Psych CATB outcomes essay test Flashcards
What is the aim of loftus’s study?
To investigate the effect of leading questions on memory recall
What is the procedure of loftus’s study?
45 American university students, similar age, similar backgrounds
1. Showed participants a film of an accident
2. Chaged one word in certain critical questions to see if it influenced speed estimates
3. Asked: About how fast were the cars going when the XXX each other?
4. Tested again. Did the memory change when retrived? Asked if they saw broken glass in the film.
What are the result of loftus’s study?
The use of different words activated different schemas in memory.
Smashed: mean estimate of 40.8 mph
Contacted: mean estimate of 31.8 mph
2nd Test: Response yes: 16-smashed, hit-7, control-6
Response no: 34-smashed, hit-43, control-44
Conclusions:
Different words have an effect on the estimation of speed as well as the perception of consequences.
“Smashed” provides the participants with verbal
information that activates schemas for a severe
accident
Loftus argues that it is possible to create a false
memory using post-event information
What is the aim of the flashbulb memory study?
To investigate accuracy and clarity of flashbulb memories related to ww2.
Flashbulb memories are
What is the procedure of the flashbulb memory study- burttson and thomson?
- 145 older danes with a control group of 65
- Filled out a questionnaire which asked about the news of the danish occupation and liberation during ww2
- Then asked to describe personal context
What are th results of the flashbulb memory study?
- 97% reported wivid memories of the event
- Older danes remembered context beter
- Resistance members had more memory
What is the aim of the Sharot et al study?
To determine the role of biological factors on flashbulb memories
What is the procedure of the Sharot et al study?
Case study
24 people who were in New York during the 9/11 attacks
- Conducted three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Manhattan
-Put in an fMRI machine and were presented with word cues on the screen alongside the word summer or September in order to get the participant to link the words to either the summer holidays or the 9/11 attack.
- Brains were scanned and recorded while they were recalling events.
- The memories of personal events from the summer were used as a baseline of brain activity for evaluating the nature of the 9/11 attacks.
- Asked to rate their memories for vividness, detail, confidence in accuracy and arousal. They were also asked to write down their personal memories.
What are the results of the Sharot et al study?
Depending on the connection to the event they found that close personal experiences may be critical in memories.
What is the aim of the Barlett and the effects of schema on recall study?
How the memory of a story is affected by
previous knowledge.
▪ He wanted to see if cultural background and
unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion of memory when the story was recalled.
▪ Bartlett’s hypothesis was that memory is
reconstructive and that people store and retrieve information according to expectations formed by cultural schemas.
What is the procedure of the Barlett and the effects of schema on recall study?
Participants were told a
story and then were told to reproduce it after a short time and then to do so again repeatedly over a period of days, weeks, months or years.
▪ Bartlett told participants a Native American legend called The War of the Ghosts.
▪ The participants in the study were British.
▪ The story was therefore ideal to study how memory was reconstructed based on schema processing.
What are the results of the Barlett and the effects of schema on recall study?
Bartlett found that participants changed the
story as they tried to remember it - a process called distortion.
The participants overall remembered the main themes in the story but changed the unfamiliar elements to match their own cultural expectations so that the story remained a coherent whole although changed.
What is the aim of the Newcomer study?
To investigate whether high levels of cortisol interfere with verbal declarative memory.
What is the procedure of the Newcomer study?
Double blind. Lab experiment. The participants were matched for age and gender to one of three conditions. 18 - 30 year olds.
Participants were matched for age and gender to on of three conditions.
Condition 1 - high level of cortisol: the participants were given a tablet containing 160 mg of cortisol on each day of the four day experiment - similar to cortisol levels in people experiencing a major stress event.
Condition 2 - love level of cortisol: the participants were given a tablet containing 40 mg of cortisol per day - similar to cortisol levels in people experiencing a low level stressor.
Condition 3 - placebo group. The participants in this condition were given placebo tablets - that is, a tablet that looked like the other tablets but with no active ingredient. All participants were asked to listen to and recall parts of a prose paragraph. This tested their verbal declarative memory over a period of four days.
What are the results of the Newcomer study?
The high-level group performed worse on the verbal declarative memory test than the low-level group. They performed below placebo levels after day 1. The low-level group (mild stress) showed no overall memory decrease.
