IB Psych Cognitive Approach Studies

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Cognitive Approach

The Cognitive Approach focuses on mental processes such as perception, attention, memory, language, and thinking, and how these processes influence behavior. It views the mind as an information processor, similar to a computer, taking in, storing, and retrieving data to guide actions.

Cognitive Processes

Cognitive processes refer to the mental operations involved in acquiring, storing, and using knowledge. These include functions such as:

• Perception

• Attention

• Memory

• Language

• Thinking

• Problem-solving

• Decision-making

Cognitive processes are higher-level mental functions that allow individuals to interpret and respond to the environment. They are internal and cannot be directly observed, but can be studied scientifically through behavior and brain activity.

Models of Memory

Multi-Store Memory Model (MSM), and Working Memory Model, maybe Dual-Processing Memory Model too

Bahrick et al. (1975) - Multi-Store Memory Model, LTM, High school classmates, types of recall #CorrelationalStudy

Aim: Bahrick aimed to investigate the LTM of the Multi-Store Memory Model by testing High school students’ ability to recall the names and faces of their classmates even decades after graduation. He wanted to see if different types of recall (free vs. recognition) affected memory retrieval.

MSM: This memory model suggests that humans have three areas for memory storage and that memory transfers through these units through recall, encoding, and retrieval. The sensory register (first stage) then goes to the Short-term memory unit (encoding and practice leads to) the Long-term memory unit.

Sample: About 400 Americans between ages of 17 to 74 years old. They all attended the same high school. The time since graduation varied among participants.

Procedure: They all completed different memory tasks.

1) Free recall - asked to list as many classmates as they could remember

2) Photo recognition and matching faces

3) Name recognition (shown list of names and identify which were classmates)

Results: In the recognition task where they had the photo and name matching, participants performed very well even decades after graduation. In the free recall task, performance dropped significantly over time.

Conclusion: Recognition is more resistant to forgetting than free recall and the LTM declines over time. Still supports the MSM theory that Long-term memory can extend and be stored for an extended time period.

Evaluation: Strengths → Supports MSM and shows clear difference between types of recall. High ecological validity, using real classmates. Diverse age range. Weakness → Sampling bias and low generalizability since its from one high school and only in US. Confounding variables such as individual differences in memory skills. Did not see if anyone had memory defects.

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) - Working Memory Model, Cognitive Processes (decision making, attention) Multi-tasking #LabExperiment

Aim: To investigate if the STM is a single store (propose Working Memory Model) or made up of multiple components that store different types of information simultaneously.

Working Memory Model: The Working Memory Model, proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974), is a theory of short-term memory that describes it as a multi-component system responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating information needed for complex tasks like reasoning, learning, and comprehension. The Phonological loop (verbal and auditory info), the visuo-spatial sketchpad (visual and spatial info), the Central executive (controls and coordinates all unites), and the episodic buffer (Coordinates info in phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad and also LONG TERM MEMORY).

Sample: Adult volunteers. They had normal cognitive functioning and were familiar with verbal and reasoning tasks.

Procedure: Participants performed two tasks SIMULTANEOUSLY.

• Primary task (reasoning): Given verbal logical reasoning statements (“A follows B in BA”) and had to decide if it was true or false. This was to engage the central executive by doing both decision making and attention.

• Secondary task (memory load): Digit span task and had to repeat a list of digits aloud. This task involved with stimulating the phonological loop which handles the verbal/auditory information.

Results: As memory load increased (digit span), participants took slightly longer to complete the reasoning task, but the accuracy on the reasoning task still remained high.

Conclusion: Supports the WMM since results showed that people were capable of handling two different types of information in the phonological loop and Central Executive units were being simultaneously used. This challenges the idea that the STM only has one function and storage unit, but works on a multi-component system.

Evaluation: Strengths → Used controlled lab methods, modern understanding of multi-tasking and attention and decesion making of cognition. Weaknesses → Low ecological validity with the highly controlled setting, when would you need to repeat digits in real world settings and why is it important to do that? Sample may lack generalizability. The WMM only studies the Short term memory unit and not the long term. Reductionist approach on memory, when it is probably far more complex.

Schema Theory

Schema Theory is a cognitive theory that proposes that mental structures called schemas help individuals organize, interpret, and predict information based on past experiences and knowledge. Schemas are developed through experience. They help fill in gaps in knowledge, but can also lead to biases or distorted memories. They affect encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

Reconstructive Memory

Reconstructive memory is the idea that we don't remember events exactly as they happened—instead, we rebuild memories based on our schemas, beliefs, and current context, which can sometimes lead to errors or distortions.

Anderson and Pichert (1978) - Schema Theory, Confirmation Bias, Reconstructive Memory, decesion-making #LabExperiment

Aim: To investigate the Schema Theory. To investigate whether schemas influence/affects ways that individuals recall a story. The study was designed to test the reliability of memory and how it can be affected by the activation of different schemas.

Sample: American university students, range of 80 participants, who were volunteers.

Procedure: Researchers gave everyone the same story with details describing two boys visiting a house (details corresponded with the perspectives).
- Half of participants asked to read from buyer's POV, other half from burglar's POV
- Once read, participants performed a distracting task for 12 ​minutes before their recall was tested, then
another 5​minute delay in experiment (½ same, ½ different schema)
- Participants then tested again

Results: Participants recalled more information that aligned with their perspective and schemas more. Participants who shifted perspectives remembered different details from the story, showing that what they recalled was influenced by the schema.

Conclusion: Supports schema theory, confirmation bias, and reconstructive memory. The study showed that memory recall was influenced by the schemas during encoding and recall. Pre-existing knowledge and perspective both effected memory. Raises questions about the reliability of cognition.

Evaluation: Controlled environment, cause-and-effect relationship, Low ecological validity in the lab setting, sampling bias.

Bartlett (1932) - War of the Ghosts, schema, #Quasi

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge. He wanted to see if cultural background and unfamiliarity with a text would lead to distortion of memory when the story was recalled. Bartlett's hypothesis was that memory is reconstructive and that people store and retrieve information according to expectations formed by cultural schemas.

Procedure: Bartlett told participants a Native American legend called The War of the Ghosts. The participants in the study were British; for them, the story was filled with unknown names and concepts, and the manner in which the story was developed was also foreign to them. The story was therefore ideal to study how memory was reconstructed based on schema processing. Bartlett allocated the participants to one of two conditions: one group was asked to use repeated reproduction, where participants heard the story and were told to reproduce it after a short time and then to do so again repeatedly over a period of days, weeks, months or years. The second group was told to use serial reproduction, in which they had to recall the story and repeat it to another person.

Findings: Bartlett found that their accounts were distorted in several ways that generally made them more consisted with a Western world view. Bartlett found that participants in both conditions changed the story as they tried to remember it - a process called distortion. Bartlett found that there were three patterns of distortion that took place. Assimilation: The story became more consistent with the participants' own cultural expectations - that is, details were unconsciously changed to fit the norms of British culture. Levelling: The story also became shorter with each retelling as participants omitted information which was seen as not important. Sharpening: Participants also tended to change the order of the story in order to make sense of it using terms more familiar to the culture of the participants. They also added detail and/or emotions. The participants overall remembered the main themes in the story but changed the unfamiliar elements to match their own cultural expectations so that the story remained a coherent whole although changed.

Conclusion: Bartlett's study indicates that remembering is not a passive but rather an active process, where information is retrieved and changed to fit into existing schemas. This is done in order to create meaning in the incoming information. According to Bartlett, humans constantly search for meaning. Based on his research Bartlett formulated the theory of reconstructive memory. This means that memories are not copies of experiences but rather a reconstruction.

Intuitive and Rational Thinking

Intuitive thinking is fast and automatic, often based on gut feelings or mental shortcuts, while rational thinking is slower and more deliberate, involving careful analysis and logical reasoning.

Dual Processing Theory/Model

The Dual Processing Model is a theory that suggests we think using two systems: System 1, which is fast and intuitive, and System 2, which is slow and analytical. So intuitive and Rational thinking. We switch to the other when we need to lock in cognitively.

Alter et al. (2007) - Writing font, Cognitive Reflection Test, Intuitive/Rational Thinking, cognitive disfluency, Analytical Reasoning, Dual-Processing Model, #LabExperiment

Aim: To investigate whether making something harder to mentally process leads people to switch from intuitive to rational thinking and improves analytical reasoning.

Sample: University students. Participants were randomly assigned to either a fluent or disfluent condition.

• Cognitive Fluency:

  • Information that is easy to read or process (e.g., clear fonts like Arial).

  • Leads to intuitive, fast thinking (System 1 in dual processing theory).

  • Example in the study: A question presented in a clear, readable font.

  • Result: Participants were more likely to make quick, intuitive (and often incorrect) answers.

• Cognitive Disfluency:

  • Information that is harder to read or process (e.g., difficult fonts like italicized, small, or unusual fonts).

  • Triggers more deliberate, analytical thinking (System 2).

  • Example in the study: The same question shown in a hard-to-read font.

  • Result: Participants slowed down, processed more carefully, and performed better (more correct answers).

Procedure: Participants took the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), which had questions with very tricky logic questions designed to make people thinking intuitively and guess wrong. There were two groups: 1) The fluent condition with CRT printed in a clear, easy-to-read font vs 2) the disfluent condition with a harder font to read (this made participants look closer at the writing, thus elicits rational thinking). Researchers measured how many questions everyone answered accurately.

Results: Disfluent: 65% correct Fluent: 10% correct.

Conclusion: Cognitive disfluency increased rational thinking. Cognitive strain acted as a cue to think harder, leading to better analytical reasoning.

Evaluation: Supports the Dual processing Model by showing that disfluency encourages people to switch from fast, intuitive thinking (System 1) to slower, more rational thinking (System 2), resulting in more accurate decisions.

Lerner & Ma-Kellams (2016) - Emotions, sadness, Intuitive/Rational Thinking, Decision making, Dual processing model #LabExperiment

Aim: To investigate whether emotions/sadness affect the style of thinking people use when decision making. Whether sadness leads ti more rational thinking and less intuitive thinking.

Sample: Adult participants. Randomly assigned into sad or neutral groups.

Procedure:

1) Emotional Induction (only sad group did this) → Participants were either shown sad video clips or asked to write about a personal sad experience.

2) Cognitive Tasks (post-emotion) → Participants completed tasks measuring decision making biases and analytic thinking such as: Framing effect tasks, bass-rate neglect tasks, syllogistic reasoning and logic problems. Researchers compared performance between the sad and neutral groups to asses the style in thinking.

Results: Participants in the sadness condition were less likely to fall for the framing effect and intuitive biases, showed better analytical reasoning performance overall. They engaged in (system 2) more analytical thinking. In contrast, neutral group relied on intuitive, automatic thinking (system 1) and performed worse on reasoning tasks.

Conclusion: Sadness and more emotions leads to better analytical thinking and precise and thoughtful decision making (system 2). Relates to the Dual Processing model. Because sadness triggers more careful, systematic, and deliberate thinking

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Eyewitness testimony, reconstructive memory, framing effect/leading question bias, bias in decision making, memory distortion #LabExperiment

Aim: to investigate whther the wording of questions (framing effect) could influence a person’s memory/perception of an event - a car crash.

Eyewitness Testimony: A first-hand account given by someone who observed an event, often used as evidence in legal settings.

Procedure: 150 participants split into groups based on the verb used. Watched a video of a car crash. Afterwards, they were asked how many miles per hour (fast) the car was going when it “smashed, collided, bumped, hit, or contacted” Researchers measured the estimated speed given by participants in each group.

Results: Smashed: (Average) 40.8 mph GOT THE FASTEST, Contacted: 31.8 mph GOT THE LEAST FAST.

Conclusion: Supports framing effect, reconstructive memory, memory distortion, eyewitness testimony. The way information is presented after an event can influence how its remembered.

Illusory Correlation

Illusory correlation is a cognitive bias where people perceive a relationship between two variables when no actual relationship exists.

Hamilton & Gifford (1976) - Illusory Correlation, bias, stereotypes, perception, cognitive processing error #LabExperiment

Aim: To investigate whether people form illusory correlations between group membership (minority or majority) and negative behavior, even when no actual relationships exist.

Sample: undergraduate students randomly assigned to conditions.

Procedure: Participants read descriptions of behaviors positive or negative of two groups.

Group A (majority): 26 statements about behavior (18 positive, 8 negative)

Group B (minority): 13 statements (9 positive, 4 negative)

(the ratio of positive to negative are the same, group A just has more people)

Group B having fewer total statements, their negative behaviors stood out more, creating the illusory correlation.

After reading, they were to evaluate the groups with characteristics and estimate how many positive/negative behaviors each group performed.

Results: Participants overestimated the number of negative behaviors in Group B (minority group). They formed stereotypical impressions that group B was less desirable, likable.

Conclusion: Demonstrates cognitive bias of illusory correlation affecting perception. They perceived by majority and minority of descriptions. People are prone to illusory correlation which may contribute to stereotyping and biased decision making. Cognitive processing error.

Brown and Kulik (1977) - Emotion on Cognition, Flashbulb Memory

Aim: Whether people recall emotionally significant events more vividly and accurately over time, to test the flashbulb memory theory w/ personal relevance, shock, and emotional arousal influencing memory encoding.

Sample: 40 caucasians and 40 black participants in the US.

Procedure: Participants were asked to recall events that were emotionally significant/arousing to them, such as the assassination of JFK and MLK. They were asked to describe the event, their personal perspective on it and how they found out about it. The researchers took note of whether their memories contained detail and if it was vivid or not.

Results: Participants reported having highly detailed memories of the events such as what they were doing, who they were with, where they were. They found that personal relevance influenced the intensity of the flashbulb memory. Black participants were more likely to recall vivid details of MLK’s death and White participants with JFK.

Conclusion: Flashbulb memories are not just ordinary memories, they are emotionally triggered and are more long-term since they are traumatic and they are able to recall the emotions they felt back then.

Sharot et al. (2007) - 9/11, Flashbulb Memories, fMRI, emotion, amygdala, #Quasi #CorrelationalStudy

Aim: To examine flashbulb memories and whether proximity to 9/11 influenced the strength and vividness of flashbulb memories.

Sample: 24 participants who were in NYC during the 9/11 attack. (Quasi) Two groups based on location during the attack near the attack, or a bit farther.

Procedure: fMRI scanning done while they were shown word cues related to 9/11. After, they rated their memories on vividness, emotional intensity, and detail (self-reported).

Results: The closer they were, the better their flashbulb memories were and the fMRI showed higher amygdala activation. Suggests that higher personal connection and emotional arousal showed better vivid and detailed memories.

Mueller & Oppenheimer (2014) - Digital Tech, Note taking by hand vs on a computer, memory, conceptual understanding, TED Talk #TrueExperiment

Aim: To investigate whether note taking by hand or a computer affects learning memory, cognitive processes, and conceptual understanding.

Sample: University students who watched a TED Talk.

Procedure: Participants were randomly assigned to take notes either by hand or on a computer while watching a TED talk. (They weren’t told that they’d be tested after this). After, they completed a distraction task (playing a game) to reduce short term memory effects. They then took a comprehension task - both factual-recall questions (straight forward, easy) and conceptual-application questions (needs deeper thought). In another version, some were told to not copy the TED Talk word-for-word, to see if the negative effect of the laptop note taking could be reduced.

Results: For factual recall, both groups performed similarly. For the conceptual understanding questions, the hand note taking group significantly outperformed the computer note taking.
Conclusion: Computer note taking led to more shallow cognitive processing.

Positive: More efficient way of note taking especially if it is just for straight forward factual-recall.

Negative: Well! Less deep thinking.

Storm et al. (2016) - Digital Tech, Google effect, transactive memory, cognitive processes, memory #Trueexperiment

Aim: To investigate whether relying on the internet for information could reduce the likelihood of people using their own memory. Aimed to investigate how using internet search engines like Google affects memory and information retrieval.

The Google effect: The psychological phenomenon where people are less likely to remember information that they believe they can easily access online, such as through a search engine like Google.

Transactive memory: A psychological concept that refers to a shared system for encoding, storing, and retrieving information within a group. Instead of every individual remembering everything, members of a group rely on each other to remember different types of information based on their expertise or roles.

Procedure: Split into two separate groups: They were given random trivia questions. 1) Internet group: Allowed to use the internet to find answers. 2) Memory group: Had to rely on their own. After, all participants were given a second task in which they were asked a new set of general knowledge questions. All participants in the second task had the option to use the internet, but some of the questions were ones they likely knew. The researchers then measured how often the participants chose to use the internet vs their own memory. How this behavior differed depending on their earlier experience (internet vs. memory).

Results: Those who used the internet before, were more likely to use it again, even if they probably knew the answer. This suggests that digital technology leads to cognitive offloading and an over reliance on transactive memory. People tend to overly rely on digital technology.

Sparrow et al. (2011) - Digital technology, saved or not saved information, transactive memory, #LabExperiment

Aim: To investigate the relationship between memory, digital technology and ease of access to memory.

Procedure: - 60 undergraduate students at U of Harvard (37 f, 23 m)
- Given 40 trivia questions ranging from obscure facts to facts assumed to be well known
- Experiment was a 2 x 2 independent sample design meaning that there were two independent variables manipulated at different levels
- The two independent variables were:
> Participants were told that their information would be saved after pressing space and would be accessed later or, the participants were told that their info would be erased after pressing space to make room for a new answer.
> Participants were split into two groups: those told to remember the information and those who weren't told
- Participants were then given a blank sheet of paper and 10 minutes to recall everything they remembered
- They were then given a recognition task where there were 40 statements where they had to answer yes/no to if they were different from the original 40 trivia facts

Results: Percent of participants:
> Participants told save + remember: 19
> Participants told save + no remember: 22
> Participants told erase + remember: 29
> Participants told erase + no remember: 31
- There was no effect of whether or not the participants were told/not told to remember
- Participants who were told that they would have their data saved recalled far better than the participants who were told they would have access later.

Conclusion: Participants who were told they would be able to access the information later as it was saved had spent much less effort in remembering the information; this shows the integration of digital technology with transactive memory.

Kramer et al. (2014) - Facebook, emotional contagion, digital tech, #FieldExperiment

Aim: To test the idea that information in an individuals Facebook feed could cause emotional contagion, the transfer of emotional states from one person to another.

Procedure: The research team collaborated with Facebook to alter the content of the news feed seen by 689,003 Facebook users. the research used existing Facebook algorithm and a software system to identify the posts containing positive and negative words.
--for some participants between 10-90% of the positive posts of their friends were omitted from their feed.
-- for other participants, between 10-90% of the negative posts of their friends were omitted at random. This was all done automatically by the algorithm. The words used in the participants own posts were analyzed during the week of the experimental manipulation, and the percentage of positive and negative words used in the posts were recorded.

Results: When participants have had positive context in their news feed reduced, they were less likely to use positive language in their own posts. Opposite for the removal of negative content.

Conclusion: The emotional content to which we are exposed through our FB feed does indeed affect our own emotional state
when we see fewer positive posts that are less likely to post positive events or positive opinions of our own.

Evaluation: Manipulation of the news feed was done remotely and without any direct involvements of researchers, important research for scale of social media usage

no consent form, ethical considerations, such as informed consent.
however was "agreed" to in their data use policy

+ Kramer argues important research, benefit of this outweighs cost of failing to provide any form of consent.