IB1 semester 2 - exam 2

Possible questions (SAQs and ERQs):

• Explain one theory of thinking and decision-making // Discuss one theory of thinking and decision-making (check if i have to evaluate the theory)

Anchoring bias: A heuristic where one tends to rely too heavily on the first given pierce of information offered when making decisions. Thus, the initial piece of information will be used to make the next decisions because of system 1

o Englich and Mussweiler (2001)

Aim: Investigated if anchoring bias can affect sentencing in courtrooms.

Procedure: 44 German law students were given a rape case scenario and then could choose either 34 months or 12 months of prison. The prosecutor then recommended a sentence of 34 months for half of the participants, and 12 months for the other half. Thus, setting reference points.

Results: Participants on average chose 8 months longer in prison when the prosecutor recommended 34 months rather than 12 months for the same case.

Conclusion: The recommended sentence influence the decision of how long a person should be in prison. Thus, shows effects of anchoring bias.

Strengths:
- cause and effect relationship
- internal validity
Limitations:
- artificial (lacks mundane realism)

- as this case concerned the reprehensible act of rape, the participants may have been emotionally affected by the type of crime, (unconsciously) allowing personal opinions, experiences, or relations to the issue affect their decisions

o Tversky and Kahneman (1974)

Aim: Investigated if anchoring bias exists.

Procedure: High school students were assigned to an ascending condition and had to quickly estimate the value of 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8, or descending condition and had to estimate the value of 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1. Researchers assumed that the ascending group would use 1 as an anchor and predict a lower value, whereas the other group would anchor to 8 and predict a higher value.

Results: It was assumed that the first number that is seen would create a biased estimate of the value. The ascending median was 512, and descending 2250. The actual value is 40320.

Strengths:
- independent measures design- there are no order effects, when participants improve due to practise or worsen due to fatigue or boredom in the second condition and not the intended variable being investigated.

- since it was a laboratory causation was more confidently established. confounding variables were controlled or eliminated.

Limitations:

- however there are many individual differences due to participant variables (such as IQ, reaction time and mathematical ability).
better to have used matched pairs design and match students based on mathematical competency. especially as it was independent measures design.

- low ecological validity: the task is oversimplified and is done in artificial conditions so is low in ecological validity. hence the results cannot be generalised to real life situations.

• Explain one study of rational or intuitive thinking (can only be asked as a SAQ)

o Intuitive thinking is system 1 thinking, rational thinking is system 2 thinking

o Englich and Mussweiler (2001)

Intuitive thinking / system 1 thinking

automatic, fast, and effortless process of thinking that uses heuristics. Because mental shortcuts are used, system 1 is prone to error as life is complex. System 1 is used when cognitive load is high. It also creates a feeling of certainty that our first response is correct. Context-dependent, everyday decisions, assumptions, error, automatic and quick

Aim: Investigated if anchoring bias can affect sentencing in courtrooms.

Results: Participants on average chose 8 months longer in prison when the prosecutor recommended 34 months rather than 12 months for the same case.

Conclusion: The recommended sentence influence the decision of how long a person should be in prison. Thus, shows effects of anchoring bias.

As the participants based their personal opinions on the first piece of information given (without challenging their own perceptions), they used the more automatic, intuitive, and unreliable system 1 to process the information given, supporting the fact that they relied on the information they were provided with without weighing the justice of the claims

o Tversky and Kahneman (1974)

• Explain the use of one research method in the study of cognitive processes // Discuss the use of one or more research methods in the study of cognitive processes (the focus should be on thinking and decision-making)

o Remember that the research methods are: case studies, experiments, observations, interviews, and questionnaires/surveys

• Explain one ethical consideration in the study of cognitive processes // Discuss ethical considerations in the study of cognitive processes (the focus should be on thinking and decision-making)

o Kramer et al. (2014)

• Explain one bias in thinking and decision-making // Discuss one or more biases in thinking and decision-making

o Englich and Mussweiler (2001)

o Tversky and Kahneman (1974)

• Discuss the influence of digital technology on one or more cognitive processes

o Computers and memory:

Memory: the system that allows us to retain information and bring it to mind. The mental process of encoding (the process of converting information into a form that can be stored in memory), storing (the process of retaining information in memory) and retrieving information (the process of bringing into consciousness information stored in memory) (check and maybe add to this)

o Muller and Oppenheimer (2014)

Aim: Investigates whether technology hinders recall by comparing longhand and laptop note-taking in regards to encoding and learning material.

Design: 109 UCLA volunteer students participated in an Independent Measures Design that tested two IV's: how one takes notes whether via laptop, or longhand; and whether participants study their notes, or not. The DV was how well they would remember the material.

Procedure: Participants received either a laptop, or a pen and paper to take notes about four spoken-lecture videos, with four different themes; bats, bread, vaccines, respiration, videos watched with headphones on private monitors to prevent distraction. Participants were tested about the lectures in a week, and were not allowed to bring the notes home. The groups were then divided again into a "study" condition allowing them to study their notes for 10 minutes before the test, or into a "no-study" condition where they began the test immediately.

Results: There was no to little difference in participants who did not study in either note conditions. However, people who studied their longhand notes performed much better, possibly because they processed the information better and recalled the main parts. However, differences in results were not that drastic.

Conclusion: There is a small correlation between taking handwritten and digital notes when it comes to recalling them, it also seems that concepts are remembered better via digital notes.

Strengths:

- An effect can be established as the study was controlled

- The study is highly standardized and can be replicated; in this way, we can test the reliability of the findings.

Limitations:

- The experiment was highly artificial so ecological validity is low, in addition the trivia style questions as people do not try to remember trivia style questions.

- There is likelihood of participant variability.

- The study does not have high internal validity; there was a week that passed between the two tests. It was not possible to control for extraneous variables during this time.

o Storm et al. (2016)

Aim: Investigated whether using Google to retrieve information made it more likely that participants would rely on Google in the future rather than recalling information from individual memory stores.

Procedure: 60 participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Internet, memory, or baseline. In the 1st phase; participants in the internet condition had to use Google to answer 8 difficult general knowledge questions. Participants in the memory condition had to answer the same question, but rely on their memory. In the baseline condition participants did not answer any questions.

2nd phase; All participants had access to Google, but were not explicitly told to use it, and were asked to answer 8 easy general questions quickly. Which participants use Google is the dependent variable.

Results: 83% of the participants assigned to the internet condition used Google, 63% of the participants who were assigned to the memory condition used Google, and 65% of the baseline participants used Google.

Conclusion: The results heavily indicate that using internet search engines to find or retrieve information will make it more likely for a person to do so, and less likely for them to use their own memory in the future.

Strengths:

- Experiment > cause and effect relationship may be established

- Controlled condition

- Independent samples > eliminate order effects

Limitations:

- Relies on trivia (general knowledge) information

- Artificial so ecological validity is low because why are we trying to remember trivia, recalling useful or meaningful information could change whether one uses internet search engines.

• Discuss positive and/or negative effects of modern technology on cognitive processes

o Negative:

these studies show a negative effect on memory (notes on the studies is stuff to talk about to show that technology has a negative effect on memory)

o Muller and Oppenheimer (2014)

Investigates whether technology hinders recall by comparing longhand and laptop note-taking in regards to encoding and learning material.

However, people who studied their longhand notes performed much better, possibly because they processed the information better and recalled the main parts.

o Storm et al. (2016)

Investigated whether using Google to retrieve information made it more likely that participants would rely on Google in the future rather than recalling information from individual memory stores.

The results heavily indicate that using internet search engines to find or retrieve information will make it more likely for a person to do so, and less likely for them to use their own memory in the future.

they took less time consulting their own memory before opting to rely on Google

temporarily reduce a person’s desire to engage in challenging cognitive behaviours.

• Discuss methods used to study the interaction between digital technology and cognitive processes

o Remember that the research methods are: case studies, experiments,

observations, interviews, and questionnaires/surveys

• Discuss the role of digital technology on emotion and cognition

Emotion: Emotions are mental reactions (such as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feelings usually directed toward a specific object

o Kramer et al (2014)

Aim: wanted to test the idea that information in an individual’s Facebook feed could cause emotional contagion - that is, the transfer of emotional states from one person to another

Procedure: They manipulated the Facebook feeds of 689.003 Facebook users. For some participants between 10-90% the positive posts of their friends were omitted from their feed. For other participants, 10-90% of negative posts of their friends were omitted from their feed. A control group for each condition was also assessed, where a proportion of their feed was omitted at random.

Results: As expected, when participants had the positive content of their news feed reduced, they were less likely to use positive language in their own posts. Also as expected, when participants had the negative content of their news feed reduced, they were less likely to use negative language in their own posts. They concluded that the emotional content to which we are exposed through our Facebook feed does indeed affect our own emotional state; when we see fewer positive posts we are less likely to post positive events or positive opinions of our own.

Strengths:

- Manipulation of the news feed was done remotely and without any direct involvements of researchers

Limitations:

- Many people were angry that the study had manipulated the information they received in their Facebook feed in order to test how this slight manipulation might affect them emotionally

- Attempts to avoid demand characteristics by carrying out field experiments have raised serious ethical concerns regarding informed consent (this study gave no informed consent)

Cognition - memory

o Schaefer et al. (2011)

Aim: To see if there is a difference in memories of the 9/11 attacks depending on whether people heard the information on television or from another person

Procedure: The sample was made up of 38 students from the University of Winnipeg. They were asked to do a free recall of when they heard the news about the terrorist attack both 28 hours after the event and then again six months later. They were not told at the time of the first recall task that they would be tested again six months later. The participants were divided into two groups: immediate and delayed viewing of television coverage of the event. Those in the immediate group (n = 27) saw the event live on television or turned on television within minutes of hearing the news. Those in the delay condition (n = 11) saw the event on television hours after being informed.

Results: The quantity of info provided in the initial and follow-up reports did not differ regarding the reception context. However, the delayed viewing of images resulted in less elaborate and less consistent accounts over the 6 months interval. Receiving emotional info via tv doesn’t make you remember more info. But over time, info first learnt through the media was more reliable and detailed. So being exposed to emotional info via digital media enhances reliability and depth of info over time

Strengths:

- High ecological validity as it is a real-life event that happened

Limitations:

- Cannot control amount of media exposure over time, so many studies have low internal validity.

- Anniversaries of tragedy encourage overt rehearsal of info since there is more media coverage. Annual reinforcement of this memory may give greater vividness/accuracy to memories

• Explain one technique used to study the brain in relation to behavior // Discuss one or more techniques used to study the brain in relation to behavior

o MRI, fMRI, PET. You should be able to explain how the technique works for whichever technique you choose

MRI: an imaging technique that provides a 3D picture of the brain structures. Strengths - Non-Invasive and minimal potential harm, high-resolution, providing a good structure of the brain. Limits - MRI's only indicate structure, not show what is actually happening, MRI research is correlational in nature, and does not establish a clear cause and effect relationship

fMRI: an imaging technique similar to an MRI, but it actually shows the brain activity. The fMRI measure changes in blood flow and oxygen levels in the active brain. Strengths - Participants can perform tasks while the brain activity is observed, it is non-invasive, good resolution and provides a film of brain activity. Limits - Participant could be potentially harmed as a powerful magnet is used, so iron is to be removed.

PET: an imaging technique observes metabolic process in the brain by detecting gamma rays emitted by a tracer, which involves giving the participant a safe dose of a radioactive tracer compound. Strengths - Participants can perform tasks while the brain activity is observed. Limits - It is invasive, as a small amount of radioactive material is injected, PET scans are quite slow and have poor resolution.

o Any study that uses brain technology can be used. Just be sure that you know which study uses which technology

o Milner (1966)

A multi store memory and localization case study that investigated the effects of memory impairment due to brain damage.

HM, had most of his hippocampus and medial temporal lobe tissues removed to cure him of epileptic seizures. He was observed longitudinally by Milner. MRIs were used to determine the location and size of damage to HM's brain.

HM had anterograde amnesia, meaning he could not transfer new information to LTM but had previous memories from before the surgery. However, he could create new procedural memories.The MRI scans showed that other parts of his brain apart from the hippocampus and medial temporal lobes were also damaged.

The case study provides biological support that STM and LTM are in different parts of the brain, and that the hippocampus does contain memory but is the site of memory consolidation where STM's become LTM's. It also shows that memory is more complex than the MSM predicted, as he could create procedural memories supporting localization in which different brain parts are responsible for different functions.

use of MRI to see where the damage was done and thus what parts of the brain were responsible for different kinds of memory (behavior because he could create procedural memories)

Strengths:

- provides detailed (rich qualitative) information
- permitting investigation of otherwise impractical (or unethical) situations
- high ecological validity

Limitations:

- inability to generalize results to the wider population
- researcher bias
- difficult to replicate
- time-consuming

o Raine et al. (1997)

A localization experiment that investigates structural brain differences between murderers and nonmurderers.

The brain activity of murderers and non-murdered was measured with a PET scan to show function in the brain, where the non-murderers were matched with murderers based on brain damage history to eliminate that factor.

There was a physiological difference between violent people and non-violent people, where violent people had lower prefrontal cortex activity which is linked to the lack self-control and altered or more emotion. In addition, there were brain activity differences between the two hemispheres, such as the amygdala and hippocampus.

Murderers might have stronger emotions and lack the ability to control them, which could result in violent behaviors.

Strengths:

- Standardised procedures: same scanner (PET), same continuous performance task for 32 mins

- Well controlled

Limitations:

- Mainly males used

- Could not control upbringing or situation of offence

• Explain localization of behavior // Evaluate research on the localization of behaviors

Localization of function: the theory which argues that specific parts of the brain are responsible for specific behaviors or processes. However, though some parts have specific roles, the brain rarely works alone. Thus, people attempt to map the brain by exploring neural connections, and create a connectome.

o Milner (1966)

o Raine et al. (1997)

• Explain the use of one research method in the study of the brain and behavior // Discuss the use of one or more research methods in the study if the brain and behavior

o Case studies → Milner (1966) or Squire (1992, 2002)

o Experiments → Maguire (2000) or Draganski (2004) (we haven’t specifically covered these studies)