Key Studies Flashcards
Hudson, 1960
Pictorial depth perception in sub-cultural groups in Africa
Aim: investigate individual cultural differences in perception of 2D & 3D images, specifically comparing educated western participants with uneducated Africans.
Quasi-experimental design compared
- object size
- depth cues
- overlap
- shadow
uneducated Africans able to perceive 2D images but lacked visual cues necessary to perceive 3D images
- levels of education + cultural background have impacts on perception of depth in images
Deregowski, 1972
Pictorial Perception and Culture, replication of Hudson, 1960
aim: investigated if perception on picture relies on learning
Quasi-experiment between Western + African cultures
- elephant vs antelope, what is man doing w spear
Africans are 2D perceivers whereas Westerners are 3D perceivers
Deregowski, Muldrow, Muldrow, 1972
Pictorial representation in a remote Ethiopian population
aim: investigated remote populations in Ethiopia - highlands + lowlands
Baddeley + Hitch, 1974
Working Model of Memory
Aim: investigate ‘working memory’ and its limitations, developed in response to ‘multi-store model’ (too simplistic)
Dual task paradigm - perform a verbal + spatial task simultaneously to ‘overload’ system
verbal - remember list of words
spatial - determine truthfulness of a sentence
participants could perform both tasks simultaneously
3 proposed stores:
- central executive
- Visio-spatial sketchpad
- phonological loop
Grant et al., 1998
Context dependent memory
aim: determine if memory is context-dependent
40 participant, 17-59 yrs old assessed in silent vs noisy conditions through multi-choice (recognition) + short answer (recall)
matched conditions performed better, environmental context is important in retrieval of meaningful info
Pavlov, 1897
Classical Conditioning
Aim: investigate the digestive system of dogs (salivation) which become a paired association - food + bell = response
UCS (food) = UCR (salivation)
UCS (food) + NS (chime) = UCR (salivation)
CS (chime) = CR (salivation)
animals can learn to associate neutral stimuli with meaningful events leading to conditioned response
Watson + Rayner, 1920
Conditioned emotional reactions
Aim: investigated whether emotional responses were reflexive (innate) or conditioned (learnt)
Little Albert - 9 months old, no pre-held fear of animals
when exposed to rat experienced loud noise, conditioned fear response, over time fear developed for rat
UCS (loud noise) = UCR (fear)
UCS (bang) + NS (rat) = UCR (fear)
CS (rat) = CR (fear)
Stimulus generalisation:
- occurred with white rat, dog, fur coat, + Santa mask, but with differing levels of fear response
phobia caused by conditioned emotional responses
Skinner
Skinner box - Operant conditioning
aim: investigate whether behaviour was influenced by consequences
would reinforced behaviour be repeated/strengthened?
Would punished behaviour be extinguished/weakened?
rat/pigeon
positive reinforcement - given food
positive punishment - electric floor turned on
Bandura, 1977
Social Learning theory
aim: assessed willingness of children (+adults) to imitate behaviour observed in others - particularly aggression
72 children 24 randomly assigned to each model group
aggressive models - children observed adult behaving aggressively to bobo doll
non-aggressive - children observed adult ignoring the bobo doll
control - not exposed to model
after exposure observers recorded children imitating aggressive + non-aggressive behaviours toward bobo doll
boys more likely to imitate same-sex models, and were more physically agressive
if girls exposed to male model - more physically agressive, if exposed to female, more verbally aggressive
Haney, Banks + Zimbardo, 1973
Stanford Prison Experiment
Aim: understand the development of norms and the effect of roles, labels + social expectations
24 male universtity students - rndomly assigned roles
1) ‘prisoners’ ‘arrested’ at their homes
2) blindfolded + stripped naked
3) 2:30am prisoners woken up by loud noises
4) prisoners punished = humiliated by guards
guards worked 8 hour shifts - 3 guards per shift, 3 prisoners per cell
- healthy prisoners experience extreme emotional distress
- guards acted cruelly + sadistically to prisoners
- some prisoners became numb and submissive
ended 8 days early
Cialdini et al., 2006
Managing Social Norms for Persuasive Impact - petrified wood
Aim: investigated the focus theory of normative conduct
2655 participants - Petrified forest national park visitors
normative communication would impact stealing:
- Injunctive Norm (what should be done)
- positive: please leave the petrified wood in the park
- negative: please do not remove petrified wood from the park
more likely (both +,-) to decrease theft
- Descriptive Norm (how people behave)
- positive: vast majority of visitors leave the petrified wood,
preserving the habitat
- negative: many past visitors removed petrified wood from the
park changing the state of the natural habitat
more likely to increase theft +ve decreased whereas -ve increased
Milgram, 1963
obedience to authority figures
Aim: discover whether participants would obey an authority figure and carry out actions that caused severe pain to others
40 male participants paid for participation
1) ‘teacher’ participants must shock the ‘learner’ if the learner answers incorrectly
2) learner intentionally answered wrong to gauge how far participants would go before refusing to continue as instructed by ‘experimenter’ wearing formal attire (Lab coat/uniform)
3) the ‘shock’ amount was increased each wrong answer and the ‘learner’ would express more pain for each before going silent at 315 volts. 375v was marked ‘DANGER’ and 435v + 450v had XXX above
all participants obeyed to the 300v level, 26 went all the way, all levels were deadly
when instructed by an authority figure, people are more likely to perform actions contrary to their beliefs.
Asch, 1951
Conformity to comply with group’s behaviour, beliefs and actions
Aim: investigate the extent to which an individual within a group will conform to the majority opinion
50 university students
1) Participants shown 2 cards, told study was on visual perception
2) placed in a group with 7-9 confederates
3) the participant was second last to answer
4) they were asked ‘which line in card B is closest in length to the line in card A.’
first 12/18 rounds confederates conformed to one wrong answer, 6 remaining rounds they all answered correctly
74% of participants conformed at least once, 14 conformed in more than half the trials, mean conformity - 4/12
Darley + Latane, 1970
Bystander intervention
Aim: investigated why people may not help those in need when around others/bystanders
59 female, 13 male placed in one of three conditions
1) alone
2) with 2 confederates
3) with 2 participants
participants converse3d with confederate over phone, who faked a seizure begging for help
time length it took for participants to seek help was recorded
when alone, 70% sought help
when other present, 40% sought help
presence of bystanders reduce the individuals feelings of personal responsibility (diffusion of responsibility) and lowered speed of reporting
Buss et al., 1990
International preferences in mate selection
Aim: investigate cultural differences, mate selection across 6 continents and 5 islands
Quasi-experimental and correlational design w 9474 participants
2 questionnaires
- 1) factors in choosing a mate (sort of relationship they r after)
- 2) factors about preferences for a partner (physical attraction, personality, finance, assets)
chastity highly valued in Asia + middle-eastern countries
home, children + housekeeping invaluable in African cultures, somewhat irrelevant in western cultures
univasally important characteristics - younger purer wives, older financially stable men, clear skin, symmetrical face
