Cognitive Psychology in Sec A

Question 1

What is the assumption, focus, the theme and the studies of cognitive psychology?

Answer 1

Assumption: behaviour is controlled by our own thought processes rather than genetic factors, and can be explained in terms of how mind operates, it works in a similar way to a computer.

Focus: looks at mental processes such as attention, language, perception, thinking, reasoning, and memory.

Theme: MEMORY

Classic study: lofts and Palmer (1974)

Contemporary study: grant et al (1998)

Question 2

Describe the general aim in loftus and Palmers study, as well as the aim for each experiment.

Answer 2

• overall aim: to taste whether the phrasing of questions about a car accident could alter pps memory of the event.
• aim for exp 1: to see whether using diff verbs to describe a collision between cars would affect estimates of speed of cars when crash took place.
• aim for exp 2: to investigate whether the diff estimates found in exp 1 were result of distortion of memory, tested by seeing whether pps who heard words associated with high speed esti,ages would be more likely to incorrectly remember broken glass at incidents scene.

Question 3

Describe the method of experiment 1 in loftus and palmers study in terms of the participants.

Answer 3

• 45 students

- no details of age or gender recorded

Question 4

Describe the method in experiment 1 of loftus and palmers study in terms of the design and procedure.

Answer 4

• lab experiment with an independent measures design
• pps shown 7 films of car crashes, taken from training films used by Seattle police dept and Evergreen safety council
• speed of cars were know in four of films due to these crashes being staged for training purposes (20mph, 30mph, 40mph and 40mph)
• all but one of questions were fillers, used to make it harder to work out aim of experiment
• one non filler question was the critical question, so closely concerned with aim of study, it was: “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
• IV was verb used in critical q, (for one group this was ‘hit’, for other groups, they received same question but with words ‘contacted / bumped / collided / smashed’ instead of ‘hit’
• DV was mean estimate of speed of car.

Question 5

Describe the results from experiment 1 in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 5

• all in form of quantitative data
• pps estimates of speed of cars were not affected by actual speed
• mean estimates for each of crashes in which speed was known showed we are generally poor at estimating speed, however estimates of car speeds did vary according to verb used in critical q: smashed = highest speed estimate, then collided, bumped, hit and contacted.

Question 6

Describe the conclusions from experiment 1 in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 6

• pps estimates of car speeds varied according to verb used to describe crash

two reasons for this:

• response bias: when a pp is unsure what speed to estimate, verb gives them a clue as to whether it should be a high or low figure
• memory distortion: verb used in q actually alters a pps memory of crash

Question 7

Describe the method of experiment 2 in loftus and palmers study in terms of participants.

Answer 7

• 150 students

- no details of age or gender recorded again

Question 8

Describe the method of experiment 2 in loftus and palmers study in terms of the design and procedure.

Answer 8

• lab experiment with an independent measures design
• all pps watched a film of a car crash which lasted less than one min but actually crash lasted four seconds.
• all pps given questionnaire asking them to describe accident in own words, then answer a series of q’s, also asked a critical q
• first 50 pps received critical q “about how fast were the cars going when they smashed into eachother?”
• another 50 received same but with word ‘hit’
• finally a control group of 50 received questions that did not ask about speed of cars
• a week later pps returned and answered further 10 q’s, with critical q among these being: “did you see any broken glass?”

Question 9

Describe the results of experiment 2 in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 9

• as in exp 1, pps who heard word ‘smashed’ in critical q estimated higher speed (10.46mph as opposed to 8mph in ‘hit condition)
• numbers of pps reporting they saw broken glass was highest in ‘smashed’ condition, then ‘hit’, the control group.
• more than twice as many pps incorrectly remembered seeing broken glass after having heard word “smashed” in q compared to those who heard ‘hit’ or who had no q about speed.

Question 10

Describe the conclusions from experiment 2 in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 10

• general conclusions from both exps is that way in which q’s about events are worded can affect way in which they are remembered.
• results of exp 2 are important as they suggest this is not due to response bias
• instead, post event q’s actually become part of memory for that event, so wording of q’s can actually distort memory.

Question 11

Evaluate the research method in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 11

• was a lab experiment so possible to eliminate many extraneous variables
• researchers therefore confident it was IV (verb used) affecting DVs (speed recall and broken glass)
• potential weakness is realism of environment and pps tasks as is hard to set up lab procedures in way that people behave naturally
• here, watching a film is not same as witnessing real event, real car crash witnesses would be likely to experience more intense emotion which would affect memory worse, and real witnesses would also have more significant motives for accurate recall as would have genuine consequences for conviction.

Question 12

Evaluate the data in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 12

• quantitative which is a strength and weakness; statistics allow easy comparison of conditions so show clearly that memory was affected by wording of q’s, but was no opportunity for pps to comment on what they remembered or on their experience of being questioned in this way
• qualitative data may have added to completeness of findings

Question 13

Evaluate the ethical considerations in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 13

• straightforward lab experiment with minimal ethical issues
• one possible issue may concern any pps who may have experience a real car crash
• as pps were students, they may have felt they had to participate, even if didn’t want to so would raise question about whether consent was genuine or not

Question 14

Evaluate the validity in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 14

• high control due to conducting study in lab conditions, so few extraneous variables influenced outcomes, such as filler questions, which reduced likelihood that pps would guess true aim
• some films were of real accidents, making context realistic in this respect
• overall validity reduced by lack of realism in remaining films and by possibility that some may have worked out aim
• so these factors threaten ecological validity as both environment and task were artificial
• pps had better view of crash than in real life situation, but were less motivated to remember details, so possible that pps memory was unrepresentative for these reasons

Question 15

Evaluate the reliability of loftus and plamers study.

Answer 15

• lab procedures = highly standardised
• standardisation ensures procedure is replicable
• interesting to note that similar results were found in speed estimates with verbs ‘smashed’ and ‘hit’ in experiments 1 and 2
• this suggests findings are reliable

Question 16

Evaluate sampling bias in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 16

• pps all students not chosen by any representative sampling method, so unlikely to be truly representative to pop
• likely to have been predominantly white, middle class, with a narrow age range, all with same occupation
• this important as: all students so could have been particularly vulnerable to demand characteristics, but independent measures design would have reduced worst of this. Also were all used to taking in information as were students, and retaining it, so may have been better abled to recall more accurately than most
• pps less likely to be drivers than population as a whole, and so speed estimates may have been less accurate due to lack of experience with cars
• these characteristics could mean results were partly a product of the sample

Question 17

Evaluate the practical applications in loftus and palmers study.

Answer 17

• studies such as this are important in helping authorities understand how to question witnesses on important events
• following work of loftus, use of leading questions by policemen + in courtroom is now tightly controlled
• likely to have improved rate of successful criminal convictions

Question 18

Describe the aim in Grant et al.

Answer 18

• to test effect of noise as a source of context on the studying of retrieving of meaningful material in an academic context

Question 19

Describe the method in grant et als study in terms of participants and the experimental designs used.

Answer 19

• study was an experiment with an independent measures design
• 39 pps aged 17-56
• 39 = 17 females and 23 males
• recruited by opportunity sampling
• 8 psychology students, acting as experimenters, each found 5 acquaintances who would take part (result from one pp was excluded)

Question 20

Describe the method in grant et al in terms of the design and procedure.

Answer 20

• IV was whether study + test conditions were matching or mismatching
• experimental design was independent measures, so each pp experienced just one of four possible matching / mismatching combinations, that were: study and test in silence / study in noise and test in silence / study and test in noise/ study in silence and test in noise
• background noise for noisy condition was a tape made in uni cafe at lunch, with hum of conversation, occasional words or phrases, but no visible sentences, and sounds of chairs and dishes
• played moderately loudly throughout noisy condition via headphones (which also worn by pps in silent condition but played no sound)
• material for learning was a two page article on psychoimmunology, unfamiliar to them but understandable
• each pp asked to read article only once, and could highlight and underline if wanted
• reading time recorded but not controlled, all wore headphones during reading too, noise only played for noisy condition though
• after a two minute break, pps asked to answer two tests, with short answer test always given first, so pps couldn’t use helpful info from multiple choice one as hadn’t seen it yet
• DV of retrieval of info was measures in 2 ways: recall (10 short answer questions giving single word or phrase answers), retrieval (multiple choice test of 16 questions)

Question 21

Describe the results in grant et al.

Answer 21

• were individual diffs in reading time, but none between noisy and silent conditions for the retrieval (tests)
• an independence measures comparison of study and test conditions showed interesting outcomes: - no patterns for individual variables i.e. whether material was learned / retrieved in each of environments made no diff to test results
• however, was an interaction between tests, performance was significantly better in matching conditions
• suggests recall is better when studying and testing are performed I’m similar environments in terms of noisiness and surroundings.

Question 22

Describe the conclusions in grant et al.

Answer 22

• no independent affect of noise on performance, so claim made by students that noise does not affect their capacity to study is supported
• however, as context-dependence affects retrieval in both tests, students should study in quiet surroundings, as exams are typically held in silence.

Question 23

Evaluate the data in grant et al.

Answer 23

• all quantitative, and statistics allow for easy comparison
• was scientific and objective
• can be reductionistic
• ignores thoughts, feelings, views
• gives less insight and detail

Question 24

Evaluate the validity in grant et al.

Answer 24

• controls and use of realistic materials make study more valid
• experiment represented study and learning conditions for students reasonably well
• material used was more like course material than other items typically used in memory experiments, however, it was not relevant, and results may have been diff if students retrieved info within an existing framework
• 30 mins silent condition may not generalise to longer periods of study
• negative effects of boredom, lack of motivation or day dreaming may mitigate benefit of matched environments, reducing validity

Question 25

Evaluate the ecological validity in grant et al.

Answer 25

• asked questions, so represents exams in real world
• artificial setting though, all lab experiments are not natural
• motivation would have been lower than real exams for students
• generalised as students generally have revised for long term rather than night before test

Question 26

Evaluate the generalisability in grant et al.

Answer 26

• good age spread and roughly equal numbers of males and females
• however all pps chosen as friends from experimenters so unlikely to have formed representative sample

Question 27

Evaluate the demand characteristics in grant et al.

Answer 27

• diff conditions used as independent measures so hopefully couldn’t work out aim of study
• but knowledge of pps that their friends (experimenters) were psycho students may have affected their approach to study by introducing demand characteristics
• may have been more likely to work out aim + to have tried harder in matched conditions

Question 28

Evaluate the ethical considerations in grant et al.

Answer 28

• pps well aware they were participating, not deceived and were debriefed
• given enough info to give informed consent
• asked if had any questions
• given right to withdraw at any punt during study
• study overall raises v few ethical issues - is good!

Question 29

Evaluate the reliability in grant et al.

Answer 29

• reliable as several aspects of study were standardised e.g. materials
• easily allowed for replication
• similarity in pattern of results across test conditions suggests reliability
• but, eight diff students acted as experimenters so amount of time given for initial reading of article could not be controlled, reducing reliability maybe

Question 30

Compare the similarities between

Loftus and Palmer and grant et al.

Answer 30

• both lab experiments
• both about cognitive psychology, specifically extent to which our memory produces an accurate record of material encoded
• both found it does not
• both used in depended measures design
• sample sizes were similar and so was their composition
• both used opportunity sampling
• both used real world materials for ,aim experimental stimuli
• similar mundane realism
• both lacked ecological validity

Question 31

Compare the differences between loftus and Palmer and grant et al.

Answer 31

• L+P was a lab experiment investigating effects BETWEEN encoding and retrieval but G was a lab experiment investigating effects DURING encoding and retrieval
• L+P had fixed duration films for all pps, but in G their reading time could differ
• L+P’s findings have already made an impact on judical system, but G produced more recent findings, so have yet to have an influence.