Cognitive study studies Flashcards
(13 cards)
Bartlett
Aim: To investigate how memory is influenced by cultural factors and schemas.
Method: British participants read an American short story and then recalled it after varying intervals (short and long).
Results: Participants altered the story to fit their cultural backgrounds, showing memory is reconstructive; details were omitted or changed to align with their experiences.
Brown and Kulik
Aim: To investigate how surprising and personally significant events trigger flashbulb memories.
Method: Black and White American men completed a questionnaire about significant events, like the deaths of MLK.
Results: Majority remembered details about the event day; accuracy varied by personal relevance: More Black participants recalled MLK’s death, than White participants.
Conclusion: Suggested a biological mechanism for flashbulb memories but didn’t investigate it further.
Englich and Mussweiler
Aim: To investigate how suggested sentences from a prosecutor influence judges’ sentencing decisions.
Method: Young trial judges were divided into two groups: one received a low anchor and the other a high anchor. Participants recommended a sentence after reviewing the case.
Results: Judges given the low anchor recommended generally a smaller sentence, and the judges with a higher anchor recommended generally a larger sentence.
Conclusion: The study demonstrated a cause-and-effect relationship between anchor values and sentencing, supporting the existence of anchoring bias.
Loftus and Palmer
Aim: To investigate how the phrasing of questions influences eyewitness memory.
Method: Participants watched video clips of car accidents and were asked to estimate the speed of the cars using different verbs (e.g., “smashed,” “collided,” “bumped,” “hit,” “contacted”).
Results: The verb used significantly affected speed estimates, with stronger verbs like “smashed” leading to higher estimates.
Conclusion: The study demonstrated the malleability of memory, suggesting that leading questions can distort eyewitness testimony.
McGaugh and Cahill
Aim: To investigate the impact of emotional arousal on memory retention.
Method: Participants viewed a series of slides paired with either a neutral story or an emotionally intense story.
Results: Participants exposed to the emotionally charged story recalled more details about the slides. Emotional arousal was found to enhance memory retention, influenced by stress hormones like adrenaline.
Conclusion: The study highlights the role of emotional arousal in strengthening memory consolidation.
Sparrow
Aim: To investigate the concept of digital amnesia, specifically how relying on online information storage affects memory.
Method: Two studies - conducted on undergraduate participants. For the first study, participants typed trivia and either saved or erased the entries, then recalled the facts.
For the second study, participants typed trivia linked to digital folders, then recalled both facts and folder names.
Results: Study 1
Recalling facts wasn’t affected by memory prompts.
Participants who thought information would be saved recalled less.
Study 2:
Participants recalled folder names better than the facts themselves.
This suggests less effort in remembering information when external storage is available.
Conclusion
Confidence in online information storage leads to less effort in encoding and retrieving information.
(anchoring) Tversky and Kahnemann
Aim: To investigate how anchoring effects influence numerical estimations.
Method: High-school students divided into two groups. Each group estimated a multiplication problem within a time limit; one group in ascending order, the other in descending order.
Results: The group with the ascending starting point provided a significantly lower median estimate.
The group with the descending starting point provided a significantly higher median estimate.
Conclusion: Participants’ estimates were influenced by the anchoring effect, with their initial numerical exposure biasing their final judgment.
(framing) Tversky and Kahnemann
Aim: To test the influence of positive and negative framing on decision-making.
Method: Undergraduates.
Procedure: Participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario about a disease and chose between two programs under two different framing conditions: positive or negative.
Results: With positive framing, most participants chose the certain outcome. With negative framing, most participants chose the risky outcome.
Conclusion: Framing (positive vs. negative) influences decision-making, leading people to prefer certainty when outcomes are presented as gains and risk-taking when presented as losses, even when the objective outcomes are identical.
Blacker et al
Aim: To investigate if action video game training enhances visual working memory capacity.
Method: Two groups of participants (action video game players and non-action video game players). Both groups underwent a period of game training. Visual working memory was tested before and after training using tasks requiring recall of visual details.
Results: The action video game group showed significant improvement in visual working memory, particularly for complex information.
Conclusion: Action video games may improve cognitive functions, specifically visual working memory, by enhancing attentional control and the ability to filter out irrelevant information.
Brewer and Treyens
Aim: To investigate how schema influences the encoding and retrieval of episodic memory.
Method: University students waited in a room containing both typical and unusual items, then were asked to recall what they remembered through various tasks.
Results: Participants recalled more schema-consistent items and fewer items that didn’t fit the schema.
They sometimes altered details to align with their schema. In recognition, they frequently identified schema-consistent items that were not actually present.
Conclusion: Schema plays a significant role in how episodic memories are formed and retrieved.
Glanzer and Cunitz
Aim: To prove the existence of separate memory structures: Short-Term Memory and Long-Term Memory.
Method: Two studies were conducted, on army enlisted men.
Study 1: Participants listened to word lists under various conditions, including different time intervals. Impact on the primacy effect.
Study 2: Participants recalled words either immediately or after a distraction task of varying lengths. Impact on the recency effect.
Results: Longer intervals improved recall for words at the beginning of the list (primacy effect). Recall for words at the end of the list (recency effect) remained consistent.
Study 2: The recency effect was present with immediate recall but disappeared after a short distraction.
The primacy effect remained.
Conclusion: The findings support the existence of separate short-term and long-term memory stores, as distinct factors influenced the recall of early versus late items in a list.
Hirst et al
Aim: Investigate the correlation between media coverage and the accuracy of memories related to the Challenger disaster and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Method: Individuals who experienced the events were the participants. They (researchers) analyzed memories of participants regarding both tragedies. Assessed the amount of media coverage at the time of each event.
Findings: Explored how extensive media coverage influenced the accuracy and clarity of people’s memories. Aimed to determine if greater media exposure led to more accurate or distorted recollections.
Conclusion: The study sought to enhance understanding of memory formation in the context of high-profile national tragedies.
Landry and Bartling
Aim: Investigate how articulatory suppression affects recall of phonologically dissimilar letters in the context of the Working Memory Model.
Method: Undergraduate psychology students. The participants were divided into an experimental group and a control group. Both groups recalled ten lists of letters. The control group recalled without interruption, while the experimental group repeated numbers during the recall task.
Results: The control group demonstrated significantly higher recall accuracy compared to the experimental group.
Conclusion: Articulatory suppression overloads the phonological loop, impairing recall, consistent with the Working Memory Model.
