Cognitive SAQ Flashcards
Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
Dual-task technique: a research technique where participants are explosed simultaneously to two sets of stimuli, either of the same or different modalities.
A: to investigate if participants can use different parts of working memory at the same time
M:
• The participants were asked to perform two tasks at the same time (dual task technique)– a digit span task which required them to repeat a list of numbers, and a verbal reasoning task which required them to answer true or false to various questions
R:
• As the number of digits increased in the digit span tasks, participants took longer to answer the reasoning questions, but not much longer–only fractions of a second. And, they didn’t make any more errors in the verbal reasoning tasks as the number of digits increased.
C:
• The verbal reasoning task made use of the central executive and the digit span task made use of the phonological loop, thus suggesting that the STM or ‘working memory’ is made up of seperate components that function to process different types of information.
• The dual-task experiment support the modality specific nature of working memory, showing how individuals can handle simultaneous verbal and visual inputs.
Quinn & McConnel (1996)
- Quinn & McConnel (1996) conducted an experiment on the influence of visual interference in the VSSP.
- Participants were asked to learn a list of words under visual mnemonic or rote instructions while being presented with irrelevant visual material.
- After being randomly assigned to each memory instruction condition, they were given a practice trial followed by four experimental trials.
- In the first condition, the irrelevant line drawings were presented for 4 seconds with 1 second of the blank screen in between whilst the dynamic visual noise remained on the monitor throughout the presentation of the words.
- In the control condition, participants were presented with the same list of words with no visual interference and they were told to focus on the blank monitor throughout the presentation.
- At the end of each list, they were verbally instructed to recall the words and the number of words they had corrected recalled were recorded.
- The results show that the participants in the no-interference group performed better than the participants who were shown the presentation with irrelevant visual noise and line drawings.
- This suggests that the presence of visual noise interferes the cognitive processing of visual information in the VSSP as the working memory has limited capacity.
- This research also indicates that imagery processing uses the visual-spatial sketchpad whereas verbal processing uses the phonological loop.
Bartlett(1932)
Bartlett’s theory: we reconstruct memory in a way that fits our schemas
Hypothesis: Memory is reconstructive and that people store and retrieve information according to expectations formed by cultural schemas.
Aim: To investigate how memory of an unfamiliar story is affected by previous knowledge.
Method: Participants-British university students
• They were told a Native American legend called The War of the Ghosts.
• The story was filled with unfamiliar names and concepts, ideal to study how memory is reconstructed based on schema processing
• The participants were allocated in two conditions
• Repeated reproduction: participants were told to reproduce the story from memory several times after a period of days, weeks and in some cases even months and years.
• Serial reproduction: the participants had to recall the story and repeat it to another person
Results: In both conditions the participants changed the story in several different ways —memory distortion.
• There are three patterns of memory distortion
• Assimilation:
• Details were unconsciously changed to fit the British culture norms—the story became more consistent with the participants’ own cultural expectations
• Leveling:
• The story became shorter (participants omitted unimportant information)
• Sharpening:
• Participants changed the order of the story , added detail or emotions and used more familiar words in order to make sense/ match their own cultural expectations
Conclusion:
• Remembering is not a passive but rather an active process
• Information is retrieved and changed to fit into existing schemas
• Humans constantly search for meaning, therefore they reconstruct memory to create meaning in the incoming information.
• Bartlett’s theory of reconstructive memory: memories are not copies of experiences but rather a reconstruction
Evaluation:
Strengths:
• First study to investigate schema’s role in memory encoding.
• High ecological validity due to broad applications in real-life situations
Limitations:
• No control group of Native Americans present to verify that memory distortion wouldn’t happen in that cultural group
• Results could be more a function of memory processes as a whole then the role of schema in recall in particular.
• Data collection was quite informal.
• No cause-and-effect relationship —The IV did not affect the DV
• Methodology was not rigorously controlled, and instructions were not standardized (no standardized time)
Brewer & Treyens (1981)
A: To study the role of schema in encoding and retrieval of memory
P:
• Sample: 86 university students
• A lab experiment in the office setting
• The researches deliberately put a selection of objects in the room, including office containing objects which were schema congruent as well as objects that were not typically found in an office.
• The participants were asked to recall in three different conditions.
• The recall condition:
They were asked to write down description of the objects (location, size, color)
• The drawing condition:
The participants were asked to draw the objects.
• The verbal recognition:
The participants were given a list of objects and they were asked whether they were in the room or not.
R:
• Schema influences our behaviour, specifically memory.
• In three conditions, the participants were more likely to remember schema congruent items(expected items in an office)
• The objects which were incongruent with their schema of an office were not recalled (a toy)
• In both the drawing and the recall condition, the participants tended to change the nature of the objects to match their schema.
• Schema played a role in both the encoding and recall of the objects in the office.
E:
• High artificiality–a controlled lab experiment
• Results could not be generalized–university students.
• The research produced both quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a richer understanding of the role of schema.
• Difficult to verify the schemas of the participants prior to the experiment. However, researchers used a questionnaire to determine schema consistent objects.
• Deception–the participants did not know the nature of the study, but they were debriefed at the end
Hamilton &Gifford (1976)
• stereotype against the minority group
A: to investigate the formation of the stereotype towards minority group
M:
• two groups A (26) and B (13)
• the participants were asked to give positive or negative statements about one individual in one of the two groups
• the number of positive and negative comments were the same
• the participants overestimated the number of negative traits in the minority group
R:
• the minority group was by nature smaller and their negative behaviours were more distinct and representative
• negative stereotypes are more common for minority groups than for the majority
C:
• This study can be linked to illusory correlation as minority groups were seen to have more negative traits even though they had the same number of positive and negative traits as the majority group.
• Therefore, this relationship between minorities and increased negative traits is an illusory correlation as it doesn’t exist.
Batson et al ( Elaine’s study)
Aim To investigate participants’ motives to help when given the opportunity to escape
Method 2*2 experimental design
Sample University students enrolled in an introductory psychology class
Procedure Participants completed a questionnaire about themselves prior to the study to determine that whether they were similar or disimilar to Elaine
Participants watched a pre-recorded video of Elaine that they were told
was CCTV footage (Elaine taking electric shocks at random intervals)
After the second trial, they were given the chance to volunteer to help her by taking up her place
Two Independant variables:
1.Cost of escape without helping (easy/ difficult)
• Easy escape – could either take her place or complete a
questionnaire and leave
• Difficult escape – could either take her place or watch Elaine
complete the remaining 8 trials
2.High or low empathy
• High empathy – description allowed participants to identify with Elaine
• Low empathy – unable to identify as closely
Dependant variable: whether or not the participant agreed to help by replacing Elaine
Results • In high empathy condition most participants agreed to help Elaine in both situations
• In low empathy condition most participants withdrew in easy escape situation, whilst in difficult escape situation, more people chose to help.
• The motivation to help in high empathy condition was altruistic regardless of easy/difficult to escape– altruistic behaviour in humans is caused by feelings of empathy
Conclusion Supports negative state relief model (Cialdini, 1987) that altruists act because of a desire to reduce their own negative state of distress, created through empathising with the victim
Strengths Effective manipulation of operationalised variables
Limitations • Sample bias and demand characteristics – participants as psychology students may have guessed aim of experiment
• Personality factors may also play a role
• Low ecological validity
• Ethics: deception of participants and Elaine
Harm– Elaine’s childhood trauma, electric shocks
Pillivan et al ( arousal-cost-award model)
Research method Field study
Aim To investigate the effect of various variables on helping behaviour
Sample
• Average of 40 people in the carriage where the emergency took place
• Average of 8 people near the victim
Procedure • Variables:
1. Victim drunk or ill (carrying a cane)
2. Size of the group
Teams of student confederates consisted of:
• 2 female observers– recorded reactions
• 2 males acting as the victim and the model
Two conditions:
• “drunk”– victim smelled of alcohol and carried a bottle in a paper bag
• “sober”– victim had a walking stick
• Participants observed the ‘victim’ collapse on the floor shortly after the train had left the station
• The model did not help
Results • There’s no evidence of diffusion of responsibility based on the n. of people in the subway, but it depended on whether the victim is drunk or not.
• Sick victim received more help than drunk victim
• Helpers were 90% male
⇒ May reflect values: male assumed to take responsibility
• Social exchange theory– less threat to men
• Physical strength of men
• When victim was drunk, there was a delay of 109 s before help, when victim was with the walking stick, helpin time 5s.
• More white helpers (SIT)
Conclusions Victims who appear sick more likely to receive help than those who appear drunk
• “drunk” condition: higher cost of helping (physical ability, danger), lower cost of not helping a drunk men
• “Sober” condition: High risk of self-blame or guilt for not helping /Low cost for helping
• More male helpers: less risk for men ( they have the physical strength)
Strengths • High ecological validity – field experiment as opposed to laboratory setting
• Obtained large amount of detailed data
• Resulted in a theoretical explanation of factors influencing
bystanderism
limitations • Temporal validity– different values in 19th century
• Field experiment less controlled than laboratory experiment
• Fewer trials with drunk victims than victims with canes
• No strong relationship evident between number of bystanders and
speed of helping – contrary to theory of unresponsive bystander
• Researchers did not find support for diffusion of responsibility – may
be due to the ability of the observers to to clearly see the victim and decide whether or not the situation was an emergency
• Methodology– difficult to escape– in the same carriage
Loftus & Palmer ( Reconstructive memory)
Hypothesis: eyewitness memory can be altered by word choice and leading questions, as demonstrated in their classic study of eyewitness speed estimates after a car crash.
Aim: To investigate whether leading questions asked of eyewitnesses after an event can change the memory of that event.
Method:
• Independent method
• Sample: American university students were split into five groups
• They were shown seven film clips of traffic accidents.
• Following each film, participants were asked the same leading question with different verbs : ‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’
• The verb ‘hit’ was used for one group, and was replaced with either ‘smashed’, ‘collided’, ‘bumped’, or ‘contacted’ for each of the other groups.
Results:
The verb ‘smashed’ yielded a mean estimate the highest speed of 40.5mph, while participants with the verb ‘contacted’ in their question estimated the lowest mean speed of 31.8mph.
Conclusion:
• Memory is not reliable as it can be distorted through the use of specific words
• Language activates schemas: This ties in with schema theory, where the schema invoked by the word ‘smashed’ is a more serious accident than that invoked by the word ‘contacted’.
Strengths:
• The sequence of the seven videos was randomised to control for order effects.
• The only difference between experimental conditions was the verb used in one question, so the independent variable was effectively isolated.
• The results of the study have a broad application to eyewitness testimony in the courtroom,police are able to question witnesses.
• Widely supported by empirical evidence and case studies in which DNA has cleared people charged with crimes based on EWT.
• 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:
• University students were used in the study and therefore the generalisability of the findings is somewhat limited.
• The difference in speed estimates could be due to response bias instead of mental representations or schemas.
• Demand characteristics may have influenced the results.
Methodological considerations:
• Lab experiment—Watching a car crash on a television screen is quite artificial, and participants may respond differently when witnessing a real-life car crash with added emotional impact and so on. So the study lacks ecological validity.
