Ch 9 research topics
It take longer to process negative information than it takes to process positive information.
Gernbacher & Robinson (2005) conducted an experiment where participants were presented with the following sentences:
A grandmother sat at a table. A young Child played in a yard.
The grandmother sat at a table. The young child played in the yard.
What were the results of their study?
Left hemisphere: showed identical activation patterns for both sets of sentences
Right Hemisphere: Showed different patters of activation for the two sets of sentences (connected vs. disconnected language)
They found that "the" creates a more cohesive story than "a" and the right hemisphere of the brain is more responsive to the cohesiveness of a sentence.
What research was conducted on the indirect-access route?
Luo et al. (1998)
Participants made more errors when words were phonetically similar to semantically similar words. (wear vs ware, bare vs bear)
Participants also made fewer errors on pairs of words where the second word looked like a related word (bean looks like bear, but does not sound like it)
What were the results of Quinn and Spencer (2001) experiment on stereotype threat?
Men performed better than women on word-problem tests, but there were no differences in gender on numerical tests.
Thoman et al. (2008)
3 groups. Before taking a difficult math test, group 1 was told men perform better than women because of their ability, group 2 was told that men perform better than women because they try harder, and group 3 was the control and not told anything before the test.
Group 2, who was told that men perform better than women because they try harder, performed better on the test than groups 1 and 3.
What researchers discovered the mirror system by showing monkeys to open peanuts?
Rizzolatti et al. (1996)
What were the results of Calvo-Merino et al. (2005), where they had ballet and martial arts experts watch videos of ballet vs. martial arts?
fMRI data showed the ballet experts showed greater motor cortex activity while watching ballet videos and martial arts experts shower greater motor cortex activity while watching martial arts videos.
What were the results of Bradshaw and Nettleton (1974)?
They found that we can recognize words through vision (direct access approach). They also found that people do not silently pronounce each word during normal reading.
Anderson's ACT-R theory on research on means-end heuristic and computer simulations
All knowledge begins as declarative information. Procedural knowledge is learned by making inferences from already existing factual knowledge.
created computer simulations for problem solving, algebra, geometry, and computer science. Developed to learn more about how people acquire skills in problem solving. Was able to develop "cognitive tutors" for use in math classes.
Shih et al. (1999)
3 groups, group 1 answered ethnicity questions, group 2 was the control group and answered no questions, and group 3 answered gender questions.
When reminded of their ethnicity, participants tended to preform relatively well. When reminded of their gender, participants may experience gender stereotype threat and their problem solving abilities may decline.
Fedorenko, Behr, and Kanwisher (2012)
Participants performed several complex language tasks in a fMRI scanner. The researchers used this to create a "linguistic map" for each individual, and were able to locate positions of the left hemisphere appearing to process specific linguistic information, including Broca's area.
According to Ferreira and her coauthors (2002), which form of this sentence is easier to understand?
-I spent a lot of time studying for the final exam.
or,
- A lot of time was spent studying for the exam.
I spent a lot of time studying for the exam.
Ferreira and her coauthors (2002) found that the active form of a sentence is easier to understand than the passive form.
Cassady (2004) stated what?
Test anxiety can decrease students' skills in understanding the information in their textbooks. It was also found that students with anxiety had poor study habits.
It was also found that students that were highly anxious tended to perform poorly on reading-comprehension tests but performed just as well on multiple choice exams as other students.
Ruscio et al. (1998)
students were asked to rate their level of interest in 3 creative activities. Students later had to perform tasks in 3 areas: writing, art, and problem solving, then judges had to rate their projects.
It was found that more students scored produced more creative projects when they were more intrinsically motivated, which was the areas they rated themselves as being more interested in.
Greeno (1974) elves-and-Goblins problem and what were the implications?
people tend to pause to pause when tackling subproblems and need to organize moves, which activates working memory. People are also reluctant to move away from goal state.
Implications - sometimes, solutions require that we take steps backwards to solve them.
Tomasello and the Cognitive-Functional approach
–Children use flexible strategies to create increasingly complex language
–Emphasized that children have powerful cognitive and social-learning skills that interact with language
–Adults use language strategically to convey meaning
January, Trueswell, and Thompson-Schill (2009)
They found that Broca's area is active during both the Stroop task and when processing sentences containing syntactic ambiguities. The Broca's area also plays a role in resolving conflict.
How many spoken languages are there in the world?
There are as many as 7,000 spoken languages around the world. It is one of the most complex processes found on our planet.
O'Brien and Crandall (2003)
2 groups, group 1 women were told that men score higher than women before taking a difficult math test, group 2, were not reminded of gender differences before taking a difficult math test.
Group 1 who was told that men score better than women, did worse on the math test than group 2 who was not told any gender stereotypes before the test.
Novick and Morse (2000)
participants were given either verbal instructions, step-by-step diagrams, or both in order to complete origami.
It was found that participants performed better with both verbal instructions and step-by-step diagrams than with just verbal instructions.
What were the results from the research conducted by Tanenhaus and colleagues (1995)?
Participants demonstrated that context could exert an early influence on how someone interpreted the grammar of a sentence. They also showed that the effects of context during language comprehension were not limited to linguistic content.
Novick, Trueswell, and Thompson-Schill (2005)
Suggests that Broca's area may be part of an attention network which inhibits incorrect production and interpretations of linguistic input. Broca's area is active during many language-related tasks. They also found that representational conflict always exists when someone is comprehending language.
What were the results of Huitema et al. (1993)?
When reading a list of phrases, participants read inconsistent phrases more slowly regardless of their position in the list.
Bransford and Stein (1984)
Participants were given an algebra word problem and asked to record their thoughts and emotions while completing this task.
Negative thoughts were distracting the participants attention away from their ability to solve the problem. Effective problem solvers read the description of a problem very carefully, paying particular attention to inconsistencies.
Results of Prabhu et al. (2008) - self-report study
high intrinsic motivations leads to greater creativity while high extrinsic motivation leads to lower creativity. Self-efficacy is related to intrinsic motivation and perseverance is not related to creativity.