BAUB
Using a sample of four patients with a severed corpus collosum, the extent to which behaviour is lateralized (hemispheric localization) was examined. By dividing patients' field of vision into left and right, they then had patients identify, name or write down what objects they observed. The findings supported lateralization to a large extent, with the right hemisphere controlling movement, etc. on the left side of the body, whilst the left hemisphere controlled the right, as well as speech. This supported their split-brain theory.
What is Sperry and Gazzaniga (1967)?
The original study that provided support for the misinformation effect, a product of reconstructive memory where post-event information can alter one's memory of past events. In the study participants were shown a series of slides, one of which featured a car stopping in front of a stop sign. After viewing the slides, participants read a description of what they saw. Some of the participants were given descriptions that contained misinformation, which stated that the car stopped at a yield sign. Following the slides and the reading of the description, participants were tested on what they saw. The results revealed that participants who were exposed to such misinformation were more likely to report seeing a yield sign than participants who were not misinformed.
What is Loftus, Miller and Burns (1978)?
72 children, aged 3-6, were divided into three groups. In the experimental conditions children were individually shown into a room containing toys and played with some potato prints and pictures in a corner for 10 minutes while either: 24 children watched a male or female model behaving aggressively towards a toy. The adults attacked the toy in a distinctive manner - they used a hammer in some cases, and in others threw the toy in the air and shouted "Pow, Boom." Another 24 children were exposed to a non-aggressive model who played in a quiet and subdued manner for 10 minutes. The final 24 children were used as a control group and not exposed to any model at all. In all conditions children were individually shown into a room were they started to play with the toys, the experimenter told the child that these were the experimenter's very best toys and she had decided to reserve them for the other children. Children who observed the aggressive model made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non-aggressive or control groups. This demonstrated that children are able to learn social behavior such as aggression through the process of observation learning, through watching the behavior of another person.
What is Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961)?
Previous research has shown that infants can discriminate between many speech sounds that adults cannot. This study examined this for English and Hindi. 5 Hindi adults-speaking adults, 15 infants, 10 English-speaking adults, and 10 English-speaking adults given discrimination practice, were exposed to speech sounds, which are distinctly different in Hindi, but not English. Infants were just as able to distinguish between Hindi phonemes as Hindi-speaking adults. English-speaking adults were not able to distinguish between these phonemes. This study provides evidence for synaptic pruning.
What is Werker et al (1981)?
Had 128 participants play an investment game where they had to trust that they would receive money back from a "trustee," after an "investor" had tripled the amount of money put in. The experimental group received oxytocin intra-nasally. The control group received a placebo. 45% of the experimental group put max trust in the trustee, versus 21% in the control group. Researchers suggested that the hormone oxytocin reduces risk aversion, and/or increases trust behaviour.
What is Kosfeld et al (2005)?
A quasi-experiment that examined a neurological explanation for flashbulb memories. 3 years after the 9/11 attacks, 24 participants, who had either been Downtown or Midtown during the attacks, retrieved 60 autobiographical memories while in an fMRI machine. The words «summer» or «september» flashed on a screen as a primer for memories. Post-scan, participants rated their meories on arousal, vividness, reliving, remembering/knowing, confidence, and valence (how it feels). Results showed that activation of the amygdala for the participants who were downtown was higher when they recalled memories of the terrorist attack than when they recalled events from the preceding summer, whereas those participants who were further away from the event had equal levels of response in the amygdala when recalling both events.
What is Sharot, Martorella, Degado and Phelps (2007)?
Made use of deception in an attempt study conformity in a sample of 50 male college students. Participants were told they were taking a vision test where they had to identify which of three lines was the same length as one solitary line. In the control condition, participants answered 18 of these tasks while they were alone in a room. In the experimental condition they were joined by six confederates who gave the wrong answer 12 out of 18 times. The results showed that a mean of 36.8 percent of the participants agreed with incorrect responses in half or more of the trials. However, 24 percent of the participants did not conform to any of the incorrect responses given by the confederates. In variations of the experiment, Asch showed that if there was one dissenter who gave the correct answer, while the other confederates gave the wrong answer, the rate of conformity dropped to around 5% of participants agreeing with the confederates at least once.
What is Asch (1956)?
Using questionnaires about gender identity and sexual-orientiation for «lifetime» and «past 12 months» researchers explored the link between testosterone and gender identity. The sample was 16 females and 9 males with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH, extra prenatal testosterone), compared to 15 (f), 10 (m) unaffected relatives. The study found that women with CAH recalled more «male-typical play», identified less with assigned gender and had less heterosexual interest, while men with CAH did not differ from their unaffected relatives. Reasearchers concluded that, at least in women with CAH (their findings were triangulated with similar studies) testosterone appears to play a role in the development of gender identity.
What is Hines and Conway (2004)?
Surveyed 40,000 people from 165 countries via the BBC science website about what they found disgusting. Participants rated 20 photos, answered demographic questions, and wrote who they'd prefer to share their toothbrush with; a sibling, friend, partner, weatherman, boss or postman. Researchers found a positive correlation between "disease salient" images and disgust, as well as how well you know someone and disgust. Women (of child-bearing age) found things more disgusting, and disgust declined in old age. The study concluded that the behaviour of disgust may have an evolutionary component.
What is Curtis, Aunger and Rabie (2004)?
Made use of the phonological similarity effect (it is difficult to remember words that sound similar) to illustrate that the visuospatial sketchpad, and phonological loop provide two separate methods for the mind to encode information. Participants repeated a sequence of sounds while being presented with words that rhymed or didn’t rhyme. In condition 1 the presentation of these words was oral, and the phonological similarity effect was shown. In condition 2 the written words were flashed on a screen, and the phonological similarity effect was not shown. This provided support for one element of the Working Memory Model.
What is Baddeley, Lewis and Vallar (1984)?
Making use of the Asch Paradigm, this quasi-experiment looked at conformity among the Temne, Natives of Greenland, and Scottish (urban and rural). It found that the Temne, a collectivistic agricultural community in Sierra Leone, had the highest levels of conformity compared to the Natives of Greenland, an individualistic hunting/fishing community, and both urban and rural Scots, who served as a control group. The researchers concluded that this demonstrates a cutural origin of the behavior of conformity.
What is Berry and Katz (1967)?
Used a sample of 27 neuro-typical preschool children (4.5), 20 autistic children, and 14 children with Down’s Syndrome to investigate the ability of human children to understand the false beliefs of others, as an operationalisation of Theory of Mind. Participants looked at a series of pictures Where Sally has a basket and Anne has a box. While Sally is away Anne moves the ball Sally had placed in her basket to the box. In the final frame Sally comes back. The researcher asked the children, 1) “where will Sally look for her marble?” if wrong answer, 2) “where is the marble really?” and 3) “where was the marble in the beginning?” 86% of neuro-typical children passed the test and said Sally would look in her basket. 85% of children with DS did the same. 80% of the children with ASD said Sally would look in the box. The researchers concluded that since children under 4 do not pass this test, neither they, nor autistic children can understand false beliefs, and have not developed a Theory of Mind.
What is Baron-Cohen et al (1985)?
The researchers gathered a sample of 17 participants (10 females, 7 males). All the participants reported being “in love” and the average age of courtship was 7 months. First, while in the fMRI, the participants were shown a photo of their beloved for 30 seconds. This was followed by a 40 second distraction task (counting backwards in 7s from a high number). Then a photo of an acquaintance was shown for 30 seconds. This was followed by a 20 second count-back task. When viewing photos of their beloveds, the right ventral tegmental area (VTA), a dopamine-rich area of the brain and part of the brain’s “reward system” lit up. The right caudate nucleus was also activated. This part of the brain has been linked with detecting and expecting rewards. This supported the hypothesis that the behaviour of romantic love is linked with dopamine-rich areas of the brain that are associated with reward and motivation.
What is Fisher, Aron, and Brown (2005)?
Investigated if making people perform a dull task would create cognitive dissonance through forced compliance behavior. In this laboratory experiment, researchers used 71 male students as participants to perform a series of dull tasks (such as turning pegs in a peg board for an hour). They were then paid either $1 or $20 to tell a waiting participant (a confederate) that the tasks were really interesting. Almost all of the participants agreed to walk into the waiting room and persuade the confederate that the boring experiment would be fun. When the participants were asked to evaluate the experiment, the participants who were paid only $1 rated the tedious task as more fun and enjoyable than the participants who were paid $20 to lie. Being paid only $1 is not sufficient incentive for lying and so those who were paid $1 experienced dissonance. They could only overcome that dissonance by coming to believe that the tasks really were interesting and enjoyable. Being paid $20 provides a reason for turning pegs, and there is therefore no dissonance.
What is Festinger and Carlsmith (1959)?
A study that examined the relationship between Asian Americans' behavioural enculturation and acculturation, and cognitive flexibility, collective self-esteem, general self-efficacy, acculturative stress, and attitude to help-seeking (mental health). Participants were 156 (96w, 60m) Asian American University students with a background from multiple Asian countries, and ranged from from 1st – 5th generation Asian Americans. The results showed that acculturation and enculturation did not correlate with each other, while both positively correlated with collective self-esteem (positive feelings of "Asian Americans" as a group). As hypothesized, the results indicated that both acculturation and enculturation were positively related to the membership dimension of collective self-esteem. Although not hypothesized, the results indicated that acculturation was positively related to cognitive flexibility, general self-efficacy, and the public dimension of collective self-esteem. In addition, enculturation was positively related to the private dimension and the importance of identity dimension of collective self-esteem.
What is Kim and Omizo (2006)?
Used questionnaires and interviews of 232 Israeli children 1.5-5 years old, 148 of whom lived near Gaza Stripe, to investigate PTSD symptom manifestation and relational behaviour in young children exposed to wartime trauma. Children’s symptoms were diagnosed, maternal attachment was observed while traumatic memories were evoked and maternal psychological symptoms and social support were self-reported. PTSD was diagnosed in 37.8% of war-exposed children (n = 56). Children with PTSD exhibited multiple posttraumatic symptoms and substantial developmental regression. PTSD symptoms were observed in more than 60% of children. Mothers of children with PTSD reported the highest depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic symptoms and the lowest social support, and displayed the least sensitivity during trauma evocation. Attachment behavior of children in the Exposed-No-PTSD group was characterized by use of secure-base behavior, whereas children with PTSD showed increased behavioral avoidance. Mother's, but not child's, degree of trauma exposure and maternal PTSD correlated with child avoidance. This provides evidence for parents as an important resilience factor for chidren facing trauma.
What is Feldman and Vengrober (2011)?
The aim of this study was to determine whether there is evidence for a gene-environment interaction (G x E) for a mutation of the serotonin transporter gene - 5-HTT. The serotonin transporter is involved in the reuptake of serotonin in brain synapses. This study had a sample of 847 New Zealand 26-year-olds. All were members of a cohort that had been assessed for mental health on an every-other-year basis until they were 21. They were divided into three groups based on their 5-HTT alleles: Group 1 had two short alleles; Group 2 had one short and one long allele; Group 3 had two long alleles. The mutation of the 5-HTT gene has the shorter alleles. Roughly 43% of people have the shorter alleles. The participants were asked to fill in a "Stressful life events" questionnaire which asked them about the frequency of 14 different events - including financial, employment, health, and relationship stressors - between the ages of 21 and 26. They were also assessed for depression. People who had inherited one or more short versions of the allele demonstrated more symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation in response to stressful life events. The effect was strongest for those with three or more stressful life events. Simply inheriting the gene was not enough to lead to depression, but the genes' interaction with stressful life events increased one's likelihood of developing depression.
What is Caspi et al (2003)?
Examined the direct impact of text message interruptions (as an operationalization of multitasking) on memory recall in a classroom environment. 185 college students viewed a 30-minute videotaped lecture relevant to their course,some participants would recieve texts from the researchers to which they should respond, promptly. Participants were randomly divided into 3 groups: no-text group, 4-text group and 8-text group. Participants' test scores were negatively correlated with the total number of texts sent/received. The more text messages a student received during the lecture, the worse the student performed on the test. This also depended on response delay: students who chose to read and respond to the messages immediately after receiving them did significantly worse on the test than students who chose to read and respond some time (up to 5 minutes) later. We can consciously override the automatic tendency to get distracted and switch to off-task behavior by delaying the response to a distractor. To some extent this may compensate for the negative effects of induced media multitasking. However, this metacognitive strategy requires a lot of cognitive energy.
What is Rosen et al (2011)?
Examined the impact of bicultural identity, bilingualism, and social context on the psychological adjustment of multicultural individuals, using three cohorts of biculturals: Mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong, Filipino domestic workers (i.e., sojourners) in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese college students. Individual differences in Bicultural Identity Integration positively predicted psychological adjustment for all the samples except sojourners. Cultural identification and language abilities also predicted adjustment, although these associations varied across the samples in meaningful ways. The study concluded that, in the process of managing multiple cultural environments and group loyalties, bilingual competence, and perceiving one's two cultural identities as integrated are important antecedents of beneficial psychological outcomes.
What is Chen, Bond, and Benet (2008)?
Aimed to investigate Piaget’s theory of interaction as important for the development of social skills. In this quasi-experimental comparison, researchers mapped out the behaviours of 3 groups of 48 children, aged 7-9 (equal distribution) from a farming community (Slettås), 2) a village (Innbygda), and a larger town (Elverum), all in the Østerdal region of Norway. Particpants completed 9 Piaget-style tasks testing cognitive (e.g. conservation) and social skills (e.g. “perspectivism”). The results showed that all groups were cognitively very similar, however, isolated children were not as socially developed. The conclusion was that a childhood without peers negatively effects social, but not cognitive development.
What is Hollos and Conway (1973)?