Research in cognitive Flashcards
The cognitive approach
uses different research methods because each one has its own strengths and limitations. Research methods are ways of conducting a study and collecting data.
Experiments
Experiments have the goal to determine whether a cause-and-effect relationship exists between two variables.The experiment is an example of quantitative research, which generates numerical data. These data can be statistically tested for significance in order to rule out the role of chance in the results.
Advantage of experiments
The advantages of an experiment are that as independent variable is manipulated and its effect on a dependent variable is measured while other variables are controlled, a cause and effect relationship can be determined. In addition, because they are highly standardised, they may be replicated. This allows other psychologists to “redo” the experiment to attempt to get the same results.This means the reliability of the results can be tested. The data in an experiment is usually quantitative and can be statistically analysed for significance. Finally, participants are randomly allocated to groups to avoid characteristics of the individuals influencing the results.
Loftus & Palmer (1974) aim
wanted to test if a person’s memory could be influenced by a leading question.
Procedure of Loftus & Palmer (1974)
Participants watched videos car crashes and then were given a questionnaire.
The questionnaire contained a critical question which was “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
The word hit was replaced with other critical words such as ‘smashed’ and ‘collided’.
These words were therefore the independent variable.
The researchers expected from the participants an estimated car speed which would be expected to be influenced by the independent variable, therefore the participants’ estimations were the dependent variable.
Results of Loftus & Palmer (1974)
Participants watched videos car crashes and then were given a questionnaire.
The questionnaire contained a critical question which was “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
The word hit was replaced with other critical words such as ‘smashed’ and ‘collided’.
These words were therefore the independent variable.
The researchers expected from the participants an estimated car speed which would be expected to be influenced by the independent variable, therefore the participants’ estimations were the dependent variable.
limitations of experiments
Experiments have limitations however, in this experiment the situation is rather artificial when we see an accident, there is powerful emotion which is not true when watching a video in a classroom.This means that the study lacks ecological validity.
In addition, the experiment is vulnerable to demand characteristics as people in an experiment are naturally curious, and will often try to guess what the experiment is really about.
They may pay attention to subtle cues from the researcher, including tone of voice and body language, in trying to figure out the true aim of the experiment.
If participants know what the researcher is expecting to see, this could cause them to behave unnaturally.
Participants may try to please the researcher by going along with the expected results, or they may even rebel and do the opposite of what is expected of them which is known as the screw you effect.
To reduce demand characteristics, the researcher may keep the full details of the research hypothesis secret, or may even mislead participants about what the study is really about.
However, withholding information to participants raises ethical issues as it can lead to deception and therefore might not comply with the ethical rules.
researcher bias
There is also the issue of researcher bias as getting certain results from the experiment can be very important for the careers and reputations of the researcher.
They may design the experiment to get the results they are hoping for, or hints to participants to encourage certain behaviour and ignoring results that do not support their theory.
Making sure that research is carried out without any bias is a challenge for any study.
One way to overcome researcher bias is by using a double blind experiment where neither the researchers or the participants are aware of the conditions that they are in.
This can prevent researcher bias but also demand characteristics as both parties are not aware.
This can help to make the experiment more reliable.
questionnaires
A questionnaire is any written set of questions. The goal of the questions is to collective qualitative data with regard to a person’s opinions and attitudes.
Advantage of questionnaires
The reason for the use of questionnaires is because it can generate a lot of data which can be useful to make a valid and generalisable conclusion on the topic.
As it uses qualitative data instead of quantitative, it can also lead to very varied answers which can help present varied opinions in the participants which is useful to find more specific details.
In addition, questionnaires can reduce demand characteristics and the effect of leading questions as compared to surveys which is the other qualitative research method, it does not give the participants choices and for them to choose the best answer but instead leaves the question open.
Brown and Kulik
They were also asked to recall memories of an emotionally intensepersonal event, such asthe unexpected death of a family member in a questionnaire. The results were that nearly all participants had very vivid memories of JFK’s assassination, including where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news. African-Americans also had vivid memories of the assassination of key civil rights leaders, such as Martin Luther King Jr, who were important figures in the fight for racial equality. Most participants also had at least one exceptionally vivid memory of an emotionally intense personal event, the most common being the death of a parent. This study therefore supports that flashbulb memory theory which helped to attract the attention of other psychologists.
Advantage of questionnaires
The advantage of using the questionnaire in this study is that helped the researchers to be able to keep the exact information that that participants gave during the experiment to be able to analyse it further in the future. In addition, it helps the researchers to easily standardise the study and prevents any researcher bias as the participants are only given questions which are not given by the researcher. This therefore helps to make the results more valid.
Social desirability questionnaires
However, a key issue with questionnaires is that participants might present social desirability bias which this study is vulnerable to as participants can easily change their responses to present themselves to the researchers as positive affecting the reliability of the results. Another key issue with the use of using questionnaires in this study is that the researchers are not given a clear definitive answer to what they were researching. They were researching whether the information was vivid and detailed. This therefore means that the researchers had to interpret it from the text as they were not told and leads to the results once again not being strongly valid as it is based on the researcher’s perception. This is where researcher bias can play a role in.
Standardised
Therefore, questionnaires are standardised in that all participants get the same list of questions.Questionnaires, unlike experiments, get mainly qualitative data and analysis looks for trends in the data, but not statistical significance. And unlike experiments, they are naturalistic. The situation is not artificial and so the studies have higher ecological validity. Unlike experiments, there are no controls however of other variables that may influence the results of the study and therefore may lead to confounding variables.
Cause and effect relationship
Unlike experiments, questionnaires cannot be used to establish a cause and effect relationship. Although they can be given to other participants to see if there is a similar result, because the data is often not quantitative and able to be statistically analysed, it is not always possible to establish the reliability of the findings. Questionnaires on flashbulb memory also rely on retrospective data, which means it is difficult to establish the validity and reliability of the data.
