Psychology Experiments and People

Question 1

Who tested the capacity of short term memory?

Answer 1

Jacobs (1887) - digit span experiment

Question 2

What was the procedure of Jacobs digit span experiment?

Answer 2

Participants were presented with increasingly longer lists of numbers or letter which they had to recall in the right order (lab experiment)

Question 3

What were the findings of Jacobs digit span experiment?

Answer 3

The average span for digits was 9.3 items
The average span for letters was 7.3 items

-stm capacity is 7+-2

Question 4

Who tested capacity of sensory memory?

Answer 4

Sperling (1960) - sperlings sensory memory test

Question 5

What was the procedure of Sperlings sensory memory test?

Answer 5

A 12 letter grid will flash onto the screen. (3 x 4 grid for a second).
•whole report procedure - participant asked to do free recall.
•partial report procedure - a tone would be heard (high, medium, low) each time corresponded to a line so participants asked to recall the letters on the row corresponding to the tone.

Question 6

What were the results of the sperling sensory memory test?

Answer 6

• free recall- 4/5 letters recalled on average.

* partial report procedure- 3 out of 4 when recalling the row.

Question 7

Who tested the duration of short term memory?

Answer 7

Peterson and Peterson (1959) - trigram experiment

Question 8

What was the procedure of the Peterson and Peterson trigram experiment?

Answer 8

• researcher asked to recall out a trigram - 3 letters and 3 numbers.
• participants asked to recall after a delay increasing by 3 seconds each time.
• during the delay, participant were asked to count backwards in 3’s from the 3 digit number they were given.
• then they were asked to recall the trigram.

Question 9

What were the findings of the Peterson and Peterson trigram experiment?

Answer 9

Participants on average, were 90% correct over 3 seconds, 20% correct after 9 seconds and only 2% correct after 18 seconds.

Question 10

Who tested the duration of long term memory?

Answer 10

Bahrick at al (1975) - yearbook photos.

Question 11

What was the procedure of bahrick’s yearbook photos experiment?

Answer 11

• ex high school students ages from 17-74 (400 people).
• a photo recognition test consisted of 50 photos, some from the participants yearbook.
• another way was to do a free recall test, they were asked to list the names they could remember of those in their graduating class.

Question 12

What are the findings of Bahrick’s yearbook photo experiment?

Answer 12

• within 15 years of graduation, 90% accurate in identifying faces.
• (photo recognition) after 48 years, 70% accurate for photo recognition.
• (free recall) after 15 years, 60% accurate. After 48 years, 30% accurate.

Question 13

What is the Capacity of long term memory?

Answer 13

There are no known limits to how much info long term memory can store

Question 14

Who tested the encoding of long term memory?

Answer 14

Baddeley (1966) - words lists experiment

Question 15

What was the procedure of baddeley’s short and long term word lists experiment?

Answer 15

•He used semantically similar words (meaning) and acoustically similar words (sounding) to test the effects on long term memory and short term memory.

Question 16

What were the findings of baddely’s short/long term memory words lists experiment?

Answer 16

• participants had difficulty remembering acoustically similar words in STM but not LTM
• semantically similar words posed little problem in STM but led to muddled LTM
• this suggests that LTM is largely encoded semantically
• this suggests that STM is largely encoded semantically

Question 17

Who studied variables affecting conformity?

Answer 17

Asch (1956)

Question 18

What was the procedure of asch’s study on variables affecting conformity?

Answer 18

• participants were seated around a table to look at three lines of different lengths
• took turns to call out which of the lines was the same length as the ‘standard’ line
• confederates on 12/18 trials said the wrong answer

Question 19

What were the findings of asch’s study on variables affecting conformity?

Answer 19

• 12 critical trials > average conformity rate was 33%
• 1/4 of participants never conformed
• controlled group were only wrong 1% of time

Question 20

Who tested conformity to social roles?

Answer 20

Haney, Banks, Zimbardo (1973)

Question 21

What was the procedure of the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 21

• mock prison set up in the basement of Stanford uni
• 24 of most stable volunteers were randomally assigned to either prisoner or guard
• prisoners arrested unknowingly
• given uniforms

Question 22

What were the findings of the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 22

• over first few days, guards became increasingly tyrannical and abuse toward prisoners
• 5 prisoners had to e realeased early
• study terminated after 6 days (2 week plan)

Question 23

What was the conclusion of the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 23

Situational hypothesis (environmental factors within the prison would affect behaviour) was favoured

Question 24

Who supported the working memory model?

Answer 24

Baddeley and Hitch (1976) - dual task performance

Question 25

What are the strengths of the working memory model? (Dual task performance)

Answer 25

Out of two tasks: 1=central executive
2=articulatory loop
1 was slower than 2 but shows the components of working memory

Question 26

Who tested interference theory?

Answer 26

Baddeley and Hitch (1977) - rugby players

Question 27

What was the rugby players experiment on interference theory?

Answer 27

• get rugby players to recall the names of the teams they had played over a rugby season
• players who played the most games forgot proportionally more

Question 28

Who tested retrieval failure?

Answer 28

Tulving and pearlstone (1966) - encoding specificity principle

Question 29

What was the procedure of the encoding specificity principle?

Answer 29

Participants had to learn 48 words belonging to 12 catergories
-either did free recall or cued recall

Question 30

What were the findings of the encoding specificity principle?

Answer 30

In free recall 40% of words recalled on average

In chef recall 60% of words recalled on average

Question 31

Who tested misleading information on eye witness testimony?

Answer 31

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - leading questions

Question 32

What was the procedure of experiment 1 on leading questions?

Answer 32

45 students shown seven films of different traffic accidents
Asked a critical question but the verbs were changed

Question 33

What were the findings of experiment 1 on leading questions?

Answer 33

Smashed-40.8
Collided-39.3
Bumped-38.1
Hit-34.0
Contacted-31.8
 (Mph guessed)