Section 1 Cognitive Approach Flashcards
What is cognitive psychology?
It is about how we think.
Cognitive psychologists try to explain behaviour by looking at our perception, language, attention and memory.
Computer models are often used to explain how we think
What are the limitations of cognitive psychology?
- Research is often carried out in artificial situations so lacks ecological validity
- The role of emotion and influence from other people is often ignored so results may not be valid
- It fails to take individual differences into account and assumes we all process things in the same way.
What are the four main research methods used in cognitive psychology?
- Laboratory experiments
- Field experiments
- Natural experiments
- Brain imaging
What is the term used to describe the measure of how much the result of an experiment reflects what would happen in a natural setting?
Ecological validity
What are the benefits and drawbacks of laboratory experiments?
Benefits
Scientific and reliable with control over variables
Drawbacks
Low ecological validity
What are the benefits and drawbacks of field experiments?
Benefit
Take place in a natural setting so have more ecological validity
Drawback
Less. Control over variables
What are the benefits and drawbacks of natural experiments
Benefits
High ecological validity
Drawbacks
Not very reliable as there can be little control over variables and participants cannot be randomly assigned to conditions
What are field experiments
Field experiments are experiments which take place in a natural setting
What are natural experiments?
Natural experiments involve making observations of a naturally occurring situation
Give an example of brain imaging
Brain imaging is carried out during cognitive task. For example MRI scans showing blood flow to different brain areas whilst performing different types of memory tasks
Name a case study on patient behaviour that informed a cognitive behaviour theory
Milner et al (1957)
Case study of HM
HM was a a patient with severe epilepsy that had an operation to remove some of the brain area around the hippocampus
The operation reduced his epilepsy but led to him suffering memory loss
For example
He could still talk (procedural memory)
But
His episodic memory was affected
His semantic memory was affected
SEE YOUTUBE “PATIENT HM” by markmcdermott
What is episodic memory?
Episodic memory is memory of episodes personal to your life such as your first kiss
What is procedural memory
Procedural memory is memory of how to do things such as walking, talking
What is semantic memory?
Semantic memory is memory that has been assimilated with meaning, such as words
What are the benefits and drawbacks of using case studies to construct theories of cognitive behaviour?
Brain damaged patients are often studied and the damaged part of the brain linked to observed differences in behaviour
The drawbacks are
1. It’s hard to make generalisations to non-brain damaged individuals
2. Individual differences between people can not be taken into account
Apart from experiments and brain imaging, what two other things inform cognitive behaviour theories
Cognitive psychologists use
- Case studies
- Animal studies
Name an animal study that informed cognitive psychology
Gardner and Gardner (1969) - teaching ASL to a chimp
method - A chimp was raised as a child and taught American Sign Language
Results - the chimp learnt ASL
Conclusion - the development of language in the chimp followed the same pattern as a child and at a similar rate as a child of the same age. But she did not learn grammar. Interaction with caregivers was deemed important.
Evaluation -
ethical considerations - chimp taken from natural setting
External validity - not possible to accurately generalise results from a chimp to children
SEE YOUTUBE “WASHOE AGE 4” by J. Patrick Malone
What is memory?
Memory is a process in which information is retained about the past
What are the three types of memory store?
Sensory memory
Short-term memory
Long-term memory
What are the attributes of short term memory?
Limited duration
Limited capacity
Spontaneous decay
What are the attributes of long term memory?
Unlimited capacity
Theoretically permanent
Name a research that has been done into the nature of STM
Peterson and Peterson (1959) - duration of STM
Participants shown nonsense trigrams (3 random consonants e.g CVM) and asked to recall them after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 seconds
Dring the pause they were asked to count backwards in threes - this was an interference task
Results - after 3 seconds they could recall about 80% correctly. After 18 seconds only 10%
Conclusion - when rehearsal is prevented, very little can stay in STM for longer than 18 seconds
Evaluation - results reliable (lab)
Lacks ecological validity ( nonsense trigrams)
Only one type of stimulus used
So many trigrams may have led to confusion
Name a research that has been done into the nature of LTM
Bahrick et al (1975) - study into VLTM (very long term memories)
Method -
nearly 400 people asked to name old classmates (free recall)
Then shown photos and asked to name (photo recognition test) or given names and asked to match to photos (name recognition test)
Results - within 15 years of leaving school 90% recognition of names and faces (60% accurate free recall)
After 30 years down to 30% free recall
After 48 years name recognition about 80% accurate and photo recognition 40%
Conclusion - recognition is better than recall. Huge amount of information stored but access is not always easy - you may need help getting to it!
Evaluation - field experiment so high ecological validity
Variables present were hard to control e.g. Information being recalled was meaningful; information could have been rehearsed (may have been in contact or talked about since school) SO results can not be generalised to other types of information held in LTM
Name the study that compared capacity in STM and LTM
Jacobs (1887)
Method - participants presented with a string of letters or digits then asked them to repeat back in same order - number increased until participants failed
Results - mostly recalled 9 digits and about 7 letters - capacity increased with age during childhood
Conclusion - STM has a limited capacity of 5 - 9 items. Individual differences found such as increasing capacity in older children and chunking techniques. More digits remembered due to 10 different numbers and 26 different letters
Evaluation - research artificial and so lacks ecological validity
More meaningful information might be recalled better and so STM might show greater capacity
Describe Miller (1956) magic number
Miller (1956) reviewed all research into STM capacity and concluded that the capacity of STM is “seven plus or minus two)
He suggested that we use ‘chunking’ to combine individual letters or numbers
So 2,0,0,3,1,9,8,7 is about all the STM can hold but chunk it to 2003 and 1987 and you can increase STM capacity
What is encoding?
Encoding is about the way that information is stored in memory
Name three ways that we can encode information
Visual, acoustic (sounds) or semantic (meanings)
How does STM encoding differ from LTM encoding?
In STM we try to keep information by repeating it - acoustic coding
In LTM encoding is usually semantic (coded for meaning) though acoustic and visual is also used
Name an investigation that looked at encoding in STM and LTM
Baddeley (1966)
Method - participants given 4 sets of words that were either acoustically similar, acoustically dissimilar, semantically similar or semantically dissimilar. they used an independent groups design - participants asked to recall words either immediately or after 20 minute task
Results - participants had trouble recalling acoustically similar words when recalling the list immediately (from STM)
Recalling after an interval (from LTM) they had trouble recalling semantically similar words
Conclusion - the patterns of confusion between similar words suggests that LTM is more likely to rely on semantic encoding and STM on acoustic encoding
Evaluation -
1. lacks ecological validity
2. Also there are also other types of LTM (e.g. Episodic memory, procedural memory) and other methods of encoding (e.g. visual) that are not considered in this experiment
3. Independent groups design so no control over participant variables
4 Shulman (1970) found that semantic encoding as well as acoustic encoding took place in STM
Who created the multi-store model of memory
Atkinson and Schiffrin (1968)
How many stores are there in the multi-store model of memory?
3 stores
- Sensory store
- Short-term store
- Long-term store
Name three studies that support the multi-store model of memory
- The Primacy Effect - research shows that participants are able to recall the first few items of a list better than those in the middle.
- The Recency Effect - participants also tend to remember the last few items better than those from the middle of the list.
- People with Korsakoff’s Syndrome (amnesia mostly caused by chronic alcoholism) provide support for the model.
Explain the Primacy Effect by the multi-store model
The multi-store model explains the Primacy Effect by saying that earlier items in the list will have been rehearsed better and transferred to LTM. If rehearsal is prevented by an interference task, the effect disappears, as the model predicts.
Explain The Recency effect in the light of the multi-store model of memory
Earlier items are rehearsed, so transfer to LTM, whilst later items are recalled because they are still in STM
People with Korsakoff’s Syndrome provide support for the multi-store model of memory. How?
They can recall the LAST items in the list (unimpaired Recency effect), suggesting an unaffected STM. However their LTM is very poor. This supports the theory that STM and LTM are separate stores
What are the limitations of the multi-store model of memory?
- In the model information is transferred from STM to LTM through rehearsal. but people don’t always rehearse and still information is transferred. And some things cannot be rehearsed e.g. Smells
- The model is oversimplified. It assumes there is only one long term store and one short term store. This has been disproved by evidence from brain damaged patients, suggesting several different short term stores, and other evidence suggesting different long term stores.
Who developed the Working Memory Model?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
SEE YOUTUBE “ALAN BADDELEY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORKING MEMORY MODEL” by gocognitive
Describe the Working Memory Model
This is a multi-store model of STM called the Working Memory Model.
The STM is made up of different stores. The Central Executive is the key component and can be described as attention. It has a limited capacity and controls two slave systems that also have limited capacity;
1. The articulatory-phonological loop which holds speech based information. It contains a phonological store (the inner ear) and an articulatory process (the inner voice)
2. The visual-spatial sketch pad deals with the temporary storage of visual and spatial information
Name three interference tasks that informed baddeley and Hitch (1974) model of Working Memory
If participants are asked to do two tasks simultaneously, their performance will be affected e.g. Saying “the the the” while silently reading something
According to the working memory model, both these tasks use the articulatory-phonological loop
However if the two tasks involve different systems, performance isn’t affected on either task ( e.g. Saying ‘the the the’ while tracking a moving object)
What is the case study that supports the Working Memory Model?
Shallice and Warrington (1974) found support for the Working Memory Model through their case study of KF
KF was a brain damaged patient who had impaired STM. His problem was with immediate recall of words presented verbally but not with visual information. This suggested he had an impaired articulatory loop, therefore providing evidence for the working memory model’s view of STM
What is a weakness of the Working Memory Model?
Many psychologists have criticised the model saying that Baddeley and Hit h’s idea of a central executive is simplistic and vague. Their model does not explain exactly what the central executive is, apart from being involved in attention
What is Eyewitness Testimony?
EWT is the evidence provided by people who witnessed a particular event or crime. It relies on recall from memory.
What are the problems with EWT?
Witnesses are often inaccurate in recollection. Many cognitive psychologists focus on working out what factors affect the accuracy of EWT and how accuracy can be improved
Name two investigations which looked at leading questions
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
Loftus and Zanni (1975)
Describe Loftus and Palmer ‘s (1974) study of EWT
Experiment 1
People shown film of car crash and asked ‘how fast do you think the cars were going when they HIT’ replacing ‘hit’ with’smashed’ ‘bumped’ etc
Results - people given word ‘smashed’ estimated highest speed
Experiment 2
Method - participants split into three groups. O e group was given the verb ‘smashed’ - another ‘hit’ - the last no verb
A week later the participants were asked ‘did you see any broken glass?’ Although there wa no broken glass in the film, those in the ‘smashed’ group were more likely to answer yes
Conclusion - leading questions can affect the accuracy of EWT
Evaluation - artificial experiment; film of car crash not same as watching a car.crash. In fact a later experiment showed that people who actually thought they were observing a robbery were more likely to give an accurate description.
The experimental design might have led to demand characteristics and this would reduce the reliability and validity of the experiment
SEE YOUTUBE “ELIZABETH LOFTUS -EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY” by ClassroonVideo
What are Demand characteristics?
Participants may respond according to what they think is being investigated which can bias the resul
Describe the experiment by Loftus and Zanni (1975)
Loftus and Zanni(1975) showed participants a film of a car accident, then asked them "Did you see THE broken headlight?" "Did you see A broken headlight?" 7% answered yes to "A" 17% answered yes to "THE"
Simple use of one word can affect accuracy of recall
What factors affect EWT
Factors include;
Leading questions
Age of the witness
Anxiety levels
Describe an experiment that studied the affects of age on EWT
Valentine and Coxon (1997)
Method - three groups watched a video on kidnapping. They were asked a series of leading and non-leading questions about what they had seen
Results - both the elderly and children gave more incorrect answers to non-leading question. Children were more easily misled by leading questions than adults or the elderly.
Conclusion - age has an effect on the accuracy of EWT
Evaluation - artificial experiment and so not as emotionally arousing so the study lacks external validity
Describe an experiment that studied the effects of anxiety on EWT
Loftus (1979) studied weapon focus in EWT. Method - in a study with an independent group design, participants heard a discussion ina nearby room. In one condition, a man came out of the room with a pen and grease on his hands. In the second condition the man came out carrying a knife covered in blood. Participants were asked to identify the man from 50 photographs.
Results - participants in condition 1 were 49% accurate. Only 33% of the participants in condition 2 were correct.
Conclusion - when anxious or aroused, witnesses focus on a weapon at the expense of other details
Evaluation - the study has high ecological validity, as the participants weren’t aware that the study was staged. However this means that there are ethical considerations, as participants could have been stressed at the sight of the man with the knife
What is a cognitive interview?
The cognitive interview technique was developed by Geiselman et al (1984) to try to increase the accuracy of witnesses’ recall of events during police questioning
SEE YOUTUBE “Cognitive interview” by Webstermegan
What happens in cognitive interviews
- The interviewer tries to make the witness relaxed and tailors his/her language to suit the witness
- The witness recreates the environmental and internal (mood) context of the crime
- The witness reports absolutely everything that they can remember about the crime
- The witness is asked to recall details of the crime in different orders
- The witness is asked to recall the event from various different perspectives
- The interviewer avoids any judgemental and personal comments
What research is there to support the cognitive interview?
Geiselman et al(1986) studied the effects of the cognitive interview
Method - in a staged situation, an intruder carrying a blue rucksack entered a classroom and stole a slide projector. Two days later, participants were questioned about the event. The study used an independent groups design- participants were either questioned using a standard interview procedure or the cognitive interview technique. Early in the questioning, participants were asked “was the guy with the GREEN rucksack nervous?”
Later in the interview the participants were asked what colour the man’s rucksack was.
Results - participants in the cognitive interview condition were less likely to recall the rucksack as being green than in the standard interview condition
Conclusion - the cognitive interview technique enhances memory recall and reduces the effect of leading questions
Evaluation - the experiment had high ecological validity. It used an independent group design - the disadvantage of this is that the participants in the cognitive interview condition could have been naturally less susceptible to leading questions than the other group
Name some mnemonics
Organising material Method of loci Peg word techniques Mnemonic verses Narrative stories
What are mnemonics used for
Mnemonics are internal memory strategies. They use things like visual imagery and associations to cue your recall
Name two studies that show that organising material is useful for learning
Jenkins and Russell (1952)
Tulving (1962)
Describe the Jenkins and Russell (1952) experiment
Jenkins and Russell (1952) studied the recall of word lists. The word lists contained words that were highly associative (e.g. Knife and fork). They found that participants tended to group the associated words together in recall even if they had been separated in the original presentation. S if “knife” and “fork” had been separated by other words in the original list, they would be recalled together.
Describe the experiment that Tulving(1962) did on the use of mnemonics in learning
Tulving (1962) repeatedly gave his participants a list of words to learn. He found that the order of the participant’s recall become increasingly consistent - they were organising and chunking the material to be learned into easily remembered groups.
What is the mnemonic technique - method of loci
The method of loci is a strategy that uses imagery. Items on a list are associated with locations in a well known place
Describe the mnemonic technique - Peg-Word technique
The Peg-Word technique is to rhyme a word on the list with a set of peg-words already in memory e.g. If you want to remember chocolate try “One is a bun” and imagine chocolate bun
Describe mnemonic technique -First letter mnemonic
First letter mnemonic uses the first letter of each word to create a new sentence e.g colours of rainbow remembered by “Richard of York gave battle in vain”
Describe mnemonic technique - mnemonic verses
Mnemonic verses help memory by encoding information acoustically e.g Henry 8th’s wives
“divorced, beheaded,died
Divorced, beheaded, survived”
Describe the mnemonic technique of narrative stories
Narrative strikes link words together by putting them into a story.
Name and describe an experiment that studied narrative stories
Bower and Clark (1969)
Method - independent groups design - participants split into two conditions. Each group given 12 lists, each containing 10 words.
In one condition the participants were asked to come up with stories to link words. The second group were a control group and just asked to learn the words.
Results - both groups recalled the lists equally well immediately after learning. However when it came to recalling the 12 lists at the end of the session, recall was much better in the group that linked through stories
Conclusion - creating narrative stories aids recall from LTM
Evaluation - this links to the multi-store model of memory - the words are moved into LTM because they are rehearsed during the creation of the story. The study used a control group which meant that the effect of the independent variable could be measured. However it lacks ecological validity - learning word lists is not something we do in real life
What are the limitations of mnemonic strategies?
- Mnemonic strategies work best with lists. This isn’t much good if you have to understand something while you are learning it.
- You have still got to remember the mnemonic
What are the key features of the multi-store model of memory.
Sensory information that is constantly been taken in by senses from the world around, such as visual and auditory information, is held in the sensory store. If you don’t pay attention to this information it will be lost from the sensory store. If you do pay attention then it will be moved into the STM. The STM has a limited and temporary capacity, but if the information in it is rehearsed, it will be transferred into LTM, which theoretically has an unlimited capacity and duration.
You knew how the words to ‘Jingle Bells’ as a child - but now you can only remember ‘Batman smells’! What is this called?
Retroactive interference
What did Miller(1956) say was the capacity of STM?
7 plus or minus 2
How can the capacity of STM be increased?
Chunking
How can memories be encoded?
Acoustically, visually, semantically
Which of the following is not a type of LTM? Episodic Procedural Functional Semantic
Functional is NOT a type of LTM
Which model of memory was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)?
Multi-store model of memory
According to Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) what causes information to be passed from STM to LTM?
Rehearsal
Which memory effects does the serial position curve demonstrate?
Primacy and recency
Sufferers of Korsakoff’s syndrome show which of the following symptoms?
Cannot transfer information from STM to LTM?
Cannot understand spoken language?
Cannot transfer information from LTM to STM?
Cannot remember how to write?
Cannot transfer information from STM to LTM
What are Craik and Lockhart’s three levels of processing?
Structural
Semantic
Phonetic
Which of the following is not a component of the Working Memory Model? Central executive Olfactory roundabout Visio-spatial sketch pad Articulatory loop
Olfactory roundabout
Which of the following is not an explanation of forgetting? Decay Interference Displacement Deprivation
Deprivation
Your Mum gets a new phone number which you learn - but you keep tying in the old phone number. What is this called?
Proactive interference
You don’t have to relearn riding a bike even after years of not cycling. What is this memory called?
Procedural memory
Define memory
Persistence of learning over time through the storage of information
What is a Flashbulb memory?
A clear memory of an emotionally significant event
What are the three steps of information processing?
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
What is Working Memory?
Conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information and of long term memory
What is the serial position effect?
You remember the last and first items of a list better than the middle (primacy and regency)
What is the self-reference effect?
We recall information better if it relates to ourselves
What are mnemonics?
Memory aids
What is the method of loci
Walking yourself through what you are trying to remember by linking objects with familiar places
What is a peg word?
Using one familiar word to help you to remember another unfamiliar one
What is explicit memory?
Facts you consciously know and declare
What is the effect of stress on the brain?
Long term stress causes the brain to lose its ability to form new neural connections and the brain finds it difficult to encode long term memories
What is the hippocampus role in memory?
The short term memory is in the hippocampus
The long them memory is not thought to be located in one specific area but all over the cortex
What is the memory store in sensory memory that holds visual stimuli?
Iconic memory store
What is the memory store in sensory memory that hold acoustic stimuli?
Echoic memory
What is the memory store in sensory memory that holds touch stimuli called?
Haptic memory
What is the strength of the Working Model of Memory?
Research supports such as dual task studies
