COGNITIVE AREA PAST QUESTIONS

From Loftus and Palmer’s study on eyewitness testimony a laboratory experiment was used. Describe why Loftus and Palmer’s study is considered a laboratory experiment [2017] [2]

• Loftus and Palmer is considered a laboratory experiment because an IV was manipulated - verb used in critical questions (smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted), a DV was measured - mph speed estimates and it was carried out in a highly controlled environment.

• IV's were manipulated - verb used when asked about speed - and mph speed responses were recorded in a controlled environment - all clips shown were the same length and shown in the same way to all p's.

Explain one weakness of using a laboratory experiment for this study [2017] [2]

• One weakness of a laboratory experiment is low ecological validity. Participants watched controlled video clips of staged crashes and this would not represent how an incident is witnessed in real life

• Demand characteristics may be high because the environment is artificial and the participants know they're in a study. This means they may not give an honest / true mph estimation as they may just give an answer they think is expected of them

From the study by Loftus and Palmer on eyewitness testimony, outline two ways in which the procedure was standardised.[2018] [4]

• Participants watched same (1) film clip/s (1).

• Participants were asked set (1) questions (1).

• The time-lapse between viewing and questioning (1) was the same (1).

• Each (1) participants was asked to give a general account of what they remembered (1).

• The environment (1) was consistent (1) across both conditions.
  All participants saw the film clip/s at the same (1) time (1)

• All participants were given identical (1) instructions (1).

To what extent does Grant et al.’s contemporary study into context-dependent memory change our understanding of the key theme of ‘Memory’? Support your answer with examples from both Loftus and Palmer’s and Grant et al.’s studies.[2018] [5]

Grant et al's study can be seen as adding to our understanding of how memory works because it investigates a different aspect of memory. Loftus and Palmer's study investigated reconstructive memory whereas Grant et al. investigated context-dependent memory. Both studies show that memory is very fragile and can be easily influenced by external factors. Loftus and Palmer's study showed that memory can be negatively influenced by the information we receive after and event in the form of leading questions e.g. participants who were asked the speed of the vehicles when they smashed into each other, on average, gave higher speed estimates than those who were asked how fast the vehicles were going when they hit each other. Grant et al.'s study showed that memory can be heavily influenced by context. Memory was negatively affected if participants were asked to recall information in a different environment to the one in which it was originally received, thus adding to our understanding of how memory can be influenced.

Both Loftus and Palmer's and Grant et al. used students as participants and conducted their studies in American universities. Therefore, Grant et al.'s study does not really change or increase our understanding of memory in relation to people of other ages, occupations or cultures.

As both studies were highly controlled laboratory experiments, they lack ecological validity. Therefore, Grant et al.'s study does not change our understanding of memory in relation to real-life situations.

From Moray’s study into auditory attention:

Describe the research method used in Experiment 2.[2018] [3]

• The location of the experiment i.e. laboratory or controlled environment

• The experimental design (do not credit matched pairs)

• The IVs e.g. use of name (affective) or not (non-affective), knowledge or no knowledge of task, instructions or no instructions, instructions at start or in middle of task.

• The DV i.e. number of instructions followed

• The controls e.g. same light fiction, order of presentation of instructions, use of monotone voice, pace of reading.

From Simon and Chabris’ study into visual attention:

Outline the ‘gorilla condition’. [2018] [3]

• use of two teams of players

• team passing a basketball between them

• between 44-48 seconds/after about a minute/after a short period of time into the video gorilla appears

• person in gorilla suit walked from left to right across the scene

• this unexpected event lasted for about 5 seconds

• the players did not interact with the gorilla

• the participant was counting the number of passes throughout

Outline one strength of the type of data collected in Moray's study into attention. [2019] [2]

• Strength of using quantitative data e.g. easy to identify patterns, make reliable comparisons, more objective than qualitative data

• Strength of using means e.g. most powerful measure of central tendency, full data set used in analysis

Use of quantitative data is a strength as comparisons can be made more easily (1) to see if there were any significant differences between recognition for words that had been presented differently (1).

The strength of using numerical data is that it provides an objective measure (1) because a qualitative judgement of level of attention would be open to interpretation (1).

Using Simons & Chabris' study into attention, explain one way in which the procedure would have increased the reliability of the research. [2019] [3]

• use of written protocol for the experimenters

• all participants tested individually

• duration of unexpected event/whole video was the
  same

• standardised production of video

Standardisation was used (1) where experimenters used the same written protocol (1) to ensure that participants did not receive different instructions which could have impacted on how consistent their perception of the video was (1)

Explain one weakness of the type of data collected in Loftus & Palmer’s (1974) study into eye witness testimony. [2020] [3]

Because the data was quantitative (1) there is a risk that it suggests similarity in response when there may not be (1) so for example a mean estimate of speed does not tell us whether certain individuals' estimates were similar across conditions (1)

Outline one conclusion that was drawn from this study. [2020] [2]

• The verb used in a question influences a participant's response i.e. the way a question is phrased influences the answer given.

• People are not very good at judging vehicular speed regardless of the situation they find themselves in.

• Misleading post event information can have a distorting effect on an individual's memory.

• Information gleaned during the perception of the original event and the post-event information integrate over time to affect memory.

Simons and Chabris (1999) used an independent measures design in their study on attention.

Explain how the design was used in this study. [2020] [2]

Participants were only allocated to one of four conditions (1) varying between whether an umbrella or gorilla used and whether this was in opaque or transparent conditions (1).

Outline two weaknesses of using an independent measures design in this study. [2020] [4] {Simmons & Chablis}

One weakness is the number of participants that need to be recruited (1). In this study they had four conditions and had to recruit separate participants for each condition and this could mean the research takes longer to conduct (1). Another weakness is the effect of participant variables on findings (1) as the difference between conditions could be do with the cognitive abilities of individual participants rather than the different situations that had been set up (1).

Explain one way in which the procedure of Grant et al’’s (1998) study into memory increased the reliability of the research. [2021] [3]

• same background noise within condition

• headphones worn for both conditions

• all participants read the same article

• tests for recall were the same order of testing was the same

• break between study and test phase was about 2 minutes each time

Examples of 3 mark answer

Standardisation was used (1) where experimenters used the same article on psychoimmunology (1) to ensure that what participants had to learn was not an extraneous variable affecting recall (1)

The experimenters used an article on psychoimmunology (1) which was published and accessible to anyone (1) so that the study could be easily replicated to establish reliability (1).

Outline one conclusion that was drawn from this study. [2021] [2] {Grant et al}

• There are context-dependency effects for newly learned meaningful material regardless of whether a short-answer test or a multiple-choice test is used to assess learning.

• Studying and testing in the same environment leads to enhanced performance in recall through access to relevant cues.

• Students are likely to perform better in exams if they study for them with a minimum of background noise because, although there was no overall effect of noise on performance, the fact that there was evidence for context-dependency suggests they are better off studying without background noise as it will not be present during actual testing.

Outline the apparatus used in Moray’s (1959) study into attention. [2021] [2]

A (stereophonic) tape recorder (modified) with two amplifiers to give to independent outputs going into either earpiece on a pair of headphones.

Outline once weakness of using an experimental method in the study [2021] [2] {Moray}

Possible weaknesses can apply to the experimental method or the laboratory experiment specifically e.g. lack of external validity, artificiality of task/setting, low construct validity, potential for demand characteristics.

Example of 2 mark answer

The method lacked ecological validity (1) because it is unrealistic to have two messages relayed in such a controlled way (1).

Experiments have low construct validity (1) as the dependent variable - in this case, the number of words correctly recognised in a message - is a very narrow measure of the process of attention (1).

Outline the procedure used in Experiment 1 of Moray’s study into attention. [2022] [4]

• A short list of simple words was repeatedly presented to one of the participant's ears whilst they shadowed a prose message presented to the other ear. (The word list was faded in after shadowing had begun, and was equal in intensity to the shadowed message. At the end of the prose passage it was faded out so as to become inaudible as the prose finished.)

• The rejected message (word list) was repeated 35 times.

• The participant was then asked to report all he could of the content of the rejected message.

• S/he was then given a recognition test using similar material, present in neither the list nor the passage, as a control.

• The gap between the end of shadowing and the beginning of the recognition test was about 30 seconds.

• Use of repeated measures design.

In Grant et al’s (1998) study on memory why was the short-answer test taken before the multiple-choice test? [2023] [2]

To ensure the information being recalled was from the reading of the text not recalled from the multiple choice test

Explain one similarity between Experiment 1 of Moray’s (1959) study into attention and Simons and Chabris’s study into inattention [2023] [4]

• Use of experiment / manipulation of IV

• Use of laboratory / controlled environment

• Standardised procedures

• Undergraduates as participants

• Use of quantitative data