Cognitive area Flashcards
(50 cards)
1
Q
what are the first two studies of the cognitive area and the theme
A
- Loftus and Palmer
- Grant
theme: memory
2
Q
what was the background for Loftus and Palmer
A
eye witness testimonies and using leading questions which can led to distorted memories
- Schema theory proposes that memory is influenced by what an individual already knows, and that they use past experiences to deal with a new experience.
3
Q
what was the aim for Loftus and Palmers study?
A
general aim: to test whether phrasing of questions about a car accident would alter a ppts memory of an event
exp 1: whether using diff verbs to describe collision would affect estimates
exp 2 : investigate whether diff speed estimate were due to distortion of memory which will be tested to see if they incorrectly remember if there was broken glass
4
Q
what was the research method in exp 1 and exp 2
A
exp 1: lab experiment with independent measures design
IV: wording of the question
DV: estimation of speed
exp 2: lab exp with independent measures design
5
Q
what was the sample for exp 1 and exp 2
A
exp 1 : 45 students american students divided into 5 groups
- self-selected sample, advertised at uni
exp 2: 150 students divided into 3 groups
6
Q
What was the procedure for exp 1 in Loftus and Palmers study
A
- ppts shown 7 films of car crashes taken from training films
- After watching the films ppts given questionnaires which asked to describe the crash and then answer questions about it
- all but one were filler questions the other was a critical question
- The critical question was ‘how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’
- the verb was changed depending on the group (hit, contacted, bumped, collided, smashed)
7
Q
What were the results for exp 1 in Loftus and palmers study?
A
- quantative data
- we are poor at estimating speeds
- estimates of car speeds did vary according to verb used
smashed: 40.8
Collided: 39.3
Bumped: 38.1
Hit: 34
contacted: 31.8
8
Q
What were the conclusions for exp 1 in Loftus and Palmer study
A
1: response bias - when unclear about what speed the verb gives them a clue on how to estimate
2: memory distortion - verb used alters participants memory of crash
9
Q
What was the procedure for exp 2 in Loftus and Palmer’s study?
A
- all ppts watched a film of a car crash which was around a min
- all given questionnaires ask them to describe the accident and then answer questions
- 50 ppts got a question asking how fast were cars going with hit
- 50 got smashed
- 50 (control) got nothing
- 1 week later they came back and asked another 10 questions with critical question of did you see any broken glass?
10
Q
what were the results for exp 2 in Loftus and Palmer study?
A
- smashed estimated high (10.46) than hit (8.0)
- More ppts in the ‘smashed’ condition than either the ‘hit’ or control groups reported seeing broken glass 16 (s), 7(h), y(c)
- majority correctly recalled there was no broken glass
11
Q
what were the conclusions in Loftus and Palmers study?
A
general conclusion: is the way in which questions about events are worded can affect the way in which those events are remembered
exp 2: strongly suggest that this is not due to response bias but post-event wording becomes part of the memory.
12
Q
what are the strengths of Loftus and Palmers study?
A
- Loftus uses quantitative data in her study which is highly reliable and objective
- Loftus can be considered highly reliable as she used standardised procedures
- Loftus can be considered ecologically valid as parts of the study can be seen to reflect real life.
- Practical applications
13
Q
what are the weaknesses of Loftus and Palmer’s study?
A
- The sample in Loftus and Palmer are unlikely to be truly representative of the population
- unethical
- no qual data
14
Q
What was the background for Grant’s study?
A
- Context-dependent memory refers to improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and recalling information are the same. The environment around us acts as memory cues that help to trigger the information that was learned at a specific place
15
Q
what was the aim of Grant’s study?
A
to test for context-dependency effect caused by the presence or absence of noise during learning and retrieval of meaningful material
16
Q
what was the research method of Grant’s study
A
- lab experiment using independent measures design
IV: read article under silent/noisy conditions - whether the test done under matched/mismatched condition
DV: was the participant’s performance on (a) a short-answer recall test and (b) a multiple-choice recall test.
17
Q
what was the sample in Grants study
A
- 39 ppts from America
- 17-56yrs
- more males than females
- snow ball sampling (8 had to find 5 each)
18
Q
outline the procedure for Grant’s study
A
- 4 conditions (matched and mismatched noisy/silent)
- background noise was a tape made in the ini cafe at lunchtime and was played moderatly loudly through headphones which was worn by everyone
- ppts read an 2 page article on psychoimmonolgy and were allowed to highlight and underline
- reading time was recorded
- 2 minute break after finishing
- given two tests to do
- short answer test always done first to ensure information was recalled rather than from the multiple choice
- multiple choice after
- short answer had 10 questions testing recall
- mc had 16 questions testing retrieval
19
Q
what was the results for Grant’s study?
A
- individual differences in reading time but no consistent differences between noisy and silent
- There was no overall effect of noise on performance
- results better for matching silent/silent mean= 6.7 silent/noisy mean = 4.6
20
Q
what were the conclusions for Grant’s study?
A
- as there was no independent effect of noise on performance, claim made by students saying that noise does not affect their ability to study is true
- however, as context-dependence affects retrieval in SAQ and MCQ tests, students should study in silence and exams are usually silent
21
Q
what are the strengths of Grants study?
A
- quant data
- highly reliable
- practical applications
- ecological validity
- highly ethical
22
Q
what are the weaknesses of Grants study?
A
- no qual
- not everyone had same time to read
- snowball sample lacks generlisability
23
Q
what are the last two studies and theme for the cognitive area?
A
- moray
- Simons and Chabris
theme: Attention
24
Q
what was the background for moray?
A
- broadbent argues that humans cope with flood of available information by only selectively attending to some messages
- Cherry’s (1953) study where ‘shadowing’ found participants who shadowed a message presented to one ear were ignorant of the content of a message simultaneously presented to the other ear
- Cherry’s cocktail party phenomenon some messages break through attentional barriers such as names
25
what was the aim for Moray's study?
to test cherry's dichotic listening findings in relation to firstly, amount of information recognised in the rejected message, secondly, effect of hearings one name in the unattended message, thirdly the effect of instructions to identity a specific target in the rejected message
26
what was the research method in Morays study?
- lab experiment with three separate studies
- exp 1: repeated measures
- exp 2 : independent measures
- exp 3: independent measures
27
what was the sample for all three tasks?
task 1: number not recorded
task 2: 12
task 3 : 2 groups of 14
- ppts either undergraduates or research workers
- females and males
- volunteer
- oxford students
28
outline the procedure for experiment 1
- message recorded by male voice at 130/150 words per minute
- before experiment ppts had 4 practice prose to shadow
- 35 words were repeated to the right(unattended) ear and the left (attended ear) had a story which the ppts had to shadow
- ppts asked to report all they could from the unattended ear
- then given a recognition test with words from the shadowed message, rejected message, control words and they had to pick the ones they recognised
29
Outline the procedure for experiment 2
- 2 groups of 6 one had instructions with their name the other did not
- ppts shadowed 10 short passages
- in both conditions ppts were told to listen for the instructions to switch ears
- attention was measured by the ppts successfully hearing the instruction and then shadowing the message in the ear they were asked to change to
30
outline the procedure for experiment 3
- 2 groups of 14
- experimental message had messages with numbers inter spread the control had no numbers
- ppts either heard two experimental or 1 experimental one control
- ppts always shadowed experimental messages but 1 group told they would be asked about the content of the shadowed message and the other was told to remember all the numbers they could
31
what were the results for exp 1 in morays study?
- the results showed that words from the rejected message have not been recognised (mean recognition rate lower than shadowed message
mean score for shadowed message 4.9/7
mean score for rejected 1.9/7
32
what were the results for exp 2 in Moray's study?
- t-test showed a highly sig diff. presence of a name caused the instruction to be heard ( affective content can break through attentional barrier
- with name heard 20/39 times
- without name 4/36 times
33
what were the results to exp 3 in Moray's study?
- no sig diff between when told to listen for numbers and not. It shows that numbers are not important enough to break through attentional barrier
34
what were the conclusions for Moray's study?
- when ppt directs attention to a message in one ear almost everything will be blocked in the rejected message
- A short list of simple words presented as the rejected message shows no trace of being remembered even when presented many times
- subjectively important messages such as names break an attentional barrier
- While perhaps not impossible, it is very difficult to make ‘neutral’ material important enough to break through the block
35
what are the strengths of Morays study?
- lab experiment so highly controlled
- quantitative data gathered
- ethical
- valid
- extremely reliable
- practical applications
36
what are weaknesses of moray's study?
- no qual data
- sampling bias
- ethnocentric
37
what is the background for simons and chabris' study?
- Change blindness: individuals often do not detect large changes to objects and scenes
- inattentional blindness: when attention is diverted to another object/ task. Observers often fail to see an unexpected object,
- the harder one has to concentrate, the less likely one is to be distracted
38
what is the aim of simons and chabris study?
to investigate several factors on inattentional blindness. One of these was superimposition compared to being live, task difficulty , the unusualness of the unexpected event.
39
what is the research method for Simons and chabris study?
- lab experiment with independent measures design
- 16 conditions
IV: easy/hard task
transparent/ opaque
gorilla/ umbrella
white team/black team
DV: number of participants seen unexpected event
40
what was the sample for Simons and Chabris' study?
- 228 ppts collected 36 discarded so 192 overall
- most undergraduate
- volunteered and given either candy bat or a single fee if they participated in another study as well
41
outline the procedure for Simons and Chabris study
- researchers created 4 video tapes using same camera (75 secs)
- each tape had two teams of three players (black and white)
- moved around passing ball in set order in either aerial or bounce pass
- experimenters used a standardised script to deliver instructions and followed a written protocol
- Videos presented on a variety of TV moniters 13-36 inches
- uneecpted event showed up after 44-48 second and stayed for 5 seconds
- opaque was filmed live and transparant was filmed seperatly amd superimposed on one another
- ppts given easy ( count number of passes) or hard ( number of bounce and aerial passes) tas to do
- straight after they were told to write down number of passes then verbally answered questions
- After any “yes” responses, participants were asked to provide details of what they noticed
- Participants were debriefed; this included replaying the video tape on request
42
what were the results of Simons and Chabris study?
- 54% noticed an unexpected event and 46% did not
- opaque more likely to notice 67% compared to transparent ( 42%)
- easy (64%) hard ( 45%)
- umbrella ( 65%) gorilla (44%)
- when monitoring gorillas are more likely to spot when attending to the black team
- more likely to spot something if it shares basic visual features
43
what are the conclusions from Simon and Chabris study?
- inattentional blindness occurs more frequently in cases of superimposition as opposed to live but is still a feature of both
- degree of inattentional blindness depends on the difficulty of the task and is more likely when task is harder
- more likely to spot unexpected event if visually similar
- objects can pass through spatial area of attentional focus and still not be seen
44
what are the strengths of simons and chabris study
- controlled
- quat data
- reliable
- practical applications
45
what are the weaknesses of simons and charis study?
- low ecological validity
- few ethical questions
- no qual
- sampling bias
- ethnocentric
46
what are strengths of the cognitive area?
- good scientific status
- opened up our understanding of people and allowed useful practical applications
47
what are weaknesses of the cognitive area?
- computer analogy assumes the human mind process information like a computer does but does not take emotions, intuitive and influence by instinct into account
- it is reductionist only focuses on mental processes
48
what are the key concepts of the congitive area?
-Cognition
-Memory
-Process
-Storage
-Input / output
-Encoding
-Sensory
-Attention
-Focus
-Computer analogy
-Scientific
- the brain is universal
49
how does memory change our understanding of social, individual, cultural diversity?
individual: increasingly detailed models of behaviour that explain specific elements of memory processing and how memory can be improved or distorted. Grant found that, further to Loftus and Palmer’s conclusion that post-event information can affect memory recall, recall information is also affected by cues and the setting in which material has been processed in the first place.
cultural:both ethnocentric they suggest a nomothetic explanation of behaviour that can be applied to different cultures where the culturally specific factors can be applied
50
how does attention change our understanding of social, individual, cultural diversity?
individual: allow us to see how individuals process stimulus in their environment differently and this results in individual differences in the ability to pay attention to background stimuli
cultural: Harvard university which allowed research to be applied to American culture as well as English culture that was previously studied by Moray.
