Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

1. Jacobs (1987) - a study in STM

   • Given a list of numbers to recall - one number was added after accurate recall
     • On average 7+/-2 numbers recalled
       • Criticisms- Research is artificial - Low ecological validity

2. LTM

   • Bahrick et all (1975)
     • 392 people given pictures of ex classmates
       • Photo recognition- given pic asked for name
         • After 15 years of leaving school - 90% recall
         • after 48 years - decline to 75% recall
       • name recognition- given name asked to find pic
     • High ecological validity, and can be applied to real life

3. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) - Multi-store Model

4. Baddely and Hitch (1974) - working memory model

   • Central executive - Sets goals, main control, monitoring and correcting errors, minimal capacity
   • Phonological loop, one of the slave systems, called the inner voice, limited capacity, acoustic coding, made up of the phonological loop and the articulatory control system,, its a passive storage system, and an active rehearsal system.
     • one group of participants given monosyllabic words, other group given polysyllabic words, this is called the word length loop
   • Visuo- spatial sketchpad- 2nd slave systems, limited capacity, inner scribe, inner eye, made up of the inner scribe and the visual cache. its also an active scribe and an active rehearsal system
     • Baddely et al (1973)- got participants to follow a spot of light whilst being asked to visualise angular block capitals, and were asked if the letter had loops on the bottom line. They found out that it was hard to do both tasks at once, however supported the idea that acoustic and visual tasks could be done at the same time.

5. Loftus and Palmer (1974)- eyewitness testimony

   • shown a car crash- then asked if the car smashed or bumped into the other car
     • Asked for the speed of the car
       • contacted- 31 mph
       • Smashed- 41 mph
     • Smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted
   • 2nd question - as well as being asked about speed of car, also asked if they saw any broken glass
     • Control group was not asked a leading question

6. Eyewitness testimony

   • Factors affecting eyewitness memory
     • Wells (1978) suggested two reasons for error- Estimator variables - factors to do with witness
       • System variables- factors to do with justice system
     • Time of day - best at day or night, and depending on duration of crime
     • Violence distraction- better recall in no violent crimes.
     • Amount of time between event and recalll
     • Emotion (stress) - flashbulb memories - Christanson and Hubinette (1993) found emotional involvement incress accuracy of memory

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