IB Psychology Cognitive

Landry and Bartling (2011) Summary

Summary- tested the Working Memory Model by using articulatory suppression. They used articulatory suppression to attempt to see if it would interfere with the recall of a list of letters. Researchers tested individuals by showing participants a list of letters they had to recall. In the experimental group, participants had to repeat the numbers 1 and 2 aloud while recalling the letters. In the control group they didn't have to repeat anything. Each trial was repeated ten times and graded on accuracy of words recalled.

Landry and Bartling (2011) Key Findings

Key findings- The results show that scores in the experimental group were significantly worse than in the control group. The mean accuracy of recall in the experimental group was 45% and 75% in the control. This illustrates that articulatory suppression prevents rehearsal in the phonological loop which harms recall ability.

Landry and Bartling (2011) Methods

Methods- Independent samples design

Landry and Bartling (2011) Psych Guide

What does it relate to in the psych guide? Working Memory Model, phonological loop, cognitive process

Landry and Bartling (2011) SAQ

Which SAQ Question would it answer? Explain the Working Memory Model with reference to one study.

Landry and Bartling (2011) ERQ

Which ERQ would it answer? Discuss (or Evaluate) one model of memory.

Bartlett (1932) Summary

Summary-Aim of the study is to see how previous knowledge affects memory on a story told. By telling a story of a culture that one has no affiliation with they with jeopardize the facts and plot of the story, altering it to their memory. They told a native american story to british participants, filling the story with unknown concepts and names.

Bartlett (1932) Key Findings

Key findings-There was no difference between the two different groups, but they both altered their study to their schema. they distorted the story. They also leveled it, with it become shorter with every retelling. They sharpened it to make it go in plot order the way it would in their culture. Memory is an active process. We put memory into categories by giving them meaning.

Bartlett (1932) Methods

Methods-He had two groups that he tested. With one he used repetitive saying of the story, this being repeated reproduction. The other group was serial reproduction where they had to recall and repeat to another person.

Bartlett (1932) Psych Guide

What does it relate to in the psych guide?Discuss/evaluate schema theory.To what extent is one cognitive process reliable?

Bartlett (1932) SAQ

Which SAQ Question would it answer?Discuss (or Evaluate) Schema theory.

Bartlett (1932) ERQ

Which ERQ would it answer?Discuss (or Evaluate) one or more studies of schema theory.

"Anderson and Pichert (1978) Summary

Summary: studied whether people would remember more details about a story based on their assigned perspective" They looked into the role of schema in decoding and encoding information. Anderson and Pichert gathered 39 students in the same level of education in psychology and were all told stories with "discrete ideas" thirteen were about purchasing a home, and fifteen of the ideas were related to burglary. The participants were split into the buyer and the bugarler conditions.

Each participant was given a story and two minutes to read it. Immediately afterwards they were all given a vocab list of 84 words and twelve minutes to take a test on it. The test was given as a distraction and to assess the language proficiency of the participants. Afterwards each participant was given twelve minutes to write down every bit of the story from earlier and were suggested to write down everything they could as much as they could. Once that concluded they were given five minutes to take a "spatial puzzle test" and to tell the story for a second time. Half of the participants were told to recall the story from the opposite perspective (burglar or buyer) and the other half remained the same

"Anderson and Pichert (1978) Key Findings

Key findings:

Each participant from the group recalled information that was relevant to the given perspective better. Overall though burglar information was more recalled than buyer. As for those that changed perspective they recalled information at a 7.9% higher rate than those in the not changing groups, they had 2.9% less information relevant to their perspective.

Schema is "likely to influence encoding." As well it is likely to influence retrieval of memories.

"Anderson and Pichert (1978) SAQ Question

Which SAQ Question would it answer?:

Explain the use of one research method in one study of one cognitive process

"Anderson and Pichert (1978) ERQ Question

Which ERQ would it answer?:

Discuss (or Evaluate) Schema theory.

"Anderson and Pichert (1978) Psych Guide

What does it relate to in the psych guide?:

Shows the influence of schema on retrieval of memory and cognition.

Bransford and Johnson Summary

Summary: 52 participants randomly allocated into one of the 3 conditions. No Topic, Topic after passage, and Topic before passage . The topic will be revealed to the participants depending on their group. Before the experiment started they were told that they will listen to a tape recorded audio and will have to recall the details later. Topic of the audio was washing clothes. After listening the participants are asked to rate their comprehension on a scale 1-7 and recall the passage as accurately as possible in 5 minutes. The results show that participants from the condition "Topic Before" recalled significantly higher than participants from the other 2 conditions and their comprehension rating also a lot higher.

Topic Before: Average Recall=4.53

Topic After: Average Recall=2.65

No Topic: Average Recall=2.82

Bransford and Johnson Key Findings

Key findings: Knowing the topic of a lesson or passage before learning it can significantly increase the individual memorization and comprehension of the lesson/passage.

Bransford and Johnson Methods

Methods: Lab experiments

Bransford and Johnson Psych Guide

What does it relate to in the psychology guide?

Schema theory and Cognitive Approach

Bransford and Johnson SAQ Question

Which SAQ prompt would it answer?

Explain schema theory with reference to one study.

Explain the use of one research method in one study of one cognitive process.

Explain one study of the influence of emotion on one cognitive process.

Bransford and Johnson ERQ Question

Which ERQ prompt would it answer?

Discuss (or Evaluate) one or more studies of the reliability of one cognitive process.

Discuss the reliability of one cognitive process.

Loftus and Pickrell (1974) Summary

-Summary- The study conducted in the field of transportation and travel behavior in human. Focusing on how some individuals make certain choices relation to travel. The study aimed to see whether or not the role of leading questions influenced the memory of eyewitnesses. The researchers had predicted that using words like ¨smashed¨, ¨crashed¨, and stronger words would result in a participants estimation of a higher speed than words like ¨bumped¨ or ¨hit¨. 45 students had participatd in the experiment and were divided into 5 groups. Seven films of traffic accidents were shown and the length of the films ranged from 5 to 30 seconds. These films were taken from driver's education films. The study was an independent samples design and each participant watched all 7 films. They were told to remember the accident and answered a questionnaire about the videos and to estimate the speed of the cars.

Loftus and Pickrell (1974) Key Findings

-Key findings- That when using critical words a participants estimate of speed would be changed and influenced. This would show that using specific language would affect ones memory and interpretation of something and would change their thought process and or memory when coming to a conclusions about something. Showing that a participants memory of an accident could be influenced by leading questions.

Loftus and Pickrell (1974) Methods

-Methods- Independent samples design, lab experiment,

What does it relate to in the psych guide? Discussing research methods in the cognitive approach, discussing reliability in the cognitive process.

Loftus and Pickrell (1974) SAQ Question

-Which SAQ Question would it answer? Explain one model of thinking and decision making with reference to one study. Explain reconstructive memory with reference to one study.Explain one bias in thinking and decision making with reference to one study.

Loftus and Pickrell (1974) ERQ Question

-Which ERQ would it answer? Discuss (or Evaluate) one or more studies of reconstructive memory.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Summary

-Summary: The aim of the research was to investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect the estimation of speed. Participants were gathered to watch 7 films of a car accident. After the film, they were asked to give an account of the accident they had seen and then they answered a questionnaire with different questions. One of the questions was a “critical question” and it asked to estimate the speed of the cars. The participants were all asked the same “critical question” but it contained different words from person to person.One group of participants was asked, “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?" The critical word hit was replaced by collided, bumped, smashed, or contacted in the other conditions. The researchers predicted that using the word ‘smashed’ would result in a higher estimation of speed than using the word ‘hit’.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Key Findings

-Key findings: The mean estimates of speed were highest in the 'smashed' condition (40.8 mph) and lowest in the 'contacted' group (31.8 mph). The researchers calculated a statistical test and found that their results were significant at p ≤ 0.005.

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Methods

-Methods: Independent Samples Design

Loftus and Palmer (1974) Psych Guide

-What does it relate to in the psych guide?: Research methods used in the cognitive approach, the reliability of cognitive processes

Loftus and Palmer (1974) SAQ Question

-Which SAQ Question would it answer? Explain one model of memory with reference to one study, Explain reconstructive memory with reference to one study,

Loftus and Palmer (1974) ERQ Question

-Which ERQ would it answer?: Discuss (or Evaluate) one or more studies of reconstructive memory,

Berntsen and Thomsen (2005) Summary

-Summary: Bernsten and Thomsen wanted to test the accuracy of flashbulb memory by using a historical event for which factual information could be verified unlike the previous study they're replicating. The historical event they chose were Danish veterans from World War II. Their sample consisted of 145 Danes all between the ages of 72 and 89. The participants were asked for their memories of first hearing the news of the Danish occupation in April 1940 and the liberation in May 1945. They were also asked to indicate what their role was in the war and for detailed descriptions of their most positive and negative memories from the war. After information was gathered, the researchers gave the participants a questionnaire that asked for specific factual details. For their control group, younger participants were given the same questions titled "Historical Details From World War II."

Berntsen and Thomsen (2005) Key Findings

-Key Findings: Almost all participants from the older sample reported memories of the invasion and liberation. Their answers to factual questions were compared to historical records as well as the answers from a younger control group. The older participants were far more accurate; on average, they provided accurate answers to 55% of the questions versus 11% in the control group. Participants with reported ties to the resistance movement had more detailed and accurate memories than participants without such ties

Berntsen and Thomsen (2005) Methods

-Methods: snowball sampling method

Berntsen and Thomsen (2005) Psych Guide

-What does it relate to in the psych guide: To what extent is one cognitive process reliable?

Berntsen and Thomsen (2005) ERQ/SRQ Question

-What ERQ/ SRQ does it answer: "Discuss (or Evaluate) one model of memory" or "Discuss (or Evaluate) one or more studies of the reliability of one cognitive process."

Bahrick et. Al (1975) Summary

-Summary - the aim of the study was to investigate the reliability of autobiographical memory over time. (names and faces of people we went to school with), he used people aged 17-74 and ran 5 tests on the participants. The first being a free recall (naming as many as possible, a photo recognition, name recognition, matching names with faces, and using a picture to guess name.

Bahrick et. Al (1975)

-Key findings - participants who graduated within 15 years were 90% correct, after 48 years 80% were right with names and 70% with faces. But for free recall after 15yr 60% were correct, and after 48yr 30% were accurate.

Bahrick et. Al (1975) Methods

-Methods - free recall, photo recognition, name recognition.

What does it relate to in the psych guide? - To what extent is one cognitive process reliable?

Bahrick et. Al (1975) SAQ Question

-Which SAQ Question would it answer? - Explain the use of one research method in one study of the reliability of cognitive processes.

Neisser and Harsch (1992) Summary

-Summary - 106 Emory University students were asked to fill out a questionnaire about how they felt after the challenger spacecraft accident. 2 ½ years later 46 of the original participants came back to redo the questionnaires, but this time they had to rate how confident they were with their original answers.

Neisser and Harsch (1992) Key Findings

-Key findings - participants told the same story in the spring as in the fall, but when presented with the original questionnaire, participants were surprised and could not account for the discrepancies.

Neisser and Harsch (1992) Methods

-Methods - case study and method triangulation

Neisser and Harsch (1992) Psych Guide

-What does it relate to in the psych guide? - This relates to Research methods used in the cognitive approach

Neisser and Harsch (1992) SAQ Question

-Which SAQ Question would it answer? - . Explain the use of one research method in one study of the reliability of one cognitive process.

Neisser and Harsch (1992) ERQ Question

-Which ERQ would it answer? - Discuss (or Evaluate) the use of one or more research methods used in the study of cognitive processes.

Brown and Kulik (1977) Summary

-Summary: The aim of this study was to investigate whether surprising and personally significant events can cause flashbulb memories.The researchers asked 40 black and 40 white American male participants to fill out a questionnaire regarding the death of public figures and as well as of someone they personally knew. They were asked a series of questions about the event including: “Where were you when you heard about the event?”, and “How important was this event in your life?”

Brown and Kulik (1977) Key Findings

-Key findings: The researchers found that 90% of the participants recalled a significant amount of detail about the day when these events occurred and most participants had very detailed memories of the death of their loved ones. However, there was a large difference in their memories of the assassination of public officials, based on the personal relevance of the event to the participant. EX: 75% of black participants had flashbulb memories of the murder of Martin Luther King, compared to 33% of white participants.

Brown and Kulik (1977) Methods

-Methods: interview/questionnaire

Brown and Kulik (1977) Psych Guide

-What does it relate to in the psych guide?: Research methods used in the cognitive approach, One theory of how emotion may affect one cognitive process.

Brown and Kulik (1977) SAQ Question

-Which SAQ Question would it answer?: Explain the use of one research method in one study of the effect of emotion on cognition.

Tversky and Kahneman(1974) Summary

-Summary/ Key Findings:

In this study, high school students were used as participants. Participants in the "ascending condition" were asked to quickly estimate the value of 1 X 2 X 3 X 4 X 5 X 6 X 7 X 8 in five seconds.

Those in the "descending condition" were asked to quickly estimate the value of 8 X 7 X 6 X 5 X 4 X 3 X 2 X 1.

Since we read from left to right, the researchers assumed that group 1 would use "1" as an anchor and predict a lower value that the group that started with "8" as the anchor. The expectation was that the 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; the median for the descending group was 2250. The actual value is 40320.

Tversky and Kahneman(1974) Methods

-Methods- Independent Samples

Tversky and Kahneman(1974) Psych Guide

-What does it relate to in the Psych Guide? Cognitive Processing

Tversky and Kahneman(1974) SAQ Question

-Which SAQ Question would it answer?

Explain one model of thinking and decision making with reference to one study.

Tversky and Kahneman(1974) ERQ Question

-Which ERQ would it answer?

Discuss (or Evaluate) one model of thinking and decision-making.

Tversky and Kahneman(1986) Summary

-Summary - Tversky & Kahneman (1986) aimed to test the influence of positive and negative frames on decision-making. Participants were asked to make a decision between one of two options in a hypothetical scenario where they were choosing how to respond to the outbreak of a virulent disease. For some of the participants, the information was framed positively while for others it was framed negatively.

Tversky and Kahneman(1986) Key Findings

-Findings - The results clearly demonstrate the influence of the frame. Where 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) Method

-Method - Independent samples

Tversky and Kahneman(1986) Psych Guide

-Psych Guide - discussion of cognitive biases or a model of thinking and decision-making.

Tversky and Kahneman(1986) SAQ Question

-SAQ - Explain one model of thinking and decision making with reference to one study.

English and Mussweiler (2001) Summary

Summary - Wanted to determine the effect of a prosecutor's suggestion for sentencing on the decision-making of a judge. Young trial judges were given a case of rape and the prosecutor either recommended 2 months or 34 months. Highly experienced trial judges recommended 17.21 months. This was then used as a basis for determining the anchors.

English and Mussweiler (2001) Key Findings

Findings - The average rating for the pilot group was 7.17, with a standard deviation of 1.3. When presented with a low anchor of two months, the average sentence was 18.78 months, with a standard deviation of 9.11. in the high anchor condition of 34 months, the average sentence was 28.70 months, with a standard deviation of 6.53.

English and Mussweiler (2001)

Method - Independent samples

English and Mussweiler (2001) Psych Guide

Psych Guide - demonstrate cognitive biases, the Dual Processing Model, or the use of research methods in the study of cognitive processes.

English and Mussweiler (2001) SAQ Question

SAQ - Explain one model of thinking and decision making with reference to one study.

Kulkofsky et al (2011)

-Summary- The researchers studied five countries - China, Germany, Turkey, the UK, and the USA - to see if there was any difference in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivistic and individualistic cultures.

Kulkofsky et al (2011) Key Findings

-Key findings- The researchers found that in a collectivistic culture like China, personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting FBM, compared with more individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on an individual's personal involvement and emotional experiences.

Kulkofsky et al (2011) Methods

-Methods- 274 middle class adults from 5 different countries

First, the participants were given five minutes to recall as many memories as they could of public events occurring in their lifetime. The events had to have occurred at least one year ago. The researchers then used this list of events to create a "memory questionnaire." They were asked five questions about how they learned about the event that mirrored the original questionnaire used by Brown & Kulik (1977).

Kulkofsky et al (2011) Psych Guide

-What does it relate to in the psych guide?- Emotions effect on cognitive process

Kulkofsky et al (2011) SAQ Question

-Which SAQ Question would it answer?- Explain one study of the influence of emotion on one cognitive process.

Kearns Summary

Kearns

-Summary- investigate the effects of culture on memory through testing whether indigenous Australians might perform better on tests that took advantage of their ability to encode with visual cues.

Kearns Key Findings

-Key findings- Kearins found that the Indigenous Australian children performed significantly better than the white Australian children in placing the objects into their original locations. She concluded that the survival of the Indigenous Australians in the harsh desert landscape had encouraged and rewarded their ability to store or encode information using visual retrieval cues. These interesting results suggest that survival needs may shape and reward a particular way of encoding information in memory.

Kearns Methods

-Methods- The basic procedure was that Kearins placed 20 objects on a board divided into 20 squares. Indigenous Australians and white Australian children were told to study the board for 30 seconds. The children were instructed that when the cover was removed, they should "look hard at all the things and try to remember where they all are," and that the subsequent task was a reconstruction of the board with the objects in the same arrangement. Then all the objects were heaped into a pile in the center of the board. The children were asked to replace the items in their original locations.

Kearns Psych Guide

-What does it relate to in the psych guide?- The influence of emotion on cognitive processes

Kearns SAQ Question

-Which SAQ Question would it answer?- Explain one study of the influence of emotion on one cognitive process.