McGaugh and Cahill (1995)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To study the role of emotion in the creation of memories

Question 2

Participants

Answer 2

20 university students (17 male) were divided into two groups

Question 3

Method

Answer 3

• Each group saw 12 slides which were accompanied by a very different story
• Neutral Condition – boring story about a woman and her son who paid a visit to the son’s father in a hospital where they witnessed the staff in a disaster preparation drill of a simulated accident victim
• Arousal Condition - story where the boy was involved in a car accident where his feet were severed. He was quickly brought to the hospital where the surgeons reattached the injured limbs. Then he stayed in the hospitals for some weeks and then went home with is mother
• Two weeks after participating in the experiment the participants were asked to come back and their memory for specific details of the story were tested.
• The test was a recognition task that consisted of a series of questions about the slides with three options for them to choose from
• In the follow-up study the above procedure was repeated, but this time the participants in the “traumatic story” condition were injected with a beta-blocker called propranolol
• Drug which is used to treat heart disease because the beta-blockers block target cells for the hormone so that the heart will pump more slowly and efficiently
• In this study it was used to prevent activation of the amygdala,

Question 4

Results

Answer 4

• Original version: researchers found that the participants who had heard the more emotionally arousing story demonstrated better recall of specific details of the story
• They could also recall more details from the slides
• In the follow-up study they found that those that had received the beta-blocker did no better than the group that had heard the “mundane” story

Question 5

Conclusion

Answer 5

They therefore concluded that the amygdala plays a significant role in the creation of memories linked to emotional arousal

Question 6

Evaluation

Answer 6

• Cause-and-effect relationshipbetween adrenaline and activation of the amygdala to create emotional significance of the story
• Research has beenappliedto the treatment of PTSD patients
• The study is artificial in nature and highly controlled
• Concern aboutecological validity.
• Can beeasily replicatedbecause of its standardized procedure
• As the recognition task only had three options, it is possible that this is not a valid test of memory.
• Significant difference between the total recall of the participants in the different test conditions, so the study demonstratesinternal validity