Models Of Memory/Schema Theory
This research study's aim was to investigate how the memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge and test to see if cultural background had an affect on memory. This study told British people about a Native American ghost study and had two groups: repeated reproduction and serial reproduction. Founded that the story became more consistent with the participants' own cultural expectations and changed the order of the story to make it more familiar with elements of their own cultural background. This researcher has been critiqued for not having a specific procedure and hard to replicate.
Bartlett
Emotion & Cognition Extra**: What type of flashbulb memory rehearsal is out loud with others?
Vivid and highly detailed recollection of circumstances after witnessing or receiving news of an unexpected & emotionally arousing event is called
Flashbulb memory
This theory of memory suggests that memory is not just remembering and recalling facts and stories; it's actually an entire recreation of that memory every time it's remembered
Theory of Reconstructive Memory
These are our mental shortcuts in which a simple rule is applied with little or no thought and can lead to cognitive biases
Their aim was to investigate how the availability of prior knowledge affects comprehension and memory. Using a group of 52 participants, they were allocated to one of three conditions: no topic, given no additional information; topic after, participants were told the topic of the passage after hearing it; and topic before, participants were told the topic before hearing it. They would hear a tape-recorded passage and later recall the passage as accurately as possible. The topic-before group was given a sheet that said you would hear about washing clothes. After the passage, they rated their comprehension of passages 1–7. They then recalled the passage as accurately as possible. They were given five minutes to recall. The topic-after group recalled the most details. This study showed that prior knowledge of a situation or our schema affects our encoding. Schemas enhance our memory in all stages. This task lacks ecological validity.
Bradford & Johnson
The aim of this researcher was to test if the mere presence of a phone can adversely affect two measures of cognitive capacity. There were 520 participants and they were randomly allocated into three groups: desk, pocket/bag, and other room. Participants took two tests to measure cognitive performance: one measuring working memory and one measuring fluid intelligence. After the tasks, you completed a questionnaire about your lab experience, personal beliefs about smart phones and how you think your phone location effected your performance. Results and findings showed that the other room condition performed significantly better than the desk condition in both tasks. Performance on tasks was sensitive to the limited cognitive capacity and attentional resources available. The presence of a smartphone can negatively impact working memory capacity. A criticism of this study is that the study may lack cross-cultural validity.
Ward et al.
These researchers proposed that some events can be remembered as our minds have photographed them—what they called flashbulb memories. They argued that these memories were caused when the events were not only surprising but also of personal relevance to the lives of the individuals. The researchers asked 40 black and 40 white American male participants to fill out a questionnaire regarding the deaths of public figures, such as
President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. A question type is: "How did you feel when you heard about the event? to indicate the level of emotion. Results and findings show that 90% of the participants recalled a significant amount of data about the day when they occurred. Based on personal relevance or personal consequentiality, 75% of black participants had flashback memories of the murder of MLK, compared to 33%. This shows that more personal consequentiality more flashbulb memory along with more overt rehearsal more FBM. A critique of this study is the sampling bias due to the sample being all men.
Brown & Kulik
These questions, either by form or content, is formulated to a witness for a desirable answer
Leading questions
The tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered when making decisions. During decision-making, this tendency occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments.
Anchoring Bias
These researchers used free recall of lists of 15 items combined with a task to show that there are two processes involved in retrieving information. The researchers showed fifteen lists of 15 words, one at a time. The researchers used a repeated measure design in which participants were asked to recall the words either with no delay, a 10-second delay, or a 30-second delay, during which the participants counted backwards. Participants were better at remembering the beginning list of words and the ending. The ability to recall words at the beginning because they have been transferred to the long-term memory is the primacy effect and being able to recall the last words spoken due to being in the short-term memory is the recency effect. This study has been criticized for its lack of ecological validity.
Glanzer & Cunitz
These researchers aimed to examine the direct impact of text message interruptions on memory recall in a classroom environment. 185 college students, mixed genders, viewed a 30-minute videotaped lecture relevant to their course. Some people would receive texts from the researcher to which they should respond promptly. They would be tested on the material following the lecture. They were also asked to list information from the text. They were divided into no-text groups, some text groups, and many text groups. Results showed that the more texts you got, the worse your performance was. Also, students who waited before responding to a text message did much better on the test than those who responded immediately. In conclusion, the effects of texting on memory were small. Students who delayed responding did better, which suggests that students should be able to recognize when it is appropriate to go on social media. A critique of this study is that an 80% female sampling size can cause a bias and affect whether or not it's appropriate to generalize these studies.
Rosen et al.
The aim of these researchers study was to determine whether flashbulb memory was susceptible to distortion. 106 Emory University students in an introductory psychology course were given a questionnaire at the end of class the morning after the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion. They were to talk about what they heard on the news and their account of what they felt and were doing that day. 2 1/2 years later, they were given the questionnaire again. They were also asked for each response to rate how confident they were in the accuracy of their memory on a scale from 1 to 4. Out of the 44 original students, only 11 participants said they had filled out his questionnaire before. Findings show that only 42% of people answered the same way three years later, suggesting that without rehearsal, our memory starts to create discrepancies and creates no explanation for those differences we create in our memory. One critique of this study is that it could have been a result of demand characteristics since participants were asked to verify their level of confidence.
Neisser & Harsch
When information is obtained after the re-collection occurs, it is mistakenly inserted into the memory that wasn't there and schema processing may influence the accuracy or recall
Misinformation effect
This type of heuristic occurs when people react to choices based on how they are presented. People choose certain outcomes when information is described in positive language but prefer less certain outcomes when the information is showcased in negative language.
Framing Effect
This study investigated the potential role of schema in the encoding and recall of a story. 39 introduction to educational psychology students were randomly allocated to one of the two conditions of the "robber condition" or the "home buyer condition". They were given two minutes to read the story as a prospective burglar or a prospective home buyer. They were then given 12 minutes to take an 84-item vocabulary test to distract them. They were then asked to write down as much as they could about the exact story they could remember. They took another spatial puzzle test and were asked to recall the story again. Half were told to write from the same perspective, and half were told to use the other perspective. Findings show that burglary information was better recalled than homebuyer information. The burglar perspective recalled more burglar information and the homebuyer perspective recalled more homebuyer information. Overall, declaring that schema influences our encoding and our retrieval One critique is that the participants understood the hypotheses and engaged in the expectancy effect.
Anderson & Pitchert
These researchers' aim was to describe how increasing multi-tasking affects our cognitive processes. In a sample size of 263 students, they studied for 15 minutes in their homes, and every minute their activity was recorded. 128 trained student observers were given observation forms that consisted of pre-observation data location and a checklist that included tabs open and closing, reading, or keeping an eye on windows open on the screen. After observation, the participants were given a number of questionnaires meant to assess their attitude toward technology as well as their GPA. Each observer took 1-3 students that they were comfortable with in order to ensure comfort. Results found that, on average, participants could only maintain task behavior for six minutes before off-tasking an average of ten. These four variables that predicted reduced task behavior are walking/stretching, texting, Facebook use, and technology availability. Off-task behavior was associated with reduced school achievement, as 1/3 of students who used Facebook at least once during a 15-minute period had lower GPAs. A critique of this study is the Hawthorne effect, when participants know they are being watched and, in that case, act differently.
Rosen, Carrier, & Cheever
This research study was to determine the potential role of biological factors in flashbulb memory. This quasi-experiment was conducted three years after 9/11. A total of 24 participants who were in New York City on that day were put into an fMRI. They were presented with word cues; in addition, the word summer or September was projected analogously with this word in order to have participants link the word to either summery holidays or the events of 9/11. The memories of personal events from the summer were based on brain activity to examine the nature of 9/11 memories. After the scanning, participants were also asked to write a description of their personal memories. Findings show that selective activation in the left amygdala for the participants who were downtown was higher when they recalled memories of the terrorist attack than when they recalled events from over the summer. Whereas those further away had an equal level of response in the amygdala, recalling both events. Overall, this suggests that close personal experience and proximity to significant events may be critical in engaging the neural mechanisms that produce flashbulb memories. This study is a critique of its low ecological validity.
Sharon et al.
These researchers carried out a study to demonstrate the reliability of memory, which challenged the findings of Loftus & Palmer. The aim was to see if leading questions would affect the memory of eyewitnesses at a real crime scene. In Vancouver, a thief entered a gun shop and tied the owner up before stealing money and guns from the shop. The owner united himself and shot the thief; police came and there was gunfire, and the thief was eventually killed. 21 eyewitnesses were interviewed by the police. The researchers contacted the witnesses four months after the events; 13 agreed to be interviewed, in which they gave their accounts and were asked two leading questions. The question was whether they saw "a" or "the" broken headlight on the getaway car, given that there was no headlight and whether they saw "a" or "the" yellow panel on the car, given that the panel was blue. The eyewitnesses were very reliable and the findings show that there were no errors as a result of the lead questions, and 10 out of 13 said there was no broken headlight or yellow saw, indicating that a lack of emotional response in the Loftus & Palmer video played a key role. The participants reported having an "adrenaline rush" but still the study support flashbulb memory in that leading questions may still lead to reconstructive memory. This study's critique is that it is not replicable.
Yuille & Cutshall
These researchers aimed to test the influence of positive and negative frames on decision-making. There was a sample of 307 US undergraduate students who volunteered to be part of this experiment. Participants were asked to make a decision between one of two options in a hypothetical scenario where they were choosing how to respond to the outbreak of a virulent disease. The information was framed positively, while for others it was framed negatively. Example: "200 people will be saved, 2/3 probability that no people will be saved of 600 people" or "400 people will die, 1/3 probability that nobody will die." Note that the options were the same no matter how they were framed. So, the findings demonstrate the influence of the frame. Where information was phrased positively, people took a certain outcome and agreed.When phrased negatively, people took a chance on the less certain option and avoided certain losses. This study has been critiqued for having low mundane realism, a form of ecological validity,
Tversky & Kahneman
The aim of these researchers was to compare the memory spans of subjects for sets of long and short words of comparable frequency in the English language. The participants were eight undergrad or postgraduate students. A five-list length made of sequences of 4,5, 6, 7, and 8 words was made of short and long words. These sequences were assigned at random and all subjects were tested on both words until they failed all 8 sequences. Half started with the long words, and half started with the short words. The words remained visible to them on prompt cards throughout the experiment. The findings were that short words were remembered more easily, regardless of the number of words. Overall, showing that short-term memory is better for shorter words than longer words. This is not explained by the MSM. A critique is a small sample size.
Baddely, Thompson & Buchanan
EXTRA/DOUBLE JEOPARDY: The aim of this researcher was to investigate the relationship between digital media use and empathy. They set up an anonymous online questionnaire and asked participants about their daily media usage, real-world empathy, virtual empathy, and social support. There were a total of 1726 responses, all born after 1980. Both emotional and cognitive components of empathy were measured. Results suggested that engaging in online activities that eventually lead to face-to-face communication was shown to be associated with higher real-life empathy scores. Such activities that predicted an increase in face-to-face communication were social networking sites or using a computer for purposes other than being online. Conversely, activities such as video gaming do not predict more face-to-face communication and reduce real-life empathy scores. This concludes that some digital activities may lead to an increase in real-world empathy, while others affect it detrimentally. A critique of this study is that it is a self-report measure, which can lead to inaccuracies.
Carrier et el.
This researcher's study wanted to investigate whether the vividness of flashbulb memory was the result of encoding or rehearsal. Participants were from California, close to the 1989 earthquake and some from Atlanta. They were divided into those who had relatives in the affected area and those who did not. They were required to report their level of emotion during the event as well as estimate the times they discussed the events with other people. Ratings of emotional arousal did not correlate with recall significantly. On the other hand, participants who had relatives in the area had more vivid memories of the event, as did the participants who reported discussing it even more often with other people. These results suggest that rehearsal influences flashbulb memories to a greater extent than emotional arousal at the time of an event. A critique is that this study doesn't take into account of flashbulb memories that are deem in a positive light and focus on reactions to negative public events.
Nessier et al.
This experiment wanted to see the role of leading questions in influencing the memories of eyewitnesses. The aim was to see whether the use of a leading question would affect the estimation of speed. 45 students participated and were divided into five groups of nine. An independent sample design was performed as each participant watched all seven films of traffic accidents. The participants afterwards were asked to give an account of the accident they had seen and answered a questionnaire with a critical question where they were asked to estimate the speed of the cars. "About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?" The word hit was replaced with: collided, bumped, smashed, or contracted. The verb smashed had the highest mean estimate, while contacted had the lowest. This result indicated that the critical word in the question has affected the participants answer and that our biases can change the way we view a scenario when activating a cognitive schema, overall making our memory of the accident distorted.
Loftus & Palmer
These studies aim to study the influence of anchoring bias on decision-making. The researchers used an opportunity sample of 69 German undergraduates who took part in a general questionnaire. It consisted of two components: a question that acted as the anchor, and then an estimate. The anchoring question was: "Did Mahatma Gandhi die before or after the age of 9 or 140?" both implausible but one has a low anchor and a high anchor. Participants then ask how old Gandhi was when he died; the high anchor average is 66, and the low anchor average is 50. The findings show that anchors clearly influence the participants guesses and that we can often rely on the first piece of relevant information given to make our assumptions. A critique of this study is that demand characteristics may have influenced the findings.
Strack & Mussweiler