OCR Psychology - Core Studies

Loftus & Palmer Aim

To investigate the effects of leading questions

Loftus & Palmer Sample (Exp. 1)

5 groups of 9 students (45)

Loftus & Palmer Sample (Exp. 2)

3 groups of 50 students (150)

Loftus & Palmer Method

Two lab experiments, both with independent measures

Loftus & Palmer Procedure (Exp. 1)

Participants shown seven film-clips of traffic accidents then asked to recount what they've just seen then made to answer questions about the clips

Loftus & Palmer Five Verbs

Contacted, hit, bumped, collided, smashed

Loftus & Palmer Results (Exp. 1)

Stronger verbs resulted in higher speed estimates

Loftus & Palmer Procedure (Exp. 2)

Participants watched a one minutes video with a car crash then were questioned using either "hit" or "smashed" then, a week later, were asked if they'd seen any broken glass

Loftus & Palmer Results (Exp. 2)

More participants had "seen" glass when the verb "smashed" was used

Loftus & Palmer Conclusions

False memories are constructed because the semantics become integrated with memory

Grant et al. Aim

Whether context cues help remember information and whether a matching environment helps recall information

Grant et al. Sample

39 students from Iowa aged 17-56 gathered by a snowball sample (8 researchers found 5 participants)

Grant et al. Method

A lab experiment with independent measures

Grant et al. Two Tests

10 multiple-choice questions (recognition)
16 short-answer questions (retrieval)

Grant et al. Procedure

Participants were given an article to read and told they were going to be tested. Their reading times were recorded an they were given two minutes before being tested. They were given short answer then the multiple choice. They were debriefed after the tests on the nature of the experiment

Grant et al. Conditions

Silent-silent
Silent-noisy
Noisy-silent
Noisy-noisy

Grant et al. Controls

Headphones were used for both conditions, same article read, 2 minutes between reading and testing

Grant et al. Results

Scores were better in the matched conditions with scores being slightly better in the S-S condition

Grant et al. Conclusions

Context cues are important when retrieving memory and silent study is better

Moray's Aim

Whether 'non-attended' messages can be remembered in a dichotic listening task

Moray's Sample

Male and female undergrads and researchers. 12 participants in experiment 2 and 2x14 participants in experiment 3

Moray's Method

3 lab experiments with the first one having a repeated measures design and the two others having an independent measures design

Moray's Exp. 1

35 simple words were listed in the unattended ear while the participant shadowed a piece of prose. Participants then had to select the words they heard from a list containing words from both texts and some extra, unheard words. Mean words recalled: Shadowed message- 4.9; Rejected message- 1.9; Similar words from either - 2.6

Moray's Exp. 2

Instructions were given in the unattended ear with half the participants' name being included in the instructions. 20/39 of participants heard their name in the unattended message

Moray's Exp. 3

Participants shadowed one of two messages. In some of the messages digits were either in both messages, or in one. Controls with no numbers were also inserted. One group was told they'd be asked questions about the content of the shadowed message at the end. The other group had to remember as many numbers as they could. There were no significant differences between the two groups.

Moray's Conclusions

No content from rejected messages is remembered; neutral material doesn't break through the attentional block; meaningful material does break through the block

Simons and Chabris Aim

To investigate what role attention plays in visual perception

Simons and Chabris Method

A laboratory experiment with independent measures

Simons and Chabris Sample

228 volunteer undergrad observers

Simons and Chabris Conditions

Umbrella/gorilla, opaque/transparent, easy/hard task

Simons and Chabris Procedure

Four 75 second long video tapes shown of a white and black team playing basketball. Observers told to watch either team and to either count the passes (easy task) or count the air passes and the bounce passes (hard task)

Simons and Chabris Results

46% of 192 failed to notice the unexpected event. The gorilla was noticed more when observers were watching the black team

Simons and Chabris Conclusions

Paying close attention to one aspect means we may not notice other, unexpected aspects (inattention blindness)

Milgram's Aim

To investigate people's tendency for destructive obedience

Milgram's Sample

Volunteer sample of 40 mean between the ages of 20 and 50

Milgram's Method

Non-naturalistic observation/lab experiment

Milgram's Procedure

The participants were "randomly allocated" to be teachers while a stooge was the learner. Participants were told to administer voltage between 15-450V whenever the learner got a question wrong. When participants showed reluctance the researchers gave verbal prompts.

Milgram's Verbal Prods

"The experiment requires you to continue" "You have no other choice, you must go on"

Milgram's Results

100% went to 300V and 65% went up to 450V. Participants displayed sign of stress such a nervous laughter

Milgram's Conclusions

People find obeying destructive orders stressful. People are more obedient than we expect

Bocchiario's Aim

To see how many people would comply to an unethical request and to compare estimates of compliance to actual rates of compliance

Bocchiaro's Sample

96 female and 53 male undergrad volunteers

Bocchiaro's Method

Scenario study - laboratory experiment

Bocchiaro's Pilot Test

92 undergrads were provided with a detailed description of the experimental setting. They were then asked "What would you do?" and "What would the average student at your university do?"

Bocchiaro's Procedure

Participants were informed of the aim of the cover experiment as asked to write a letter convincing an acquaintance to take part. Participants were left to consider their decision before being taken to a computer room where they could write the statement and/or complete a form to send to the Research Committee

Bocchiaro - words to be used in statement

Incredible, exciting, great, superb

Bocchiaro - Fake Experiment

An experiment on sensory deprivation - knowledge that previous participants had asked experimenters to stop and they hadn't - participants suffered from cognitive impairments, and visual and auditory hallucinations

Bocchiaro's Pilot Results

3.6% said they would obey the experimenter and most believed they would be disobedient (31.9%) or whistleblowers (64.5%). They believed most other students would either disobey (43.9%) or whistleblow (37.3%)

Bocchiaro's Results

65% obeyed, 14.1% disobeyed and 9.4% blew the whistle (6% of which still wrote the message - anonymous whistleblowing)

Bocchiaro's Conclusions

Obedience is underestimated and dispositional factors do not affect obedience

Piliavin et al. Aim

To investigate which factors influence helping behaviour

Piliavin et al. Method

Field experiment with independent measures - 103 trials

Piliavin et al. Sample

Opportunity sample of aprox. 4500 passengers on the New York subway between 11am and 3pm - aprox. 43 people per trial

Piliavin et al. Procedure

Drunk or cane (ill) condition. Actor came on to train and collapsed after 70s. Role model would step in after either 70s or 150s. Observers recorded time to help and characteristics of helper (e.g. age or race)

Piliavin et al. Results

95% of people helped the can victim spontaneously compared to 50% who helped the drunk victim. Help for the drunk victim also came less quickly

Piliavin et al. Conclusions

Helping behaviour is affected by the perceived responsibility of the victim and the cost-reward calculation

Levine et al. Aim

Whether helping behaviour for strangers changes cross-culturally

Levine et al. Method

23 field experiments with independent measures design

Levine et al. Variables

IVs: dropped pen, fallen magazines and blind man
DV: calculated rate of helping

Levine et al. Sample

Adults in 23 cities world-wide (inc. Vienna and Sofia)

Levine et al. Procedure

A random pedestrian was chosen to witness the non-emergency accident and an observer recorded the time taken to help

Levine et al. Results

Significant positive correlation between helping behaviour and economic prosperity.
Rio de Janeiro and San Jose were the most helpful and Kuala Lampa and New York were the least helpful

Levine et al. Conclusions

Richer and fast paced countries are less helpful while simpatico cultures are more helpful

Bandura et al. Aim

To investigate whether aggressive behaviour is learnt through observation and imitation

Bandura et al. Sample

36 boys and 36 girls aged 3-5 selected through opportunity sample gathered from Stanford Nursery

Bandura et al. Method

Field experiment with matched participants (matched on ages, gender and aggression levels)

Bandura et al. Conditions

Male/female model, aggressive/non-aggressive model and no model (control)

Bandura et al. Procedure

One - exposed to (non-)aggressive model for 10 minutes. Aggressive modelling included "pow" and "kick him"
Two - aggression arousal, exposing the children to attractive toys and then taking them away saying they were for the "other children"
Three - observed children play for 20 minutes

Bandura et al. Results

Children in aggressive condition displays significantly more imitative aggression and children in non-aggressive condition displayed very little aggression. Imitative aggression was significantly higher when children observed same-sex models

Chaney et al. Aim

To investigate whether operant conditioning and positive reinforcement can be used to improve the administering of asthma medication to children

Chaney et al. Sample

10 boys and 22 girls from 1.5-6 years old gathered by opportunity sample

Chaney et al. Method

Field experiment with repeated measures

Chaney et al. Variables

IV = standard inhaler/Funhaler
DV = compliance level

Chaney et al. Procedure

Parents were interviewed on their use of the standard inhaler and were then given a Funhaler to use for two weeks. After use of the standard inhaler and the Funhaler they were then visited again by the researcher and parents were interviewed and completed the matched questionnaires. Data related to how easy each device was to use, compliance, and attitudes

Chaney et al. Results

More success with medicating when using the Funhaler (22/30 vs 3/30) 66% more children took the recommended dose. There was also an increase in child and parent adherence

Chaney et al. Conclusions

Operant conditioning can be used to improve medical treatment with children

Kohlberg's Aim

To investigate moral development with 10-28 year olds

Kohlberg's Method

Longitudinal research using a self-report method

Kohlberg's Sample

75 10-16 year old boys from Chicago that were followed for 12 years. Also included boys in Canada, Taiwan and Mexico

Kohlberg's Procedure

The boys were presented with a moral dilemma and their solution, and explanation of their solution, was used to create the stages of moral development

Kohlberg's Pre-conventional Stages of Moral Development

Stage One: individual is good in order to avoid being punished
Stage Two: children start acting out of self interest

Kohlberg's Conventional Stages of Moral Development

Stage Three: individual is good in order to be seen as being a good person by others
Stage Four: individual becomes aware of the wider rules of society, so judgments concern obeying the rules in order to uphold the law and to avoid guilt

Kohlberg's Post-Conventional Stages of Moral Development

Stage Five: individual becomes aware that while laws might exist for the good of the greatest number, there are times when they will work against the interest of particular individuals
Stage Six: people at this stage have developed their own set of moral guidelines which may or may not fit the law

Kohlberg's Results

There were differences in pace of moral development but no change in sequence. 50% of a participant's responses determined which stage they were in

Kohlberg's Conclusion

There is a universal sequence of stages to moral development

Lee et al. Aim

To compare cross-cultural evaluations of lying and truth-telling

Lee et al. Sample

120 Chinese and 108 Canadian children ages 7, 9 and 11

Lee et al. Conditions

Pro-social/anti-social and lie-telling/truth-telling

Lee et al. Procedure

The children were asked to rate the characters' deed and say whether it was 'naughty' or 'good'

Lee et al. Results

Both groups rated truth-telling positively and lie-telling negatively. Chinese children rated truth telling about positively deeds less positively

Lee et al. Conclusion

Moral reasoning is shaped, to an extent, by cultural and social norms

Freud's Aim

To support his theory of infantile sexuality and the Oedipus complex

Freud's Sample

A five year old boy from Vienna, Austria. His father was a fan of Freud's work

Freud's Method

A clinical case study - Hans was undergoing therapy

Freud's Procedure

Hans' dreams and phobias were analysed. His horse phobia was seen as a result of his fear of castration. His bath phobia was analysed as being a result of his fear that his mother would get rid of him

Freud's Results

Fear of horses was considered by Freud as a subconscious fear of his father.
Hans' fascination with his 'widdler' was because he was experiencing the Oedipus complex.
The final family fantasy was interpreted as the resolution of the Oedipus Complex

Baron-Cohen et al. Aim

Whether high-functioning autistic adults struggle to identify emotions from pictures of eyes

Baron-Cohen et al. Sample

13 autistic males and 3 autistic women of normal intelligence. 25 men and women (controls). 8 males and 2 women with Tourettes

Baron-Cohen et al. Method

Volunteer sample. Quasi experiment with independent measures design

Baron-Cohen et al. Procedure

The Gender Recognition Task involved identifying the gender of the eyes used in the Eyes Task (Controlled for face perception, perceptual discrimination and social perception) The Basic Emotion Recognition Task involved judging photographs of whole faces displaying basic emotions (check whether difficulties on the Eyes Task were due to difficulties with basic emotional recognition) The Strange Stories Task was used to validate the results from the Eyes Task