Cognative Approach Flashcards
What was the main focus of Andrade’s study?
To test whether doodling could improve concentration and memory of a conversation
The study specifically looked at the recall of names and place names.
What design did Andrade use for the study?
Independent measures design
This design means different participants were used in each condition.
What was a potential problem with the independent measures design in Andrade’s study?
Individual differences between participants
These differences could affect attention and memory recall.
What was one method Andrade used to control variables in the study?
Using specific shapes to color in for the doodlers
This helped ensure that doodling was consistent across participants.
What type of data did Andrade collect from the recall test?
Quantitative and objective data
This data type allows for statistical analysis and comparison.
What additional type of data would have been useful in Andrade’s study?
Qualitative data about daydreaming
This could help distinguish between deeper processing or better attention as reasons for improved memory.
True or False: Andrade’s study found that doodling participants recalled more monitored and incidental information.
True
This finding indicates that doodling may enhance memory performance.
Fill in the blank: Individual differences in attention or memory could have affected differences in _______.
recall
These differences may have been influenced by the independent measures design.
What ethical procedure did the experimenters follow after Andrade’s study?
Debriefed the participants and apologized for misleading them
This is important for maintaining ethical standards in research.
What is doodling?
Doodling is the act of scribbling absent-mindedly while thinking about something else.
Doodling can involve drawing pictures or sketching patterns.
What assumption is made about doodling and attention?
It is assumed that doodling hinders attention to primary tasks, leading to poorer performance.
This is based on the idea that engaging in irrelevant sketching divides attention.
How might doodling affect cognitive resources?
Doodling can take up cognitive resources, potentially affecting task performance by dividing attention.
This means that the information processing system is performing a divided attention task.
Define primary task.
The primary task is the activity we are supposed to be concentrating on.
This task may be affected by other activities such as doodling.
What is attention in the context of cognitive psychology?
Attention is the concentration of mental effort on a particular stimulus.
Attention can be focused or divided.
Define divided attention.
Divided attention is the ability to split mental effort between two or more simultaneous tasks.
An example of divided attention is driving a car while talking to a passenger.
True or False: Doodling always hinders concentration.
False
While doodling may take cognitive resources, it could also potentially aid concentration.
Fill in the blank: Doodling takes up some of our _______.
information processing capacity
What effect does divided attention have on performance?
Divided attention can lower performance on the primary task.
This is due to the simultaneous demand placed on cognition.
What type of research method was used in the study?
Laboratory experiment
The environment was controlled and not typical for responding to telephone messages.
What was the design of the experiment?
Independent measures
Participants were either in the control group or in the doodling group.
What is a control group?
A group of participants who do not receive the manipulation of the independent variable
Used for comparison with the experimental group.
How many participants were involved in the study?
40 participants
Members of a participant panel at the UK’s Medical Research Council unit for cognitive research.
What was the age range of the participants?
18-55 years
How many participants were in each group?
20 participants in each group
