Year 12 ATAR Psychology

Convenience sampling

Gathering a sample group of people that are readily available to the experimenter. Can cause bias, and not represent the whole population.

Random sampling

Equal chance of every available member of the population being selected for the sample group

Stratified sampling

People are broken into groups based off of relevant characteristics (i.e. age) and then an equal amount of people from each group is selected. Very representative, but time consuming.

Snowball Sampling (Description + Advantages)

Participants recruit more participants and those participants recruit even more…. helpful if the population size is small (i.e. rare disease), as contacts can help increase the sample size.

Experimental Design: Independent-Groups

Refers to the random allocation of members of the sample group to the control or experimental group. Is cost and time effective, but due to its random nature there is a chance that there could be differences between the members of both groups (an extraneous variable).

Experimental Design: Matched-Participants

Participants are paired with one another based off of shared characteristics, with each member of the pair being assigned randomly to the control or experimental group. This helps to elimenate differences between participants as an extraneous variable, however it is quite cost and time inefficient seeing as a pre-test needs to occur to gague the participants abilities before matching them. Also, if a participant drops out, their pair also needs to be removed.

Experimental Design: Repeated-Measures

A single group is exposed to both the control and experimental conditions. This completely elimenates differences between participants as an extraneous variable and is time effective, however it can lead to the ‘order effect’. This refers to how results might change due to the sequence of the controlled and experimental tests - after completing the same test twice, motivation might decrease or skill might increase which could skew the results.

Research Design: Experimental

Involves the manipulation of a single independent variable to establish a cause and effect relationship.

Research Design: Non-Experimental

Research where the variable for the investiagation is unable to be manipulated but may be measured.

Research Design: Observational

Behaviour is systematically recorded and observed in a real life / natural setting. Difficult to remove extraneous variables.

Research Design: Case Study

An in depth investigation of a single individual, event, community, etc. Limited participants, so hard to generalise, but can be very useful for incredibly small populations.

Research Design: Correlational

Observing the strength in relationships between variables. Measurable, but not manipulatable. Correlation does not equal causation, making this less reliable.

Research Design: Longitudinal

Studying the changes seen in the sample over time, participants usually being surveyed once a year. Suffers from being time-consuming, expensive, and having guaranteed dropouts. Very representative data.

Research Design: Cross-Sectional

Cross-sectional studies are once-off studies in which people of differing areas of a population are all experimented on at once.

Reliability

The consistency of a test - does a test produce the same / similar results every time? Tests with low sample sizes are less reliable.

Tests must be reliable across…

• Time (test-retest reliability)

• Materials (internal consistency)

• Researchers (interrater reliability)

Validity

The degree to which a test or measure adequately addresses the research question and what it intends to measure

Qualitative data

Any form of open-ended question that measures non-numerical data or data that cannot be mapped to a numerical value.

Quantitative data

Data that is numerical and can be plotted onto a graph or table

Subjective data

Anecdotal information that comes from opinions, perceptions, or experiences. For example, a description of symptoms or pain level.

Objective data

Information that is considered factual and unable to be disputed regardless of the person interpreting or presenting it.

Independent Variable

The variable which is manipulated

Dependent Variable

The variable which is measured as a result of manipulations to the independent variable

Control Variable

A variable which stays unchanging in the study as it could influence results

Confounding variable

Types of extraneous variables which influence both the dependent and independent variable, distorting the relationship between both.

Extraneous Variables

Variables which are not being investigated that could affect the outcome of the study

Participant-related extraneous variables + example

Participant extraneous variables may mean that the participant is causing the dependent variable to appear differently. Perhaps they are more skilled at the task than other participants.

Researcher-related extraneous variables

Demand characteristics and the experimenter effect

Environment-related extraneous variables

Environment extraneous variables are variables related to the environment that skew the results of the test. Maybe the environment is too noisy, distracting participants.

Subjective Data: 3 Examples

Pain level, levels of happiness, opinions towards subjects

Objective Data: 3 Examples

Heart rate, hormone levels, breath rate

Experimenter Effect

The potential bias in the experimenter to interpret data or influence participants to come to the conclusion they desire.

Demand Characteristics

Where participants subconsciously form an assumpton of the experimenters aim based off of the experimenter effect and change their behaviours

Random Allocation of Participants

Randomly allocates certain participants to either the control or the experimental group of a study to reduce risk of researcher bias

Single-Blind Procedures

When the participant is unaware of the group they are in, but the experimenter is. Limits likelihood of demand characteristics.

Standardisation of Procedures

The procedures participants undertake must be identical to ensure data is valid and reliable.

Scatterplot

Uses dots to represent the value of two seperate variables, and used to observe a correlation between those variables.

Bar / Column Graph (Description, Axes)

Uses rectangular bars with gaps between. The Y axis represents the value, and the X axis represents the category / variable. For a column graph, this is swapped.

Line Graph (Description, Axes)

Used to represent changes over time. The Y axis represents the value of the variable, whereas the X axis represents the position in time.

Histogram (Description, Axes, Example)

Used to plot the frequency of a particular data point. The Y axis represents the frequency and the X axis represents the numerical classes - for example, the frequency of age groups

Directional Hypothesis

A hypothesis in which the relationship between two variables can be predicted directionally (e.g. people with caffeine will score higher)

Non-Directional Hypothesis

A hypothesis in which the relationship between two variables can be predicted, but a direction is not given (e.g. caffeine will have an impact on score - not specifying whether it will be pos. or neg.)

Inquiry Question

A question which aims to explore an aspect of a psychological topic without making claims or assumptions. Answered by the hypothesis.

Memory

The ability to retain and recall information or representations of past experiences over an extended period of time.

Sensation

The passive psychological process of sensory organs receiving sensory information from the environment and sending it to relevant brain structures - experiencing the world

Perception

The active psychological process involving the organisation and interpretation of sensory stimulus - observing the world

Three Stages of Sesnation

1. Reception: physical stimuli is detected by receptors in sensory organs

2. Transduction: environmental stimuli is converted into an electrochemical nerve impulse

3. Transmission: nerve impulses are sent along sensory neurons to relevant areas of the brain

Three Stages of Perception

1. Selection: our brain is selective with what reaches our attention due to the millions of stimuli entering at once

2. Organisation: storage of sensory information into relevant categories within the brain, allowing us to make sense of it

3. Interpretation: stimuli is then given meaning by comparing it to already stored information

Attention

The process of attending to specific stimuli / aspects of our environment whether consciously or unconsciously.

Selective Attention

Choosing and attending to a singular specific stimuli whilst excluding / filtering other distracting stimuli. Can apply to important stimuli or stimuli you’re searching for, for example hearing your name may draw your selective attention away from your conversation to the other one

5 Changes in Stimulus that can Attract our Attention + Examples

• Movement: moving stimuli is more attention-grabbing than stationary stimuli - blinking light vs flickering one

• Contrast: a stimuli which is noticeably different from its surroundings will grab attention - black stain on white shirt vs white stain on white shirt

• Intensity: the same stimulus as surroundings but intensified will be more likely to grab our attention - loud noise vs quiet noise

• Size: a stimulus that is larger (and sometimes smaller) than average will be more likely to catch our attention - 6”10 man vs 5”10 man

• Duration / Repetition: A brief stimulus is less noticeable than one that persists - however those which persist too long might cause people to get used to them - one beep vs 10 in a row vs 1,000 in a row

Divided Attention + 2 Examples

The distribution of attention among two or more stimulus so that two or more activities may be completed at once (listening to a teacher and taking notes). Two complex tasks cannot be done at once, and two tasks relying on the same areas of the brain are also difficult (can’t read a book and an email at once).

Cocktail Party Effect - Theorist and Date

Cherry, 1953

Cocktail Party Effect - Theory

Accounts for the human ability to understand a conversation despite distracting stimuli surrounding

Cocktail Party Effect - 6 Factors that Influence it

• Transition probabilities - ability to interpret what words might have been said from surrounding context

• Spatial continuity - easier to understand when speaker remains stationary

• Bodily language - allows us to interpret intent and meaning easier

• Volume - easier to understand when speaker is louder than surroundings

• Visual channel effects - our brain can associate sounds with the speakers they originate from

• Continuity - when speaking with someone things such as their frequency, pitch, and accent tend to stay constant

Cocktail Party Effect - 2 Strengths

Heightens our understanding of communication in crowded environments, supporting learning in challenging auditory contexts

Cocktail Party Effect - 2 Limitations

Becomes no longer applicable when in extremely loud environments, does not account for individual differences in auditory focus or perception

Cocktail Party Effect - 2 Applications

Group discussions in which you need to focus only on your group, loud environments such as parties, clubs, or concerts

Three Stages of Memory Processing

Encoding: The process of putting information into a form which our brain can understand

Storage: The maintainence of encoded information within a memory store in an organised fashion so that we can retrieve it easily

Retrieval: The process of temporarily transferring a memory from long-term to short-term memory in order to display it wiithin our mind and bring it to conscious attention

Multi-Store Model of Memory (Theorist and Date)

Atkinson and Schiffrin, 1968

Multi-Store Model of Memory (Model)

Sensory input stored in sensory memory, information attended to enters short-term memory (whereas information not attended to is lost rapidly), unrehearsed information in short term memory is lost, with maintainence and elaborative rehearsal bringing the information into long-term memory

Sensory Memory (Iconic and Echoic, Duration, Capacity, Encoding)

Holds a sensory register for each sense represented as an exacy copy of the original sensation.

Iconic memory: Around 0.3 seconds, keeps the world from being a blur of constant images whilst also allowing us to see movement rather than individual frames

Echoic memory: 3-4 seconds, allows us to understand sentences in full rather than a series of distinct sounds - sounds remain in echoic memory until the full context of the sentence is gained before being encoded

Theoretically infinite in size, though very temporary. Information is encoded into short-term memory if the stimulus is paid attention to.

Short-Term Memory (Duration, Capacity, Encoding)

Holds all thoughts, infomration, and experiences that we are aware of at any given time. Can hold 5-9 pieces of information for 12-30 seconds. Any information in short-term that is not rehearsed will not enter long-term memory and will drop out of the model.

Long-Term Memory (Duration, Capacity, Encoding)

Long term memories are encoded through elaborative rehearsal or repeated uninterrupted maintenance rehearsal over an extended period of time. Information is more strongly encoded when it has connections to prior knowledge, or when we have utilised it many times. 

Information in long-term memory can theoretically last forever, however over time information not attended to may decay or become inaccessible. The capacity is also theoretically infinite.

Procedural Memory

The long-term memory store that stores our knowledge on how to complete tasks or actions with little to no conscious effort. Procedural memories are very resistent to forgetting.

Declarative Memory

The long-term memory store for explicit, specific, or factual information (i.e. names, faces, words, dates, rules) and events. They require conscious effort for retrieval, and are generally more complex.

Semantic Memory

A subsect of declarative memory dfocussed on the storage and inrerpretation of facts and information

Episodic Memory

Our long-term declarative memory store responsible for the storage, maintenance, and interpretation of events and the feelings associated with them.

Multi-Store Memory Model - 2 Strengths

Provided the groundwork that inspired much more in-depth research into memory, as well as being the basis of more complex theories.

Multi-Store Memory Model - 2 Limitations

Displays a rather oversimplified view on memory, with modern research suggesting that memory is far more complex.
Does not account for factors such as strategic learning and motivation when considering transfer of information between STM and LTM.

Multi-Store Memory Model - 2 Applications

Allows us to understand how to improve our memory in certain situations, such as remembering a scene of a crime in order to assist investigators through rehearsal.

May also have appplication in helping dementia patients - if they have trouble rehearsing information they could write it down or label things to reinforce connections in memory.

Working Memory Model (Theorists, Date)

Baddeley and Hitch, 1974

Working Memory Model - Key Features, Active or Passive?

A hypothetical construct which attempts to describe the process of memory and how visual and verbal material is processed and stored. The theory emphasises the active nature of short-term memory as opposed to previous theories stating it was passively maintained

Central Executive: 3 Main Functions

• Inhibition: Screening out of unwanted stimulus (selection in the MSM)

• Switching: Changing our attention from one thing to another

• Updating: Modifying items from LTM before re-committing them

Phonological Loop + Subsections

Auditory working memory, allows us to understand sentences that are longer than a few words - it retains the information from the beginning of a sentence until we have heard the words from the end.

The phonological store processes speech perception, and stores auditory information for 1-2 seconds, acting as an inner ear.

The articulatory control process acts as this structures maintenance rehearsal, keeping information in the phonological store by repeating it. It also converts written material into auditory information that the phonological store can interpret.

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Visual working memory store responsible for storing and encoding visual language, as well as imagining what things might look like (our imaginatiion)

Episodic Bufffer

Takes information out of long-term memory and sends it to the central executive, and trsnsfers information back into long-term memory, bridges the two stores. It also unifies information from the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop to create a single unified memory, or ‘episode’, for episodic long-term memory.

Working Memory Model - 2 Strengths

It expands on the simple theory of the multi-store model of memory.

It explains individual processes such as verbal reasoning, comprehension, reading, problem solving, and visual / spatial processing.

Working Memory Model - 2 Limitations

Does not account for blind people - the presence of the visuospatial sketchpad states that all spatial information was once visual, however blind people have excellent sptaial awareness. It also does not account for the entire system of memory, only focussing on short-term.

Working Memory Model - Applications

A correlation between high-achieving academics and high working memory capacity has been identified. Therefore, it can be theorised that low-achieving students struggle due to lower working memory capacity. Also explains why listening to lyrical music decreases effectiveness in study, as the lyrical information mixes up wiith the factual information being learned. It also takes conscious effort on the part of the central executive to ignore the music.

Hippocampus in Memory Formation

Has a major role in the formation and consolidation of long-term declarative memories, as well as the retrieval of them. New memories are formed via cell reproduction.

After the memories are formed they are consolidated into more relevant areas of the cerebral cortex during sleep.

Henry Molaison

A key figure in case studies who had his amygdala removed. His newly-formed anterograde amnesia showed psychologists the role that certain brain structures have in the consolidation of long-term memories, as well as revealing the distinction between types of memories, as he was able to learn new skills but unable to learn new facts or information.

Cerebellum in Memory Formation

Works with the motor cortex to form motor memories. Procedural memories are encoded, processed, and stored here. The cerebellum activates the relevant neural pathways on its own when the procedural memory is needed to complete an action, allowing us to complete these actions automatically.

Amygdala in Memory Formation

Attaches emotional significance to memories, with memories with strong emotional associations being difficult to forget - fear especially is extremely difficult to forget, with fearful memories being fully encoded after just a few rehearsals.

Retrieval Failure

This theory suggests that we forget things due to the neccessary memory cues not being present, stating that the memory we seek is still in our brain, just that the relevant neural pathways can’t be accessed. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon stems from this, where we might feel we know a piece of information but we can’t access it. This theory opposes decay theory.

Proactive Interference

The tendency for people to struggle with learning new information due to previously learned and similar information conflicting with it (i.e. struggling to learn a new phone number after using your old one for years)

Retroactive Interference

The tendency for people to struggle with recalling old information due to interference of newly learned similar material (i.e. after having a new phone number for a few years you will find it difficult to recall your last one)

Motivated Forgetting

The process of consciously or unconsciously intentioally forgetting material with the goal of reducing stress, anxiety, or the impacts of severe trauma.

Suppression

The act of consciously forgetting memories by avoiding stimulus which might remind one of the event and pretending it didn’t happen

Repression

The unconscious forgetting of a memory. Harmful thoughts, experiences, and feelings are unconsciously pushed to the back of our mind in order to allow us to function at a relatively healthy state

Decay Theory

Proposes that memories which are not strengthened decay over time. Inactive neural pathways which hold memories weaken without use, limiting our ability to recall information. This theory opposes retrieval failure theory.

Free Recall (Definition + Example)

Utilised when people need to recall as many items of information as possible in no particular order (e.g. a shopping list)

Serial Recall (Definition + Example)

Recalling information in the order in which it was initially presented (e.g. the digits of pi)

Cued Recall (Definition + Example)

The utilisation of various prompts in order to recall information (e.g. thinking of the first letter of a name to recall the entire name)

Recognition (Definition + Example)

The ability to identify correct information when it is surrounded by incorrect information (e.g. a multiple choice quiz)

Relearning (Definition + Example)

When learning information which has been previously encoded but left unused the process of encoding that information again is faster (e.g. relearning a foreign language which hasn’t been used in years)

The Levels of Processing Model of Memory - Theorists and Date

Craik and Lockhart, 1972

The Levels of Processing Model of Memory - Theory

Argues that memory is not made up of specific and seperate stores, rather that it is a continuous dimension where the ease at which we recall information depends on the depth at which that memory is processed.

Structural Processing + Example

Pieces of information are encoded based off their physical / visual features (e.g. letters in a word). Shallow processing.

Phonemic Processing + Example

Pieces of information are encoded based off their sounds / auditory properties (e.g. memorising words based off how they rhyme). Shallow processing.