Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
What is the assumption for cognitive psychology?
Assumes behaviour is influenced by inner mental processes (our thoughts and perceptions)
What are the 2 studies in Cognitive Psychology?
Grant = contemporary
Loftus and Palmer = Classic
What are the 3 stages of memory?
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
What is context dependent memory?
When we remember better if the context is the same at encoding and retrieval
What was the aim of Grant’s study?
To investigate if performance on a memory test is improved when the environment is the same at encoding and retrieval compared to different environment at encoding and retrieval
How many participants were in grant’s study?
39 (1 participants result taken out of experiment)
What was the age range of Grant’s study?
17-56
How many conditions were there and how many participants in each?
4 conditions with 10 participants in each
Give an example of one of grants matching and mismatching conditions
Studied text in silent and tested in silent = matching
Studied text in silent and tested in noisy conditions = mismatching
how did grant’s procedure start?
Standardised instructions read aloud to each participant.
P’s all read same article on psychoimmunology and either studied it in silent or noisy conditions
What happened second in the procedure in grants study?
All wore headphones and were given 2 minute break before being tested with short answer questions and then mcq
What was the background noise used in the noisy condition in grants study?
Noise recorded during lunch time at a university cafeteria e.g general hum of chatter but couldn’t hear complete sentences
Give 2 findings from grants study
In SAQ’s matching condition silent study silennt test = 6.7 / 10
Mismatching condition silent study noisy test = 4.6 / 10
What can you conclude about Grant’s study?
Memory is improved by the environment when the context is the same at encoding and retrieval.
What was the independent variable in grant’s study?
Whether they studied in silence or noise and whether they were tested in silence or noise
What were the dependent variables in grants study?
What the p’s scored on the SAQ’s out of 10 and MCQ’s out of 16
What research design was grant’s study?
Independent measures
What was the aim of loftus and palmers first experiment?
To investigate whether leading questions given after witnessing an event, influences memory for that event
What was the aim of loftus and palmers second experiment?
To investigate whether memory of the accidents can actually be changed by the verbs
Describe the participants from experiment 1 of loftus and palmer
45 american students from the university of washington
In the first experiment how many film clips did the p’s watch?
7
what were p’s given after watching the 7 film clips in the first experiment?
a questionnaire which included the critical question of ‘About how fast were the cars going when they … into eachother?’
What were the 5 verbs used in the critical question in experiment 1?
Smashed Bumped Collided Hit Contacted
Give 2 findings from experiment 1’s results
Smashed mean estimate = 40.8mph
Contacted mean estimate = 31.8mph
What can you conclude from experiment 1’s data?
Memory is affected by leading questions.
The intensity of the verb changed the memories of the estimated speed of the accidents
Describe the participants in experiment 2
150 different American students from University of Washington
What did participants watch in experiment 2?
A 1 minute film clip which included multiple car accidents lasting 4 seconds each
How many conditions were there in experiment 2?
3 =
Smashed (50)
Hit (50)
Control (50)
What were participants asked in experiment 2?
‘about how fast were the cars going when they …. into eachother’
How long did P’s go away for in experiment 2?
1 week
When coming back what was the closed question participants were asked in experiment 2?
Did you see any broken glass?
Give 2 findings from experiment 2
The smashed condition had 16 people say they saw broken glass and the hit condition had 7 say they saw broken glass
What can you conclude from experiment 2?
Leading questions used after an event can reconstruct a persons memory
What was the independent variable in both experiments?
The verbs used
What was the dependent variable of each experiment?
1= estimate of speed when cars crash (mph)
2= whether there was broken glass
give 2 similarities between grant and loftus and palmer
Ethical
Quantitative Data
Give 2 differences between loftus and palmer and grant’s study
L+P= low EV whereas G= high EV
L+P= used uni students whereas G used= age range of 17-56
Give a strength of loftus and palmer and a strength of grant
Ethical
Quantitative data= easy to analyse
Give 2 weaknesses of loftus and palmer and grant
L+P = p’s could feel distressed watching the clips
G= could be individual differences
L+P = low EV
G= young mean age meaning most Ps young meaning lacks population validity
