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