cognitive studies Flashcards
Brown and Kulik (1977)
FBM was firstly demonstrated by Brown and Kulik in their main study occurring in 1977. To investigate FBM and how it works (to support their theory).
Method:
Results:
They found that J.F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 led to the most flashbulb memories of all participants (90% of participants recalled this in context and with vivid detail)
African Americans recalled more FBM’s of civil right leaders; e.g. the assassination of Martin Luther King more than the Caucasians recalled it (as a FBM)
For the tenth event (which was self-selected) most participants recalled shocking events like the death of a parent
Conclusions
This study carried out by Brown and Kulik (1977) supported the theories of flashbulb memories whereby they were:
Form in situations where we encounter surprising and highly emotional information
Are maintained by means of overt rehearsal (discussion with others) and covert rehearsal
(private)
Differ from other memories in that they are more vivid, last longer and are more consistent and accurate
Require for their creation the involvement of a specialized neural mechanism which stores information permanently in a unique memory system
Glanzer and Cunitz
Glanzer and Cunitz:
(Methodology)
-Researchers read a list of 15 words to participants and asked them to recall the words
-Participants randomly allocated to one of three conditions: recall the words immediately, with a 10-second delay, or with a 30-second delay
-To prevent participants from rehearsing during delay, participants were given filler task: to count backwards from 100
(Results)
-When no delay, participants remembered the first few words and last few words ——> indicating that words earlier on the list were more likely to be rehearsed and moved to LTM (primacy effect) and words at the end of the list were still in STM (recency effect)
-When given filler task during delay, participants only remembered the first few words —–> indicating that words earlier on the list were rehearsed and moved to LTM (primacy effect), but filler task displaced information in STM (no more recency effect)
(Conclusion)
Multi-store model is correct
-showing that long-term & short-term memory stored in different places, and STM may be displaced
Shallice and Warrington KF
Who was the participant?
K.F. = young man of 28 who was in a motorcycle accident when he was 17; he sustained a left parieto-occipital fracture and fine motor movements were impaired in his right hand (left parietal lobe is known for handling symbols such as letters or numbers)
What was the procedure?
Shallice and Warrington presented strings (lists spoken aloud) of 1, 2, 3 and 4 items for each of the three types of verbal material (letters, numbers, words)
What were the conditions?
- the numbers and letters were chosen randomly and not repeated within a string
- the words were chosen randomly from 4 and 5-letter words of high frequency
What were the findings?
- K.F. was only able to repeat one item reliably
- proportion of items remembered decreased as string length increased
- repetition for numbers better than for letters
- auditory problems were ruled out
- later experiment showed memory for visually presented information was better
What was concluded?
- K.F.’s STM was severely impaired in that its capacity was greatly reduced
- LTM was intact
- difference between auditory and visual memory capacity suggests two separate stores
- intact LTM and impaired STM contradicts MSM theory that information in the LTM has to be processed in the STM first
- supports the contention that there are separate stores for STM and LTM
Bechera et al (Iowa Gambling Task)
participants pick 1 deck of cards out of 4 decks of cards. They repeat this 100 times .they win or lose money based on decisions .what they dont know is that b and d have high initial reward but long term risk factors where as a and c have low initial risk low reward. But if fact a and c are better in the long run as they make more money than they lose .
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Aim
To investigate the effect of lesions to the PFC on decision-making (system two processing)
Type of Experiment
Quasi Experiment
Participants
1) 17 healthy controls
2) 8 patients with lesions in vmPFC
Technology Used
MRI
Procedure
Iowa Card Game:
4 decks of cards
Start with $2,000
A & C - small short term gains and long term losses
B & D - large short term gains and long term losses
Results
1) Healthy controls learnt to avoid cards with long term punishments (System Two processing)
2) Participants with damaged PFC chose cards with immediate rewards (System One processing)
Loftus’ Lost in Mall
(Procedure)
-The aim of the study was to see if participants would “create memories” of a biographical event that never happened to them. Participants were given short stories describing childhood events, all supposedly provided by family members, and asked them to try to recall them. One of the stories, describing a time when the participant was lost in a mall as a child, was false.
(Results)
-a quarter of the participants said that they remembered this event even though it never actually occurred. They often described the event in great detail. Loftus concluded that being asked to recall something that didn’t happen, but that they thought their parents said happened, can lead to the creation of false memories.
(Conclusion)
Upon revealing the deception, participants may have felt like they looked foolish. However, Loftus could not do a study on false memory by first revealing the actual aim of the study. Although the deception was justified, the experiment is still problematic from an ethical standpoint.
Loftus and Palmer
Loftus & Palmer:
(Procedure)
-Participants watched a movie in which two cars hit one another, and then asked how fast the car was going when the accident occurred
-For some participants the question ended with “when the two cars smashed into each other”, for other participants, the word smash was replaced with bumped, hit, collided, or contacted.
-The IV was the intensity of the verb in the question
-The DV was the speed the participants estimated.
-The researchers used an independent samples design, so the participants experienced only one condition. Otherwise, they would not have been able to carry out the experiment because the participants would have figured out the actual goal of the study. Therefore, deception is sometimes used in experiments to avoid the participants demonstrating demand characteristics, where they do what they think that the researcher wants them to do. As part of the experiment, when the task is completed, the researcher must debrief the participant and reveal any deception.
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(Results)
The results of the experiment showed that the stronger the intensity of the verb, the higher the estimate of the speed of the car when the accident happened. As the data was quantitative, statistics could be calculated to see if the results were significant or due to chance. The results showed that the wording of the question had a direct cause and effect relationship on the estimation of speed made by participants.
Cohen et al
To demonstrate whether people are more likely to remember schema-consistent information. To test the effects of prior knowledge on the processing of new information.
Procedure
96 college students watched a video of a woman with her husband having dinner in a restaurant. Half of the participants were told that she was a librarian, while the other half was told she was a waitress. After watching the video, they were asked to recollect details of the video.
Results
Participants were more likely to remember schema consistent information. Those who were told the woman was a waitress remembered details more consistent with a waitress stereotype, such as drinking beer, Listening to pop music. If they were told she was a librarian they remembered details consistent with this stereotype, such as that she received a book for her birthday, spent the day reading and liked classical music.
Conclusion
People have social schemas for waitressing and librarians and this dictates their comprehension and memory of information. People are more likely to focus on and remember schema-consistent information and to ignore contradictory information. This can lead to the formation and reinforcement of stereotypes.
