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Yr 1 Psychology AS OCR: Studies > Cognitive studies > Flashcards

Cognitive studies Flashcards

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1
Q

what are the two studies in the cognitive area

A

Loftus and palmer (1974)

Grant et al (1998)

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2
Q

What did Bartlett say before the Loftus and Palmer study took place

A

Bartlett (1932) - Developed a theory called ‘reconstructive memory’

  • he said our memory is not like cameras-we actually only remember parts of events that happen to us
  • our mind fills in the blanks with information that makes sense or we expect to be there
  • we get this information from our SCHEMA - these are organised packages of information about stimuli (e.g. events, objects, people, places) stored in our brain.
  • If a certain schema is activated this may even change our minds
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3
Q

What is the key theme in the Loftus and Palmer study

A

memory = external influences on memory

eyewitness testimony

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4
Q

what were the aims of the Loftus and Palmer study

A
  • To investigate factors that influence the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
  • To investigate if post-event information could alter our memory
  • To investigate if leading questions can alter the way we remember events
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5
Q 
What was the Loftus and Palmer study:
Field/Laboratory
Quantitative/qualitative
primary/secondary
independent/repeated measures
A

Field/Laboratory —>Laboratory
Quantitative/qualitative —>Quantitative
primary/secondary —>Primary
independent/repeated measures —>Independent

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6
Q

what was the Independent variable for the Loftus and Palmer study and how was it operationalized
Experiment 1
Experiment 2

A

the language used in the question

experiment 1 = the verb used in the question: hit, smashed, collided, bumped, contacted

experiment 2 = only smashed or hit (or no speed question)

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7
Q

what was the dependent variable for Loftus and Palmer study and how was it operationalized
experiment 1
experiment 2

A

experiment 1 = Speed estimated of cars (mph)

experiment 2 = Whether or not participants reported seeing broken glass (closed question: yes or no)

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8
Q

How was the Loftus and Palmer study controlled

A
  • All participants watched the same 7 videos

- Same questions asked (only the verb that changed)

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9
Q

In the Loftus and Palmer study what was the sample for experiment 1 and what was the sampling method

A

experiment 1 = 45 students from a university
in groups of various sizes
opportunity sampling

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10
Q

In the Loftus and Palmer study what was the sample for experiment 2 and what was the sampling method

A

experiment 2 = 150 students from a university
divided into 3 groups of 50
opportunity sampling

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11
Q

briefly describe the Loftus and Palmer experiment 1

A

1) All groups were shown 7 films of traffic accidents in a random order
2) After each film, the participants were given a questionnaire
- Firstly they had to give an account of the accident
- Secondly they had to answer 10 questions
3) One question was a critical question:
- About how fast the cars were going when they (hit, smashed, bumped, collided, contacted) each other
4) this lead to the five experimental groups

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12
Q

briefly describe the Loftus and Palmer experiment 2

A

3 equal groups of 50
1) shown 7 films of traffic accidents in a random order
2) After each film, the participants were given a questionnaire:
-Firstly they had to give an account of the accident
-Secondly they had to answer 10 questions
3)One question was a critical question:
-How fast were the cars when they smashed/hit ( 1 group of 50 participants did not get asked the question)
-(one week later)
did you see any broken glass? (there was no broken glass)

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13
Q

in the Loftus and Palmer, experiment 1 what order (quickest to slowest) did the participants mean estimate each verb

A 
Smashed - 40.5mph
Collided - 39.3mph
Bumped - 38.1pmh
Hit - 34.0mph
Contacted - 31.8mph
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14
Q

In the Loftus and Palmer, experiment 2 how many participants said:
smashed group = yes and no
hit group = yes and no
control group = yes and no

A

smashed group:
yes = 16
no = 34

hit group:
yes = 7
no = 43

control group:
yes = 6
no = 44

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15
Q

what did Loftus and Palmer’s study rely on

A

eye witness testimony

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16
Q

what was the overall conclusion from the Loftus and Palmer study

A

Post-event information can severely affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony - we should not rely on eyewitness testimony too heavily and should be very careful what we say to witnesses

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17
Q

In the Loftus and Palmer study what were the conclusions for experiment 1

A

-The word used in a question can distort our memory of an event we have witnessed
-This could happen through:
=memory change (the word actually changes the way we remember an event)
=Response bias (the words make us interpret what we remember in a different way - this is when we are unsure of what we witnessed)

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18
Q

In the Loftus and Palmer study what were the conclusions for experiment 2

A
  • Leading questions can distort our memory of events even to the extent of making us believe we saw something we didn’t (creating a false memory)
  • We use our schema to fill in information we don’t remember - this supports Bartlett’s theory of reconstructive memory
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19
Q

Loftus and Palmer - internal validity

A

-It’s unlikely that participants guessed the aim, as they were each only asked the speed question once (and they didn’t even know that was the critical question)

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20
Q

Loftus and Palmer - external validity

ecological

A

ecological - Watching a car crash on film is probably very different to seeing it in real life. you don’t have the same distractions emotional reaction etc. that might affect your memory

21
Q

Loftus and Palmer - internal reliability

A

The participants saw the films in different orders so this could have affected their focus on the critical film. However all participants were asked exactly the same questions with only the critical verb changed

22
Q

Loftus and Palmer - external reliability

A

It’s reasonable to believe the study would get the same results if repeated - the cognitive process used e.g. schema would work in the same way regardless of time or day

23
Q

How can the Loftus and Palmer study be applied to everyday life

A

anywhere where they need to be aware of inaccurate eyewitness testimonies e.g. court, police interviews

24
Q

How does the Loftus and Palmer study relate to the ethical guidelines

A

There were no major ethical issues in this study due to the researcher getting consent, participants had the right to withdraw and no personal details were released.
experimenter was qualified, participants were debriefed and only watched videos so there was no harm

the only issue was a small amount of passive deception as they were not told that they were all given different questions but this was to avoid demand characteristics

25
Q 
How does the Loftus and Palmer study relate to:
situational/individual
nature/nurture
determinism/free-will
reductionism/holism
A

situational - Better at remembering a certain way or in a particular environment
individual - People’s perception of the word used in the question may be different

nurture - If you were taught to remember things in a certain way/technique

determinism - Word made memory better not the person

Reductionism - The word is the soul reason behind the memory of the participant

26
Q

What is context dependent memory

A

When an individual is tested in the same condition/context in which they leant the tested material

27
Q

In terms of the background of the Grant et al study, what did Godden and Badderly (1975,1980) say

A

They noticed that deep sea divers would forget things when underwater but when surfacing, they would soon recall it

28
Q

What is the key theme of the Grant study

A

memory/ Context dependent memory

29
Q 
Which of these was Grant's study:
field/lab
independent/repeated/matched pairs
quantitative/qualitative
primary/secondary
nominal/ordinal/interval/ratio
A

field/lab —> Laboratory experiment
independent/repeated/matched pairs —> Independent
quantitative/qualitative —> Quantitative
primary/secondary —> Primary
nominal/ordinal/interval/ratio —> Nominal

30
Q

what were the independent variables operationalized for the Grant study

A 
Reading condition (silent or noisy)
Testing condition (silent or noisy)
31
Q

what were the dependent variables operationalized for the Grant study

A 
Reading time (seconds)
Performance on a multiple choice test
Performance on a short answer test
32
Q

what were some of the controls in the Grant study

A
  • Everyone wore headphones (silent and noisy conditions)
  • participants reading times were recorded
  • 2 minute break between end of study phase and beginning of test phase
33
Q

How many participants were there in the Grant study:
gender
age

A 
39 participants (40 took part but 1 was excluded)
17 females and 23 males
17-56 years old (mean=23.4 years)
34
Q

In the Grant study what sampling method was used to recruit the participants

A

Snowball sampling - Participants were recruited by eight experimenters, each experimenter recruited 5 participants

35
Q

Briefly describe the Grant study procedure

A

(lasted about 30 minutes)

  1. Each of the eight experimenters took one participant through one of the four conditions (participants only took part on one condition) and an additional participant for one of the conditions as assigned by the instructor. Experimenters randomly assigned their participants to their five conditions.
  2. Participants were read aloud the instructions of the study and were told the participation in the study was voluntary.
  3. Participants were told to read the psychoimmunology article as if they were reading for a class project and told their comprehension would be tested with a multiple choice and short answer test.
  4. All participants wore headphones as a controlled condition, silent would cancel out noise around them and noisy condition would hear moderately loud background noise.
  5. Reading time was recorded
  6. Approximately a 2 minute break between the end of study phase and start of test phase to minimise recall from short term memory
  7. Short answer test, then the multiple choice test (noisy or silent)
  8. Participants were debriefed concerning the purpose of the experiment
36
Q 
In the Grant study what were some of the findings:
mean average results
what were the tests out of 
(Reading first, test second)
S=silent
N=noisy
A 
people did a lot better in the same test and study conditions e.g.
short answer /10 = 
SS=6.7
NN=6.2
SN=4.6
NS=5.4
multiple choice /16 =
SS=14.3
NN=14.3
SN=12.7
NS=12.7
37
Q

What were some of Grant’s conclusions on his study

A
  • Studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance
  • Regardless of whether a short-answer test or multiple choice test is used to assess learning, there are context dependency effects
  • Students are likely to perform better in exams if they study with a minimum amount of background noise
38
Q

Grant study - Internal validity

A

This is a good test of context, the variables were operationalized and controlled well with participants wearing headphones so that extraneous noise wouldn’t interfere with the condition

39
Q

Grant study - External validity

A

The participants were all psychology students or their friends were - they may have been naturally more interested in learning and memory processes than other people

40
Q

Grant study - Internal reliability

A

Participants performed better in recognition than recall questions (people usually do) However, context had the same effect in both pairs of the test - Participants always remembered more when the study and test conditions matched

41
Q

Grant study - External reliability

A

The study might get different results if it was repeated at different times of day - research suggests we do study and learn more/less effectively depending on whether its memory, afternoon, just after lunch etc.

42
Q

How can the Grant study relate to everyday life

A

Useful for teachers and students to learn the best revision techniques

43
Q

How did the Grant study relate to the ethics guidelines

A

There were no major ethical issues in this study due to the researcher getting consent and participants had the right to withdraw.
experimenter was qualified, participants were debriefed and no harm came to the participants.

Only a small amount of passive deception happened because they weren’t involved in a class project but no major deception.

44
Q

How does the Grant study relate to any of the debates:
Nature/Nurture
Reductionism/Holism
Situational/Individual

A 
Nature = Naturally remember in certain environment to help us survive
Nurture = Teaching techniques in different environments

Reductionism = Just the environment affects memory

Situational = Environment affects memory

45
Q

what are the main assumptions of the cognitive area

A
  • This is an information processing approach - see the mind as working like a computer. Our brain inputs, processes and retrieves information (and the way it does these, can effect our behaviour)
  • Focuses on internal mental processes such as memory thinking, reasoning, problem solving and language - believes the way we think is the chief cause of all our behaviour
46
Q

what are the most common research methods in the cognitive area

A

self-report methods

Lab experiments

47
Q

what are the strengths for the whole cognitive area

A
  • This is the scientific approach - it doesn’t focus on feelings and emotions, so it’s able to take a more objective approach and create theories that can be tested, falsified and modified
  • Has many practical applications - If we learn how the brain processes information, then we can learn how to input or retrieve it in a more useful way (education, eyewitness testimony)
48
Q

what are the weaknesses for the whole cognitive area

A
  • Relies heavily on self-report methods as there are no DIRECT ways to study peoples thought and memories etc. This creates problems of accuracy and honesty etc.
  • A lot of cognitive research takes place in labs, so results tend to be low in ecological validity. We may just be finding out how people respond to an experimental procedure rather than how they would respond in everyday situations

Yr 1 Psychology AS OCR: Studies (8 decks)

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