Cognitive Approach

Question 1

Define Schema

Answer 1

A pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them.

Question 2

Bradford and Johnson 1972

Answer 2

Aim: Investigate how schemas help us to store new information in our memory

Participants: 50 American high school volunteers
Method: Experiment Independent measures

Procedure: Participants are randomly divided into three groups. All participants are read a paragraph describing a number of steps in a certain procedure.

Group 1 are told that the paragraph is about doing laundry before they hear the paragraph
Group 2 are told that the paragraph is about doing laundry after they hear the paragraph, before they are asked to recall it
Group 3 are not told what the paragraph is about
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All participants are then tested on how much of the paragraph they can recall

Findings: The group that were told the topic of the paragraph before they listened to it (Group 1) had significantly better memory than the other two groups.

Question 3

Bartlett 1932

Answer 3

Aim: Investigate how cultural schemas can influence memory

Procedure: British participants read a Native American folk story called “War of the Ghosts” twice, then asked to reproduce it from memory soon after, as well as on a later date.
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The content and style of the story was unfamiliar to the British readers, as it was not written according to the storytelling conventions of English literature
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Results: When the participants recalled the story, the length of the story became shorter, and the story became more conventional. Unusual details (such as the unfamiliar names, or the revelation that the warriors were actually ghosts) were left out or distorted (for instance, some participants remembered “boats” instead of the unfamiliar “canoes”)
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No matter how much the recollection of the story differed from the original, it remained a coherent, complete story. This suggests that participants tried to remember the story as a whole, rather than trying to memorize specific details individually

Question 4

How may schema distort memory?

Answer 4

-Information which is inconsistent with our schemas may be forgotten or distorted to “fit” our schemas.
-When you can’t remember an event well, you may “fill in” the missing details with your best guess, based on your schema for that event.

Question 5

What are the effects of schema on behavior?

Answer 5

-Schemas help us to organize memories & help in recall
-Schemas help guide behavior.
-Schemas help you predict what will happen next

Question 6

What are the three types of memory?

Answer 6

-Sensory
-Short term
-Long term

Question 7

Murdock 1962

Answer 7

Aim: Investigate how the position of words in a list affects memory
(multi store memory model)​
Procedure

Participants were shown a list of words of varying length (10-40 words), one word at a time, for 1-2 seconds each
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Immediately after all the words were shown, participants tried to recall as many of the words as they could
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​Results

Participants tended to remember more of the words at the beginning of the list (known as the primacy effect) and at the end of the list (known as the recency effect)
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Participants had the worst recall for the words in the middle of the lis

Question 8

What are the structures in working memory model?

Answer 8

-Central executive: Decides what receives attention
-Phonological loop: Verbal component of short-term memory that stores auditory information
-Visuo-spatial sketchpad: This is the visual & spatial component of short-term memory that allows for mental pictures
-Episodic buffer: This is a sort of mental “TV screen” where all the information from your senses, short-term and long-term memory is projected, ready for you to make use of.

Question 9

Landry & Bartling 2011

Answer 9

Aim: Investigate the effects of “multi-tasking” when both tasks utilize the same working memory system - in this case, the phonological loop

Participants: 34 Undergrad students

Method: Experiment independent measures

Procedure: Participants were randomly divided into two groups - the “multi-tasking” group and the “single task” group
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All participants were shown 10 letter strings, each consisting of 7 random letters (eg. GHKALKE). Participants had to memorize each string of letters, then write their answer down on an answer sheet
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The participants in the “multi-tasking” group were also told to repeatedly say the numbers “1” and “2” at a rate of two numbers per second, while they were trying to memorize the string of random letters
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Findings

The participants in the “multi-tasking” group performed significantly worse, recalling the letters with 45% accuracy compared with 76% in the “single task” group
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Question 10

What does it mean that memory is reconstructive?

Answer 10

The idea that we consciously rebuild our memories every time we try to remember something. And when we try to rebuild our memories, we may be influenced by other factors - such as our beliefs or feelings about the past, or unrelated memories that get misplaced and mixed together.

Question 11

Loftus & Palmer 1974

Answer 11

Aim: Investigate how leading questions can influence eyewitness memory

Participants: 45 American college students

Method: Experiment Independent measures

Procedure: The students were shown a video of a car crash
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The students were randomly divided into groups, and each group was asked a slightly different question regarding the speed of the cars at the time of the accident. One group was asked “How fast were the cars going when they smashed each other?”, while for other groups, the word smashed was replaced by either hit, collided, or bumped
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In a follow-up experiment, participants were also asked if they had seen broken glass
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Findings

Participants estimate that the cars were travelling at a significantly higher speed when the question involved the word smashed.
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Significantly more participants also reported seeing broken glass when the question involved the word smashed (in reality, there was none)
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Question 12

What are flashbulb memories?

Answer 12

Events of high emotional state that can be remembered to great detail

Question 13

Brown & Kulik 1977

Answer 13

Aim: Investigate whether people have unusually vivid memories of highly emotional events

Participants in the study were 80 Americans, half of which were white, the other half African-American
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Procedure: Participants were asked to recall assassinations of famous people, like JFK. They were also asked to recall memories of an emotionally intense personal event, such as the unexpected death of a family member
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Results: Nearly all participants had very vivid memories of JFK’s assassination, including where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news
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African-Americans also had vivid memories of the assassination of key civil rights leaders, such as Martin Luther King Jr, who were important figures in the fight for racial equality
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Most participants (73 out of 80) also had at least one exceptionally vivid memory of an emotionally intense personal event, the most common being the death of a parent
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Question 14

Neissar & Harsch 1992

Answer 14

Aim: Assess the accuracy of flashbulb memories

Participants: 106 university students

Procedure

Within 24 hours of the Challenger disaster, participants (who were all American psychology students) filled in a survey with 7 questions regarding where they were, and what they were doing, when they heard the news of the disaster
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2.5 years later, participants filled in the same questionnaire again. The researchers compared the two versions of the questionnaire to see if participants’ memories would still be accurate, over two years later. Participants were also asked how confident they were (on a scale of 1 to 5) in their memory of the event

Results

For most participants, there were significant discrepancies between the two questionnaires, indicating that memory of the event had become distorted. Out of 7 questions, only an average of 2.95 were answered identically to the original survey
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Despite the poor memory of the event, most participants felt confident that they could remember the Challenger disaster accurately, with an average confidence rating of 4.17

Question 15

Sharot et al 2007

Answer 15

Aim: Investigate which brain regions play a role in flashbulb memory

Procedure

​24 participants who were in New York City at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks recalled their memories of the event (and other events of that summer) while having their brain scanned by an fMRI machine
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The participants were also asked to rate how detailed and vivid their memories were of the 9/11 attacks and other events of that summer
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Results

Only participants who were very close to the attacks reported very detailed and vivid memories of 9/11. The memory of those further away from the attacks was less detailed, as were other memories from that summer
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Participants who were close to the 9/11 attacks showed increased activity in the amygdala when recalling the event. The amygdala is known to be involved in emotion
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Question 16

How does system 1 and system 2 compare in the dual process model?

Answer 16

System 1 vs system 2
-Fast | Slow
-Unconscious | Conscious
-Automatic | Effortful
-Unreliable | Reliable

Question 17

Atler & Oppenheimer, 2007

Answer 17

Aim: Investigate how font affects thinking

Procedure

40 Princeton students completed the Cognitive Reflections Test (CRT). This test is made up of 3 questions, and measures whether people use fast thinking to answer the question (and get it wrong) or use slow thinking (and get it right)
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Half the students were given the CRT in an easy-to-read font, while the other half were given the CRT in a difficult-to-read font
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Findings
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Among students given the CRT in easy font, only 10% of participants answered all three questions correctly, while among the students given the CRT in difficult font, 65% of participants were fully correct

Question 18

What are Heuristics?

Answer 18

Mental shortcuts in system 1 In order to come up with a fast, effortless answer.

Question 19

What is the anchoring effect?

Answer 19

The anchoring effect involves making use of a reference point, or anchor, in coming up with an estimate

Question 20

Kahneman and Tversky (Anchor)

Answer 20

Aim: To investigate how anchors influence thinking and decision making

Participants: 156 University students

Procedure: Participants spun a wheel with numbers ranging from 1 to 100. However, the wheel was fixed so that the wheel would always land on either the number 10 or 60
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Afterwards, participants were asked to estimate what percentage of U.N. member countries were African countries
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Findings

Participants who spun the number 10 tended to give a significantly lower estimate for African membership in the U.N. than participants who spun the number 60
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The mean estimate for the “low anchor” group was 25%, compared to 45% for the “high anchor” group

Question 21

Kahneman & Tversky (Judgment)

Answer 21

Aim: Investigate how the availability heuristic affects judgement

Participants: 152 University students

Procedure: Participants were asked, “If a random word is taken from the English language, is it more likely that the word starts with the letter K, or that K is the third letter?”
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Results: ​Over two thirds (105 out of 152 participants) thought it was more likely that words in English would begin with the letter K
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In fact, there are about twice as many words in the English language that have K as the third letter than there are words that begin with K
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Conclusion: This results of this study are likely due to the availability heuristic. It is much easier to think of words that begin with the letter K (such as kangaroo, kitchen, kidnap) than words that have K as the third letter (such as acknowledge, ask). Because participants find it easier to recall words that begin with K, they incorrectly assume that there are more such words

Question 22

Rosser et al 2007 HL

Answer 22

Aim: to investigate whether playing video games results in better surgery performance

Methods: Correlational study

Participants: 33 Laparoscopic surgeons

Procedure: Participants carried out a series of drills, which are used to train surgeons. Researcher observed how many errors were made and how long to drills took.

Participants were asserted on their game mastery via a self reported questionnaire as well as their scores obtained from playing 3 games for 25 min. The games required precision & reaction time.

Results: High correlation between Video Game Mastery and less errors and shorter duration of drill.
Those who played videogames for 3 hours a week or more made 37% less errors and did the drill in 27% less time

Question 23

Sanchez 2012 HL

Answer 23

Aim: To investigate how transferable the effect of playing videogames are to a wider domain such as science learning.

Method: Independent measure experiment

Participants: 60 University students

Procedure: Participants were randomly divided into two groups

One group played a first person shooter “Halo” to train there spatial skills.

Group two played a verbal game involving combining letter to for a word.

After playing their respective games, participants read 3,500 words without illustrations about a theoretical model.

Participants wrote an essay after, which independent scores graded on understanding of the concepts

Results: Those who played the first person shooter scored higher on the essay - showing better understanding of the concept.

Question 24

Sparrow et al 2011 HL

Answer 24

Aim: Investigate how technology can lead to cognitive offloading of factual information
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Participants: 60 undergraduates

Method: Independent Measures, Lab experiment

Procedure: Participants were asked to type 40 trivia facts into a computer (ex. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain)
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Participants were randomly assigned to two groups - in one group, participants were told that the computer would store everything they typed for future reference, while in the other group, participants were told that the information would be erased
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Furthermore, within each group, participants were randomly divided into two subgroups - half were explicitly told to remember the facts, while the other half were not told to remember.

Thus, there were four groups in total - 1. Computer will save & asked to remember, 2. Computer will save & not asked to remember, 3. Computer will erase & asked to remember, 4. Computer will erase & not asked to remember
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Findings

Participants told that the computer would erase the information remembered significantly more of the facts (around 30%) than participants told that the computer would store the information (around 20%)
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Interestingly, asking the participants to remember the facts had no effect on their memory

Question 25

Rosen et al 2011 HL

Answer 25

Aim: To investigate the effects of amount of multitasking and response delay on attention and academic performance.

Method: Experiment; Independent measure

Participants: 185 college students

Procedure: Students viewed a videotaped lecture and were then given a test to asses their understanding. During the lecture participants received text messages in varying quantitates (Small, medium, large).

Results: More text messages resulted in lower tests grades
Students which responded immediately scored significantly worse than those which responded to the texts up to 5 min later

Question 26

Konrath, O’Brein and Hsing 2011 HL

Answer 26

Aim: To examine changes in empathy scores of College students over time

Method: Correlation study; Meta-analysis

Participants: 72 samples of college students who complete an interpersonal reactivity index between 1979-2009

Procedure: IRI scores were correlated with the year of data collection

Results: A decrease in IRI scores in more recent degenerations with the largest decrease between 2000-2009. During this the largest spike in website and technology usage

Question 27

What is the Interpersonal Reactivity Index? HL

Answer 27

A personality scale that measures both emotion and cognitive components of empathy

Question 28

Carrier et al 2015 HL

Answer 28

Aim: To investigate the relationship between digital activities, virtual empathy and real-word empathy

Method: Correlation study

Participants: 1762, born after 1980

Procedure: Participants filled out anonymous questionnaires which gave information on daily media usage and empathy scores. The emotional and cognitive components of empathy were measured.

Results: Engaging in activities that eventually led to face to face communication (email, social networking) was shown to be associated with higher real life empathy scores.
Videogames reduced face to face communication, reducing real world empathy

Question 29

Storm et al 2016 HL

Answer 29

AIM: To test the idea that the successful use of Google to retrieve information would make participants more likely to use Google in the future, rather than their own individual memory store.

Participants: 60 undergraduate
students

PROCEDURE:
Randomly allocated to one of 3 conditions (internet, memory, baseline). First phase involved participants being asked to find the answer to 8 difficult general
knowledge questions.
The internet condition was allowed to use Google, memory condition had to use their own memory to answer and baseline condition was not asked any questions.

Second phase involved participants being asked to answer 8 easy general knowledge questions as fast as possible. (all participants were given access to Google but no explicit instructions to use it.

RESULTS: The results suggest that using internet search engines to retrieve information makes us more likely to do so in the future.

Google search percentage by; Internet group 83%; Memory group 63%; Baseline 65%.

Question 30

What are transactive memory systems? (Google effect) HL

Answer 30

Wegner et al (1985) suggested that there might be an
additional form of memory that might exist within groups
of close individuals
- These are called transactive memory systems
- They include the sum total of the memories stored by
members of the group and knowledge of where
information can be found

Question 31

Kramer et al 2014 HL

Answer 31

Aim: 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.

Method: Independent measure experiment;

Participants: 689,003 Facebook users

Procedure: Algorithm and a software system were used identify posts containing positive and negative words. For some participants between 10% and 90% of the ‘positive’ posts of their friends were omitted from their feed. For other participants, 10% to 90% of the negative posts of their friends were omitted. A control group for each condition was also assessed, where a proportion of their feed was omitted at random. The words used by participants in their own posts were analyzed during the week, percentage of positive and negative words used in these posts was recorded.

Results: When positive content was reduced, participants were less likely to use positive language in their own posts.
When Negative content was reduced, participants less likely to use negative language in their own posts.

Question 32

Chou and Edge (2012) HL

Answer 32

Aim: To test the influence of the availability heuristic on how Facebook users evaluate themselves in comparison to other people.

Participants: 425 US undergraduate students

Procedure: Participants completed a survey including a 10 point Likert scale allowing them to indicate how strongly they agreed with a series of statements such as “many of my friends have a better life than me” or “many of my friends are happier than me”. They also indicated how many hours a week they spent on Facebook, how long they had used FB, and the average time spent actually with friends per week.

Results: The results showed that participants who spent the most hours per week on Facebook were more likely to agree that ‘other people are happier than me’. By contrast, those who spent the most time out with friends in the ‘real world’ were very unlikely to feel that ‘other people are happier than me’ or ‘many of my friends have a better life than me’.

Question 33

Rosen, Carrier and Cheever 2013 HL

Answer 33

Aim: To investigate the relationship between the use of digital technology, multi-tasking and school achievement.

Participants: 236 students

Method: Correlational study

Procedure:
On-task and off-task behavior was assessed using a checklist. The behaviors were noted every minute during the observation. Participants filled out a questionnaire abut their self reported GPA.

Results:
On average participants maintained on task behavior for 6 minutes before changing to an off task behavior.
On average 10min out of 15min were used for on task behavior. There was strong correlation between reduced on-task behavior and; texting, using Facebook and amount of technology available and walking/stretching. Off task behavior was associated with reduced school achievement. Those which accessed Facebook once during the 15 min had lower GPAs.

Question 34

Define Empathy HL

Answer 34

The ability to understand or feel what another person is experiencing

Question 35

Define Minute-by-Minute assessment of behavior HL

Answer 35

A type of structured observation with a checklist that is used every minute of the observation until the end of the observation

Question 36

Define Experience Sampling Method HL

Answer 36

A research procedure where participants are asked to provide self-reports of their emotions, symptoms or environment, at different moments during their daily lives

Question 37

Articulatory suppression

Answer 37

A research technique where participants are required to repeat a sequence of sounds while at the same time performing the experimental task

Question 38

Capacity

Answer 38

The number of units of information that can be held in a memory store

Question 39

Memory

Answer 39

A cognitive process of encoding, sorting and retrieving information

Question 40

Primacy effect

Answer 40

A memory phenomenon where words in a list a better remembered if they are at the begging of the list rather than the middle

Question 41

Recency effect

Answer 41

A memory phenomenon where in a list of words, the words at the end of the list are better remembered than words in the middle

Question 42

Retrieval

Answer 42

A process of memory; extracting information from the long-term store when it is needed

Question 43

Reconstructive memory

Answer 43

The theory that views memory to be an active process of reaction of past events as opposed to passive retrieval

Question 44

Glanzer and Cunitz 1966

Answer 44

Aim: To investigate the serial position effect with or without interference of a filler task

Method: Experiment; Repeated measure

Participants: 46 arm enlisted-men

Procedure: A series of 15 word lists were read to participants with instructions to memorise as many words as they could. The participants were then instructed to do a free recall of the words, or told to countdown from a number for ten seconds or countdown from a number for 30 seconds.

Each participant had a total of 15 lists (5 in each condition). The experimenters measure what proportion of words from thee list were memorised from the beginning and end.

Results: In the free recall condition, both primacy and recency effect were preserved. In the filler conditions, only primacy was preserved, with a weakened or complete lack of recency effect (more so in 30 second filler than 10 second)

Question 45

Serial position effect

Answer 45

The tendency to recall the first and last words from a list of words better than the words within the middle of the list

Question 46

x

Answer 46

x

Question 47

Memory models (3)
Schema (3)
Thinking and decision making (3)
Reconstructive memory (2)
Emotion and Cognition (3)

Answer 47

Memory - Multi store:
-Mudrock 1962
-Glanzer and Cunitz 1966
Memory - Working Memory model:
-Landry and Bartling 2011

Schema:
-Barlett 1932
-Bradford and Jhonson 1972
-Loftus and Palmer 1974

Thinking and decision making:
-Kahneman and Tversky (Anchor)
-Kahneman and Tversky (Hueriistics)
-Atler & Oppenheimer, 2007

Recnstructive memory:
-Loftus and Palmer 1974
-Barlett 1932

Emotion and cognition:
-Brown and Kulik 1977
-Sharot et al 2007
-Neischer and Harsh 1992