Cognitive Studies IB Psych

HM Milner - Aim

To better understand the effects surgery had on HM.

HM Milner - Procedure

The primary method of Milner was case study. In order to carry out the research, Milner used different strategies.

- Direct Observation of Behavior

- Psychometric Testing: IQ given to HM & his results were above average.

- Interviews from Family

- Cognitive Testing: Memory recall tests & learning tasks such as reverse mirror drawing.

HM Milner - Results

HM could not make new episodic knowledge (memory of events) and he could not acquire new semantic knowledge (general knowledge of world). This suggests that the brain structures that were removed from his brain are important for the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory.

HM had a capacity for short term working memory, since he was able to carry on a normal conversation.

HM Milner - Conclusion

This study challenges idea of a unitary LTM store. This also shows that the hippocampus function encoding STM to LTM.

HM Milner - Link

This study supports Multistore Memory Model because it shows that Long Term and Short-Term memories are two distinct stores.

Gohar et al.

Measure how doing night shifts (call rotations) affects how internal medicine residents sleep and how it affects WM capacity.

Gohar et al. - Procedure

During 2 months, residents completed daily WMC tests, wore sleep-tracking watches, and logged sleep hours.

Study was conducted during call month where it required 30 hour rotations every 4th night. Other months, where they didnt have this rotation was used as the control as they had freedom over their sleep schedule.

Gohar et al. - Results

Residents had less sleep during call month as it varied from 3.7 to 10 hours per night.

Caused greater self-assessed sleepiness and reduced WMC recall scores

They also made math errors during their call rotation.

Gohar et al. - Conclusion

A month of call rotations reduced overall sleep per night.

Less sleep decreased WMC which explains impaired judgement and worse performance.

Gohar et al. - Link

Sleep deprivation decreases functions of Working Memory essential to performing tasks.

Bransford & Johnson - Aim

to investigate the effect of context on comprehension and memory of text passages

What was the procedure used by Bransford and Johnson in their study?

Participants heard a tape-recorded passage of an ambiguous text and were required to recall it as accurately as they could, writing down as many ideas as possible.

What was the first condition in Bransford and Johnson's study?

No context (1): participants heard the passage once.

What was the second condition in Bransford and Johnson's study?

No context (2): participants heard the passage twice.

What was the third condition in Bransford and Johnson's study?

Context before: prior to hearing the passage, participants were given a context picture.

What was the fourth condition in Bransford and Johnson's study?

Context after: the context picture was given after participants already heard the passage.

What was the fifth condition in Bransford and Johnson's study?

Partial Context: participants were given a context picture prior to hearing the passage, but the picture only contained the elements mentioned in the passage without showing how they operate together.

Bransford & Johnson - Results

The passage contained 14 idea units in total, the context before group recalled the most.

Bransford & Johnson - Conclusion

The context before group was the only condition that made a difference in participants ability to comprehend a passage & recall it correctly.

Bransford & Johnson - Link

Appropriate contextual information can facilitate the comprehension of ambiguous passages, but only if the info is provided prior to reading the passage.

Townsend - Aim

To investigate the impact of inappropriate context on the comprehension of a prose passage

Townsend - Procedure

Participants listened to two ambiguous passages about familiar topics under one of four context conditions.The passages were constructed such that they did not explicitly mention the topic. Half of the students were given appropriate contextual information about the passages either just before or just after hearing the passages. The remaining students either received no contextual information or received inappropriate contextual information about the passages. Following an interpolated activity (nonverbal math problems), participants were asked to recall passage information.

Townsend - Results

Recall of the passage information was significantly lower for those subjects who were not able to activate an appropriate schema at the time of acquisition of the material. Students given inappropriate contextual information recalled less material than students given no contextual information.

Townsend - Conclusion

A meaningful prose text can remain relatively incomprehensible when a context does not activate an appropriate schema at the time of acquisition of the title. High levels of comprehension depend on relevant schema being engaged.

Townsend - Link

The activation of inappropriate schema is more debilitating to comprehension than providing no contextual information at all.

Alter et al. - Aim

To investigate the effect of cognitive disfluency, on the use of rational thinking over intuitive thinking.

Alter et al. - Procedure

Participants randomly assigned to two conditions to take CRT (Cognitive Reflection Test)

Disfluent condition was given CRT in hard to read font and fluent condition given easy to read font. CRT is a test designed to trick brain into giving quick wrong answers.

Alter et al - Results

Participants answered more items on CRT correctly in disfluent condition than fluent condition. At least 90% of part. in fluent condition answered one question incorrectly as they answered more intuitively.

Alter et al. - Conclusion

When CRT is hard to read, participants engaged in systematic system 2 processing and overcame invalid intuitions to answer correctly.

Alter et al. - Link

Engaging in system 2 thinking allows for more rational, correct responses.

Chapman & Bornstein - Aim

Investigate the effects of anchors on mock jurors compensation awards.

Chapman & Bornstein - Procedure

Mock jurors given a hypothetical case where a plaintiff sued her health maintenance org. (HMO), claiming birth control pill prescribed gave her cancer.

The 4 conditions received info & instructions - only difference was compensation.

After reading case, participants asked whether the defendant (HMO) was liable; if liable compensation would be awarded to plaintiff.

Chapman & Bornstein - Results

45% of participants found HMO liable. As anchor value increased, evidence was more favorable to the plaintiff.

Chapman & Bornstein - Conclusion

The amount requested serves as an anchor that affects perceived liability & compensation awards in civil cases.

Chapman & Bornstein - Link

The anchor shapes the judgement of the evidence and the defendant.

Englich & Mussweiler - Aim

To investigate whether prosecutor's recommended sentence influences the sentencing decision made by the judge

Englich & Mussweiler - Procedure

2 Conditions - high anchor and low anchor

The participants were given a case of alleged rape*.

· High Anchor Condition: Prosecutor recommended a sentence of 34 months

· Low Anchor Condition: Prosecutor recommended a sentence of 2 months

Participants were given the case materials along with copies of the penal code. They were asked to read through the materials and form an opinion about the case. After they had formed an opinion about the case (about 15 minutes), they were given a questionnaire. They were then asked what sentence they reccomended.

Englich & Mussweiler - Results

When presented with a low anchor of two months, the average sentence was 18.78 months.

When presented with high anchor, the average sentence was 28.70 months.

Englich & Mussweiler - Conclusion

The recommended sentence by the prosecutor did influence the judge's sentencing decision.

Englich & Mussweiler - Link

Anchors have the ability to influence the decisions made in court cases.

Loftus & Prickell - Aim

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

Loftus & Prickell - Procedure

Before the study, a parent or sibling of the participant was contacted and asked two questions. First, could you retell three childhood memories of the participant? Second, do you remember a time when the participant was lost in a mall?

The participants then received a questionnaire in the mail. There were four memories that they were asked to write about and then mail back the questionnaire to the psychologists. Three events were real and one was "getting lost in the mall."

The participants were interviewed twice over a period of four weeks. They were asked to recall as much information as they could about the four events. Then they were asked to rate their level of confidence about the memories on a scale of 1 - 10.

Loftus & Prickell - Results

About 25% of the participants "recalled" the false memory. However, they also ranked this memory as less confident than the other memories and they wrote less about the memory on their questionnaire.

Loftus & Prickell - Conclusion

People can be led to believe that entire events happened to them after suggestions to that effect.

Loftus & Prickell - Link

Suggestions of an event that didn't happen can lead to create false memories of that event.

Wade et al. - Aim

To investigate whether exposure to altered photographs can lead to false memories.

Wade et al. - Procedure

Subjects were interviewed about 4 photographs three times over a 7-16-day period. Three of the photographs were real childhood experiences - birthday parties, family holiday, etc. One photograph was fake - the subject riding in a hot-air balloon.

During interview 1 & 3, they were asked their confidence of remembering the event.

During interview 2, they asked if they had remembered more of the event.

To be classified as having a clear false memory, a subject had to report memories of the critical balloon ride, including consistent elaboration of information not depicted in the photograph

Wade et al. - Results

Of the 60 true events (3 from 20 subjects), the subjects recalled information about 56 (93%) at Interview 1 and 58 (96.7%) at Interview 3, an average of 2.9 real memories each by Interview 3.

At the end of 3 interviews, a total of 10 (50%) subjects recalled the false event either partially or clearly - claiming to remember at least some details of a hot air balloon ride during childhood (that subjects never experienced).

Wade et al. - Conclusion

False photographs can produce false memories of childhood experiences.

Wade et al. - Link

False images can manipulate memory by creating false ones through suggestion.

Sharot et al. - Aim

To investigate the neural mechanism of flashbulb memory by comparing the brain response to recollecting the 9/11 attack as compared to control events

Sharot et al. - Procedure

Three years after the attacks participants were asked to retrieve memories of that day as well as memories of personally selected control events from 2001. Participants were split into 2 groups:

· The Downtown Group (they had been in downtown Manhattan, close to the World Trade Center, at the time of the attack)

· The Midtown Group (they were a few miles away from the place of attack).

Placed in a fMRI scanner, participants saw a series of 60 cue words, either "summer" or "September." On seeing the word September they had to provide a memory related to the terrorist attack. On seeing the word summer they had to provide an autobiographical memory from the preceding summer of 2001.

Sharot et al. - Results

Selective activation of the left amygdala occurred when participants were recalling events from 9/11, but not control events. Participants in the down town group had more activation of amygdala that midtown group.

Sharot et al. - Conclusion

Selective activation of the left amygdala may be the neural mechanism of flashbulb memories. The pattern of results confirms that activation is higher when the participant is closer to the place of the attack (so the event is more personally consequential).

Sharot et al. - Link

Flashbulb memories activate the amygdala because of their high emotional value.

Neisser & Harch - Aim

To investigate participants' memory of the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion.

Neisser & Harch - Procedure

The day after the Challenger explosion, 106 participants were given a questionnaire asking them to describe the circumstances surrounding receiving the news.

Seeing many discrepancies between the original answers and the subsequent answers, researchers conducted interviews. The interviewer presented a prepared retrieval cue with the hope of prompting the original memories.

Neisser & Harch - Results

Participants confidence about the correctness of their memory was high. Consistency of responses between the two points in time was low.

Participants were very confident in their responses on both occasions, and when shown their own questionnaire from nearly three years earlier and asked to explain the discrepancies in the answers they couldnt.

Neisser & Harch - Conclusion

We can have a very detailed and vivid memory about something, while at the same time this something did not happen the way we remember. Flashbulb memory remains vivid, but accuracy is questionable.

Neisser & Harch - Link

Flashbulb memories are vivid but susceptible to memory distortion over time.