psychology paper 1 case study flashcards

Question

Loftus and palmer 2 conclusion

Answer 1

This research suggests that questioning techniques easily distorts memory, and information acquired after an event can merge with original memory, causing inaccurate recall or reconstructive memory. The results from experiment two suggest that this effect is not just due to a response bias because leading questions altered the participant’s memory for the event. The addition of false details to a memory of an event is referred to as confabulation. This has important implications for the questions used in police interviews of eyewitnesses. Consequently, Loftus and Palmer support the reconstructive memory hypothesis – arguing that information gathered at the time of an event is modified by data gathered afterward. Over time, information from these two sources is integrated so that it is impossible to separate them—in effect, we have only one memory.

Answer 2

To investigate the effect of post-event discussion on the accuracy of EWT.

Answer 3

60 students from the University of Aberdeen and 60 older adults from the local community. Gabbert et al took 120 participants and they were allocated to conditions in pairs. He then showed each participant a video of a girl putting a book back into a University office. The control group did not discuss. The experimental group discussed after watching the video. However, each person from the pairs in the experimental group could see an aspect of the video that the other partner could not, for example, one person could see the title of the book that the girl was returning whilst the other could see the girl stealing a £10 from a wallet. After watching the video, the participants in the experimental group discussed what they saw in the video with each other Participants in the control and experimental group were asked to come back and complete a questionnaire independently of what they saw

Answer 4

Participants had to learn two lists of paired words. participants had to learn only the first list:

Answer 5

They found that 71% of participants in the experimental group stated they had seen the girl do something which they actually had not seen but just heard from their partner. This figure was 0% for the control group in which there was no post event discussion. They also found that 60% of the participants in the experimental group said that the girl was guilty of stealing the £10 note even though they had not actually seen her carry out the act themselves. They concluded that participants may go along with other people due to memory conformity where a person may go along with the answer of someone else because they think they are wrong and the other person might be right or they want social approval of the other person. This shows that post event discussion can have a negative effect on eyewitness testimony as it can lead to people making judgements that are not entirely true.

Answer 6

Those participants who had 2 lists had lower recall than those who only had one list. Therefore, the findings show that forgetting occurs when information is similar because the words interfere with each other and create confusion.

Answer 7

Aim: To investigate the effect of contextual cues on recall. Sample: 18 participants (13 males and 5 females) from a university diving club;

Answer 8

Repeated measures design (4 conditions). Participants went to all conditions over 4 separate days. Findings: the words learned underwater were better recalled underwater and those learned on land were recalled better on land. Recall was 40% lower in the non-matching condition and this led to retrieval failure.

Answer 9

He went through surgery to recover from epilepsy. However, after the surgery he suffered from anterograde and retrograde amnesia. He was able to remember information before the surgery but he could not form new memories after surgery. This suggests his STM was damaged after the operation and he could not form new memories. This supports the MSM as it shows that LTM and STM are separate stores.

Answer 10

had a viral infection which damaged Clive’s hippocampus. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that plays an important role in consolidating short-term memory into long-term memory. Clive could not remember anything he learnt after 20 seconds. However, his LTM memories acquired before the infection were intact. This supports the MSM as it shows that STM and LTM are two separate stores.

Answer 11

He suffered a motorcycle accident and damaged several areas of his brain. After the accident his short-term memory for digits was very poor when they were read aloud to him. However, when he was able to read the digits himself, his recall was much better. This shows he remembers visual material better than auditory material. This suggests that there are separate stores for visual and auditory information.

Answer 12

Miller (1957) did an earlier study into “the Magic Number 7, plus or minus 2”. He found that STM has a capacity of 7 items (or “bits”) of information comfortably, but struggles to hold more than 9. Miller found that “bits” of information can be grouped together into “chunks”. STM can hold more information in chunks, but loses accuracy (eg recalling a whole face instead of remembering eye colour

Answer 13

recruited 443 college students from North London. He gave them a sequence of words or letters and asked them to recall them immediately in the correct order. Every time they recalled them correctly, he added a new number or letter until they were not able to recall them. He found that the average span was 7.3 letters and 9.3 words which supports Miller’s 7 plus, minus 2 notion.

Answer 14

Peterson and Peterson created the Brown-Peterson technique. They recruited 24 male and female university psychology students. They used trigrams of syllables which were spelt out letter by letter (PDX, YST). Then the participants were given 3 numbers, spelt one by one and were asked to rehearse these numbers backwards to prevent information to move to LTM. Participants were asked to stop recalling the numbers at different time intervals (3s, 6s, 9s, 15s, 18s) They found that at 3s they were able to recall 80% of the trigrams but at 18s they could only recall 10%. They concluded that STM has a duration of approximately 18

Answer 15

Bahrick recruited 392 American university graduates and they were shown photographs from their high school yearbook. They were then given a group of names and asked them to match the name with the photograph. They found that 90% of the participants were able to match the name and the face correctly after 14 years of graduating and 60% after 47 years of graduating. This suggests that LTM has a duration of at least 47 years.

Answer 16

He wanted to find out whether the idea that the Germans were different and more obedient as a race (the view of many historians) was correct. “THE GERMANS ARE DIFFERENT HYPOTHESIS”

Answer 17

Milgram asked a variety of groups, including psychiatrists and students, how many people they thought would obey completely. The maximum number of shocks that could be delivered to the ‘learner’ was 30, starting at 15 volts. Therefore, if someone gave 30 shocks this would equate to 450 volts! 150v is enough to seriously injure a human 250v is enough to kill a human

Answer 18

Psychiatrists predicted that only 2.6% would continue to administer a shock up to 240Volts (a very strong shock)

Answer 19

Participants replied and were told to come to Yale University on Tuesday June 1st at 1pm to Lab 4AA. When they arrived they were greeted by the ‘experimenter’ and Mr Wallace another ‘participant

Answer 20

: The experimenter. Dressed in a white lab coat works for Yale University S: The real participant who is labelled as the ‘teacher’. Volunteer in an experiment on punishment and learning. A: The confederate labelled as the ‘learner’. A person who is really part of the experiment. When PP’s became uncomfortable and refused to continue, the experimenter ‘prodded’ them to continue: - “Please continue” - “The experiment requires you to continue” - “It’s absolutely essential you continue” PP’s would hear the leaner protesting, with increasing urgency as the shocks increased. At 300V the learner would be hitting the wall. After this there was only silence. The experiment ended when either 450V was reached, or the participant walked out. Findings All gave 300v 65% went up to 450 v

Answer 21

Hofling et al 1966 Field experiment (hospital) Nurses were telephoned by Dr Smith who asked them to give a drug to a patient. Nurses should not take orders over the phone and the dosage was double. 95% did as requested. This shows that obedience does take place in real life settings!

Answer 22

Teacher and learner in the same room Obedience dropped from 65% to 40%

Answer 23

Touch proximity condition: teacher had to force the learners hand down onto an electrocuting plate. Obedience dropped to 30%

Answer 24

Remote instruction condition: experimenter leaves the room and gives the teacher instructions via telephone Obedience reduced to 20.5%

Answer 25

The study was moved from the prestigious, Yale University to a run down building. Obedience dropped to 47.5% - still high, but less than the baseline study.

Answer 26

he experimenter in the original study wore a white/grey lab coat which represented authority (science). In the variation, the experimenter is called away suddenly and an ‘ordinary member of the public’ in every day clothes took over. Obedience drops to 20% (the lowest!)

Answer 27

carried out a field study where an experimenter approached passers by on a city street and asked them to carry out small, inconvenient tasks. The experimenter was dressed either in a jacket and tie or a guard’s uniform. Bickman found that PPs were twice as likely to obey the orders when the experimenter was dressed in a uniform.

Answer 28

TV show where Ps were asked to give electric shocks to other members of the audience (confederates). 80% of Ps delivered the max shocks (460 volts) to an apparently unconscious man. Supports Milgram’s findings and conclusions – People will do inhumane things in certain situations.

Answer 29

To investigate whether individuals with an authoritarian personality are more likely to obey. PARTICIPANTS: Measured 2000 middle class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. PROCEDURE: Used the F-SCALE (fascism scale)

Answer 30

Conducted an interview with a small sample of OBEDIENT participants who scored highly on the F Scale. Results would indicate that the obedience was due to their fascist beliefs but this was a CORRELATION. Impossible to draw causal conclusions based on correlational research – therefore cannot conclude that obedience was CAUSED by dispositional factors e.g. an authoritarian personality

Answer 31

found that the Authoritarian Personality is more likely to exist among people who are less well educated and are of low economic social status. This may be the third variable! But these results are inconsistent with the explanation - these people should surely be considered the subordinates and the rebellious, not the “strict and oppressive!” So perhaps personality is NOT needed to explain obedience.

Answer 32

repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants were internals or externals. He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level (i.e. they showed some resistance), whereas only 23% of externals did not continue.

Answer 33

analysed data from American locus of control studies conducted over a a 40-year period (from 1960 to 2002). The data showed that, over this time span, people became more resistant to obedience but also more external

Answer 34

evaluated eight week programme to help pregnant adolescents aged between 14-19 resist peer pressure to smoke. Adolescents who had a ‘buddy’ were significantly less likely to smoke than a control group of participants who did not have a ‘budd

Answer 35

participants asked to produce a smear campaign for an oil company. They found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram did. They argued that this was due to the fact that participants were in groups.

Answer 36

Group 1 – six people asked to view a set of 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity and then state whether the slides were blue or green. There were two confederates who consistently said the slides were green. The true participants gave the same wrong answer (green) on 8.42% of the trials. Group 2 – exposed to an inconsistent minority (the confederates said ‘green’ 24 times and ‘blue’ 12 times). In this case, agreement with the answer ‘green’ fell to 1.25%. Group 3 – No confederates – all participants had to do was identify the colour of each slide. They got this wrong on just 0.25% of the trials.

Answer 37

Nolan et al found a significant decrease in energy consumption in group 1 which shows that NSI can influence social change

Answer 38

also found that when a hotel advertised the following message, the guests were much more likely to reuse their bath towels: “Nearly 75% of our guests chose to reuse their towels everyday. To support our guests who want to conserve, we have initiated a conservation program”.

Answer 39

Infants were aged between 12 and 18 months. The sample comprised of 100 middle-class American families.

Answer 40

978) filmed 4-month-old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than the secondary caregiver fathers. This behaviour appears to be important in building an attachment with the infant. It seems that fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure. The key to the attachment relationship is the level of the responsiveness not the gender of the parent.

Answer 41

2002) carried out a longitudinal study looking at both the parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of the children’s attachment into their teens. Quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to children’s attachment in adolescents suggesting that father attachment was less important. However, the quality of the fathers’ play with infants have a different role in attachment one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with nurturing.

Answer 42

found that a fathers’ play interactions were more exciting in comparison to a mothers’. However, the mothers’ play interactions were more affectionate and nurturing.

Answer 43

found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mothers’ first primary attachment (around 7 months) and within a few weeks or months formed secondary attachments to other family members including the father. In 75% of the infants studied an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months. This was determined by the fact that the infants protested when their fathers walked away a sign of attachment

Answer 44

(1999) found that fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress, in comparison to mothers. E: These results appear to support the biological explanation that the lack of oestrogen in men means that fathers are not equipped innately to form close attachments with their children

Answer 45

found that males who reported higher levels of marital intimacy also displayed a secure father–infant attachment, whereas males with lower levels of marital intimacy displayed insecure father–infant attachments.

Answer 46

ir sample consisted of 60 babies (31 male, 29 female) from working class families in Glasgow aged between 5–23 weeks at the start of the investigation. The researchers visited the babies in their homes, every month for the first 12 months and then once again at 18 months. The researchers interviewed the mothers and observed the children in relation to separation and stranger anxiety in a range of everyday activities.

Answer 47

The results provided some support for the different stages of developing an attachment. At around 25–32 weeks, 50% of the children showed separation anxiety towards their mothers, expected of the discriminate attachment stage. Furthermore, by 40 weeks, 80% of the chi

Answer 48

The results provide some support for Schaffer’s stages of attachment and suggest that attachment develops through a series of stages across the first year of life.

Answer 49

Koluchova (1972) reported the case of two identical twin boys in Czechoslovakia whose mother died, causing them to go into care as babies. Their father remarried when they were 18 months old, and they returned home. From that age they were cruelly treated by their stepmother until they were found and removed by the authorities in 1967 at about seven years of age. They had grown up in a small, unheated closet and had often been harshly beaten. After their rescue they spent time in a children’s home and in a school for the ‘mentally retarded’ before being fostered in 1969.

Answer 50

At first, they were terrified of many aspects of their new environment and communicated largely by gestures; they had very little spontaneous speech. They made steady progress, both socially and intellectually. A follow-up report in 1976 found that, at fourteen, the twins showed no psychopathological symptoms or unusual behaviour. Later Koluchova reported that by twenty they had completed quite a demanding apprenticeship (in the maintenance of office machinery), were of above average intelligence, still had very good relationships with their foster mother, her relatives and their adoptive sisters and had developed healthy heterosexual relationships with both recently experiencing their first romantic relationships

Answer 51

Curtiss (1977) reported the case study of Genie. Her father assumed Genie was mentally retarded and insisted that she spent all of her childhood locked in a room at her home in Los Angeles under conditions of extreme restraint. Genie was kept harnessed on an infant’s potty during the day and at night she was confined in a homemade sleeping bag, fashioned like a straight-jacket, and lay in an infant’s crib covered with wire mesh. She received minimal care from her mother, was fed only infant food and was punished by her father if she made any sound.

Answer 52

She was found at the age of 13 but appeared 6 or 7 years old. Genie could not stand upright and had no social skills. She did not understand language and could not speak. Genie was given a considerable amount of education and assistance in the years after she was found. She developed a fairly large vocabulary but generally spoke in short, ungrammatical sentences, and did not understand grammatically complex sentences. Her social skills remained limited and she seemed uninterested in people - she didn’t reject them but treated them as inanimate objects.

Answer 53

to investigate the effects or privation on children who were privated of care. Sample- 165 children who had spent their early years in a Romanian orphanage. 111 were adopted before 2 years of age and the others were adopted by 4. They were compared to a control group of 52 British children adopted from British orphanages.

Answer 54

– longitudinal study, of naturally occurring phenomenon. Rutter et al (2007) followed a group of Romanian children who had been adopted by British families, some before the age of 6 months and some older than 6 months. He also included a control group of British children who had been adopted. Children were divided into groups adopted either before 6 months, 24 or 48 months. The children were assessed at the ages of 4, 6 and 11 years

Answer 55

children adopted younger than 6 months developed normally in line with British adopted children, but those adopted older than 6 months showed disinhibited attachments (forming an attachment with any adult rather than maintaining a strong bond with one primary caregiver) and had problems forming peer relationships. This suggests that the effects of privation can be overcome if an attachment is formed within the first 6 months, but after 6 months the negative effects tend to be more permanent. In terms of cognitive ability children adapted before 6 months had no cognitive delay, at 24 months they were 15 IQ points behind and if adopted after 48 months the children were suffering from "mental retardation" and were 25 IQ points behind.

Answer 56

To investigate attachment type of children who had spent most of their life in institutional care.

Answer 57

100 children aged between 12 months and 31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutions were compared with a group who had never been in institutions.

Answer 58

Zeenah et al͘ found that almost three quarters (74%) of the control group were classified as being securely attached to their caregivers.

Answer 59

found that securely attached infants are more inclined to have good quality peer relationships during childhood whilst infants with insecure attachment types are likely to have difficulties with making or maintaining friendships.

Answer 60

(2005) conducted the Minnesota child–parent study and found that infants who were rated high in social competence during childhood were more empathetic, popular and felt less isolated.

Answer 61

questionnaire, termed the ‘Love Quiz’, was designed to test the internal working model to assess if attachment type formed in childhood, influences friendships and adult relationships.

Answer 62

The ‘Love Quiz’, comprising three sections, was published in a local American newspaper and received 620 volunteer responses (20 males and 415 females). The first section was designed to assess the individuals’ most important relationship. (What relationship they had with their primary caregiver) The second section focused on ascertaining general experiences in love The third part asked self‐selecting participants about their feelings in relation to some statements.

Answer 63

It was found that 56% respondents were classified as securely attached 25% with an insecure–avoidant attachment type 19% as being insecure–resistant.

Answer 64

(2007) looked at the attachment type of nearly 100 mothers and their infants (assessed in the strange situation) with the relationships they had with their own mothers (established in an interview). It was found that a vast proportion of the women had the same attachment type to their infant as to their own mother, supporting the concept of the internal working model influencing parenting style.

Answer 65

Average findings were consistent with Ainsworth’s original research - Secure 65% - Avoidant 22% - Resistant 12% Intra-cultural variation was nearly 15 times greater than the cross-cultural variations. Van Ijzendoorn speculated that this was linked to differences in socio-economic factors and levels of stress that varied between samples used within each country. 6/8 countries produced findings that were proportionally consistent with Ainsworth & Bell (70).

Answer 66

replicated the Strange Situation with 60 middle class Japanese infants & mothers using the same standardised procedure and behavioural categories. Takahashi’s observation revealed distinct cultural differences in how the infants responded to the 8 stages of the procedure. The findings were as follows: 0% insecure-avoidant. 32% insecure-resistant 68% secure

Answer 67

studied attachment in communal living area – Isareli Kibutz. Day care in community. Sleeping dormitories – not necessarily with families Highest level of type C insecure resistant attachment 33% Mother regularly absent – caregivers going on differing shifts. Later compared those who sleep with parents and found that attachment patterns are consistent with those in USA

Answer 68

Germany with 26 boys and 23 girls. It was a longitudinal study from birth. They found that 49% showed a type A avoidant attachment.

Answer 69

aim: To examine interactional synchrony in infants. They wanted to find out if these interactions were innate.

Answer 70

Using a controlled observation, an adult model displayed one of three facial expressions, or a hand gesture. To start with, the child had a dummy placed in his/her mouth to prevent a facial response. Following the display from the adult model, the dummy was removed and the child’s expressions were filmed

Answer 71

There was a clear association between the infants’ behaviour and that of the adult model

Answer 72

These findings suggest that interactional synchrony is innate and reduces the strength of any claim that imitative behaviour is learned

Answer 73

to investigate the mechanisms of imprinting, where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet. This process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.

Answer 74

Eggs went to two conditions: 1. With the mother and hatched with the mother. 2. In an incubator and they hatched with Lorenz

Answer 75

Goslings were hatched with their mother.

Answer 76

Goslings were hatched with Lorenz in an incubator.

Answer 77

Lorenz conducted an experiment in which goslings were hatched either with their mother or in an incubator. Once goslings had hatched, they proceeded to follow the first moving object that they saw between 13 & 16 hours after hatching. It supports the view that having a biological basis for an attachment is adaptive as it promotes survival. This would explain why goslings imprint after a matter of minutes due to their increased mobility; human babies are born immobile and therefore there is less call for them to form an attachment straight away, and so, this develops later (8-9 months).

Answer 78

harlow wanted to find out if monkeys attach to mothers becayse they feed them or becasye they provide a safe environment

Answer 79

The amount of time the baby monkey spent with each mother was recorded, alongside how long they spent feeding at each one. To test for mother preference during periods of stress, the monkeys were startled with a loud noise and their responses were recorded.

Answer 80

Harlow found that when given a choice of surrogate mother, the baby monkeys preferred to make contact with the cloth mother, irrespective of whether she dispensed milk or not. It was observed that they would even stretch across to the wire mother to get food whilst still clinging onto the cloth mother for contact and comfort.