IB Psychology AMRCs Cognitive Approach

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) - Aim

To investigate the serial position curve.

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) - Method

Used a repeated measures design. Sample of 46 army recruits who were randomly allocated to 3 conditions. 15 word lists were read aloud and shown to all conditions. Condition 1 was immediate free recall, 2 was a 10 second delay, and 3 was a 30 second delay. During these delays a distraction task (counting aloud from a single digit) was applied.

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) - Results

It was found that Condition 1 showed a serial position curve. Words at the start of the list (primacy effect) and words at the end (recency effect) were recalled. Both conditions 2 and 3 had similar results for primacy words but the 10 second delay had a significant reduction in recency recall and the 30 second delay had little recency effect.

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) - Conclusion

Researchers concluded all groups had the opportunity to rehearse the primacy words and transfer them to LTM but the delay conditions with interference meant recency words were displaced in the STM store and not recalled. This supports the existence of separate STM and LTM stores.

Glanzer and Cunitz (!966) - Evaluation

Strengths:

- MRI scans show the parts of the brain used when certain tasks are carried out

- clear simple model

- supporting research

- model has been modified demonstrating validity to a certain degree

Limitations:

- Low ecological validity (lab setting)

- Linear order is too simplistic to account for ways in which memory stores communicate

- Does not refer to control processes

- Cannot account for how interaction between stores takes place

- Further research has challenged single store of LTM

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - Aim

To investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect an eyewitness's estimation of speed.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - Method

A sample of 45 students which were divided into 5 groups of 9. 7 short films of traffic accidents were shown. When participants watched they were asked to give an account of the accident they had seen and answered a questionnaire. The one critical question was estimating the car speed. This was manipulated as different adverbs were used (e.g. How fast were the cars going when they collided?).

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - Results

It was found that the mean estimates of speed were highest in the 'smashed' condition and lowest in the 'contacted' condition. The results were significant according to a correlation test. The relationship between the variables was: the higher the intensitiy of the verb, the higher the average estimate.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - Conclusion

It was concluded that the use of adjectives and subjective words within questioning can lead to incorrect information and influences how memory is recalled. Loftus argued that when different verbs are used, they activate schemas that have a different sense of meaning.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) - Evaluation

Strengths:

- replicable

- practical applications

- ecological validity

Limitations:

Landry and Bartling (2011) - Aim

To investigate if articulatory suppression would influence recall of a written list of phonologically dissimilar letters in serial recall..

Landry and Bartling (2011) - Method

Participants (34 undergraduate psychology students) randomly assigned to two conditions. Each tested individually. Experimental group: participants saw a list of letters that they had to recall while saying numbers '1' and '2' (the articulatory suppression task).

Control group: participants shown a printed list for 5 seconds and then had to wait another 5 seconds. Then instructed to write the correct order of the letters on an answer sheet.

In the experimental group, participants received instructions to repeatedly say the number from when they saw the list until they filled the answer sheet.

Landry and Bartling (2011) - Method

Scores from experimental group were lower than scores from control group. Mean percent of accurate recall in control group was 76% compared to 45% in the experimental group. Results supported the experimental hypothesis.

Landry and Bartling (2011) - Conclusion

Data seems to support the prediction of the WMM that disruption of the phonological loop through the use of articulatory suppression results in less accurate working memory. In line with the model's prediction, articulatory suppression is preventing rehearsal in the phonological loop because of overload. This resulted in difficulty memorizing the letter strings in the experimental group.

Landry and Bartling (2011) - Evaluation

Strengths:

- well-controlled with high internal validity, cause and effect can be determined

- replicable, supports WMM. thus reliable

Limitations:

- nature of study is artificial lacking ecological validity

- does not provide evidence for separate phonological loop

KF Case Study

KF was in a motorcycle accident which resulted in brain damage to left occipital lobe. STM was damaged but LTM normal.

He remembers better when words are presented visually.

KF Case Study - conclusions

Because STM is not intact this supports the MSM.

However, he remembers words better if presented visually rather than orally thus supporting WMM.

KF (Shallice and Warrington (1970)) - Aim

To try and support the WMM and its different components.

KF (Shallice and Warrington (1970)) - Method

Conducted experiment on KF. KF could not process acoustic information in the form of letters and numbers (he could process semantic acoustic information). He could process visual information without problem. He had not problems with LTM but immediate STM was impaired.

KF (Shallice and Warrington (1970)) - Results

This showed that his brain damage seemed to be restricted to his phonological loop.

KF (Shallice and Warrington (1970)) - Conclusion

The findings support the WMM.

Brewer and Treyens (1981) - Aim

to investigate the role of schema in encoding and retrieval of episodic memory

Brewer and Treyens (1981) - Method

86 psychology students. Deceit was used. the participants were told that they were waiting for the researcher and to stay in the room for half a minute. This room was arranged to look like an office but with some unusual objects (e.g. a skull). Usual objects were omitted (e.g. books). When they finished the experiment they were given a questionnaire. The vital question being "did you think that you would be asked to remember the objects in the office?". 93% said no. There were 3 conditions. Recall - asked to write down a description of the objects in the room. Then asked to rate the objects read from a booklet on how sure they were that they were in the room.

Drawing - asked to draw the objects in an outline of the room.

Verbal recognition - asked to read a list of objects and asked whether they were in the room or not.

Brewer and Treyens (1981) - Results

When in the drawing or writing conditions participants were less likely to recall the schema-incongruent objects and more likely to remember the schema-congruent objects. However, when read from a list they were more likely to remember the schema incongruent items that were not there. In both the drawing and recall conditions the nature of objects was often changed.

Brewer and Treyens (1981) - Conlusion

Schemas play a role in the encoding and retrieval of information.

Brewer and Treyens (1981) - Evaluation

Strengths:

- ecological validity

- use of deceit reduces demand characteristics

- true experiment

- large sample

Limitations:

- ethnocentric sample

- limited age group

Kahneman and Tversky - Aim

To investigate the effects of representative heuristics in answering questions about a scenario.

Kahneman and Tversky - Method

95 participants were given this scenario: In a town there are two hospital: a big hospital, which births about 45 abies a day, and a small hospital, which births about 15 babies a day. The split of babies'sex is 50/50 but varies. Both hospitals recorded the days each year that there were more than 605 boys born. Which hospital records more of these days?

They were given 3 choices: the larger hospital, the smaller one, or about the same.

Kahneman and Tversky - Results

80% of people did not pick the correct option and 55% of people picked "about the same". This is probably because they thought either more boys would be born at the bigger hospital or it should be 50/50 at both because birth rates are usually.

Kahneman and Tversky - Conclusion

Demonstrates how representative heuristics impact thinking and decision making. Also how system 1 thinking is prone to making mistakes.

Kahneman and Tversky - Evaluation

Strengths:

- Large sample

- Randomised sample

- Standardised, replicable

- Nomothetic

Limitations:

- ecological validity

- low population validity (not all people answered wrong, model doesn't account for individual differences)

Alter (2007) - Aim

To investigate how font affects thinking.

Alter (2007) - Method

40 Princeton students completed the Cognitive Reflections Test (CRT). Test was made up of 3 questions and measures whether people use fast thinking to answer the question or use slow thinking. Half the students were given the CRT in an easy-to-read font while the others were given a difficult-to-read font.

Alter (2007) - Results

10% of participants in the easy-to-read condition answered all three questions correctly while in the other condition 65% were fully correct.

Alter (2007) - Conclusion

When a question is written in a difficult to read font, this causes participants to slow down and engage more in deliberate system 2 thinking resulting in correct answers. On the other hand when it is written in an easy-to-read font, participants use quick unconscious system 1 thinking resulting in the obvious answer.

Alter (2007) - Evaluation

Strengths:

- can be applied in educational settings and be beneficial.

Limitations:

- very few studies replicate this

- one explanation is that there exist several studies failing to replicate the disfluency effect of font.

- Only involved Princeton undergraduates, not representative sample

Loftus and Pickerall (1995) - Aim

To determine if false memories of autobiographical events can be created by the power of suggestion.

Loftus and Pickerall (1995) - Method

A sample of 3 males and 21 females. Prior to

the study, a parent or sibling of the participant was contacted and asked 'Could you retell three childhood memories of the participant?' and 'Do you remember a time when they were lost in a mall?'.

Participants then received a questonnaire in the mail. They were asked to write about four memories and then mail back the questionnaire. Three events were real one was "getting lost in the mall". If they did not remember they were instructed to write "I do not remember this".

They were interviewed twice over four weeks and were asked to recall as much information as possible. they were then asked to rate their level of confidence about the memires. After the second interview they were debriefed and asked to guess the false memory.

Loftus and Pickerall (1995) - Results

About 25% of participants recalled the false memory. However, they also ranked this memory as less confident that the others and they wrote less about it.

Loftus and Pickerall (1995) - Conclusion

Subjects used more words when describing their true memories. This suggests that the power of suggestion does have an impact on recall.

Loftus and Pickerall (1995) - Evaluation

Strengths:

- ecological validity

- research has been applied in eye witness testimony and therapy

Limitations:

- Only 25% of participants had false memoies. study does not tell why some participants were moe susceptible.

- Getting lost in the mall is a common experience and this enabled subjects to construct a false memory. What about not so common events?

- difficult to know if the memory is in fact false

- ethical concerns about deception

- contamination ad questionnaire was filled out at home.

- Demand characteristics (desirability effect)

Mendel - Aim

to study whether psychiatrists and medical students are prone to confirmation bias.

Mendel - Method

75 psychiatrists were tested by giving them a summary of an old man. The first summary was written so that the most proabble diagnosis was depression, however if all information was presented it was clearly Alzheimers. After an initial diagnosis participants could then ask for additional information related to either diagnosis. researchers measured the accuracy of diagnosis and also the correlation between what further information was asked for and the correct diagnosis.

Mendel - Results

13% of psychiatrists and 25% of students showed confirmation bias when searching for new information after having made a preliminary diagnosis. Participants conducting a confirmatory information search were significantly less likely to make the correct diagnosis.

Mendel - Conclusion

Confirmatory information search harbors the risk of wrong diagnostic decisions. Psychiatrists should be aware of confirmation bias and instructed in techniques to reduce bias.

Mendel - Evaluation

Strengths:

- population validity (large sample)

- Quantitative

- practical applications

Limitations:

- low ecological validity

- doesn't test multiple scenarios

Sharot - Aim

to determine the potential role of biological factors on flashbulb memories.

Sharot - Method

24 participants who were in NYC on the day of 9/11. Informed consent provided and compensation for participation. fMRI while they were presented with word cues on a screen. Additionally the word Summer or September was projected in order to have the participants link the word to either summer holidays or the events of 9/11. Memories of personal events from the summer served as a baseline of brain activity for evaluating the nature of 9/11 memories. After brain scanning they were asked to rate memories for vividness, detail, confidence in accuracy and arousal. Half the participants reported having flash-bulb memories of the event. Those with these said that they were closer to the World-Trade Centre.

Sharot - Results

The activation of the amygdala for the participants who were downtown was higher when they recalled memories of the terrorist attack than when they recalled events from the preceding summer.

Sharot - conclusion

Further research found that an adrenorecpetor in the amygdala can promote memory formation but only if stimulated by adrenaline. since emotionally charged events are often accompanied by adrenaline secretion, the receptor acts as a gate keeper that decised what will be remembered.

Sharot - Evaluation

Strengths:

- Case study (detailed, triangulation)

- fMRI

- Biological support

- ecological validity (setting not normal but task was)

Limitations:

- retrospective (open to distortion/interference)

- population validity

- demand characteristics

Neisser and Harsch (1992) - Aim

to challenge Brown and Kulik's theory

Neisser and Harsch (1992) - Method

On the morning of the Challenger disaster, 106 Emory University students in an introductory psychology course were given a questionnaire at the end of class. They were asked to write a description of how they heard the news. On the back of the questionnaire was a set of questions based on Brown and Kulik's "canonical categories"of flashbub memory. The questions were: what time was it?, what were you doing?, who told you?, who else was there?, how did you feel about it?, how did the person who told you seem to feel about it?, what did you do afterward?. They were also asked how much time they spent watching it on the news. 2.5 yrs later they were given the questionnaire again. they were not told the purpose of the study until they arrived. This time they were also asked for each response to rate how confidently they were of the accuracy of their memory. They were also asked if they had filled out a questionnaire on the subject before.

Neisser and Harsch (1992) - Results

To come up with a "score" the researchers looked at the seven non-emotional questions and gave a point if they matched the original response. The mean score was 2.95/7. 11 participants scored 0, 22 2 or less and 3 7. In spite of the lack of accuracy the participants demonstrated a high level of confidence.

Neisser and Harsch (1992) - Conclusion

Neisser and Harsch (1992) - Evaluation

Strengths:

- ecological validity

- Naturalistic, not artificial

- supports the theory that memory is reconstructive in nature.

- transferability/reliability

Limitations:

- demand characteristics

- replicability

Adachi & Willoughby - Aim

to examine whether strategic video game play predicted self-reported problem solving skills

Adachi & Willoughby - Method

- sample of 1492 adolescents

- over 4 high school years

- measured on: whether they play strategic and fast paced games, self-reported problem solving skills, and typical school grades via a survey

- longitudinal survey

Adachi & Willoughby - Results

- strategic video game play predicted higher self-reported problem solving skills over time than less strategic play

- supports an indirect association between strategic video game play and academic grades

Adachi & Willoughby - Conclusion

findings are important considering millions of adolescents play video games every day

Storm - Aim

to test the idea that successful use of Google to retrieve information makes it more likely for us to use it in the future rather than recalling via individual memory stores

Storm - Method

- lab experiment

- 60 undergraduate volunteers

- each randomly allocated to 1 of 3 conditions

- conditions: internet, memory, or baseline

- 1st phase: internet participants told to use google to answer 8 difficult general knowledge questions. Memory participants asked to rely on own memory. Baseline condition not asked any questions.

- 2nd phase: all participants asked to answer 8 easy general knowledge questions as fast as possible, and given access to Google but not instructed to use it

Storm - Results

-83% of internet condition used google

-63% memory condition

-65% baseline condition

Storm - Conclusion

- suggests using search engines for info retrieval makes us more likely to do so in the future

- suggests our confidence in the internet diminishes effort in remembering things for ourselves

Mueller & Oppenheimer - AIm

To investigate whether using laptops or other devices may impact learning

Mueller & Oppenheimer - Method

- lab experiment

- volunteer sample of 109 UCLA undergraduate students

- 27 males

- participants given either a laptop or pen and paper

- instructed to take notes on 4 lectures

- told they will be tested in 1 week

- could not take notes home

- each participant watched on a private monitor with headphones

- participants then split into 2 more conditions: study or no study

-study condition given 10min to study notes

- no study conditions immediately tested

- test: 4 questions - 10 per lecture

- questions categorized into "factual" or "conceptual"

Mueller & Oppenheimer - Results

- participants in the longhand condition typically performed better in both types of questions

- when able to study, students performed better in the factual questions

Mueller & Oppenheimer - Conclusion

Whilst taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop notetaker's tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing info and reframing it, is detrimental to learning because it's not using the deeper semantic level of processing