IB Psychology - Cognitive approach studies

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966) - Experiment 2 (STM) - Procedure

- 46 men (obtained as an opportunity sample from those enlisted in the army) were each individually shown fifteen 15-word lists, under 3 different conditions.

1) Recall immediately after the list had been shown
2) Recall 10 seconds after, with the interference of counting backwards from a random number that was given
3) Recall 30 seconds after, with the same type of interference task.

- For each participant, the words were assigned at random to the lists, and order of the delay conditions within the 15 lists was assigned at random.
- This meant that each participant received a different set of lists and a different sequence of delay conditions.

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966) - Experiment 2 (STM) - Findings

- The 10-second delay was sufficient to remove most of the end peak of the curve
- this means that the delay and interference removed the recency effect associated with STM.
- with 30 second delay, there is no trace at all of the recency effect.

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966) - Experiment 2 (STM) - Conclusion

results supported the hypothesis of 2 distinct storage mechanisms for STM as shown the decrease in recency effect when delay and interference prevented rehearsal.

HM: Milner (1966) - Evaluation

- case study, longitudinal (over 50 years) - Change could be observed over time. Case studies also use method triangulation.
- cannot be easily replicated.
- some of the study was retrospective in nature - do not have a lot of data on HM's actual cognitive abilities before the accident.
- medication taken to treat epilepsy may have resulted in some of the damage, but this is not highly relevant as it is the damage to specific parts of the brain that is important.
- high ecological validity - no variables were manipulated and HM was observed in his natural environment
- met high ethical standards of consent, confidentiality and protection from harm.

Brewer and Treyens (1981) - Schema Theory & Reconstructive memory - Aim

A: to study the role of schema in the encoding and retrieval of memory.

Brewers and Treyens (1981) - Findings

- 93% said no when they were asked if they knew they had to remember the objects.
- Participants who were asked to recall either by writing a paragraph or drawing, they were more likely to remember items in the office that were congruent with their schema of an office. Incongruent items were not often remembered
- When they were asked to select items on the list, they were more likely to identify the incongruent items. However, they also had a higher rate of identifying objects which were schema congruent but not in the room.
- In both the drawing the recall condition, they tend to change the nature of the objects to match their schema.

Brewers and Treyens (1981) - Conclusion

Schema played a role in both the encoding and recall of the objects in the office.

Brewers and Treyens (1981) - Evaluation

- there is no way to verify the schema of the participants prior to the experiment, but the researchers did a pilot study by using a questionnaire with students to determine schema consistent objects.

- Ethical concerns (deception): Participants had agreed to be in the study but they were deceived about the true nature of the study and were not told when the experiment had begun. This was necessary to avoid demand characteristics.

- The results do not indicate high number of errors and do not explain why some recalled these object yet the others did not.

Tverksy and Kahnemann (1974) - Aim

to test the influence of the anchoring bias on decision making.

Tverksy and Kahnemann (1974) - Method

lab experiment

Tverksy and Kahnemann (1974) - Procedure

- High school students.
- Participants were asked to compute within 5 seconds the product of the numbers one through 8 (either in ascending or descending order).
- The product is the same.
- Since they didn't have time to finish the calculation, they had to make an intuitive numerical calculation based on the first calculations.
- The researchers spun a roulette that was pre-set to either stop at 10 (low anchor) or 65 (high anchor), which was the IV in this part.
- They were then asked to estimate in percentages, how many African countries were in the UN. t( They were also given other problems too)
- Since we read from left to right, the researchers assumed that group 1 would use "1" as an anchor and predict a lower value than the group that started with "8" as the anchor.
- They also assumed that the anchor of 10 or 65 would influence the estimate of African countries in the second problem.

Tverksy and Kahnemann (1974) - Findings

Participants were asked to make many types of decisions.

- asked to compute within 5 seconds the product of the numbers 1-8 (ascending /descending order). The product is the same. They had to make an intuitive numerical calculation based on the 1st calculations.

- researchers spun a roulette that was pre-set to either stop at 10 (low anchor) or 65 (high anchor), which was IV int his part. They were then asked to estimate the %, how many African countries were in the UN.

- The researchers assumed that group 1 would use "1" as an anchor and predict a lower value than the group that started with "8" as the anchor. They also assumed that the anchor of 10 or 65 would influence the estimate of African countries in the second problem.

Tverksy and Kahnemann (1974) - Conclusion

- The first number seen by the participants seems to have biased the final estimate. Since they had no time to calculate in 5 seconds, they had to make an estimation base don the first few multiplications. When those numbers were smaller, the estimate was smaller.

Tverksy and Kahnemann (1974) - Evaluation

- clear correlation between anchoring number and anchoring number and estimated number
- multiple experiments to corroborate.
- no clear relation to anchoring and decision making in experiment
- the less than and greater than question could have influenced the subjects into anchoring their number when in real life no such question would be asked.

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 1 - Aim

A: to investigate whether the phrasing of a question influences recall of an event.

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 1 - Procedure

- 2 lab experiments (independent measures design)
- opportunity sample of 45 college students from Uni for the first experiment and 150 participants for the second.
- they were shown 5-30 seconds film clips of traffic accidents
- after each film they filled a questionnaire about what they had seen and also asked about questions about the accident.
- CQ: 'About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?"
- Different conditions were used, ('smashed', 'collided', 'bumped', 'hit', and 'contacted'.
- they also had to estimate the speed in miles per hour.

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 1 - Findings

- Higher mean speed estimate was for the word "smashed" (40.8mph) and the lowest mean speed estimate was for "contacted" (31.8mph) (p<0.005).

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 1 - Conclusion

- The speed estimate was moderated by the verb used to describe the intensity of the crash. The greater the intensity conveyed by the word, the higher the speed estimate to match it.
- The researchers also suggested that the estimate could be the result of demand characteristics. Since the participants were unsure of the speed, they offered a figure that they thought would be most suited for the purpose of the study. Again, the choice of verb acted as cue to make the participant guess what range of speed the researcher might be looking for.

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 1 & 2 - Evaluation

- experimental design allowed for the control of variables
- quantitative data allows for subsequent statistical analysis.
- the participants were students from one US uni, so the results cannot be generalised unconditionally to a larger or more diverse population.
- lack ecological validity ( people are more likely to react differently when witnessing a real life scenario similar to the one shown in the video)
- Might have responded to demand characteristics. No information is available about the driving skills of the participants.

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 2 - Aim

A: to investigate whether the differences in speed estimation in the first experiment could be due to the form of the question (schema processing).

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 2 - Procedure

- 150 participants were divided into 3 groups.
- all watch a 1 minute film on a multiple-car accident.
- answered questions about the film.
- CQ: ' How fast were the cars going when they 'hit' each other?
- verb was changed to 'smashed' in the comparison group.
- control group was not asked to estimate the speed.
- they returned a week later.
- were not shown the film but were asked questions about the film.
- CQ: 'Did you see any broken glass?"

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 2 - Evaluation

- lack ecological validity - difficult to generalise the findings to real life.

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 2 - Findings

- The word 'smashed', which implies a more forceful impact, drew more than twice as many 'yes' responses as when the word 'hit' was used and as compared with the control group.

Loftus & Palmer (1974) - Study 2 - Conclusion

The estimates of the presence of glass increased with the intensity of the verb used to describe the crash.

Brown and Kulik (1977) - Flashbulb memory - Aim

A: To investigate if flashbulb memories are a distinct form of memory: more vivid, distinct, highly detailed, as opposed to everyday memories.

Brown and Kulik (1977) - Flashbulb memory - Procedure

- 80 participants (age 20-60), 40 were Caucasian and 40 were African American.
- Participants were asked to answer questionnaires about how vividly they recalled, how they felt, and where they were when they found out about important public events such as assassinations of martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy.
- they were asked to remember if they have had any flashbulb memories of personal events such as the birth or death of a family member.
- Answers were submitted in the form of free recall of unlimited length.

Brown and Kulik (1977) - Findings

- They had very clear memories of where they were, what they did, and what they felt when they first learned about an important public occurrence such as the assassination of JFK or MLK Jr.
- They also reported surprise and consequentiality.
- The structural forms of these memories were very similar (reception context).
-Personal relevance influenced whether the participants had memories of public events (75% AA participants had a flashbulb memory of the assassination of MLK vs 33% of Caucasian participants).
- All but one of the 80 informations had FB memories about the assassination of JFK.
- 73% said they had typical FB memories associated with a personal shock such as the death of a close relative.

Brown and Kulik (1977) - Conclusion

- FB memories are long lasting and include information about where, when, and with whom information is received. People form FB memories of events that have important consequences for them (more emotion = more rehearsal = FBM)

Brown and Kulik (1977) - Evaluation

- Relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of gathering information from a large sample of people.
- High ecological validity
- Low internal validity
- no cause and effect relationship
- the memories of the participants may have been reconstructed or been influenced by schemas, lowering the reliability of their responses as external information may have had a greater impact than individual recall.
- Although both AA and Caucasian individuals participated in the study, the findings may not apply to foreign cultures as the study took place in a country only.

Sharot et al (2007) - Flashbulb memory - Aim

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

Sharot et al (2007) - Procedure

- quasi experiment- conducted 3 years after the 9/.11 terrorist attacks in Manhattan.- 24 participants who where in NYC on that day were the samples used.- put in to an fMRI- while in the scanner, they were presented with word cues on a screen. ( a list of words)- In addition, the word "summer" or "September" was projected along with this word in order to have the participant link the word to either summer holidays or to the events of 9/11.- Their brain activity is observed while they recall the event.- Memories of personal events from the summer served as a baseline of brain activity for evaluating the nature of 9/11 memories.- participants were asked to rate their memories of vividness, detail confidence in accuracy and arousal.- they were also asked to write a description of their personal memories.

Sharot et al (2007) - Findings

- 1/2 of the participants actually reported having "flashbulb" memories of the event (a greater sense of detail and a strong confidence in the accuracy of the memory).- those who reported having flashbulb memory also reported that they were closer to the World Trade Centre on the day of the attack.- participants closer to the WTC also included more specific details in their written memories.- The found that 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, whereas those participants who were further away form the event had equal levels of response in the amygdala when recalling both events.

Sharot et al (2007) - Conclusion

The strength of amygdala activation at retrieval was shown to correlate with flashbulb memories. These results suggest that close personal experience may be critical in engaging the neural mechanism that produce vivid memories characteristic of flashbulb memory.

Sharot et al (2007) - Evaluation

- correlational in nature and does not establish a cause and effect relationship.- environment of the fMRI and the tasks the participants were asked to do is highly artificial - and this low in ecological validity. However, because of the nature of the task , demand characteristics are not really possible.- although the study demonstrates the role of amygdala as a result of proximity to the event, it does not explain why some people have vivid memories after seeing events on television or the internet.- sample size is a small and culturally biased. Research indicates that individualistic cultures are more likely to have flashbulb memories than collectivistic cultures. This makes the findings difficult to generalise.

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) - Eyewitness - Aim

To determine whether leading questions would affect the memory of eyewitness at a real crime scene.

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) - Procedure

- Crime scene: Vancouver.
- A thief entered a gun shop and tied up the owner before stealing money and guns from the shop.
- As the incident took place in front of the shop, there was an eyewitness - 21 were interviewed by the police.
- researchers chose this incident because there were enough witnesses and there was forensic evidence available to confirm the stories of the eyewitness.
- researchers contacted the eyewitnesses 4 months after the event.
- 13 agreed to be interviewed as part of the study.
- they gave their account of the incident, and then they were asked questions.
- 2 leading questions were used
- 1/2 of the group were asked if they saw " a broken headlight on the getaway car." and the other 1/2 were asked if they saw "the broken headlight".
- there was in fact no broken headlight
- the 2nd question asked 1/2 of the group if they saw "the" yellow panel on the car, and the other half was asked if they saw "a" yellow panel on the car.
- The panel was actually blue.
- They were also asked to rate their stress on the day of the event on a 7 point scale.

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) - Findings

- Eyewitness were actually very reliable.
- They recalled large amount of accurate detail that could be confirmed by the original police reports.
- They also did not make errors as a result of the leading questions.
- 10/13 of them said there was no broken headlight or yellow quarter panel, or they had not noticed those particular details.
- the accuracy of the witnesses compared to the original police reports was between 79% and 84%. It appears that this research contradict Loftus & Palmer (1974).
- It could be lack of emotional response to the video that it was shown in their study that played a key role in the influence of leading questions.
- The witnesses reported that they didn't remember feeling afraid during the incident, but "adrenaline rush".

Yuille and Cutshall (1986) - Evaluation

- Even this was done in lab conditions, the actual context of the experiment was naturalistic, however, it is not a natural experiment.
- researchers manipulated the variable which was the use of misleading questions.
- purposive sample (sample chosen because they were eyewitness to the crime) only people who meet the requirement could participate in the study.
- there was archival evidence (police records of the original testimonies) to confirm the accuracy of the memories.
- study is not replicable and not generalisable since it was a one-off incident; there was no control of variables, so it's difficult to know the level of rehearsal that was used by a different eyewitness.
- there was an attempt of deceiving the participants. As consent was given by all participants, the idea that undue stress or harm would be caused by being asked to recall the incident is unfounded.
- researcher bias: the quantification of the qualitative responses from the participants is problematic

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) - Evaluation

- carefully designed experiments that manipulated the IV of time delay before recall and interference before recall whilst controlling all other variables.
- the primacy and recency effect support Atkinson & Shiffrin's MSM by suggesting 2 separate stores for STM and LTM.
- all participants were adult males. The experiment needs to be repeated with females and children, to see if there would be any difference in the results.
- theoretically, the longer the delay at the end of the list should act to improve the primacy effect as well as decrease the recency effect, but this was not noted and could not be explained, except perhaps by referral to the interference task that may have blocked retrieval of the earlier words.

HM: Milner (1966) - Aim

to better understand the effects that the surgery had on patient HM.

HM suffered from anterograde amnesia

HM: Milner (1966) - Procedure

Longitudinal case study

- method triangulation- psychometric testing: IQ test - results were above average.- direct observation of his behaviour- interviews with both Hm and with family members.- cognitive testing: memory recall tests as well as learning tasks - reverse mirror drawing- Corkin later did an MRI scan to determine the extent of damage done to HM's brain.

HM: Milner (1966) - Findings

- he could not acquire new episodic knowledge (memory for events) and he could not acquire new semantic knowledge (general knowledge about the world). This suggests that the brain structures that were removed from his brain are important for the transfer of information from ST to LT memory.- able to form a cognitive map of the spatial layout of his house. - this type of memory is not encoded in the same way as semantic or episodic memories.- He had the capacity for working memory (could talk, remember a number a while).- memories in the form of motor skills (procedural memories, were well maintained); knew how to mow the lawn and could learn new skills like reverse mirror drawing.

HM: Milner (1966) - Key findings

- memory system in the brain constitute a high specialised and complex system.- hippocampus play s a critical role in converting memories of experiences from ST to LT memory.- However, researchers found that ST memory is not stored in the hippocampus as HM was able to retain information for a while if he rehearsed it.- Since hM was able to retain some memories for events that happened long before his surgery indicated that the medial temporal region is not the site of permanent storage but rather plays a. role in the organisation and permanent storage of memories elsewhere in the brain.

HM: Milner (1966): Evaluation

- case study - longitudinal (over 50 years) - change could be observed over time -method triangulation.- cannot be easily replicated - however, there are several other case studies of patients like HM - Clive wearing - which conforms the findings.- high ecological validity - no variables were manipulated and HM was observed in his natural environment.- Milner's research met high ethical standards of consent, confidentiality and protection from harm.

Landry and Bartling (2011) - WMM - 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

independent samples design - tested individually

Landry and Bartling (2011) - Procedure

- 34 undergraduate psychology students
1) experimental group:
- saw a list of letters that they had to recall while saying the numbers at a rate of two number per second (articulatory suppression task)
2) control group:
- saw the list of letters but did not carry out the articulatory suppression task.
- There were 10 lists each consisting a series of 7 letters randomly constructed
- The list was shown for 5 seconds, then participants waited for 5 seconds, then participants waited for 5 seconds, and then wrote the correct order of letter on answer sheet.

Landry and Bartling (2011) - Findings

- The scores form the experimental group were much lower. (45% accurate recall) than scores from the control group (76% accurate recall)

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.
- articulatory suppression is preventing rehearsal in the phonological loop because of overload.
- resulted in difficulty in memorising the letter strings for participants int eh experimental conditions whereas the participants in the control condition did not experience such overload.
- supports the idea that the phonological loop has limited capacity and cannot attend to many things at once.

Landry and Bartling (2011) - Evaluation

- well controlled with a high level of interval validity - cause and effect relationship can be determined.
- Highly artificial (nature of the study) - lacks ecological validity.
- supports the WMM and easily replicable - findings are therefore, reliable.

Brewers and Treyens (1981) - Procedure

- 86 University Psychology students.
- seated in a room that was made to look like an office
- room consisted of objects that were typical of offices: typewriter, paper and coffee pot, table with tools and electronics. There were also items in the room that one would not typically find in an office. (skull)
- after 35 seconds the participants were called into another room and then asked what they remembered from the office.
- The critical question was "Did you think that you would be asked to remember the objects in the room?"
- there were 3 conditions:
1) The recall condition, drawing and verbal recognition condition

Tversky and Kahneman (1986) Framing effect - Aim

To test the influence of positive and negative frames in decision making

Tversky and Kahneman (1986) Framing effect - Procedure

- 307 US undergraduate student participants were asked to make a decision in a hypothetical scenario (where an outbreak of an unusual virus is expected to kill 600 people.
- participants were split into 2 groups
- Condition 1: A: 200 people will be saved.
B: There is a 1/3 probability that 600 will be saved and 2/3 probability that none will be saved.
- Condition 2: C: 400 people will die.
D: there is 1/3 probability that none will die and 2/3 probability that 600 will die.

Tversky and Kahneman (1986) Framing effect - Findings

condition 1: 72% of the participants chose Program A, 28% chose Program B

condition 2: 22% of the participants chose program C, 78% chose program D.

The 4 options are effectively the same; 200 people will survive and 400 people will not.

Tversky and Kahneman (1986) Framing effect - Conclusion

- Results clearly demonstrate the influence of the frame.
- when information was phrased positively, (the number of people who would be saved) people took the certain outcome, (option A) and avoided the possibility of a loss in the less certain option (option B).
- By contrast, when the information was phrased in terms of people dying (a negative frame) people avoided the certain loss (option C), and took a chance on the less certain option D.

Tversky and Kahneman (1986) Framing effect - Evaluation

- highly controlled and has high internal validity. ( we can conclude that the framing of the situation actually had an effect on the choices made by the participants).
- highly standardised, meaning that it is easily replicable and the results have been shown to be reliable.
- low mundane realism - no actual threat and there is no fear of losing one's life (complete hypothetical situation). In a real situation of this nature, there would be a lot of emotion in making a decision.
- framing effect has been applied successfully in marketing as well as in health campaigns.

Tversky & Kahneman (1974) - Aim

To test the influence of the anchoring bias on decision-making

Tversky & Kahneman (1974) - Method

- high school students (participants)
- "ascending condition" were asked to quickly estimate the value of 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8.
- "descending condition" were asked to quickly estimate the value of 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1
- Since we read from left to right, the researchers assumed that group 1 would use "1" as an anchor and predict a lower value than the group that started with "8" as an anchor.

Tversky & Kahneman (1974) - Results

The expectation is that first number seen would bias the estimate of the value by the participant.

The researchers found that the median for the ascending group was 512 and the median for the descending group was 2250.

The actual value is 40320.

Tversky & Kahneman (1974) - Conclusion

The first number seen by the participants seems to have biased the final estimate. Since they had no time to calculate in 5 seconds, they had to make an estimation based on the first few numbers. When those numbers were smaller, the estimate was smaller.

Shallice and Warrington (1969)

While the existence of separate stores for short-term and long-term memory provides evidence for the MSM, one limitation is the model's emphasis on the linear path to long-term memory, through STM.

Case study of K.F., a man who had been in a motorcycle accident and suffered medial temporal lobe damage that affected his STM, while his LTM remained intact. If STM is a unitary store, then a damaged STM should imply a limited LTM but this was not the case.