Cognitive Approach Flashcards
What are the 3 models of memory you need to know?
~ multi-store
~ working memory
~ schema theory
Study: Yuille & Cutshall (1986)
Researcher(s): Yuille & Cutshall
Aim: To investigate the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness memory for a real-life traumatic event, specifically the recall of witnesses to a gun shop shooting.
Method: Field study (naturalistic observation of real-life event)
Participants: 13 eyewitnesses of a real-life gun shop shooting and attempted robbery in Vancouver, Canada.
Procedure:
Participants were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident, and their responses were compared to their initial police statements made shortly after the event.
To test the impact of leading questions, some witnesses were asked misleading questions to assess whether it would influence their recall of specific details (e.g., if they saw “a busted headlight” that didn’t exist).
The study examined accuracy in recalling details (like descriptions of the shooter and events of the shooting) and measured stress levels to determine if it affected memory.
Results:
Eyewitnesses retained accurate recall of many details over the months, with responses showing high consistency with their original police statements.
Leading questions had minimal impact on memory accuracy, showing that witness recall was largely resistant to misinformation.
Witnesses who reported the highest levels of stress during the event had the most detailed and accurate memories.
Conclusion:
Eyewitness testimony can be reliable, even in stressful and traumatic situations, challenging the notion that high-stress events lead to inaccurate memories.
Evaluation:
Strengths:
High ecological validity due to the real-life nature of the event, making findings relevant for understanding eyewitness memory reliability.
Shows that memory accuracy can endure over time, even with emotional arousal.
Limitations:
Small sample size limits generalizability; findings may not apply to all eyewitnesses or situations.
Uncontrolled variables (e.g., media influence) could affect memory recall but were not accounted for in the study.
Study: Hamilton & Gifford (1976)
Researcher(s): Hamilton & Gifford
Aim: To investigate illusory correlation and how people form stereotypes based on false associations between groups and behaviours.
Method: Experimental study
Participants: Adult volunteers
Procedure: Participants read descriptions of two groups (A and B) with both positive and negative behaviors. Group A was larger, while Group B was smaller, but both groups had the same ratio of positive to negative behaviors.
Results: Participants tended to overestimate negative behaviors for Group B, the minority group.
Conclusion: People may form illusory correlations, perceiving a relationship where none exists, which can contribute to stereotype formation.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Illustrates how cognitive biases contribute to stereotypes.
Limitations: Limited to hypothetical groups; results may differ with real groups.
Study: Brown & Kulik (1977)
Researcher(s): Brown & Kulik
Aim: To investigate the concept of flashbulb memories and determine how emotionally significant events impact memory vividness and recall.
Method: Survey
Participants: 80 American adults
Procedure: Participants were asked to recall details of significant events (e.g., assassination of JFK). They were also asked about events in their own lives.
Results: Emotionally impactful events led to more vivid, detailed memories, which the researchers called “flashbulb memories.”
Conclusion: High emotional arousal at the time of an event enhances the clarity and vividness of memories.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Introduced and defined flashbulb memory theory.
Limitations: Retrospective bias; self-reports may lack reliability.
Study: McGaugh & Cahill (1995)
Researcher(s): McGaugh & Cahill
Aim: To investigate the role of emotion on memory consolidation.
Method: Laboratory experiment
Participants: Adults, split into two groups exposed to different stories.
Procedure: Participants heard either an emotionally arousing story or a neutral story paired with images. Two weeks later, they were tested on memory recall.
Results: Participants who heard the emotional story recalled significantly more details than those who heard the neutral story.
Conclusion: Emotional arousal aids memory consolidation, likely through the release of stress hormones.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Supports the biological basis of emotional memory; strong control of variables.
Limitations: Low ecological validity as stories and images may not represent real-life emotional events.
Study: Sparrow et al. (2011)
Researcher(s): Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner
Aim: To explore how reliance on the internet affects memory, especially the tendency to remember where information can be found rather than the information itself.
Method: Experimental study
Participants: Adult volunteers (sample size varied by experiment).
Procedure: Participants were asked to answer questions or remember facts with varying prompts about internet availability and were tested on recall of content and where to locate information.
Results: People tended to remember location of information (e.g., “I can Google it”) rather than the actual content, a phenomenon dubbed the “Google Effect.”
Conclusion: The internet changes memory strategy: individuals remember how to access information rather than the information itself.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Relevant to understanding modern memory processes.
Limitations: Experimental setting may differ from naturalistic memory use; only short-term memory was tested.
Study: Dion (1972)
Researcher(s): Dion, Berscheid, & Walster
Aim: To investigate the halo effect, specifically how physical attractiveness influences people’s perceptions of other personality traits, such as kindness, intelligence, and success.
Method: Laboratory experiment
Participants: 60 university students (30 males and 30 females) from the United States.
Procedure:
Participants were shown photos of individuals (some attractive, some less attractive) and were asked to rate these individuals on a variety of traits, such as kindness, intelligence, and future success.
The photos were pre-rated for attractiveness by independent raters to ensure consistency.
Participants were not given any other information about the individuals, meaning their judgments were solely based on physical appearance.
Results:
Attractive individuals were consistently rated as having more positive personality traits, such as being kinder, more intelligent, and more likely to be successful, even though participants only saw their photos.
This supports the halo effect, where a positive impression in one area (physical attractiveness) influences perceptions in other areas.
Conclusion:
The study demonstrates the existence of the halo effect: people tend to associate physical attractiveness with positive personality traits and success, even when no other information is provided.
Evaluation:
Strengths:
Strong control over variables, such as ensuring consistent ratings of attractiveness.
Demonstrates the cognitive bias of the halo effect, which has real-world implications in areas like hiring and social relationships.
Limitations:
Cultural bias: The study was conducted in the U.S. and may reflect Western cultural ideals of beauty. The results may not be generalizable to other cultures with different beauty standards.
Artificial setting: The lab environment, where participants only saw photos, may not fully capture how the halo effect operates in real-world social interactions.
Only focuses on physical attractiveness, whereas the halo effect can apply to other traits, like intelligence or social status.
Study: Bavelier et al. (2011)
Researcher(s): Daphne Bavelier and colleagues
Aim: To investigate how action video games influence cognitive functions, specifically focusing on visual attention and information processing.
Method: Experimental study
Participants: Young adults who were divided into two groups: one group played action video games, and the other played non-action games as a control.
Procedure:
Participants in the experimental group played action video games (such as first-person shooters) for several hours each day over several weeks.
The control group played slower-paced games without fast-moving elements.
Researchers then tested both groups on tasks that measure visual attention, including tasks that involve tracking multiple objects, detecting changes, and processing peripheral visual information.
Results:
The action video game group showed significantly improved visual attention and could track more objects at a time and process visual information faster than the control group.
This effect was linked specifically to action games, as the control group showed minimal improvement.
Conclusion:
The study suggests that playing action video games can enhance certain aspects of cognitive function, particularly visual attention and rapid information processing.
Evaluation:
Strengths:
Practical applications for training programs in occupations requiring high levels of visual attention (e.g., pilots, surgeons).
Provides insight into the positive cognitive effects of video gaming, which is often studied for its negative impacts.
Limitations:
Limited generalizability: The findings may not apply to all age groups or to non-gamers.
Potential for short-term effects: The study does not clarify if the effects are long-lasting or diminish over time.
Ethical considerations: Prolonged exposure to action video games could have unmeasured impacts on participants, such as aggression or desensitization.
Study: Gandolphe & El Haj (2016)
Researcher(s): Gandolphe & El Haj
Aim: To investigate how the “Je suis Charlie” movement and exposure to media following the Charlie Hebdo attacks affected people’s emotional reactions and collective memory.
Method: Questionnaire and experimental study
Participants: A sample of 291 native French residential participants
Procedure:
Participants answered a web-based questionnaire about the Charlie Hebdo attack, four to five weeks after the incident. It asked participants not to search for answers on the Internet for information about the event. The questionnaire asked about the participants’ memory of the event, vividness, and predictors of flashbulb memory.
Results:
The vividness of flashbulb recall was strongest for those that had seen more visual imagery of the event, as facilitated by television and social media. Those that felt that the event was of international importance, as communicated by widespread international television and social media coverage, had more detailed and vivid memories. There was a correlation between the rating of the international importance of the event and the number of people with whom discussions were held about the attack.
Conclusion:
In the case of the Charlie Hebdo attack, international importance seems to play an important role as the attacks led to an international debate about freedom of expression and speech, not to mention international condemnation of terrorism and solidarity with the victims – all of which was facilitated by television and social media.
Evaluation:
Strengths:
~ Analysis of the questionnaires gave inter-rater reliability scores of 0.94 and higher for answers on flashbulb memory.
Limitations:
~There is no measurement of the importance of the event, just a presumption based on participant comments; but how do you measure importance?
~As a web-based questionnaire, despite asking people to not search information online, there is no guarantee that participants answered the questions honestly about their recollections, raising concerns about the validity of the research.
Study: Talarico (2003)
Researcher(s): Talarico & Rubin
Aim: To examine the reliability and persistence of flashbulb memories and compare them to everyday memories.
Method: Longitudinal study
Participants: 54 university students who recalled their memories of the 9/11 attacks and everyday events over time.
Procedure: Participants recalled details of their 9/11 memory and an everyday memory on three occasions: 1 week, 6 weeks, and 32 weeks later.
Results: Flashbulb memories showed no greater accuracy than everyday memories over time but were perceived with higher confidence and vividness.
Conclusion: Flashbulb memories are not more accurate but are more emotionally vivid and confidently recalled.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Insight into the nature of emotional memory; longitudinal design strengthens reliability.
Limitations: Self-report limitations; only tested one type of event.
Study: Chou & Edge (2014)
Researcher(s): Chou & Edge
Aim: To investigate how Facebook use affects people’s perceptions of others’ lives and their own life satisfaction, specifically exploring whether people believe others have better lives than they do based on social media use.
Method: Survey-based correlational study
Participants: 425 undergraduate students from a U.S. university
Procedure:
Participants completed a survey measuring:
Time spent on Facebook
Their perceptions of others’ lives compared to their own
Life satisfaction levels
Their agreement with statements like “Others are happier than me” or “Life is fair.”
Facebook activity was measured in terms of frequency of use and the number of friends participants had.
Results:
People who spent more time on Facebook were more likely to agree with the statement that “Others have better lives than me.”
Participants with more Facebook friends (especially those they didn’t know personally) were more likely to think that others were happier.
Life satisfaction was negatively correlated with Facebook use, as frequent users tended to perceive others as living happier, more successful lives.
Conclusion:
The study suggests that Facebook use can lead to negative social comparisons and biased perceptions of others’ lives, which may affect users’ own life satisfaction.
Evaluation:
Strengths:
Provides insight into the impact of social media on self-perception and well-being.
Real-life relevance as Facebook is a widely used platform.
Limitations:
Correlational study: Cannot establish causation (we cannot say that Facebook use causes low life satisfaction).
Self-reported data may suffer from social desirability bias.
Limited to undergraduate students, reducing generalizability to other age groups or cultures.
Study: Loftus & Palmer (1974)
Researcher(s): Loftus & Palmer
Aim: To investigate how leading questions influence eyewitness memory and the perception of events.
Method: Laboratory experiment
Participants: 45 university students
Procedure: Participants watched footage of a car accident and were asked to estimate the car’s speed, using varying verbs in the question (e.g., “smashed” vs. “hit”).
Results: The verb used influenced the estimated speed: “smashed” led to higher speed estimates and more reports of broken glass (which wasn’t present).
Conclusion: Leading questions can distort eyewitness memory, suggesting that memory is reconstructive.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Controlled setting allows isolation of variables; supports reconstructive memory.
Limitations: Low ecological validity; lab-based setting may not reflect real-life eyewitness situations.
Study: Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)
Researcher(s): Atkinson & Shiffrin
Aim: To propose a model of human memory involving separate stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.
Method: Theoretical model; based on observations and previous studies
Key Idea: Memory consists of three distinct stores:
Sensory memory: Receives sensory input, decays quickly if not attended to.
Short-term memory (STM): Holds limited information temporarily, encoded acoustically.
Long-term memory (LTM): Stores information indefinitely through rehearsal.
Conclusion: The model explains information processing through stages, suggesting that rehearsal is key for transferring information to LTM.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Foundational model in memory research; influenced future models and studies.
Limitations: Oversimplified; does not account for complexities like encoding differences or memory retrieval.
Study: Scoville & Milner (1957)
Researcher(s): Scoville & Milner
Aim: To understand the effects of hippocampal removal on memory, based on the case of patient H.M.
Method: Case study of H.M. following a bilateral medial temporal lobectomy to treat epilepsy.
Results: Post-surgery, H.M. experienced severe anterograde amnesia (couldn’t form new memories) but retained some short-term memory and past long-term memories.
Conclusion: The hippocampus plays a critical role in forming new long-term memories, suggesting a distinction between short-term and long-term memory.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Provided insights into brain structure and memory function.
Limitations: Single case study limits generalizability; ethical concerns due to invasive procedure.
Study: Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)
Researcher(s): Glanzer & Cunitz
Aim: To explore the serial position effect and the distinction between STM and LTM.
Method: Laboratory experiment
Participants: Adults presented with a list of words
Procedure: Participants were asked to recall a list of words immediately or after a delay.
Results: Immediate recall showed a primacy and recency effect (better recall of first and last words). Delay diminished the recency effect, indicating STM involvement.
Conclusion: The serial position effect suggests separate STM and LTM, as the primacy effect relies on rehearsal, while the recency effect depends on short-term storage.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Provides empirical support for the multi-store model.
Limitations: Artificial setting; lacks real-world application.
Study: Peterson & Peterson (1959)
Researcher(s): Peterson & Peterson
Aim: To investigate the duration of short-term memory without rehearsal.
Method: Laboratory experiment
Participants: 24 university students
Procedure: Participants were shown trigrams (three-letter combinations) and then performed a counting task to prevent rehearsal before recall.
Results: STM decayed rapidly, with recall accuracy dropping significantly after 18 seconds.
Conclusion: Without rehearsal, STM has a limited duration (approx. 20 seconds).
Evaluation:
Strengths: Controlled study on STM duration; supports multi-store model.
Limitations: Low ecological validity; trigrams lack real-world relevance.
Study: Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
Researcher(s): Baddeley & Hitch
Aim: To propose an alternative to the multi-store model with a more detailed structure for short-term memory.
Key Components:
Central executive: Directs attention, manages information flow.
Phonological loop: Processes verbal and auditory information.
Visuospatial sketchpad: Manages visual and spatial information.
Episodic buffer (added in 2000): Integrates information across systems and with LTM.
Conclusion: Memory is dynamic and complex, with multiple subsystems working in parallel.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Better explains multi-tasking and STM complexity; widely influential.
Limitations: Central executive is not well-defined; some aspects are hard to test.
Study: Baddeley (1975)
Researcher(s): Alan Baddeley
Aim: To examine dual-task performance and provide empirical support for the working memory model.
Method: Dual-task experiment
Participants: Adult volunteers
Procedure: Participants performed two tasks at once, with one using the phonological loop and the other the visuospatial sketchpad. Tasks in the same subsystem were harder to complete simultaneously.
Results: Participants struggled with two tasks within the same system (e.g., two verbal tasks) but managed tasks across different systems (e.g., verbal and spatial).
Conclusion: Supports the working memory model structure, showing how different subsystems operate independently.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Empirical evidence for separate STM systems.
Limitations: Artificial tasks may not reflect natural memory processes.
Study: Mills & McMullan (2004)
Researcher(s): Mills & McMullan
Aim: To investigate the effectiveness of dual coding (words and pictures) on memory recall using two types of short-term memory (STM) components.
Method: Experimental design
Participants: 30 participants, divided evenly into 3 groups of 10.
Procedure:
~Group 1: shown 18 words only
~Group 2: shown 18 pictures only
~Group 3: shown 18 pictures with corresponding words
~1 minute to study stimuli
~30-second pause
~1 minute to recall as many items as possible
Results:
~Words only: 8.6/18 average recall
~Pictures only: 11.2/18
~Pictures + words: 12.4/18
~Words + pictures significantly outperformed words only
~Pictures + words were not significantly better than pictures alone
Conclusion: Dual coding (words + pictures) improves memory compared to words alone, supporting the Working Memory Model (WMM)—specifically the use of both the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad to aid recall.
Evaluation:
Strengths:
~Supports theoretical model (WMM)
~Practical applications in education and study methods
Limitations:
~Inconsistent testing environments
~Low ecological validity (artificial task with clip-art images)
~May not be able to generalise samples to other cultures
Study: Bartlett (1932)
Researcher(s): Sir Frederic Bartlett
Aim: To investigate how schemas affect memory recall, using the concept of reconstructive memory.
Method: Experimental study
Participants: British adults
Procedure: Participants read the Native American story “War of the Ghosts” and were asked to recall it after various intervals.
Results: Participants altered details to fit their own cultural schemas, often replacing unfamiliar information with familiar details.
Conclusion: Memory is reconstructive and shaped by existing schemas, which can lead to distortion of original information.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Introduced schema theory; foundational for understanding reconstructive memory.
Limitations: Low ecological validity; story used may not represent typical memory tasks.
Study: Bransford & Johnson (1972)
Researcher(s): Bransford & Johnson
Aim: To determine if schema activation would result in better understanding and recall of an ambiguous text.
Method: Lab experiment
Participants:52 participants, randomly allocated to one of three groups:
~No Topic (no context)
~Topic After (context given after passage)
~Topic Before (context given before passage)
Procedure: All groups listened to the same ambiguous passage.
~Group 3 was told before that the topic was “washing clothes.”
~Group 2 was told after hearing the passage.
~Group 1 received no context at all.
~All participants rated their comprehension (1–7 scale) and had 5 minutes to recall the passage.
~Responses were scored by two independent judges using 18 predefined “idea units.”
Results:
~Topic Before: Recalled 5.83 idea units
~Topic After: Recalled 2.65
~No Topic: Recalled 2.82
~Topic Before group scored highest in recall and slightly higher in self-reported comprehension (though not significantly).
Conclusion: Prior knowledge (schema) improves understanding only when activated before information is received. Activated schemas provide a semantic context, enhancing encoding and retrieval by allowing the brain to organize and relate the new information.
Evaluation:
Strengths:
~Highly controlled; high internal validity
~Reliable and easy to replicate
~Useful educational implications (e.g., pre-reading strategies)
Limitations:
~Low ecological validity (artificial task)
~Participant variability in laundry experience not controlled (independent samples design)
Study: Kahneman (2003)
Researcher(s): Daniel Kahneman
Aim: To outline the dual-process theory, describing System 1 and System 2 thinking.
Method: Theoretical framework, building on experimental evidence from cognitive psychology
Key Concepts:
System 1: Fast, automatic, and emotional; responsible for intuitive judgments.
System 2: Slow, deliberate, and logical; engages in analytic thinking.
Conclusion: People rely on System 1 for quick judgments but may shift to System 2 for complex decisions, though System 1 can often lead to biases.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Influential framework with practical applications for understanding biases.
Limitations: Not all decisions fit neatly into two systems; over-simplification of complex cognitive processes.
Study: Tversky & Kahneman (1974)
Researcher(s): Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman
Aim: To investigate the effect of anchoring bias on mathematical estimation by manipulating the starting point of a multiplication problem.
Method: Lab experiment
Participants: High school students
Procedure: Participants randomly assigned to one of two groups:
~Ascending group: estimated 1×2×3×4×5×6×7×8
~Descending group: estimated 8×7×6×5×4×3×2×1
~Time limit: 5 seconds to estimate the product
~Assumption: the first number in the sequence would serve as an anchor, influencing the estimate
~Researchers recorded the median response from each group to minimize outlier impact
Results: Ascending group median: 512.Descending group median: 2250.Actual product: 40320. Clear evidence of anchoring bias—lower starting number led to significantly lower estimates
Conclusion: The study demonstrated that people rely heavily on the first piece of information (the anchor) when making decisions or estimates. In this case, participants anchored on the initial number in the sequence, which biased their calculations, even though both groups had the same numbers in different order.
Evaluation:
Strengths:
~Simple, replicable design
~High internal validity due to control of variables
Limitations:
~Low ecological validity (artificial task, strict time limit)
~Participant variability not controlled (independent groups may differ in math ability)
~No real-life application to how anchoring may affect complex or high-stakes decisions
Study: Englich & Mussweiler (2001)
Researcher(s): Englich & Mussweiler
Aim: To explore the impact of anchoring bias on judicial sentencing.
Method: Experimental study
Participants: German trial judges
Procedure: Judges were given suggested sentencing anchors (low or high) for a hypothetical case, and then asked to assign sentences.
Results: Higher anchor led to longer sentences, even though the case details were the same, indicating an anchoring effect.
Conclusion: Anchoring can influence professional judgments, suggesting susceptibility even among expert decision-makers.
Evaluation:
Strengths: Shows real-world application of anchoring bias; relevant for legal and judicial contexts.
Limitations: Hypothetical case may not reflect real-world complexities of actual cases.
