Ethics- cognitive processing

Question 1

Ethics- cognitive processing

Answer 1

When investigating cog processing, important 2 consider ethics as we often do studies on real people. If we are investigating how we think, we may have to manipulate people’s thinking in studies to find out how we process things. As such, we need to take extra care when conducting studies that can affet how people cogitively process.
We might do studies / case studies on ppl. This as a research method meand taking detailed observations of ppl, so we need to be extra careful not to infrigne on rights like informed consent, privacy, etc.
We might have to look at people with issues w cognitvie processing, who are particualry vulnerable

HM
It seems that the hippocampus and the areas around it play an important role in converting memories of expereinces from short term memory to long term memroy
. HM could retain memories of what happened before the srugery that led to his amnesia. Thsi indicates that the hippocampus is a temporary rather than premanent store
Hm learnt a few new procedural memories- suggests memories not stored via hippocampus
HM (and other ppl w amnesia) had deficits in one part of the memory system but not in others- suggests brain has several memory systems and that these are supported by distinct brain regions
Study suggests memory process more complex than we thought. Even tho hippocampus is mportant in storage of new memories, its not the only structure involved
ETHICS ISSUES
Informed consent:
Participation in a study must be voluntary
Ppt mus fully udnderstand the nature of their involvement, including aims of the study, tasks theyll be exposed to, and how data will be used
Researchers should provide as much info as possible
Consent was given by HM’s mother, then later by his caretakers
But there was still a concern about HM being taken advantage of his right to withdraw as well, as he either couldnt understand what was happening or he forgot

There was continual testing of HM for over 40 years
During the studies, psychologists used all sorts of stimuli (including electric shocks and white noise). HM rarely complained about anything
He didnt even know what was being done to him or who was doing it
His brain is now kept for science

Infomred consent- HM, case studies
HM cant give informed consent to the case study
If he is unable to do this, the researchers should take additional safeguards to protect the welfare and dignity of HM
If real consent cant be obtained, they should consult a person such as a family member, who can give consent.
When dealing w ppt who cant ive consent, particular care should be taken over informed consent, paying attention to special circumstances that may affect ppt’s ability to give free informed consent
However, lots of ppt cant give informed consent

kahneman- peak end rule
asked ppt to put hands in ice cold water. puts ppt under HARM. physical harm
ppt were expected to feel pain, researchers even asked them to rate their pain.
probably doesnt leave lasting damage, but there may have been other scenarios/ situations that could be created that test the peak end rule. so questionable whether this findings of this study justified the pain ppt felt