IB psych studying

Conrad and Hull 1964 aim

To investigate the nature of Short Term Memory encoding using the phonological loop

Participants of Conrad and Hull 1964

12 male university students

IV and DV of Conrad and Hull 1964

IV: phonologically similar letters or phonologically dissimilar letters

DV: ability to recall letters

Method of Conrad and Hull 1964

Condition one was exposed to phonologically similar letters, conditiopn two was exposed to phonologically dissimilar letters and then the participants were asked to recall as many letters as possible.

Findings of Conrad and Hull 1964

Phonologically similar letters were harder to remember bc the trace is more similar if acoustically encoded, and therefore the letter may be confused.

Phonologically dissimilar letters were easier to remember they are more distinct and therefore easier to distinguish and remember.

What effect did Conrad and Hull 1964 study

phonological similarity effect

Conrad and Hull 1964 Val/Limits

Value: lab experiment, highly controlled, replicable

Limit: lacks ecological validity, students were used so might not be representative of the whole population

Loftus and Palmer 1974: what approach can this study be used for

Cognitive

Loftus and Palmer 1974: What phenomenon did it study?

reconstructive memory

Loftus and Palmer 1974: Study One Aim

investigate whether the use of leading questions would affect the estimation

of speed.

Loftus and Palmer 1974: IV and DV Study One

IV: intensity of the verb used in the critical question

DV: estimation of speed.

Loftus and Palmer 1974: Participants: Study One

45 students from the University of Washington

Loftus and Palmer 1974: Method: Study One

Participants were divided into 5 groups of 9. Each group had a different intensity of the verb in the critical question. Each group watched 7 films of videos taken from driver’s education videos of car crashes. Study was independent samples, each participant watched all 7 films. The films ranged from 5-30 seconds. After the participants watched the films they were given a questionnaire. The critical question asked how fast were the cars going when they () into each other. The verbs were smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted.

Loftus and Palmer 1974 Study One Findings

The speed estimation for the highest intensity verb (smashed) was the highest estimation and the speed estimation for the lowest intensity verb (contacted) was the lowest.

Loftus and Palmer 1974 Study Two Aim, Method, participants, findings, conclusion

Participants: 150 students

Method: Participants were shown a 1 min film which contained a 4 second scene of a multiple car accident, and were questioned about it. 50 were asked “how fast were the cars going when they HIT each other. 50 were asked “how fast were the cars going when they SMASHED into each other? 50 were not asked anything. One week later they all returned and everyone was asked if they saw broken glass. There was no broken glass in the clip.

Findings: In the smashed condition (highest intensity word) the most people out of the 3 groups said yes. Second highest was hit. Lowest was control group.

Conclusion: This study supports reconstructive memory because (make smth up frl)

Conclusion of Conrad and Hull 1964

We convert visual material acoustically in the short term memory and we find it difficult to distinguish things that sound the same. This supports the WORKING MEMORY MODEL as it uses a sound-based storage system (phonological loop).

Loftus and Palmer 1974 Val/Limits

Strengths: precise control of variables (allows for causation), replicable, wider implications of this study on eyewitness reliability

Weakness: lacks ecological validity, only used students as participants

Brewer and Treyens (1981) AIM

To investigate whether people’s memory of objects in an office is influenced by their schema of an office.

Brewer and Treyens (1981) participants, research type, method

Participants: 86 University Psych Students

Research method: Lab experiment

Method: participants were told to wait in a room for the researcher. They were told this was the experimenter’s office (deception, failure of informed consent) and after 30-60 seconds the participants were taken into a different room. In the original room, the participants had the same vantage point. The office had both schema-congruent and schema-incongruent items. After they were taken into the different room, there were 3 condishes:

Recall Condition: Participants had to write down as many objects they could remember from the office and were given a 131-item booklet and they had to rate how sure they were that the object was in the room.

Drawing Condiiton: They were given an outline of the room and had to draw in how they remembered it

Verbal Recognition Condition: participants were read from a list of objects and were asked whether they thought it was in the OG room or not

Brewer and Treyens (1981) Findings/Conclusion/Val/Limit

Findings: In writing/drawing conditions, people were more likely to remember objects that were schema-congruent. Reconstruction errors also occured where people remembered objects that weren’t there.

Conclusion: BS smth ab schemas influencing memory recall

Val: Internal validity (participants were not aware that study began so no demand characteristics). Ecological validity (natural office setting).

Limitations: Ethical concern of deception, sampling bias due to university students,

What can Brewer and Treyens 1981 be used for

1. Theories of one cognitive process.
2. Schema theory.
3. Reconstructive memory

Glanzer and Cunitz 1966: Aim

To investigate the recency effect on free recall

Glanzer and Cunitz 1966: participants

46 army enlisted men, each participant was tested individually

Glanzer and Cunitz 1966: method/results/conclusion

Each participant was shown a 15-word list on the screen, one word appeared at a time and was shown for 1 sec, with a 2 sec interval in between words. all words were monosyllabic. at the end, a # or a number from 1-9 was shown. if hashtag was shown, experimenter said “write” and the participant wrote as many words as they could rememeber. if the number appeared, the participant had to count from that number until 10 or 30 seconds, then start recalling the words.

results: 10 second delay reduced the recency effect, 30 sec delay eliminated the recency effect. For #, 10 sec, and 30 sec, there was still a clear primacy effect.’

Results support multiple stores of memory (STM, LTM, MSM)

Glanzer and Cunitz 1966 V/L

V: cause and effect relationship, standardization

L: artificial (lacks mundane realism), biased results

Tversky & Kahneman (1974) AIM

To test influence of anchoring bias on decicision making

Tversky and Kahneman (1974) Method/Findings/Conclusion

IV: whether the anchor was high or low (1×2×3×4…8) or (8×7×6×4…1)

DV: estimated product

Participants: high school students

AIM: to investigate the impact of cognitive biases and heuristics on decision making when system 1 is employed

Method: Independent samples, the hs students were asked to guess either the high anchor or low anchor math problem within 5 seconds.

Results: Participants who were given the high anchor produced higher estimates than those given the low anchor. This demonstrates the anchoring effect in decision making. Conclusion: first estimate served as an anchor, affecting the partcipants' thinking and decision -making process. As a rapid judgment had to be made, the use of heurisics was employed thus demonstrating that while intuitive thinking is not time consuming, it operates automatically and is therefore prone to error.

Tversky and Kahneman (1986)

Aim: to test influence of positive and negative frames on decision making

Participants: self-selected sample of 307 undergrad students

Method: Participants had to make the choice between one of two options in a hypothetical scenario where they were choosing how to respond to an outbreak of a virulent disease. In one condition, the options were framed positively, emphasizing the number of lives saved, while in the other condition, they were framed negatively, highlighting the number of lives lost.

In the positive frame,72% of participants chose program A (that highlighted the number of lives saved compared to program B (which emphasized the number of lives lost) although both A and B yielded the same mathemathical answer.

In the negative frame condition: 78% of participants chose program D, which was framed to emphasize less number of lives lost over program C, although both programs were the same.

Conclusion: People in the first condition chose the program framed to make it seem like more people were saved, and people in the second condition prefered the option that minimized losses, revealing how framing effects can alter decision making and that system 1 was employed to make these decisions.

Loftus and Pickrell 1995

Aim: to investigate the effect of misinformation on memory by implanting false memories in participants.

Participants: 21 females, 3 males, opportunity sample from University of Washington students

Design: Repeated measures

Method: Participants were mailed a 5 page booklet with instructions. it contained 4 stories that their relative described of their childhood. the fake mall story was always the third story. Each story was a paragraph long with space below for recording details of memories. The lost in the mall story was constructed from an interview with the participant’s relative who confirmed that the participant had not actually been lost. All the false stories included where the family shopped, family members who usually went shopping, and shops that would attract interests. All stories included that they were 5 yrs old, crying, found by an elderly woman, and reunited with family.

Results: 25% of participants recalled the false memory of being lost in the mall after being prompted, showing that false memories can be created through suggestion.

Englich and Mussweiler 2001

Sample: 19 trial judges.

Design: Independent Samples

Conditions: prosecutor demands 34 months or 2 months.

Pilot group: The case materials were developed with advice from highly experienced trial judges. The case materials were then tested on 24 senior law students, who reccommended an average of 17.24 prison months. This was used as a basis for the anchors.

Method: participants were given a fictitious case of rape. participants were given case materials and copies of the penal code. They were asked to read through the materials and form an opinion on the case. After 15 mins and they had formed an opinion on the case, they were given a questionnaire. Half of the participants were told that the prosecutor recommended a 34-month sentence, while the other half were told to recommend a 2-month sentence. Then they were asked if the sentence was too low, adequate, or too high. Then they were asked what sentence that they would reccommend. When given a high anchor (34-month sentence), participants recommended an average of about 10 months higher than participants given the low anchor.

True experiment (cause and effect relationship between value of anchor and sentence recommendation.)

Independent samples design means that participant variability may have played a role the results: confounding variable.

Sample size is small, also sample was limited in courtroom experience. Difficult to generalize findings.

Use of pilot group established reasonable anchors. Pilot group used system 2 thinking, 2month/34month used system 1 thinking (dual processing model).

Landry and Bartling (2011)

Aim: investigate affect of articulatory suppression on recall of list of phonologically dissimilar letters in serial recall

Participants: 34 undergrad psych students

Method: In one group the Ps had to recite “1” and “2” while tryna remember a list of 7 letters. Group two saw these same letters but did not have to recite “1” and “2”.

Results showed that the group with articulatory suppression had significantly lower recall accuracy than the control group, indicating that articulatory suppression disrupts the ability to remember information. Control group remembered 76% accurately, experimental group remembered 45% accurately.

Articulatory suppression is preventing phonological loop from functioning due to overload. This study supports working memory model because it shows how disruption of this phonological loop leads to less accurate working memory.

V: Internal valdiity, controlled, replicable, cause and effect

L: artificial (ecological validity), generalizability issue

Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

Aim: investigate accuracy of eyewitnesses of a real crime given leading questions

The eyewitnesses had seen a scene in Vancouver, Canada, where a robbery and shooting happened. Basically, a robber had entered a store, tied up the owner, and stole money and guns. The robber left, and the store owner thought he was gone and freed himself and walked outside his store. The robber then shot the owner, and there was gunfire between the robber and police.

Participants: 13/21, 4-5 months later

They were first asked of their account of the event and asked follow up questions. Themn, Half the group was asked if they saw “a” broken headlight, half the group was asked if they saw “the” broken headlight. Then they were asked if they saw “the” yellow panel or “a'“ yellow panel. (There was no broken headlight, the panel was blue)

10/13 participants answered correctly: the leading questions had little effect on recall. This might have been because the experience had an actual emotional impact on Ps, unlike Loftus and Palmer (study 2).

L: hard to generalize findings and this was a small sample size and a unique event. This also cannot be replicated ethically. Extraneous variables could not be controlled (media coverage of the event, conversation with others, that would have helped them retain the memory of no broken headlight and blue panel).

V: High ecological validity,

Brown and Kulik 1977

What did Brown and Kulik 1977 study: Flashbulb Memories

What are Flashbulb Memories: When people experience emotional events exceeding values of consequentiality, they form special memories that are vivid, detailed, accurate, and more long-lasting than regular memories. This happens because the emotional arousal activates the amygdala, enhancing memory consolidation. This also happens because people rehearse the emotional event overtly and covertly.

Aim: To investigate if Flashbulb memories are a distinct form of memory as compared to everyday memories.

Ps: 80 Americans (40 caucasian, 40 African American)

Method: Ps were given a questionnaire that asked where they were, how they felt, and how vividly they recall the event of public events like assassination of Martin Luther King or John.F.Kennedy. Then they were asked if they had any flashbulb memory of personal events such as the birth/death of a family member. Answers were submitted in the form of free recall, unlimited to length.

Findings: Brown and Kulik found that Ps had very clear memories of what they were doing, where they were, and how they felt when they found out about assassinaton of JFK or Martin Luther King. They also reported surprise and consequentiality. Personal relevance also indicated whether they had a flashbulb memory. 75% of African americans had flashbulb memories of MLK’s assassination, but only 33% of caucasians had this FBM. All but one person out of the 80 Ps had flashbulb memory of assassination of JFK. 73% said they had a FBM for a personal event like a relative dying.

Conclusion: people form flashbulb memories for emotionally impactful events, and the more relevance it has to them, the more of a flashbulb memory they will form over other people. More emotion = more rehearsal = FBM

L: social desirability (false, skewed responses), no cause and effect relationship, Ps were all american so results can’t be generalized, memories of Ps may have been recostructed by schemas and external information

V: High ecological validity

Bartlett (1932)

Aim: to investigate how recall of a story is affected by schemas

Ps: British people

Method: British people were told a Native American folk story called ‘war of the ghosts’. The story was unfamiliar to them as it included names they had never heard of and the manner in which the story was developed was also foreign to them. Then the ps were allocated to one of two condishes. First condish was to reproduce the story to someone else after hearing it, while the second condish was to reproduce it consistently after a delay.

Findings: bartlett found that both groups’ accounts of the legend were distorted to fit western schemas. The story was assimilated (adapted to fit with the norms of British culture). Second the story became shorter with each retelling as participants ommitted details that they saw as non-important. Ps also tended to change the order of the story to make it fit Western story arcs that are more familiar to the ps.

High ecological validity

not controlled all that well, this was a quasi-experiment so no cause and effect relationship can be established. There was no control group (there were no native americans recalling the story to confirm that this distortion doesn’t happen in their cultural group_