample?
Participants are all active students and so have better memory than the average person, furthermore their all young as it’s well know older people have a worse memory. This makes its hard to generalise to the general population.
What were the 5 verbs used in experiment one?
Loftus and Palmer
‘hit’, ‘contacted’, ‘smashed’, ‘bumped’ and ‘collided’
What were the three verbs used in experiment two?
Loftus and Palmer
‘smashed’, ‘hit’ and a control group with no question.
In experiment one what was the mean speed for the verb ‘smashed’?
Loftus and Palmer
40.8mph
In experiment one what was the mean speed for the verb ‘contacted’?
Loftus and Palmer
31.8mph
In experiment two how many participants, who had the verb ‘smashed’ reported seeing broken glass?
Loftus and Palmer
16 out of 50 participants
In experiment two how many participants, who had the verb ‘hit’, reported seeing broken glass?
Loftus and Palmer
7 out of 50
In experiment two how many participants, who were in the control group, reported seeing broken glass?
Loftus and Palmer
6 out of 50
What type of data was collected in loftus and Palmer’s study?
Quantitative.
What two controls were used in experiment one?
Loftus and Palmer
The video clips were shown in a different order and all participants were given the same questionnaire.
What ethical issues did Loftus and Palmer run into?
No fully informed consent.
Deception.
Where does Loftus and Palmer fall on the situational/dispositional debate?
Situational, leading questions affecting memory
Where does Loftus and Palmer fall on the nature/nurture debate?
Nurture
Is Loftus and Palmer’s study useful?
Is useful, influenced development of the cognitive interview technique and application in regard to convictions based largely on unsound eye witness testimonies
Is Loftus and Palmer’s study scientific?
Is scientific, lab experiment with high levels of control and reliability. Produced objective quantitative data.
What is the aim of Grant’s study?
To test the effect of noise as a source of context on the studying and retrieval of meaningful material in academic context.
What previous research inspired Grant’s study?
Tulving and ‘context-dependency effects’
Godden and Badderly and deep sea divers
What research design did Grant use?
Laboratory experiment with independent measures design.
How many participants took part in Grant’s study?
39 participants, 17 females and 23 males.
What was the age range of the participants Grant used in his study?
17-56 years old.
What sampling method did Grant use?
Opportunity sample.
What is a positive of Grant’s sample?
An appropriate sample when studying context-dependency effects as its relevant to students the most.
What is a negative of Grant’s sample?
Students are an unrepresentative sample as they’re used to receiving complex materials and are compliant. Also students are unmotivated in research studies (DeRight & Randall)
What were the two independent variables in Grant’s study?
Reading condition and testing condition.
What were the three dependent variables in Grant’s study?
Reading time, performance on multiple-choice test and performance on short answer test.
How did the reading time differ between experimental conditions?
Grant
No difference, participants spent roughly an equal amount of time reading the article.
What was the mean score on the short-answer test in the silent-silent condition?
Grant
6.7/10
What was the mean score on the short-answer test in the silent-noisy condition?
Grant
4.6/10
What was the mean score on the multiple-choice test in the silent-silent condition?
Grant
14.3/16
What was the mean score on the multiple-choice test in the silent-noisy condition?
Grant
12.7/10
What type of data did Grant collect?
Quantitative and primary
What ethical issues did Grant run into?
Protection from harm.
Where does Grant fall on the situational/dispositional debate?
Situational, cues within the situation can improve memory.
Is Grant’s study scientific?
Is scientific, laboratory experiment with standardised and controlled procedures.
