Ib psyc paper 1- cognitive Flashcards
Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies.
Schema: mental representations that are derived from prior experience and knowledge. Schema theory can explain the structuring of knowledge, why knowledge distortions occur and how previous knowledge can influence perception and memory.
Underlying assumptions by Bartlett (outlined the theory):
Schema organizes information in our memory stores
Schematic activation increases information-provessing efficiency
Schema generate expectations (attention and input)
Schema regulate behaviors (thinking and decision making)
Schema are stable and very resistant to change (effort and energy)
Evaluation of theory:
Schema are not directly observable. We, also, do not know how schema form. Like other cognitive processes, we have to rely on behaviors to demonstrate their influence.
Bartlett (1932):
Aim: To investigate how information changes with each type of reproduction and why the information varies after reproduction.
Methods: lab experiment
Details: Had participants read ‘The War of the Ghost,’ the first participant read the story twice to themselves (serial reproduction) and then told the story to someone else. Each participant who heard the story repeated it to another participant.
Findings: Unfamiliar material changes when asked to reproduce to another participant, it becomes shorter, simplified, and more stereotyped. Very few participants were able to recall the story correctly.
Evaluation: They are reliable by controlling certain variables, such as the book, throughout the entire experiment. The repeated and serial reproduction had many trials done, which increases reliability, it also solidified the pattern. The reliability of this study can be put into question due to the unfamiliar reading material given to the participants (The War of the Ghost), the researchers are not sure what part of the story is familiar to them and helps them remember better. The errors the participants made could be accounted for through proper instruction. The environment, being a lab, is not ecologically valid.
Bargh (1996):
Aim: To investigate whether stereotypes influence discriminatory behavior while our being aware of it or not. (Can certain cues trigger stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory behavior unconsciously)
Methods: lab
Details: Participants were asked to complete a test involving 30 items. Each of the 30 items consisted of five unrelated words. For each item participants had to use four of the five words to form, as fast as possible, a grammatically correct sentence. There were two conditions: In one, the task contained words related to the elderly stereotype (e.g. grey. retired, wise). In the other condition, the words used were unrelated to the elderly stereotype (e.g. thirsty, clean, private). After the task was completed participants were directed towards an elevator. A confederate, sitting in the corridor, timed how long the participants took to walk from the experimental room to the elevator.
Findings:Participants who had their elderly stereotype activated walked significantly more slowly towards the elevator than the rest of the participants.
The participants had their minds prime the stereotype of the elderly subconsciously which changed how the participants walked.
Evaluation:
- By having a control group there is the ability to make comparisons to see the extent of change caused by the independent variable, increasing face validity.
- Avoids demand characteristics by telling the participants that the task is a language proficiency task.
- Seeing a person with a stopwatch (the confederate) might have affected results.
- Demand characteristics
**
Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process with reference to research studies.
Working memory model: 3 active parts- phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and central executive (takes previous 2 and pulls past information and integrates with stored long term memories).
+accounts for all sense and different types of memory
-not enough evidence to support
Multistore model: sensory input (stage 1) became short-term memory (stage 2) is either rehearsed and stored in long-term memory (stage 3) or forgotten. Memory is not unitary and the 3 controlled stores allow for a controlled flow of information through attention, rehearsal, and retrieval.
+linear, simplistic
-doesn’t account for a variety of memory types and only focuses on short term memory
Warrington and Shallice (1970, 1972, 1974):
Aim: To further investigate the patient KF after he was involved in a motorcycle accident and how he was able to move information from his STM to LTM.
Methods: instrumental case study, longitudinal (over time)
Details: In 1970, they carried out a series of tests on patient KF, who had suffered brain damage as a result of a motorcycle accident. KF’s LTM was intact, but he showed impairment in his short-term memory. It was found that although he quickly forgot numbers and words when they were presented to him orally, he was able to remember these words or numbers when presented to him visually. KF’s impairment was mainly for verbal information, but his memory for visual information was largely unaffected. This supports Baddeley’s theory that there are separate STM components for visual information and verbal information- phonological loop).
Findings: The researchers concluded that his accident had resulted in damage to a short-term memory store that was auditory and not visual, and also verbal rather than non-verbal. This research supports the theory that STM is much more complex than suggested by the original multi-store model.
Evaluation: longitudinal study, so they were able to get many tests and collect a significant amount of data. However, since the study went on for years, there are many opportunities for researcher bias to interfere with data. This is especially increased if the researchers developed a bond with the patient, which is likely. Generalizablity is put into question because KF is only one isolated case, so his situation can’t be applied to the general population.
HM: Scoville and Milner 1957
Aim: Study the hippocampus’ effect on memory in a longitudinal study.
Procedure: HM fell off his bike at an early age and cracked his skull, resulting in severe epileptic episodes. They got so bad that he had an experimental surgery conducted on him by scoville (neurosurgeon) that took out parts of his brain (temporal lobe - hippocampus). Milner proceeded to complete studies on the post-op HM, testing his IQ, observations, interviews, and cognitive tests, researching the changes in function (methodological triangulation). until his death after which she carried an autopsy to assess the damage done to his brain. An MRI was used.
Results: HM could not attain new episodic or semantic knowledge. The brain structures that were removed past the incident were essential for LTM. Carried normal conversations and motor skills were intact; so his working and procedural memory were functioning. MRI> damage to temporal lobe including hippocampus
Conclusion: damage explains the problem of transferring info from STM to LTM. Temporal lobe & hippocampus were areas that acetylcholine is believed to play an important role in forming explicit memories.
Evaluation: Insight for further research, case study (ethical considerations are given a pass), high ecological validity, difficult to ethically replicate and generalise. Identity Privacy?
X
Evaluate two models or theories of thinking and decision-making with reference to research studies.
Thinking: cog process of using knowledge and info to make plans, interpret, and constructively interact with the world
Decision-making: cog process of selecting one of the possible beliefs or actions- thinking to action.
Normative model: models that describe the way that thinking should be, with assumption that unlimited time and resources are available to make a decision.
-doesn’t account for humans limited cognitive capacity, or emotions influencing decision making
Descriptive model: models that describe the way that thinking actually happens- focus on real-life thinking patterns.
+better accounting for actual human thinking
Tversky and Kahneman (1973):
Aim: To investigate the availability heuristic
Methods: lab experiment
Details: The participants were randomly allocated to 2 groups. There were 4 recorded lists of 39 names, 2 lists of entertainers, and 2 lists of other public figures. 19 names of famous women and 20 less famous men, then 19 names of famous men and 20 less famous women. The least famous made the majority and all four lists were presented to the 2 groups- all participants heard the same thing. One group (recall)- asked to write down as many names as they could recall from the list and the other group (frequency) - judged if the list contained more names of men or women.
Findings: The participants recalled a mean of 12.3 of 19 famous names, and a mean of 8.4 of 20 less famous names. Most of the participants recalled more famous than non-famous names. Most of the participants incorrectly judged the gender that contained more famous names to be more frequent.
Frequency of gender was judged by the ease with which famous names were known. They recalled more famous names although there were more non-famous names on the list. Participants judged the frequency or possibility of something at the ease at which they are familiar with- more available to their mind.
Evaluation: The findings of this study are somewhat reliable.
- lab experiment- good confound for variables
- low ecological validity
- easily replicable
- low generalizability- not diverse sample
Stroop (1935):
Aim: To investigate whether the automatic process (system 1) of reading words interferes with naming a color (system 2).
Methods: lab experiment
Details: Participants got several word list which only included colors. Some of these lists were printed in a way so color and word were congruent, others so they were incongruent. The participants were asked to (fast and with as few errors as possible) say the color of the print regardless of what the actual word was. If they made errors, they were told to correct them. Time taken and errors made were recorded.
Findings: When color and word was incongruent, the participant took more time and made more errors.
When the word and print is incongruent, system one gives the information of the word while system two gives information about the color. When these are not the same, system one interferes and it takes longer time to answer since the brain needs to decide which information to use. When the information is the same, no decision is needed so it goes faster (automatic model). Supporting the Dual processing system with the 2 models of thinking.
Evaluation: The findings are somewhat reliable.
- good control for confounding variables
- easily replicable
- very easily generlizable
- Doesn’t account for the amount of education the participants have had
- has been replicated many times and continues to show the same results
With reference to relevant research studies, to what extent is one cognitive process reliable.
Flashbulb memory: vivid memories of dramatic or emotionally charged incidents that are of personal interest.
- heavily biased through emotion= unreliable
Kulkofsky 2011:
Aim: investigate the difference in rate of flashbulb memories in collectivists/individualistic cultures
Procedure: 274 middle class people from china, uk, USA, Turkey and Germany were given 5min to recall public events in the last year. Used this to create a memory questionnaire about the circumstances of PPs during the events. They also answered about the importance of the event to them personally. Back Translation was used.
Results: Collectivistic cultures like China > personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in prediction FBM- focussing on an individual personal experience is de-emphasised in Chinese context → less rehearsal of triggering events> lower chance of developing FBM. National importance was equally linked to all cultures.
Evaluation: avoided interviewer effect (back translation), ecological fallacy: just because these individuals came from certain cultures doesn’t mean that they exercise the values of the culture. Replicable.
Brown and Kulik (1977)
Aim: To investigate the theory of flashbulb memories when participants are asked to recall certain events.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews
Details: Researchers asked 80 American participants (40 white, 40 black) to answer questions about 10 events, 9 of those events regarding assassinations of famous Americans (ex. Martin Luther King Jr). The other thing they were recalling was an event with personal significance to the participant. They were asked to recall when they first heard of the event and how often they had rehearsed information about the event.
Findings: The assassination of JFK led to the highest number of FBMs, 90% recall. African Americans had more FBMs for leaders of civil rights movements than Caucasian Americans. A personal FBM tended to be related to a death of a parent.
Evaluation: The findings are reliable through having varying events that might vary in relevance between participants. They also had a decent amount of participants to collect this data from. However, they can be questioned because there wasn’t very much representation of different groups. This would question generalizability because it is harder to apply the findings to the general population without more representation.
Evaluate one theory of how emotion may affect one cognitive process
Flashbulb memory: vivid memories of dramatic or emotionally charged incidents that are of personal interest.
- heavily biased through emotion= unreliable
Kulkofsky 2011:
Aim: investigate the difference in rate of flashbulb memories in collectivists/individualistic cultures
Procedure: 274 middle class people from china, uk, USA, Turkey and Germany were given 5min to recall public events in the last year. Used this to create a memory questionnaire about the circumstances of PPs during the events. They also answered about the importance of the event to them personally. Back Translation was used.
Results: Collectivistic cultures like China > personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in prediction FBM- focussing on an individual personal experience is de-emphasised in Chinese context → less rehearsal of triggering events> lower chance of developing FBM. National importance was equally linked to all cultures.
Evaluation: avoided interviewer effect (back translation), ecological fallacy: just because these individuals came from certain cultures doesn’t mean that they exercise the values of the culture. Replicable.
Brown and Kulik (1977)
Aim: To investigate the theory of flashbulb memories when participants are asked to recall certain events.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews
Details: Researchers asked 80 American participants (40 white, 40 black) to answer questions about 10 events, 9 of those events regarding assassinations of famous Americans (ex. Martin Luther King Jr). The other thing they were recalling was an event with personal significance to the participant. They were asked to recall when they first heard of the event and how often they had rehearsed information about the event.
Findings: The assassination of JFK led to the highest number of FBMs, 90% recall. African Americans had more FBMs for leaders of civil rights movements than Caucasian Americans. A personal FBM tended to be related to a death of a parent.
Evaluation: The findings are reliable through having varying events that might vary in relevance between participants. They also had a decent amount of participants to collect this data from. However, they can be questioned because there wasn’t very much representation of different groups. This would question generalizability because it is harder to apply the findings to the general population without more representation.
**
Discuss the influence of culture on behavior and cognition.
Flashbulb memory: vivid memories of dramatic or emotionally charged incidents that are of personal interest.
Kulkofsky 2011:
Aim: investigate the difference in rate of flashbulb memories in collectivists/individualistic cultures
Procedure: 274 middle class people from china, uk, USA, Turkey and Germany were given 5min to recall public events in the last year. Used this to create a memory questionnaire about the circumstances of PPs during the events. They also answered about the importance of the event to them personally. Back Translation was used.
Results: Collectivistic cultures like China > personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in prediction FBM- focussing on an individual personal experience is de-emphasised in Chinese context → less rehearsal of triggering events> lower chance of developing FBM. National importance was equally linked to all cultures.
Evaluation: avoided interviewer effect (back translation), ecological fallacy: just because these individuals came from certain cultures doesn’t mean that they exercise the values of the culture. Replicable.
Brown and Kulik (1977)
Aim: To investigate the theory of flashbulb memories when participants are asked to recall certain events.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews
Details: Researchers asked 80 American participants (40 white, 40 black) to answer questions about 10 events, 9 of those events regarding assassinations of famous Americans (ex. Martin Luther King Jr). The other thing they were recalling was an event with personal significance to the participant. They were asked to recall when they first heard of the event and how often they had rehearsed information about the event.
Findings: The assassination of JFK led to the highest number of FBMs, 90% recall. African Americans had more FBMs for leaders of civil rights movements than Caucasian Americans. A personal FBM tended to be related to a death of a parent.
Evaluation: The findings are reliable through having varying events that might vary in relevance between participants. They also had a decent amount of participants to collect this data from. However, they can be questioned because there wasn’t very much representation of different groups. This would question generalizability because it is harder to apply the findings to the general population without more representation.
Discuss factors involved in biased thinking and decision-making.
Thinking: cog process of using knowledge and info to make plans, interpret, and constructively interact with the world
Decision-making: cog process of selecting one of the possible beliefs or actions- thinking to action.
Availability heuristic: mental shortcut or approach that is based on what someone recalls as important due to its familiarity.
Cognitive dissonance: psychological tension people feel from holding inconsistent beliefs because people like their attitude and opinions to be consistent.
Tversky and Kahneman (1973):
Aim: To investigate the availability heuristic
Methods: lab experiment
Details: The participants were randomly allocated to 2 groups. There were 4 recorded lists of 39 names, 2 lists of entertainers, and 2 lists of other public figures. 19 names of famous women and 20 less famous men, then 19 names of famous men and 20 less famous women. The least famous made the majority and all four lists were presented to the 2 groups- all participants heard the same thing. One group (recall)- asked to write down as many names as they could recall from the list and the other group (frequency) - judged if the list contained more names of men or women.
Findings: The participants recalled a mean of 12.3 of 19 famous names, and a mean of 8.4 of 20 less famous names. Most of the participants recalled more famous than non-famous names. Most of the participants incorrectly judged the gender that contained more famous names to be more frequent.
Frequency of gender was judged by the ease with which famous names were known. They recalled more famous names although there were more non-famous names on the list. Participants judged the frequency or possibility of something at the ease at which they are familiar with- more available to their mind.
Evaluation: The findings of this study are somewhat reliable.
- lab experiment- good confound for variables
- low ecological validity
- easily replicable
- low generalizability- not diverse sample
Freedman and Fraser (1966):
aim: to investigate the foot-in-the-door compliance technique.
Details: This technique has people agree to a modest request to then open to ask for a larger request. The researchers, disguised as volunteers, asked participants to put a large, unattractive sign about safe driving in their front yards. In another group, participants were first asked to put a smaller and more attractive safe driving sign in their vehicles. Out of the first group, 17% complied, while in the second group (foot-in-the-door) 76% complied. For another trial, researchers first asked participants if they would sign a petition concerning maintaining California’s beauty. Those who agreed were asked, two weeks later, if they would be willing to put that large unattractive sign in their yard.
Findings: Even though the topics on this trial are unrelated, 48% of participants still complied. Participants were more likely to comply using the foot-in-the-door compliance technique due to cognitive dissonance. They did not want to be viewed as inconsistent, also this being a good cause, it would positively improve self-image (or stay in congruence to previous self-image). Humans want to be seen as consistent and predictable in their behavior, as well as perceiving themselves in that light (cognitive consonance).
Discuss the use of technology in investigating cognitive processes.
brain imaging technology: separated by activity and structure, clinical method tool to see relationship between behavior and brain showing function and adaptivity.
HM: Scoville and Milner 1957
Aim: Study the hippocampus’ effect on memory in a longitudinal study.
Procedure: HM fell off his bike at an early age and cracked his skull, resulting in severe epileptic episodes. They got so bad that he had an experimental surgery conducted on him by scoville (neurosurgeon) that took out parts of his brain (temporal lobe - hippocampus). Milner proceeded to complete studies on the post-op HM, testing his IQ, observations, interviews, and cognitive tests, researching the changes in function (methodological triangulation). until his death after which she carried an autopsy to assess the damage done to his brain. An MRI was used.
Results: HM could not attain new episodic or semantic knowledge. The brain structures that were removed past the incident were essential for LTM. Carried normal conversations and motor skills were intact; so his working and procedural memory were functioning. MRI> damage to temporal lobe including hippocampus
Conclusion: damage explains the problem of transferring info from STM to LTM. Temporal lobe & hippocampus were areas that acetylcholine is believed to play an important role in forming explicit memories.
Evaluation: Insight for further research, case study (ethical considerations are given a pass), high ecological validity, difficult to ethically replicate and generalise. Identity Privacy?
Corkin (1997):
Aim:To investigate the role of the hippocampus in memory.
Details: An MRI scan of HM’s brain was performed in 1997 and 2002 where Corkin analyzed the extent of the damage. It was possible to see that parts of HM’s temporal lobe including the hippocampus had the most damage. Damage to the hippocampus explains the problem of transferring short-term memory to long-term memory.
Findings: The researchers concluded that the hippocampus plays a critical role in converting memories of experiences from short-term memory to long-term memory. Since HM was able to retain some memories for events that happened long before his surgery it indicates that the hippocampus is not the site of permanent storage but rather plays a role in the organization and permanent storage of memories elsewhere in the brain.
Discuss the influence of digital technology on cognitive processes and human interaction.
Digital technology is shown to substantially impact human emotion and empathy.
-abundance of digital tech control our positive and negative emotions and how well we read others emotions.
-emotions from online sources can shift those of the consumer of media to similar emotions- can be harmful
Kramer et al. 2014:
Aim: To test the idea that information in an individual’s Facebook feed could cause emotional contagion that is, the transfer of emotional states from one person to another.
Methods: Field experiment (reliable, valid)
Details: The research team collaborated with Facebook to alter the content of the news feed seen by 689,003 Facebook users. They used an existing Facebook algorithm and a software system to identify posts containing positive and negative words. For some participants between 10% and 90% of the ‘positive’ posts of their friends were omitted from their feed. For other participants, 10% to 90% of the negative posts of their friends were omitted. A control group for each condition was also assessed, where a proportion of their feed was omitted at random. This was all done automatically by algorithms. The words used by participants in their own posts were analyzed during the week of the experimental manipulation and the percentage of positive and negative words used in these posts was recorded.
Findings: Participants had the positive content of their news feed reduced, and they were less likely to use positive language in their own posts. Also, when participants had the negative content of their news feed reduced, they were less likely to use negative language in their own posts. Kramer concluded that the emotional content to which we are exposed through our Facebook feed does indeed affect our own emotional state when we see fewer positive posts we are less likely to post positive events or positive opinions of our own.
Evaluation: The findings of this study of semi-reliable.
- people angry about manipulation
- ethical concerns, however, fell into the data use policy
- manipulation of the news feed was done remotely and without any direct involvement of researchers
- Kramer argues important research, the benefit of this outweighs the cost of failing to provide any form of consent
Carrier et al. 2015:
Researchers: Carrier, 2015
Aim: To investigate the relationship between digital activities, virtual empathy, and real-world empathy.
Methods: Field study, convenience sampling
Details: Studied two sets of sixth-graders from a Southern California public school: 51 who lived together for five days at the Pali Institute, a nature and science camp about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, and 54 others from the same school. (The group of 54 would attend the camp later after the study was conducted.) The camp doesn’t allow students to use electronic devices.
Researchers used an anonymous online questionnaire that collected information on daily media usage. They asked participants about daily media usage, real-world empathy, virtual empathy, and social support. Both the emotional and cognitive components of empathy were measured.
Findings: Engaging in online activities that eventually lead to face-to-face communication was shown to be associated with higher real-life empathy scores, such activities that predicted increased amounts of face-to-face communication (associated with real-life empathy) were: social networking sites, browsing websites, email, using a computer for purposes other than being online. However, activities such as video gaming did not predict more face-to-face communication and reduced real-life empathy scores. Certain digital activities may lead to an increase in real-world empathy, while others (e.g. video games) affect it negatively.
Evaluation: The findings of this study are somewhat reliable.
- self-reported measures: could be inaccuracies
-not diverse sample size: low generalizability
-looked at specific online activities, not screen time
-good ecological validity
-confounding variables in participants could affect findings correlated with the beginning of the digital era, implying that digital technology causes antisocial behavior and biased cognitive processes.
This decrease in empathetic abilities at the hands of digital technology supports the argument that digital technology will diminish emotional capacities, inhibit unbiased cognition and promote antisocial/insensitive behavior in human interaction.
Discuss the interaction between digital technology and cognitive processes. (In essence, discuss the effects of modern technology on cognitive processes.)
Digital technology is shown to substantially impact human emotion and empathy.
-abundance of digital tech control our positive and negative emotions and how well we read others emotions.
-emotions from online sources can shift those of the consumer of media to similar emotions- can be harmful
Kramer et al. 2014:
Aim: To test the idea that information in an individual’s Facebook feed could cause emotional contagion that is, the transfer of emotional states from one person to another.
Methods: Field experiment (reliable, valid)
Details: The research team collaborated with Facebook to alter the content of the news feed seen by 689,003 Facebook users. They used an existing Facebook algorithm and a software system to identify posts containing positive and negative words. For some participants between 10% and 90% of the ‘positive’ posts of their friends were omitted from their feed. For other participants, 10% to 90% of the negative posts of their friends were omitted. A control group for each condition was also assessed, where a proportion of their feed was omitted at random. This was all done automatically by algorithms. The words used by participants in their own posts were analyzed during the week of the experimental manipulation and the percentage of positive and negative words used in these posts was recorded.
Findings: Participants had the positive content of their news feed reduced, and they were less likely to use positive language in their own posts. Also, when participants had the negative content of their news feed reduced, they were less likely to use negative language in their own posts. Kramer concluded that the emotional content to which we are exposed through our Facebook feed does indeed affect our own emotional state when we see fewer positive posts we are less likely to post positive events or positive opinions of our own.
Evaluation: The findings of this study of semi-reliable.
- people angry about manipulation
- ethical concerns, however, fell into the data use policy
- manipulation of the news feed was done remotely and without any direct involvement of researchers
- Kramer argues important research, the benefit of this outweighs the cost of failing to provide any form of consent
Carrier et al. 2015:
Researchers: Carrier, 2015
Aim: To investigate the relationship between digital activities, virtual empathy, and real-world empathy.
Methods: Field study, convenience sampling
Details: Studied two sets of sixth-graders from a Southern California public school: 51 who lived together for five days at the Pali Institute, a nature and science camp about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, and 54 others from the same school. (The group of 54 would attend the camp later after the study was conducted.) The camp doesn’t allow students to use electronic devices.
Researchers used an anonymous online questionnaire that collected information on daily media usage. They asked participants about daily media usage, real-world empathy, virtual empathy, and social support. Both the emotional and cognitive components of empathy were measured.
Findings: Engaging in online activities that eventually lead to face-to-face communication was shown to be associated with higher real-life empathy scores, such activities that predicted increased amounts of face-to-face communication (associated with real-life empathy) were: social networking sites, browsing websites, email, using a computer for purposes other than being online. However, activities such as video gaming did not predict more face-to-face communication and reduced real-life empathy scores. Certain digital activities may lead to an increase in real-world empathy, while others (e.g. video games) affect it negatively.
Evaluation: The findings of this study are somewhat reliable.
- self-reported measures: could be inaccuracies
-not diverse sample size: low generalizability
-looked at specific online activities, not screen time
-good ecological validity
-confounding variables in participants could affect findings
Discuss methods used to study the interaction between digital technology and cognitive processes.
Digital technology is shown to substantially impact human emotion and empathy.
-abundance of digital tech control our positive and negative emotions and how well we read others emotions.
-emotions from online sources can shift those of the consumer of media to similar emotions- can be harmful
Kramer et al. 2014:
Aim: To test the idea that information in an individual’s Facebook feed could cause emotional contagion that is, the transfer of emotional states from one person to another.
Methods: Field experiment (reliable, valid)
Details: The research team collaborated with Facebook to alter the content of the news feed seen by 689,003 Facebook users. They used an existing Facebook algorithm and a software system to identify posts containing positive and negative words. For some participants between 10% and 90% of the ‘positive’ posts of their friends were omitted from their feed. For other participants, 10% to 90% of the negative posts of their friends were omitted. A control group for each condition was also assessed, where a proportion of their feed was omitted at random. This was all done automatically by algorithms. The words used by participants in their own posts were analyzed during the week of the experimental manipulation and the percentage of positive and negative words used in these posts was recorded.
Findings: Participants had the positive content of their news feed reduced, and they were less likely to use positive language in their own posts. Also, when participants had the negative content of their news feed reduced, they were less likely to use negative language in their own posts. Kramer concluded that the emotional content to which we are exposed through our Facebook feed does indeed affect our own emotional state when we see fewer positive posts we are less likely to post positive events or positive opinions of our own.
Evaluation: The findings of this study of semi-reliable.
- people angry about manipulation
- ethical concerns, however, fell into the data use policy
- manipulation of the news feed was done remotely and without any direct involvement of researchers
- Kramer argues important research, the benefit of this outweighs the cost of failing to provide any form of consent
Carrier et al. 2015:
Researchers: Carrier, 2015
Aim: To investigate the relationship between digital activities, virtual empathy, and real-world empathy.
Methods: Field study, convenience sampling
Details: Studied two sets of sixth-graders from a Southern California public school: 51 who lived together for five days at the Pali Institute, a nature and science camp about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, and 54 others from the same school. (The group of 54 would attend the camp later after the study was conducted.) The camp doesn’t allow students to use electronic devices.
Researchers used an anonymous online questionnaire that collected information on daily media usage. They asked participants about daily media usage, real-world empathy, virtual empathy, and social support. Both the emotional and cognitive components of empathy were measured.
Findings: Engaging in online activities that eventually lead to face-to-face communication was shown to be associated with higher real-life empathy scores, such activities that predicted increased amounts of face-to-face communication (associated with real-life empathy) were: social networking sites, browsing websites, email, using a computer for purposes other than being online. However, activities such as video gaming did not predict more face-to-face communication and reduced real-life empathy scores. Certain digital activities may lead to an increase in real-world empathy, while others (e.g. video games) affect it negatively.
Evaluation: The findings of this study are somewhat reliable.
- self-reported measures: could be inaccuracies
-not diverse sample size: low generalizability
-looked at specific online activities, not screen time
-good ecological validity
-confounding variables in participants could affect findings
